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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : status name for a reeve, the chief magistrate or bailiff of a district, from Latin praetor.
  • Dutch : occupational name for a warden of meadows or a gamekeeper, from Middle Dutch prater, preter (Latin pratarius, a derivative of pratum ‘meadow’).
  • Dutch and North German : nickname for an excessively talkative person, from Middle Low German praten ‘to talk or prattle’.
  • German : variant of Brater (see Brader 2).

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