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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : nickname, probably for an agile or opportunistic individual, from Middle High German ratz ‘rat’, ‘marten’, ‘polecat’.
  • German (also Rätz) : from a pet form of a compound personal name with the first element rād ‘advice’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : acronym of uncertain derivation.

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