Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name for a treasurer, from German Schatz ‘treasure’, Middle High German scha(t)z. It may also have been a nickname for a rich man (or ironically for a miser), or else for a well-liked person or a ladies’ favorite, from the use of the vocabulary word as a term of endearment. As a Jewish name it is mainly of ornamental origin.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : occupational name from an acronym of the Hebrew phrase SHeliach-TSibur ‘emissary of the congregation’, an epithet of the cantor.