Family name origins & meanings
- German : occupational name for a mariner or boatman, from an agent derivative of Middle High German schif ‘ship’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German Schiffer ‘boatman’, ‘skipper’.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from the Yiddish female personal name Shifre, derived from a Hebrew word meaning ‘beautiful’.