Family name origins & meanings
- German (Bavaria, Franconia, Hesse) : occupational name for a smelter, from Middle High German smelzen ‘to smelt metal’.
- German : habitational name from Schmelz in the Saarland or Schmöltz in Bavaria.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name for a smelter, from German Schmelze ‘smelting’ (see 1 above).