Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : regional name for someone from Swabia (German Schwaben), from Middle High German Swāp, German Schwabe ‘Swabian’. The region takes its name from a Germanic tribe recorded from the 1st century bc in the Latin form Suebi or Suevi, of uncertain origin; it was an independent duchy from the 10th century until 1313, when the territory was broken up.