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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German (also Wächter) and Dutch : occupational name for a watchman, from Middle High German wachtære, wehtære, Middle Dutch wacht(e)re, German Wachter ‘watchman’, ‘guard’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from German Wachter ‘watchman’, perhaps an occupational name by a synagogue beadle (Yiddish shames).

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