Frequency: (736)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
German: 1. (also Öhler) occupational name for an extractor or seller of culinary oil (typically from olives) or for a soap maker, from Middle High German öler, an agent derivative of öl, ol ‘oil’ (from Latin oleum ‘(olive) oil’). 2. (in some western parts of Germany) occupational name for a potter, Middle High German ollære, from Latin ollarius ‘potter’, from olla ‘pot’. 3. (Öhler): patronymic from a short form of a personal name formed with Old Saxon ōd ‘possession’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
