Frequency: (129)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
North German: 1. nickname for a settler on a new farm, from Middle Low German heme ‘home’, ‘farm’ + sate ‘one who sits’, ‘settler’. 2. variant of Heimsoth.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
