American Family Name Origins:
Pachter
Frequency: (156)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
German (also Pächter), Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): status name for a tenant farmer, from an agent derivative of Middle High German phaht ‘contract’ or ‘rent’ (from Late Latin pacta ‘contract’, ‘tax’), Middle Dutch pachtere ‘tenant’, ‘leaseholder’, or modern German Pächter ‘leaseholder’.
GIVEN NAMES: Jewish 9%. Meir, Meyer, Zeev.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
