Last name origins & meanings:
- Dutch: from achter ‘behind’, ‘to the rear of’, a
topographic name for someone living at the back of a main
settlement.
- Dutch: perhaps a shortened form of Achterberg.
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): of uncertain origin. Various
explanations have been proposed; it may be an agent noun from the verb
achten ‘to reckon or estimate’, hence an occupational name for
an appraiser or record keeper, or alternatively an altered form of
Auchter ‘watcher’ (i.e. someone who watched over a flock or
herd).
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