Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : nickname derived from German drei ‘three’, Middle High German drī(e), with the addition of the suffix -er. This was the name of a medieval coin worth three hellers (see Heller), and it is possible that the German surname may have been derived from this word. More probably, the nickname is derived from some other connection with the number three, too anecdotal to be even guessed at now.
- North German and Scandinavian : occupational name for a turner of wood or bone, from an agent derivative of Middle Low German dreien, dregen ‘to turn’. See also Dressler.
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : occupational name from Yiddish dreyer ‘turner’, or a nickname from a homonym meaning ‘swindler, cheat’.
- English : variant spelling of Dryer.