Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : ornamental name or occupational name for a woodcutter or someone who sold wood, from German Holz ‘wood’, altered under Russian influence, since Russian has no h and alters h in borrowed words to g.
  • Eastern German (under Slavic influence) : habitational name for someone from Golz or Golssen in eastern Germany, place names that may derive from Slavic gola ‘heath’.

Subscribe to Family Education

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe