Last name origin & meaning: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): status name for a steward on a
farm or estate, from German hof(f) ‘manorfarm’, ‘courtyard’ +
Mann ‘man’. Originally, this was a status name for a farmer who
owned his own land as opposed to holding it by rent or feudal
obligation, but the name soon came to denote the manager or steward of
a manor farm, in which sense it is extremely frequent throughout
central and eastern Europe; also among Jews, since many Jews held
managerial positions on non-Jewish estates.
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