Family name origins & meanings
- Dutch and North German : nickname for a short person, from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German kort ‘short’.
- German (Körte) : Westphalian variant of the personal name Kurt.
- German : from Sorbian khort ‘hunting dog’, hence possibly a nickname for someone resembling the animal in some way or for someone who kept hunting dogs.
- Hungarian (Körte) : from körte ‘pear’, a metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of the fruit.