Frisian
names are used in Friesland in the northern Netherlands and in East and North Frisia in northwestern Germany. See also
about Frisian Names.
Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
AARDEMA FrisianThe surname Aardema is a patronymic from the personal name Aart, a local variant of Arend, + -ma, a Frisian suffix of origin.
ATEN Frisian, DutchThe Frisian name Aten means "Noble Wolf". The name was probably given to lesser lords. As noble would mean nobility. As wolf was always a symbol of a warrior, or hunter. Usually Nobles who were also warriors, were lesser lords...
[more] BAACK North Frisian, DutchEither from a reduced form of the Germanic personal name
Baldeke (a short form of any of the compound names with the first element bald ‘bold’, for example Baldewin) or from Middle Low German baec, bake ‘pork’, ‘bacon’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a butcher or pig farmer.
BRAAKSMA Frisian (Dutchified, Modern, Rare)Topographic name for someone who lived by a piece of wasteland or newly cultivated land, from Frisian, Dutch braak ‘fallow’, ‘waste’ + Frisian ma ‘man’. The suffix -ma indicating that it is of Frisian origin.
EPEMA Frisian"Son of Epa" or "Son of Eepa". The name was applied starting around 1620 C.E. to the descendants of Eepa, matriarch of a family of the "grytman" type of elected nobility who held political power in and around the town of Sneek/Snits...
[more] HAY English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, FrisianScottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosure, Middle English
hay(e),
heye(Old English
(ge)hæg, which after the Norman Conquest became confused with the related Old French term
haye ‘hedge’, of Germanic origin)...
[more] KAT Dutch, Frisian, Afrikaans, JewishMeans "Cat" in Dutch, Frisian, and Afrikaans, perhaps originally a nickname for someone who owned a cat or somehow resembled a cat.
KOOISTRA Frisianoccupational name for a decoy man, from an agent derivative of Middle Dutch kooye ‘decoy’.
REDMER FrisianNorth German: from the Frisian personal name, composed of the Germanic elements rad ‘advice’, ‘counsel’ + mari, meri ‘fame’.
ROZEMA FrisianPossibly a contraction of Roelfsema meaning "son of
ROELF". Also spelled Rosema, Roosma, Rozeman.
SJOERDSMA Frisian, DutchDerived from the Frisian given name
SJOERD combined with the Frisian surname suffix
-(s)ma, which is most likely derived from Old Frisian
monna meaning "men"....
[more] TABBERT German, FrisianFrom Middle Low German
tabbert, Middle Dutch
tabbaert ‘tabard’, a sleeveless overgarment worn by men in the Middle Ages, (ultimately from French
tabard, from Late Latin
tabardum)...
[more] TURKSTRA FrisianTURKSTRA - Meaning: From the town of "Turkeye". Turkeye is a small town within Zeelandic Flanders in the western part of Netherlands. This family names was given to persons originating from the village.
WYCKOFF East Frisian (Rare)The North Germanic meaning is "settlement on a bay," as in the cognate Viking (Viking is derived from Old Norse
vík "bay").
ZYLSTRA Dutch, Frisian, EnglishDerived from Dutch
zijl "canal" or "sluice". Originally indicated someone who lives near a canal or sluice.