is the surname Hoffer more likely to be Jewish (Ashkenazic) or German?
Iccording to ancestry.com it’s both German and Ashkenazic, but among which ethnic group is the surname more common? Are Americans with the surname more likely to be of Jewish descent than of German descent?
thanks
Like you said, ancestry.com had this to say: “German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Hofer.”
And, HOFER, is South German and Ashkenazic Jewish : “topographic name for someone who lived at, worked on, or managed a farm, from Middle High German hof ‘farmstead’, ‘manor farm’, ‘court’ + the agent suffix -er. Compare Hoffmann**.
**Hoffmann Name Meaning and History
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. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe, not only in German-speaking lands.
http://www.howmanyofme.com/search/
•There are 6,935 people in the U.S. with the last name Hoffer.
•Statistically the 5281st most popular last name.
http://surnames.behindthename.com/php/search.php?terms=hofer
HOFER (form of HOFFER):
Usage: German
Statistics — Rankings for HOFER:
United States ranked 6,316 out of 88,799
Occupational surname meaning “farmer” in German.
[Going by the description for HOFFMAN/HOFFMANN, I'd say probably more Jewish. But, just because one's ancestral name is Jewish doesn't necessarily mean that they HAVE to practice that religion. If we could all trace our family trees back to Biblical times, I'd bet we are ALL Jewish in one sense of the word or another.]
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