Richter Family History

German: occupational or status name for an arbiter or judge Middle High German rihtære (from rihten ‘to make right’). The term was used in the Middle Ages mostly to denote a part-time legal official. Such communal conciliators held a position of considerable esteem in rural communities; in eastern Germany the term came to denote a village headman which was often a hereditary office.

It is in this part of Germany that the surname is most frequent. The surname Richter is also common in many other European countries most notably Czechia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, France, and the Netherlands, and also in South Africa. See also 3 below.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a rabbinic judge from German Richter ‘judge’ (see 1 above). See also Dayan.

Germanized form of Slovenian Rihtar and Rihter: occupational or status name from rihtar, a term of Middle High German origin (see 1 above) denoting an arbiter or judge, later also a village headman.