Herring Family History

English (London) Dutch and German: metonymic occupational name for a herring fisher or for a seller of the fish or perhaps for someone who habitually ate herring from Middle English hering (Old English hǣring hēring) Dutch haring Middle High German hærinc.

In some cases it may have been a nickname in the sense of a trifle, something of little value, a meaning which is found in medieval phrases and proverbial expressions such as ‘to like neither herring nor barrel’, i.e. not to like something at all.

German: habitational name from Herringen in Westphalia.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Hering.