Stifter Family History
Stifter Name Meaning
South German (also Austria); Czech (also Štifter); Slovenian (Štifter): status name from Middle High German stifter ‘founder’ in feudalism denoting a tenant farmer on a previously unoccupied land or a habitational name for someone from a place called with German Stift ‘church foundation’ in Austria also ‘monastery’ (compare 2 below). The Slovenian surname can also be a variant of the habitational name Štiftar (see 2 below). Germanized or Americanized form of Slovenian Štiftar: habitational name for someone from a place called Nova Štifta from a Slovenized form of German Stift ‘church foundation’. Štiftar is also a variant of the status name Štifter (see 1 above).
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022