Origin and popularity of the name FREIS

Origin

Freis : South German: nickname for a violent man or someone with a menacing appearance from Middle High German vreise ‘cruel terrible’.

Frais : English: nickname from Middle English freis ‘fresh vigorous’ (Old French freis). Compare Frish.

Frase : 1: German: variant of Fraas.2: English: nickname from Anglo-Norman French Middle English frais freis fres ‘fresh-looking vigorous cheerful (person)’ (Old French frois reinforced by Old English fersc metathesised to fresh fres etc. in Middle English).

Freshwater : English: topographic name for someone who lived by a source of clear drinking water from Middle English freis fresche ‘fresh’ + water ‘water’ (Old French freis of ancient Germanic origin). This may also be a habitational name from an unidentified place so called. There is a Freshwater on the Isle of Wight though this seems not to have given rise to a surname and the compound is also recorded as a minor placename in Dorset. However no prepositional forms indicating a locative type have been noted among the early English bearers and no such placename has been found in or near the counties where the surname first appears.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 4,311 individuals with the name FREIS on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

See below the Geneanet members' family trees which contain the last name FREIS