Freeze
An English surname with several possible roots, including a Frisian link, a place-name origin, or a nickname from Old English.
The #8,239 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,745 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Freeze is not settled to one single origin. One old explanation connects it with the Frisian or Friesland element, suggesting a person from that region or of Frisian stock. Another possibility is a local surname from Frieston in Lincolnshire, or a reduced form of the Old English personal name Frithestan. It may also be related to an old English word for a companion or fellow, used as a nickname.
History
The name appears in English and Anglo-American records in a few spellings, including Fries, Freese, and Freeze. Nineteenth-century surname writers treated it as a variant or alteration of related forms rather than a single, fixed lineage. In the United States it has remained uncommon but persistent.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century writers grouped Freeze with a cluster of surnames meaning cold or frost-like sounds, but the name’s true history is probably more complicated than that.
From the historical record
“H.R., Le Frere. FREEZE. Possibly a native of Fries- land. FREESTONF:. Perhaps local, from Frieston, a Lincolnshire parish ; or perhaps a modilication of Frithestan, the A-Sax. personal name. FREETH. See Frith. FREKE. FRECK. 1. 0.-Eng.,aman, a fellow. Halliwell. Also an epithet ;”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom