Kocher
A German surname most likely built from the root for “cook,” though in some cases it may reflect a place-name or another Germanic source.
The #5,514 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 48,945 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Kocher is generally treated as a German surname formed from the stem koch-, “cook.” In that sense it would originally have referred to someone who worked as a cook or in a cookhouse. Some bearers may instead come from a different German surname tradition or a place-based name, but the cook derivation is the most straightforward.
History
The name is found in German-speaking areas and later appears in immigrant communities in North America. Because surnames of this type were independently formed in different regions, the same spelling can sometimes reflect more than one family line. Historical surname indexes also show related forms such as Koch and Kochlin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
German surname lists sometimes group Kocher near other Koch- names, which can make it easy to confuse with surnames that look similar but have different origins.
From the historical record
“(Et, p. 189) Eng. CocKETT — French Coquet. (Hard) Mod. Germ. Kockert — French Cocard, Cochard. (ffarij warrior) Eng. Cogger, Cocker — Mod. German Kocher — French Cochery. (Man) Eng. Cockman, Coachman 1 phonetic ending. Eng. GoGGiN, Coggin, Cockin. French Coquin, Cochin,”
— The Teutonic Name-System applied to the family names of France, England and Germany