Scholten
A Dutch surname meaning “son/family of the schout” or, in some regions, “son of the scholte,” a local official or leading landholder.
The #9,687 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 92,163 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Scholten is a Dutch surname built on the old office title schout or scholte, terms used in parts of the Low Countries and neighboring German areas for a local official, bailiff, or village headman. In some regional explanations, scholte could also refer to an important farmer or hereditary tenant, so the name may originally have meant “belonging to the scholte/schout” or “descended from the scholte/schout.” The ending -en is a common Dutch surname formation that can signal descent or association.
History
The name is especially associated with eastern Dutch and adjoining Low German areas, where forms like Scholte and Scholten developed as family names from occupational or status-based bynames. Historical writers noted that some bearers took their name from an ancestral farm or estate called a scholten-erve, which later became a fixed surname. Scholten remains a recognizable Dutch surname today and also appears among Dutch-descended families abroad.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In older Dutch usage, a scholten-erve could be the name of a farm or holding tied to a family, and that place-name could later harden into a surname.
From the historical record
“Skone. See Sdone Skoulding. Dch. Scholten. See Skelt Skoyles. FI. Schoels ; Dch. Schuil ; a p.n. See Skeels”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)