Ackerman Family History

Dutch: occupational name from akkerman ‘plowman’; a frequent name in New Netherland in the 17th century. Later, it probably absorbed some cases of the cognate German and Swedish names, Ackermann and Åkerman respectively.

English: from a medieval term denoting feudal status, Middle English akerman (Old English æcerman, from æcer ‘field, acre’ + man ‘man’). Typically, an ackerman was a bond tenant of a manor holding half a virgate of arable land, for which he paid by serving as a plowman.

The term was also used generically to denote a plowman or husbandman. Variant of German and Jewish Ackermann.