What does the surname Kotze mean and where does it come from?

Question:

What does the surname Kotze mean and where does it come from?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: If you believe what's on the internet, it means "prostitute" in high German. I am not fluent enough in the language to verify that.

But I can tell you that the surname is splattered all over central Europe, from Germany to Austria to Hungary (Austria-Hungary having once been a united empire), Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bulgaria...and it was found in Turkey and South Africa (which was once heavily populated by Dutch colonists).

To find where your line originated, you'll have to do about 4 generations of research. It shouldn't be hard as most came over well after birth, marriage and death records were kept by counties in this country.