Friberg - Name

Recorded as Freiberg, Freiburger, Freyberg, Freyberger, Frebourg, Friberg, and possibly others, this is a German surname. It is locational from the city of Freiberg, meaning the free town, and may either describe somebody who was a former inhabitant of Freiberg, or with the suffix "-er" as in Freiberger means a person who continues to live in Freiberg. Locational surnames were amongst the earliest to be created, and certainly the first to be hereditary, and particularly with the preposition "von" indicated first land and estate ownership and later nobility. There are about ten coats of arms which over the centuries have been granted to name holders, the principal family being from Silesia. The blazon for these arms is per pale, argent and gules, charged with a branch proper, and a stags antler in gold. Not surprisingly the surname is one of the earliest recorded in Germany. Winandus de Freiberg being recorded in the charters of the city of Freiberg in 1218, and Turicensus dictus Friburger, being recorded at Zurich, Switzerland, in 1243.