Recorded in a number of spellings including Brem, Bramer, Braemer, Bremen, Bremer, Bremmer, Bremmermann, Brehmer, and Bremers, this is a German surname of great antiquity. It is both topographical and locational and can describe either a person who comes from the city of Bremen, or from a village of the same or similar spelling, or from living by a large marsh or swamp. The derivation is from the Olde High German of the pre 10th century "brehm", a word of Nordic origins, and the first hereditary surname recordings are to be found in the 13th century, see below. Residential surnames were the first to be created, either to the original lord of the manor, but more usually as an easy form of identification to people after they left their original homes and moved elsewhere. In this case examples of the recordings taken from the earliest authentic registers and charters of Germany include Johan de Bremis of the city of Bremen in the year 1269, and Sintram von Bremen in 1282. Other examples are thoose of Cuonrat de Bremer in 1313, although he seems to have originated from the town of Repperweiler, Andreas Bremer of Naensen, Braunschweig, in 1667, and Anna Braemer of Slate, Mecklenburg, in 1674. The first known recording of the surname in any spelling is that of Johannes Bremere of Rostock, in the charters of that city in the year 1267.

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