Friedman

Friedman is a surname of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, derived from Germanic elements related to peace and common variations include Friedmann and Freidman. It is widely found in North America, Israel, and other countries where Jewish communities have settled, and it has many transliterations and spellings.

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) was an American economist and a leading figure of the Chicago School of economics. He advocated free-market policies, monetarism, and limited government, and he contributed to theories of consumption, monetary history, and stabilization policy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976 for his work in these areas.

Thomas L. Friedman (born 1953) is an American journalist and author, longtime columnist for The New York Times. He has written on globalization, foreign affairs, and climate change, and he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for books such as The World Is Flat (2005).

The name also appears in academic and scientific contexts. The Friedman test, a nonparametric statistical test used for comparing treatments across multiple attempts, is named after Milton Friedman.

As a surname, Friedman continues to occur across many cultures and professions, reflecting its historical migration and assimilation patterns.