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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : from Middle English gander, Old English gand(r)a ‘gander’, ‘male goose’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of geese, or a nickname for someone supposedly resembling a gander in some way.
  • English : variant of Ganter.
  • North German : perhaps a habitational name from Gandern in Brandenburg.
  • North German : nickname for a vain or self-important man from ganter ‘male goose’, ‘gander’.
  • South German and Swiss German : habitational name from a place named with Middle High German gant ‘scree’ (Swiss gand), or topographic name for someone living by an area of scree.

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