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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : perhaps a nickname for a shy or short-sighted person, from Old English wand ‘mole’. Compare Want.
  • German : occupational name for a weaver or cloth cutter, from a reduced form of Middle High German gewant ‘cloth’, ‘garment’. Compare Wander 2.
  • German : topographic name from Middle High German want ‘wall’, ‘steep rock’, ‘precipice’.
  • Dutch : metonymic occupational name for a glove maker, from Middle Dutch wante ‘glove’.

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