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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • South German : habitational name from a place in Franconia so named, or a topographic name from Old High German banz, which denotes the administrative area of a tribe and is probably the origin of the place name.
  • South German : In Bavaria, from Middle High German banz, denoting a barrel or drinking vessel which was used by reapers in the fields, hence probably a metonymic occupational name for a farm laborer or a maker of such vessels.

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