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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : unexplained; possibly from Middle English bleik, blek(e) ‘pallid’, ‘sallow’ (from Old Norse bleikr ‘pale’) with alteration of the vowel, although Reaney suggests it may be a nickname derived from Middle English blikie(n) ‘to shine or gleam’ (from Old English blīcian).
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : origin uncertain; possibly from German Blick or Yiddish blik ‘glance’, ‘look’, and based on some now irrecoverable anecdote.
  • German : Prussian variant of Blek, a nickname from Middle High German blic ‘shine’.
  • German : short form of the Low German occupational name Blickslager ‘tinsmith’. Compare Bleck.
  • German : from a short form of the Germanic personal name Bligger, Blickhart, based on blic ‘gleam’, ‘shine’, later ‘pale’.

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