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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • French : from Old French cerf ‘stag’ (Latin cervus), applied as a nickname with reference to the presumed lustfulness of the creature, or conversely to the horns as the mark of a cuckold (see Horn 4).
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic from France) : from the personal name, French calque of the Yiddish personal name Hirsh (see Hirsch).

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