Family name origins & meanings
- German : nickname (especially in the Silesian-Bohemian area) from Czech Vlach ‘foreigner’, denoting specifically someone who spoke a Romance language, in particular an Italian.
- German : topographic name for someone living in flat terrain, from Middle Low German vlak ‘flat’, or a nickname for a superficial or silly person, from the same word in the sense ‘shallow’.
- German : metonymic occupational name for a blacksmith, from Middle High German vlach ‘smooth’, ‘straight’. It is recorded as a surname in Bavaria around 1500.