Family name origins & meanings
- French and English : metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of gloves, from Old French gant ‘glove’ (of Germanic origin).
- German : of uncertain origin. In the south, it may be a topographic name from Middle High German gant ‘scree’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word. Compare Gander. It could also be a metonymic occupational name for an auctioneer from Middle High German gant ‘auction’ (see Ganter 1), for which a glove (gantus, French gant) was set up as a sign (see 1). A third possibility is that it is a variant of Gans, from Low German gante ‘goose’.