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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : from a Middle English personal name, which originated as a short form of any of various Old English personal names beginning with Cyne- ‘royal’.
  • German : nickname for someone with a prominent chin, from Middle High German kinne ‘chin’, or from an Old High German personal name formed with the element kuoni ‘bold’ or chunni ‘race’, ‘people’. Compare Konrad.
  • Norwegian : habitational name from any of several farmsteads named Kinn, from Old Norse kinn ‘chin’ with reference to the land formation.

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