Family name origins & meanings
- German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German klōsenære, klūsenære and German Klausner ‘hermit’ (from Latin clausum ‘cell’, ‘shut-away place’), hence a topographic name for someone living by a hermit’s cell or a byname for a hermit. The reasons of its adoption by Jews are uncertain.
- Austrian and Swiss German : topographic name from Klause ‘narrow pass’, ‘defile’.