Family name origins & meanings
- German : from Middle High German schanz ‘peasant jacket’, probably applied as a nickname for a peasant.
- German : topographic name from Middle High German schanze
- German : nickname for a gambler, from Middle High German schanz(e) ‘game of dice’, ‘hazard’.
- German : Johnstown (earlier Shantztown) in PA was founded in 1800 by Johann Schantz, an immigrant from Switzerland.