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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • French : in Normandy and Picardy, a topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of stony soil, from Old Norman French cail(ou) ‘pebble’, ‘stone’ (of Celtic origin).
  • French : in southern France, a metonymic occupational name for a dairy worker, from Occitan cail ‘curds’ (Latin coagulum, from coagulāre to congeal).

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