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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Spanish and Portuguese : from carda ‘teasel’, ‘carder’ (from Latin carduus ‘thistle’), hence a metonymic occupational name for someone who carded (disentangled) wool, the dried heads of teasels and thistles having originally been used for this purpose.
  • Italian (Cardà) : probably a topographic name from Greek kardas ‘thistle field’.
  • Czech : nickname for a cunning, clever, or sly person, Old Czech or Moravian dialect carda.

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