Family name origins & meanings
- French : from Old French cerf ‘stag’ (Latin cervus), applied as a nickname with reference to the presumed lustfulness of the creature, or conversely to the horns as the mark of a cuckold (see Horn 4).
- Jewish (Ashkenazic from France) : from the personal name, French calque of the Yiddish personal name Hirsh (see Hirsch).