Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Spanish : from Spanish clavel or Catalan clavell ‘clove’, earlier also ‘nail’, a derivative of Latin clavellus ‘nail’, applied as a metonymic occupational name for a spice trader or a nail maker.
  • French : metonymic occupational name for a nail maker from a derivative of Latin clavellus, but in some cases possibly from the same word in the sense ‘smallpox’, ‘rash’.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe