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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Italian : from the title of rank conte ‘count’ (from Latin comes, genitive comitis ‘companion’). Probably in this sense (and the Late Latin sense of ‘traveling companion’), it was a medieval personal name; as a title it was no doubt applied ironically as a nickname for someone with airs and graces or simply for someone who worked in the service of a count.
  • English : variant of Count, cognate with 1.
  • French : nickname for someone in the service of a count or for someone who behaved pretentiously, from Old French conte, cunte ‘count’ (of the same derivation as 1).
  • French (Conté) : variant of Comté (see Comte).

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