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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Americanized spelling of German Gernot(h), from a Germanic personal name composed of a cognate of Old High German gēr ‘spear’ + knōt- ‘(to) swing’.
  • Alternatively, an Americanized spelling of Swiss German Gernet, which is either a variant of Gernot(h) (see 1 above) or a derivative of Middle High German gern ‘to desire’, a component of various Germanic personal names such as Gernhard.

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