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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : from Middle High German vīol ‘violet’, presumably applied as a nickname; this surname occurs mostly in southern Germany.
  • German : metonymic occupational name for a filemaker, from Middle High German vīle ‘file’.
  • German : metonymic occupational name for an arrowsmith, a variant of Pfeil, with the initial consonant cluster reduced to ‘f’ as is common in northern pronunciation Pfeil.

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