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.