Family name origins & meanings
- German and Swiss German : topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous willow tree or a group of such trees, from Middle High German velwe ‘willow’ (presumably from an unrecorded Old High German cognate of Old English welig). As a vocabulary word this has now been entirely supplanted by Weide. Both words ultimately derive from a root meaning ‘bent’, ‘twisted’, and refer to the useful suppleness of willow twigs. Some examples of the surname may derive from places called Felben, from the dative plural of the word (originally used after a preposition).
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name, from the tree (see 1).