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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Slovenian : topographic name from grad ‘castle’.
  • Possibly also a Slovenian and Polish nickname from the obsolete noun grad ‘hail’ (in the sense ‘precipitation’).
  • German : borrowing of 1 or alternatively a nickname either from Middle High German grātac ‘greedy’ or, in the south, from Middle High German gerāde ‘swift’, ‘skillful’.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : ornamental name from German gerade ‘upright’.

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