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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : habitational name from a house distinguished by the sign of a gryphon, Middle High German grīf(e) (Old High German grīf(o), from Late Latin gryphus, Greek gryps, of Assyrian origin).
  • German : nickname for a grasping man, the gryphon in folk etymology having come to be associated with Middle High German grīfen ‘to grasp or snatch’.
  • English : variant of Grief.

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