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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Polish (also Kałka) : nickname for a dirty man, from kalać, kalić ‘to soil’, ‘make dirty’, or perhaps a topographic name from Old Polish kał ‘muddy place’, ‘slough’.
  • Perhaps a respelling of German Kalker, occupational name for a lime burner, from Kalk + the agent suffix -er.

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