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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German, Danish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German, Middle Low German, Danish kanne, German Kanne ‘jug’, ‘flagon’ (Latin canna), hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of jugs, or in some cases possibly a habitational name for someone who lived at a house or tavern distinguished by the sign of a flagon.
  • German (Austria) : from a short form of the personal name Candidus.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : one of the many forms of Cohen.

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