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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Germanized spelling of Italian Caraffa, from caraffa ‘carafe’, ‘water jug’ (probably a derivative of Arabic gharrāf ‘water wheel’). The Italian surname has cognates in several other European languages, e.g. Spanish Garrafa, German Karaffe, and any of these could lie behind the American family name.

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