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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Czech (Kárník) : occupational name for a user or maker of hand carts (see Kara). Alternatively, it may be a nickname for a convicted offender, from kárat ‘to punish or scold’.
  • Indian (Karnataka, Maharashtra) : Hindu (Brahman, Kayasth Prabhu) name, ultimately from Sanskrit karạna ‘writer’, ‘scribe’. This name is found among the Havyaka Brahmans in Karnataka and the Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra.

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