Skip to main content

Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : occupational name for a bailiff, later a servant in general, Middle Low German klūver (from kluven ‘to put someone in chains or handcuffs’).
  • German : in northern Germany, from klaue ‘claw’, a nickname for a quick, agile man.
  • German : habitational name for someone from a place called Klauen near Hildeshiem or from Klau near Aachen.
  • German : in nautical slang an occupational name for someone who repaired cracked and leaking boats.
  • German : in Hessen and the central Rhine area, a metonymic occupational name for someone who bred oxen, from a dialect word Klauer ‘breeding bull’.

Join the Family

Your partner in parenting from baby name inspiration to college planning.

Subscribe