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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German klōsenære, klūsenære and German Klausner ‘hermit’ (from Latin clausum ‘cell’, ‘shut-away place’), hence a topographic name for someone living by a hermit’s cell or a byname for a hermit. The reasons of its adoption by Jews are uncertain.
  • Austrian and Swiss German : topographic name from Klause ‘narrow pass’, ‘defile’.

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