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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : from an agent derivative of Middle High German kleben ‘to stick or bind’, an occupational name for a builder working with clay or, in Swabia, for someone who applied whitewash.
  • German : in Bavaria and Austria, an occupational name for a shingle maker, from Middle High German klieben ‘to split (wood or stone)’. Compare Klauber.

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