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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : habitational name for someone from Kleve in the Rhineland (see Kleve 1).
  • German : nickname for a complainer, from Middle High German klewen ‘to whine’.
  • German : possibly from Middle Low German klēver ‘clover’, also ‘resin’, ‘turpentine’, hence a metonymic occupational name either for a farmer who grew clover or perhaps for someone who collected and distilled turpentine. In the Alemannic area this was also a nickname for a bungler.

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