Family name origins & meanings
- German : habitational name from a place so named in the Rhineland. The place name is related to Maifeld, the name of the area of which it is the main settlement, which is derived from the Celtic word magos ‘field’, ‘plain’.
- French : from a diminutive of mai, which in the dialect of Savoy denoted pasture where cattle were allowed to graze in the spring and fall, and, by extension, a hut built for the cowherd nearby.