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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish : shortened form of McMeans.
  • English : habitational names from East and West Meon in Hampshire, which take their names from the Meon river. The word is Celtic but of uncertain meaning, possibly ‘swift one’.
  • nickname from Middle English mene ‘inferior in rank’, ‘of low degree’ (from Old English gemǣne), or from Middle English mene ‘moderate in behaviour’ (from Old French mëen, mean).

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