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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • North German : habitational name from Melle near Osnabrück, earlier Menele , probably from Old Saxon gimēni ‘public’ + ‘woods’.
  • Dutch and Belgian (van Melle) : habitational name from places in East Flanders and North Brabant.
  • Galician : habitational name from a village so named in Lugo province, Galicia.
  • French : metonymic occupational name from Old French melle ‘buckle’, ‘ring’.
  • French : habitation name from Melle-sur-Béronne in Deux-Sèvres.

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