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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • South German : from Middle High German model ‘measure’, ‘size’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of weights and measures.
  • German : possibly a habitational name from the Slavic place name Modlau.
  • Polish : from model ‘model’, ‘fashion’.
  • Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) : from the Yiddish personal name Modl, a pet form of Mordecai.

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