Family name origins & meanings
- North German : from Middle Low German pann ‘pan’, ‘roof tile’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of either of these items.
- Altered spelling of German Pfann, a metonymic occupational name for a maker of pans, cognate with 1, from Middle High German pfanne, phanne ‘pan’, or a topographic name for someone living in low lying terrain, in a pan. Pfann sometimes denoted a salt panner.