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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a panther, Middle High German panter (see Panther 1).
  • North German : occupational name for a mortager or pawn broker, from a contracted form of Pfandherr.
  • English (mainly Northamptonshire) and Scottish : occupational name for a servant in charge of the supply of bread and other provisions in a monastery or large household, Middle English pan(e)ter (Old French panetier).

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