Family name origins & meanings
- English (chiefly Berkshire) : from Middle English planke ‘plank’ (Late Latin planca). It is not clear how this word was applied as a surname: it may be a topographic name for someone who lived near a plank bridge over a stream, a metonymic occupational name for a carpenter, or a nickname for a thin person.
- North German : nickname for a cantankerous person, from Middle Low German plank ‘quarrel’, ‘discord’.
- North German : metonymic occupational name from Middle Low German plank ‘measure for liquids’.
- South German : topographic name from Middle High German plank ‘plank’, ‘palisade’.
- South German : nickname for a fair-haired person, from a variant of Middle High German blanc ‘light’, ‘shining’.