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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German and Dutch : metonymic occupational name for a maker of plate armor, from Middle High German blate, plate, Middle Dutch plate ‘plate’, ‘armor plating’.
  • German : habitational name from a place so named in Mecklenburg.
  • Dutch : from West Flemish plate ‘plaice’, possibly a nickname for someone thought to resemble a flat fish, or a metonymic occupational name for a catcher or seller of these fish.

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