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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : from Middle English pile ‘stake’, ‘post’ (via Old English from Latin pilum ‘spike’, ‘javelin’), hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a stake or post serving as a landmark or a metonymic occupational name for a stake maker or a nickname for a tall strong man.
  • Dutch : metonymic occupational name for a marksman or an arrowsmith, from pijl ‘arrow’.

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