Family name origins & meanings
- Swedish : ornamental name from Swedish quist, an old or ornamental spelling of kvist ‘twig’. When surnames were adopted on a large scale in the 19th century in Sweden, this was one of the elements that were widely used in combination with other words denoting natural features to form surnames such as Lindqvist and Blomqvist.
- Danish : nickname for a thin man, from kvist ‘twig’.