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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German : from Middle High German schalk ‘servant’, hence an occupational name for a servant or, more specifically, a jester. Later the word came to be used as a term of reproach, ‘knave’, and some cases of the surname may reflect this use.
  • Dutch : from the Germanic personal name Scalco, a pet form of compound names formed with -schalc (see 1).

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