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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • German (Bavaria, Franconia, Hesse) : occupational name for a smelter, from Middle High German smelzen ‘to smelt metal’.
  • German : habitational name from Schmelz in the Saarland or Schmöltz in Bavaria.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : metonymic occupational name for a smelter, from German Schmelze ‘smelting’ (see 1 above).

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