Family name origins & meanings
- German : occupational name for someone whose job was to swingle flax, i.e. to beat the flax with a swingle in order to remove the woody parts of the plant prior to spinning, from Middle German swingen ‘to swing’ or swing ‘swingle’.
- German : habitational name from any of the places called Schwinge (near Stade and in Pomerania) or Schwingen (Bavaria).