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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English : occupational name from Old French telier ‘weaver’, ‘linen-weaver’.
  • German : variant of Tell 2 and 3.
  • Dutch : occupational name for a teller, a marketplace official.
  • Jewish (Ashkenazic) : either a metonymic occupational name for a dish maker or a nickname, from German Teller, Yiddish teler ‘plate’.
  • Catalan : from a derivative of Tell 4.
  • This name is recorded in Beverwijck in New Netherland (Albany, NY) in the mid 17th century.

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