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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English (mainly East Anglia) : occupational name for someone who made silk thread from raw silk, from an agent derivative of Middle English thrōw(en) (Old English þrāwan ‘to twist’). From the 13th century the verb began to be used in its modern sense, including throwing clay in pottery, and so in some cases the surname may have originated as an occupational name for a potter.

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