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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English (west country) : topographic name for someone who lived by a fen or marsh, a variant of Fenner, reflecting the voicing of f that was characteristic of southwestern dialects of Middle English.
  • English : occupational name for a huntsman, from Old French veneo(u)r (Latin venator, a derivative of venari ‘to hunt’).
  • Dutch and North German : topographic name for someone living by a pit, moor, or fen, from Venn + the suffix -er denoting an inhabitant, or a habitational name for someone from places called Venn or Venne.

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