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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English and Scottish : nickname from Middle English wann ‘wan’, ‘pale’ (the meaning of the word in Old English was, conversely, ‘dark’).
  • German : from the personal name Wano, a short form of Wambald (see Wambold).
  • German : topographic name denoting a basket-shaped valley or on a basket-shaped knoll, Middle High German wann(e) ‘basket’ (see Wanner and Wannemacher).

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