Artis
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Frequency: (1808)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. English: regional name for someone from the French province of Artois, from Anglo-Norman French Arteis (from Latin Atrebates, the name of the local Gaulish tribe).
2. French: from Old French artis ‘woodworm’, Old Occitan arta ‘moth’, possibly applied as a nickname for someone suffering from a wasting disease, perhaps leprosy.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
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Copyrights:
Oxford Dictionary of Family Names
Dictionary of American Family Names. Copyright © 2006 Patrick Hanks. All rights reserved.
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