Bengel
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Frequency: (291)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): 1. habitational name from a place so named, for example in Bavaria and the Mosel area. 2. from Middle High German bengel ‘club’, ‘cudgel’ or in a transferred sense ‘hooligan’, ‘lout’, hence a nickname for a boorish man.
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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