Frequency: (271)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
German, Swiss, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a tailor, from an agent derivative of Middle High German næjen ‘to embroider’, ‘to sew’, or Yiddish neyen, ‘to sew’.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
