The grave Surname
grave Name Meaning and History
- English: occupational name from Middle English greyve ‘steward’, from Old Norse greifi or Low German greve (see Graf).
- English: topographic name, a variant of Grove.
- French: topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of gravelly soil, from Old French grave ‘gravel’ (of Celtic origin).
- North German: either from the northern form of Graf, but more commonly a topographic name from Middle Low German grave ‘ditch’, ‘moat’, ‘channel’, or a habitational name from any of several places in northern Germany named with this word.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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