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The kaplan Surname

kaplan Name Meaning and History

  1. Jewish (Ashkenazic): surname used as a translation of Cohen, from German Kaplan or Polish kaplan ‘chaplain’, ‘curate’.
  2. German, Swedish, Czech, and Slovenian; Slovak (Kaplán); Polish (Kaplan); Hungarian (Káplán): status name for a deacon, chaplain, or curate (ultimately from Late Latin capellanus (see Chaplin 1), or a nickname for someone resembling a clergyman).
  3. Turkish: from kablan ‘tiger’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble a tiger, typically in having indomitable courage or spirit. In the form Kaplanis, this is also found as a Greek surname, with various patronymic and other derivatives (Kaplanidis, Kaplanoglou, Kaplanellis, etc.)

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The kaplan name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the kaplan family name as far back in history as possible.

kaplan Family Facts

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Distribution of kaplan Families in the US in 1920
Number of kaplan families
 908-1813
 303-907		 1-302
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
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