English: occupational name, a variant of Penn 1, with the agent suffix -er.
North German (including Lower Rhineland): variant of Pfänner, from Pfann ‘pan’; according to Bahlow, a name denoting the owner of a salt-boiling pan.
German: habitational name from Penna near Leipzig.
Eastern German: in some cases a topographic name (of Salzburg emigrants) in East Prussia, equivalent of Baintner, Paintner (see Bainter), from Middle High German biunte ‘separate part of land or enclosure belonging to a village’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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