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The plank Surname

plank Name Meaning and History

  1. English (chiefly Berkshire): from Middle English planke ‘plank’ (Late Latin planca). It is not clear how this word was applied as a surname: it may be a topographic name for someone who lived near a plank bridge over a stream, a metonymic occupational name for a carpenter, or a nickname for a thin person.
  2. North German: nickname for a cantankerous person, from Middle Low German plank ‘quarrel’, ‘discord’.
  3. North German: metonymic occupational name from Middle Low German plank ‘measure for liquids’.
  4. South German: topographic name from Middle High German plank ‘plank’, ‘palisade’.
  5. South German: nickname for a fair-haired person, from a variant of Middle High German blanc ‘light’, ‘shining’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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plank Family Facts

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Distribution of plank Families in the US in 1920
Number of plank families
 106-210
 36-105
 1-35
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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The plank name in History

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