Family name origins & meanings
- English and German : nickname for someone with a deformed hand or who had lost one hand, from Middle English hand, Middle High German hant, found in such appellations as Liebhard mit der Hand (Augsburg 1383).
- Jewish (Ashkenazic) : nickname from German Hand ‘hand’ (see 1).
- Irish : Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Flaithimh (see Guthrie), resulting from an erroneous association of the Gaelic name with the Gaelic word lámh ‘hand’. It is used as an English equivalent for several other names of Gaelic origin too, e.g. Claffey, Glavin, and McClave.
- Dutch : from a variant of hont ‘dog’, ‘hound’, either a derogatory nickname, or a habitational name for someone living at a house distinguished by the sign of a dog.