Family name origins & meanings
- German, Czech (Kunšt), and Jewish (Ashkenazic) : from Middle High German kunst ‘wisdom’, ‘skill’, in German-speaking communities a nickname for a knowledgeable or skillful person. Among Jewish communities, this was adopted as an ornamental name in the sense ‘knowledge’, ‘wisdom’, ‘dexterity’, or ‘art’. In Slavic regions, the word acquired negative connotations, ‘trickery’, ‘sleight of hand’, and hence ‘ridicule’, ‘scorn’, or ‘mockery’.
- German : from a short form of the personal name Konstantin, German form of Constantine.
- German : from the personal name Kunz, a short form of Konrad.