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The oliphant Surname

oliphant Name Meaning and History

English, Scottish, French, and German: from Middle English, Old French, Middle High German olifant ‘elephant’ (medieval Latin olifantus, from classical Latin elephantus, Greek elephas, genitive elephantos). The circumstances in which this word was applied as a surname are not clear. It may have been a nickname for a large, lumbering individual, or a metonymic occupational name for a worker in ivory, or a habitational name from a house distinguished by the sign of an elephant.

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

Distribution of oliphant Families in the US in 1920
Number of oliphant families
 39-76
 14-38
 1-13
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.co.uk from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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