Kranz Family History

German: from Middle High German kranz ‘garland’, ‘wreath’; a metonymic occupational name for a maker of chaplets and wreaths, a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a garland, or a nickname for someone whose hair was tonsured. Dutch: variant spelling of Krans, cognate with 1. In some cases it may also be one of the several German spellings of the Slovenian habitational name Kranjec (also found as Krajnc or Kranjc), denoting someone from Kranjska province (Latin Carniola, German Krain), an old name for the historical central part of Slovenia. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Kranz or Yiddish krants ‘wreath’, ‘garland’.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press