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It depends if it is a german surname it could come from a nickname from "Graf", meaning "earl". If it it a british surname i ignore the meaning: probably a variant of Grove?
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This depends on the national origin.
If it's an English name, it's from Old French grafe, "stylus, pencil", originally a nickname for a scribe.
But if it's German or Jewish, it's a spelling variation of Graf, the German word for "count," the aristocratic title. In some parts of Germany (such as Hesse) the word was used for the headman of a village. But it also could have been originally a nickname for someone whose neighbors thought he acted or looked like the local Graf (count).
If it's an English name, it's from Old French grafe, "stylus, pencil", originally a nickname for a scribe.
But if it's German or Jewish, it's a spelling variation of Graf, the German word for "count," the aristocratic title. In some parts of Germany (such as Hesse) the word was used for the headman of a village. But it also could have been originally a nickname for someone whose neighbors thought he acted or looked like the local Graf (count).
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