Wolf
also Wolff, Wolfe
The wolf — a Germanic name-word with a Hebrew twin.
- Origin
- German
- Famous bearer
- Christa Wolf (1929–2011), novelist
- Register
- German family
The seat of Wolf
Seat vacantChief
No one leads the Wolf community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.
Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once Wolf has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
The Wolf clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.
Help rebuild the Wolf clan →What does the Wolf name mean?
From the old Germanic name-word wolf — borne in given names like Wolfgang and standing alone as a name in its own right. Among Ashkenazi Jews it renders the Hebrew Ze'ev, also 'wolf'.
The history of Wolf
Wolf is one of the oldest words in the Germanic name-hoard, surviving from the pagan stock of fierce-animal names into the medieval given name Wolfgang and then into a surname of its own.
Its second life is Jewish. By the old tradition that paired a Hebrew name with a vernacular one of like meaning, the Hebrew Ze'ev (wolf) travelled beside the German Wolf, and the surname became one of the common Ashkenazi names — so the single word carries two lineages at once, Germanic and Hebrew, depending on the branch. The novelist Christa Wolf, the great chronicler of divided Germany, is among its modern bearers.
Explore With Your Ancestors · Beta
Pick any year from 500 to 1945 and any place on earth — the Wolf country, or a shore no Wolf ever reached. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.
Notable bearers of the Wolf name
- Christa Wolf (1929–2011), novelist