Kahn Last Name: Meaning and Heraldic Roots

Kahn is a branch of the Kohn name tree. Taken at its root, Kahn points to “A descendant of Kuno, a pet form of names beginning”. The two spellings differ in a small detail: Kahn has “a” where Kohn has “o”. Regional accents shaped spellings long before dictionaries fixed them.

The 2010 census count for Kahn in the United States was 14,584, good for rank 2,473. That is enough to place it in the top 2,500 American surnames. 1,838 people born in France between 1891 and 2000 carried the Kahn name at birth.

Heraldry is personal: arms associated with the Kohn surname were borne by specific families, and sharing the name does not mean sharing the blazon. For the full story, order the Kahn surname pack.