The story
- Proto-Germanic · derived from*kanô“vessel, boat”
- Proto-West Germanic · derived from*kanō
- Old Saxon · derived from*kano
- Middle Low German · derived fromkāne
- Low German · derived fromKane“small boat”
- English todayKahn
* As a north German surname, from Low German Kane (“small boat”), from Middle Low German kāne, from Old Saxon *kano, from Proto-West Germanic *kanō, from Proto-Germanic *kanô (“vessel, boat”). * Also as a north German surname, from a short form of Kahnert, a variant of Konrad. * Among Jews, a Germanicised form of Cohen.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.