Gaines Family History
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Gaines Name Meaning
English (of Norman origin): nickname for a crafty or ingenious person, from a reduced form of Old French engaine ‘ingenuity’, ‘trickery’ (Latin ingenium ‘native wit’). The word was also used in a concrete sense of a stratagem or device, particularly a trap. This surname has also assimilated reduced variants of Welsh Gurganus.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
Similar surnames: Raines, Baines, Glines, Caines, Garner, Gainey, Maines, Garness