Kleve Family History
Kleve Name Meaning
German: habitational name from Kleve (earlier Cleve) in Lower Rhineland Westphalia or Schleswig-Holstein. The placename probably derives from an old topographic term cleve ‘swamp’. Compare Cleve . German: variant of Klever Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads named Kleiva from Old Norse kleif klif ‘cliff rocky ascent with a road or path’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022