Pelikan Family History
Pelikan Name Meaning
German Croatian and Slovenian; Czech Slovak and Hungarian (Pelikán): from Middle High German pellikān Croatian and Slovenian pelikan Czech Slovak and Hungarian pelikán ‘pelican’ (from Late Latin pelicanus Greek pelekan). The pelican was regarded as a symbol of piety in Christian tradition: the female pelican was supposed in medieval religious folklore to feed her young with her own blood by plucking the feathers from her breast. Consequently the surname might be a nickname for a selfless person. Alternatively in some of these languages this was a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a pelican. Compare Pelican .
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022