Boy name origins & meanings
- Latin : Knowing his worth
Family name origins & meanings
- English : nickname from Middle English cointe, quointe ‘known’ (via Old French, from Latin cognitus ‘known’). The Middle English word was used in various senses, any of which could have given rise to the surname: ‘cunning’, ‘crafty’, ‘knowledgeable’ (especially about dress, hence ‘elegant’), ‘attractive’. The sense development continued with ‘odd’ or ‘unusual’, the normal meaning of the modern English word ‘quaint’.
- German and Dutch : variant of Quandt.