European clans

privileged social class in France during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period to the revolution in 1790

In ancient Greece, a genos (Greek: γένος, "race, stock, kin", plural γένη genē) was a social group claiming common descent, referred to by a single name (see also Sanskrit "Gana"). Most gene were composed of noble families—Herodotus uses the term to denote noble families—and much of early Greek politics seems to have involved struggles between gene. Gene are best attested in Athens, where writers from Herodotus to Aristotle dealt with them.

Sippe is German for "clan, kindred, extended family" (Frisian Sibbe, Norse Sifjar).