My husband was a BLINN from NovaScotia, Canada where their first ancestor came from San Malo in Normandy, France around 1633. The name is very common in the area of Claire and Digby counties aka 'the french shore' in Nova Scotia and most of them can tell you their direct lines from the time of their first arrival but not much before that. We are the only BLINNs in Sydney, Australia but there are plenty of BLINNBERGS and BLINNMANS which sounds more German to me. Cheers, JB