1000 Most Popular Surnames in the World

Chinese : from a character meaning ‘prince’. There are numerous unrelated Wang clans, descendants of various princes of the Shang (1766–1122 bc) and Zhou (1122–221 bc) dynasties, including in particular descendants of the Shang dynasty prince Bi Gan and descendants of Bi Gonggao, 15th son of the virtuous duke Wen Wang, who was granted the state of Wei (a different state of Wei than that granted the eighth son; compare Sun). Chinese : from the name of a state or area called Wang. From ancient times through the Xia (2205–1766 bc) and Shang (1766–1122 bc) dynasties there existed a state of Wang. Later, during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), there also existed an area named Wang in the state of Lu. Some descendants of the ruling class of both areas took the place name Wang as their surname. Korean: there is one Chinese character for the surname Wang. Some sources indicate that there are fifteen Wang clans, but only two can be identified: the Kaesong Wang clan and the Chenam Wang clan. The Kaesong Wang clan, which originated in China, ruled the Korean peninsula for almost five hundred years as the ruling dynasty of the Koryo period (918–1392). There are some indications that the Kaesong Wang clan was present in the ancient Choson Kingdom (?194 bc). When the Chonju Yi clan seized power in 1392 and established the Choson kingdom, many of the members of the Kaesong Wang clan changed their names and went into hiding to avoid being persecuted by the new ruling dynasty. The Chenam Wang clan is also of Chinese origin. The Chenam Wang clan is much smaller than the Kaesong Wang clan. German and Dutch: from Middle German wang, Middle Dutch waenge, literally ‘cheek’, but also in southern German having the transferred sense ‘grassy slope’ or ‘field of grass’. It was thus either a topographic name for someone who lived by a meadow or a descriptive nickname for someone with noticeable cheeks (for example, round or rosy). Jewish (Ashkenazic): either a borrowing of the German name (see 4), or else a regional name for a Jew from Hungary (compare Russian Vengria ‘Hungary’). Scandinavian: variant spelling of Vang 1.

Chinese : from a character meaning ‘minister’. This was part of the title of Gao Yao, a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu, who became famous as a minister under the model emperors Yao and Shun in the 23rd century bc; he was the first to introduce laws for the repression of crime. His descendants adopted this part of his title as their surname. The use of this name continued for over a millennium to the twelfth century bc, down to the rule of the last king of the Shang dynasty, the despotic Zhou Xin. Li Zhi, the head of the Li clan at that time, displeased Zhou Xin and was executed, leaving the rest of the clan facing imminent disaster. They fled, and nearly starved to death, surviving only by eating a fruit called mu zi. When the characters for mu and zi are combined, they form the character for plum, pronounced Li. In token of this salvation, the clan changed their name to the current character for li ‘plum’. Li is now the most common surname in China. Among the many famous bearers are Lee Kwan Yew, prime minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990; Lee Teng-hui, president of Taiwan from 1988; Li Peng, prime minister of China from 1988; and Bruce Lee (1941–73), movie actor. Chinese : from the name of a state of Li (in present-day Shanxi province), which existed during the Shang dynasty (1766–1122 bc). Descendants of the state’s rulers adopted the name of the state as their surname. Chinese : this character for Li is an altered form of 1 above. Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads named Li, from Old Norse hlíð ‘mountain slope’, ‘hillside’.

Chinese : the origin of this name goes back 4500 years to a grandson of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), surnamed Hui. Hui invented bows and arrows, and was put in charge of their production. In honor of his deeds, he was given as surname the character pronounced Zhang, which is composed of the symbols for ‘bow’ and ‘long’, meaning to ‘stretch open a bow’. Zhang has now become one of the most common names in China. Chinese : from the name of an area called Zhang in present-day Shandong province. During the Western Zhou dynasty (1122–771 bc) a fief was made of this area. It was later conquered by the state of Qi; at that time the former rulers of conquered states were not allowed to take the name of their state as their surname. The former ruling class of Zhang fortunately were able to drop off a small portion of the character for Zhang and still leave another character also pronounced Zhang. This modified character became their surname.

Chinese : from name of the region of Chen (in present-day Henan province). After overthrowing the Shang dynasty and becoming the first king of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, Wu Wang searched for a descendant of the great ancient emperors to guard their memory and offer sacrifices, to help retain the ‘Mandate of Heaven’, which was considered essential to remain in power. He found Gui Man, a descendant of the model emperor Shun (2257–2205 bc), and granted him the region of Chen, along with the title Marquis of Chen and one of his daughters in marriage. Gui Man was posthumously named Chen Hugong, and his descendants came to adopt the surname Chen.

Chinese : from the name of the state of Liu, which was granted to a descendant of the model emperor Yao (2357–2257 bc). Chinese : variant of Liao. Chinese : from the name of an area called Liu Xia in the state of Lu (in present-day Shanxi province). During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), this was granted to a counselor famous for his high moral character. His descendants adopted the name of this area as their surname.

Indian: honorific term used with the names of women, from Sanskrit devi ‘goddess’. It is used as a last name by some women who do not have a surname as such.

Korean: there are four Chinese characters used for the Yang surname, but only two are common enough to consider here; they have between them eight clans. The founding ancestor of the Ch’ongju Yang clan was Chinese and stayed in Korea after escorting Koryo, King Kongmin’s future queen to Korea. The first historical ancestor of the Cheju Yang clan was a Shilla figure named Yang T’ang, but according to legend, his distant ancestor was one of three men who ascended from a cave on the north side of Cheju Island’s Halla Mountain. These three men were the founders of the Yang, Pu, and Ko clans. The legendary founder of the Yang clan was named Yang Ul-la. Some days after their emergence, a box washed up on the shore of the island. In the box were three women, horses, cows, and agricultural seed. From these beginnings, the three established Cheju’s T’amnaguk kingdom and ruled peacefully for 900 years. Later, descendants of the three men settled throughout Korea, although 40 percent of the Yang clan still live on Cheju island and in Cholla province. Chinese : from the name of the state of Yang during the Zhou Dynasty. The first king of this dynasty, Wu Wang (1122–1116 bc), had a son named Tang Shuyu; a descendant of his was enfeoffed the state of Yang, and later descendants adopted the name of the state as their surname. Chinese : from a region called Yang that existed in the state of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). Chinese : in the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), there existed in the state of Jin a senior adviser with the surname Yang-she. During the Warring States period (403–221 bc) his descendants fled to escape destruction by the conquering Qin, and simplified their surname to Yang. Laotian: unexplained.

Chinese : from an ancient territory called Huang. Perhaps the most famous and revered of the ancient Chinese emperors is Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), considered father of the Chinese people. He is also known as ‘the Yellow Emperor’, since Huang also means ‘yellow’. Surprisingly, though, Huang Di is not credited with being a direct source of the surname. A descendant of his was granted the fief of the territory of Huang, which later served as the surname for certain descendants of the ruling family.

“Lion” in Sanskrit (Sinha). Hence Singapore - “City of the Lion”.

Chinese : from the name of the ancient state of Wu in what is now Jiangsu province. In the 13th century bc, the state of Zhou was ruled by Tai Wang, who had three sons: Tai Bo, Zhong Yong, and Ji Li. The eldest sons, Tai Bo and Zhong Yong, believing that their father wished the youngest son, Ji Li, to inherit the reins of power, left the Zhou homeland with a group of followers and traveled southeastward to east-central China, where they established the state of Wu. Their descendants eventually adopted Wu as their surname. Ji Li stayed on to rule the Zhou and became the father of the famed virtuous duke Wu Wang, to whom those named Zhou (see Chow) trace their ancestry. Thus, the surnames Wu and Zhou are traced to the same ancestor, Tai Wang. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Hu. Chinese : from the name of Ji Wu, a son of Ping Wang (770–719 bc), the first king of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. His descendants adopted the given name Wu as their surname. Chinese : from the name of Wu Can, an official of the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). At one time, the states of Chu and Jin were at war. The general of Chu viewed the strong position of the Jin and recommended retreat. However, a minor official, Wu Can, performed an analysis of the situation which concluded that an attack would be better. The prince of Chu agreed with Wu Can, which resulted in a victory over the Jin. Wu Can then became a senior official and used part of his given name, Wu, as his new surname. Chinese : from the name of Wu Peng, doctor of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc).

Indian: Hindu name found in several communities, from Sanskrit kumara ‘child’, ‘son’, ‘prince’. It is also an epithet of the god Kartikeya, the son of Shiva. It commonly occurs as the final element of compound given names, and sometimes as a personal name in its own right. Slovenian: either a variant spelling of Kumer or a variant of Humar, a topographic name for someone who lived on a hill, from holm (dialectally hum ‘hill’, ‘height’).

Chinese : from the name of the ancient state of Xu. The model emperor Yu (2205–2198 bc) granted this state to one of his retainers. The retainer’s family governed the state from this time on until the Western Zhou dynasty (1122–771 bc), when the Xu prince of the time believed it to be God’s will that he should oppose the Zhou dynasty, on account of a prophecy associated with a red bow and arrow that he pulled out of a river. The Zhou king, Mu Wang, was far away to the west in the Kunlun mountains, but raced back to confront and defeat the Xu prince (see Chao 1). Mu Wang then granted the state of Xu to the defeated prince’s son, giving him the ‘style name’ of Xu. Descendants of this new ruler eventually adopted Xu as their surname. Chinese : this name goes back as far as the 23rd century bc. According to tradition, there existed a philosopher named Xu You, who was offered succession to the throne by the model emperor Yao. Having heard this proposal, Xu You washed his ears in a river to rid them of such defilement. The main stock of this name probably came later, however, when Wu Wang, the first king (1122–1116 bc) of the Zhou dynasty, granted the area of Xu in present-day Henan province to Wen Shu, a descendant of Bo Yi, adviser to the model emperor Shun (who coincidentally accepted the offer of power which Xu You had declined). The descendants of Wen Shu eventually adopted the name of the area of Xu as their surname.

Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from the Arabic personal name ?Ali ‘high’, ‘lofty’, ‘sublime’. Al-?Ali ‘the All-High’ is an attribute of Allah. Abdul-?Ali means ‘servant of the All-High’. ?Ali ibn Abi ?Talib (c. 600–661), the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, was the fourth and last of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs (ruled 656–61) and the first imam of the Shiite Muslims. His assassination led to the appearance of the Shiite sect.

Chinese : from the name of the city of Zhao, in present-day Shanxi province in north-central China. Mu Wang, king of the Zhou dynasty (1001–947 bc), was noted for his campaigns and journeys to distant lands and for his expansion of the Chinese empire. According to legend, he once traveled to the Kunlun mountains, then west of China, to see the Queen Mother of the West. After arriving, he learned of military attacks at home, so his chariot driver, Zao Fu, obtained eight marvelous steeds which took them back at a rate of a thousand li (500 miles) a day, so that they were able to defend the capital. In recognition of his service, Mu Wang granted to the charioteer Zao Fu the city of Zhao, and his descendants subsequently adopted Zhao as their surname.

Chinese : one of the oldest Chinese surnames, already being the name of the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc), when many current Chinese surnames first came into use. According to legend, Jiang Yuan, a concubine of the legendary emperor Ku in the 25th century bc, accidentally stepped in the imprint of a god’s big toe, which impregnated her. Not wanting such a child, she abandoned the newborn baby, Hou Ji, in the wilderness. The infant was protected from the elements by the wings of eagles and was suckled on the milk of cows and sheep. He learned how to grow grain, and became the minister of agriculture under the legendary emperor Yao. His clan eventually settled in a city named Zhouyuan, in present-day Shaanxi province in western China. Under the influence of the name of the city, they came to be known as the Zhou, even though their surname was originally Ji. This situation lasted for over a millennium until a descendant, the famed virtuous Duke Wu Wang, changed his surname to Zhou, and his son established the Zhou dynasty. Zhou Enlai, premier of China from 1949 to 1976, belonged to this clan.

Vietnamese (Nguy[ecirctilde]n): unexplained. This was the family name of a major Vietnamese royal dynasty.

Muslim: from a personal name or status name based on Turkish khan ‘ruler’, ‘nobleman’. This was originally a hereditary title among Tartar and Mongolian tribesmen (in particular Genghis Khan, 1162–1227), but is now very widely used throughout the Muslim world as a personal name. In Iran and parts of the Indian subcontinent it is used as an honorific title after a person’s name.

Chinese : from an honorific title borne by a prince of the state of Zhao during the Warring States period (403–221 bc). He was awarded the title Noble Ma Fu after repeatedly distinguishing himself as a general, and subsequently, his descendants adopted part of the honorific title, Ma, as their surname. Korean: there are two Chinese characters for the surname Ma, only one of which is frequent enough to be treated here. Two clans use this character: the Mokch’on clan and the Changhung clan. The founding ancestor of the Korean Mokch’on Ma clan migrated to Korea from China during the Han Commanderies period (1st century bc). The Ma clans played fairly important roles in the formation of the pre-Shilla Paekche kingdom. The records are not consistent, but it seems that originally the Ma surname was Yong and that either the Koryo king T’aejo (941–943) or the Shilla king Kyongsun (927–935) changed the name to Ma. Cambodian: unexplained. Hawaiian: unexplained. Tongan: unexplained.

Chinese : from the name of the ancient state of Lu, in present-day Henan province. This is one of the oldest Chinese surnames, going back well over 4000 years to an adviser of the founding emperor of the Xia dynasty, Yu (2205–2198 bc). The adviser was enfeoffed with the state of Lu, and the family held it throughout the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties, eventually adopting the name of the state, Lu, as their surname. Chinese : from area called Lu, in present-day Shandong province. During the Warring States period (403–221 bc), a descendant of previous dukes of the state of Qi became the high counselor of that state, and was granted the area of Lu. His descendants later adopted the place name Lu as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the city of Lu in the state of Qi. During the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). The youngest son of a duke of Qi was granted the city of Lu, and his descendants adopted the place name Lu as their surname. Chinese : from the name of a different state of Lu, a large area covering parts of present-day Anhui, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces. This was granted to Zhou Gong, Duke of Zhou, a famous figure in Chinese history, as he was revered by Confucius as the prototypical good adviser. The fourth son of Wen Wang, Zhou Gong was the younger brother and chief adviser of Wu Wang, the founder of the Zhou dynasty. After Wu Wang died in 1116 bc, his 13-year old son succeeded him, but actual power was held by Zhou Gong, acting as regent. Zhou Gong’s descendants later adopted the name of the state as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the Lushui river. The characters for the river name contained a written component meaning ‘water’; this component was dropped, leaving only the current character for Lu, which means ‘street’. Chinese : from the name of an area known as Wulu ‘Five Deer’, which was granted to a senior adviser of the state of Wei. His descendants adopted Lu as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of the state of Zhu in present-day Shandong province. Wu Wang, the first king (1122–1116 bc) of the Zhou dynasty, granted to Cao Xie, a descendant of the emperor Zhuan Xu of the 26th century bc, lordship of the state of Zhu (see also Cao). Later, this state was conquered by the state of Chu, after which many descendants of the Zhu aristocracy took a modified form of the character Zhu for their surname; the pronunciation is the same. The name has become very common in southern China. Chinese : following the establishment of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, Wu Wang granted lordship of the area of Zhu to a descendant of the legendary emperor Huang Di. His descendants eventually adopted the place name Zhu as their surname. Additionally, in ancient China the titles of several important governmental positions contained the character for Zhu. Descendants of some of these officials adopted Zhu as their surname. Chinese : there are two accounts of the origin of this name, both from the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). One account derives the name from an area named Zhu in the state of Lu. Another account derives it from a senior minister of the state of Yue named Zhu Zhiying. Chinese : this was part of the ancient word Tianzhu ‘India’. When Buddhist monks came to China from India, they often used Zhu as part of their name, and it gradually came to be used as a surname.

Burmese or other Southeast Asian: unexplained.

Chinese : from the name of Hui Sun, a high official of the state of Wei, which existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc), located in present-day Shanxi province in north-central China. Wen Wang, the virtuous duke whose magnanimous rule led to the establishment of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, had an eighth son named Kang Shu, who was enfeoffed the state of Wei. The ruling line continued through Wu Gong, whose son Hui Sun became a high official of Wei; his descendants adopted the given name Sun as their surname. Sun Tzu was author of The Art of War, written during the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 bc) and still much quoted today. Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925) was the revolutionary leader instrumental in the overthrow of the Chinese dynastic system early in the twentieth century. Korean: variant of Son.

Korean: there are four Chinese characters for the surname Yu. Some sources indicate the existence of as many as 230 clans, but only about twenty can be positively documented. Several of the clans are of Chinese origin. The largest Yu clan, the Munhwa Yu, was founded by a man named Ch’a Tal. Ch’a’s fifth great-grandfather had been involved in an attempt to overthrow the Shilla king. To avoid prosecution, the ancestor fled to Munhwa and changed his surname, first to that of his maternal grandmother, Yang, and then to Yu. Many years later, Ch’a Tal assisted Wang Kon to establish the Koryo Kingdom. Ch’a was recognized for his support and was rewarded accordingly. Ch’a’s eldest son began again to use the Ch’a surname, but his younger son continued to use Yu. The Munhwa Yu clan, along with the Andong Kwon clan, possesses one of the oldest extant clan genealogies in Korea. Chinese : in the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) there lived in the state of Qin a high counselor called You Yu, whose descendants took part of their forebear’s ‘style name’, Yu, as their surname. Chinese : from the name of a territory granted by Wu Wang, the first king (1122–1116 bc) of the Zhou dynasty, to his second son. Some of his descendants adopted a simplified version of the character for Yu as their surname. Chinese : during the time of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), there lived an extraordinary doctor who could cure all manner of diseases. Because of his great abilities, he was called Yu, which meant ‘to heal’. His descendants adopted a modified form of this character as their surname. Chinese : from the name of either of two ancient states called Yu, one located in present-day Henan province and the other in Shanxi province.

Chinese : from a word meaning ‘forest’. Bi Gan was a half-brother to Zhou Xin, the cruel and corrupt last king (1154–1123 bc) of the Shang dynasty. Bi Gan criticized his half-brother’s excesses, and for this he had his belly ripped open and his heart cut out. His wife fled to Chang Forest, where she gave birth to a son. When Zhou Xin was toppled by the new Zhou dynasty, the new Zhou ruler granted the son some land together with the name Lin. Chinese : variant of Lian 1. Scottish and English: perhaps a variant of Lynn. Dutch: probably a variant of Lyn.

Korean: there is one Chinese character for the surname Kim. Kim is the most common Korean surname, comprising about 20 percent of the Korean population. According to some sources, there are over 600 different Kim clans, but only about 100 have been documented. Kims can be found in virtually every part of Korea. The two largest Kim clans, the Kim family of Kimhae and the Kim family of Kyongju, are descended from semi-mythological characters who lived two thousand years ago. According to legend, the Kimhae Kim family founder, Kim Suro, came in answer to a prayer offered by the nine elders of the ancient Karak Kingdom. In 42 ad, these elders met together to pray for a king. In answer to their prayer, they were sent a golden box containing six golden eggs. From the first egg emerged King Su-ro, Karak’s first king. The other five eggs became the five kings of Karak’s neighboring kingdom, Kaya. The founder of the Kim family of Kyongju, Kim Al-ji, had similar origins. In 65 ad the king of Shilla, T’alhae, heard a strange sound from a forest near the Shilla capital, Kyongju. On investigation he found a crowing white rooster standing next to a golden egg. From this egg emerged Al-ji, founder of the Kyongju Kim family and subsequent king of the Shilla Kingdom. Because Al-ji emerged from a golden egg, King T’alhae bestowed upon the child the surname Kim, which means ‘gold’. It is estimated that about half of the one hundred or so Kim clans of modern Korea are descended from the Kyongju Kim clan. Swiss German: unexplained.

Chinese : from a southern pronunciation of the name of the state of Han (in present-day Shaanxi province), which existed during the early stages of the Western Zhou dynasty (1122–771 bc). This was the fief of a younger brother of Cheng Wang, second king of the Zhou dynasty (see Han). When the state of Han was later annexed by the state of Jin, the members of the royal family scattered. Those descendants who settled further south, in the area of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, found that the character for Han was pronounced He in this area, and so changed their name to a character more widely pronounced He. Chinese : during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 ad), members of the Qing clan needed to change their surname, as Qing was the name of the emperor’s father and so they were not permitted to use this name. They decided on he, which like qing means ‘celebrate’. In modern Chinese these two characters have been compounded into one word, qinghe, which also means ‘celebrate’. Chinese : from a word meaning ‘and’ in modern Chinese, which was part of the title Xihe ‘astrologer’. Members of the He clan held this hereditary position and adopted their surname from the title.

Chinese : from Hu, a name bestowed posthumously on Gui Man, Duke of Chen. After conquering the Shang dynasty and becoming the first king of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, Wu Wang searched for a descendant of the great ancient emperors to guard their memory and offer sacrifices, to help retain the mandate of heaven which was considered essential to remain in power. He found Gui Man, a descendant of the model emperor Shun (2257–2205 bc), and granted him the region of Chen (in present-day Henan province), along with one of his daughters in marriage and the title Marquis of Chen. Gui Man was posthumously named Hu, Duke of Chen, and some of his descendants adopted this name as their surname. Chinese : from part of the name of the state of Youhu, which existed during the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc). Its residents subsequently adopted the second character of the name, Hu, as their surname. French: nickname from Old French hu ‘outcry’, ‘noise’ (the same word as gave rise to the English phrase ‘hue and cry’, which referred to a clamour raised when in pursuit of a criminal); compare Huard 2. Mexican (Maya): nickname meaning ‘iguana’.

Chinese : from the name of an area known as the Jiang Hills, which in ancient times was granted to a descendant of the legendary emperor Zhuang Xu. Later, during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), when the Jiang Hills administration was defeated by the state of Chu, the defeated ruling class took Jiang as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the state of Jiang, in present-day Henan province. The Duke of Zhou was the younger brother and chief adviser of Wu Wang, who established the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc; his third son, Bo Ling, was granted lordship of the state of Jiang. Bo Ling’s descendants eventually adopted Jiang as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the Jiang Creek, a tributary of the Wei river in Shaanxi province. This surname goes back 4700 years to Shen Nong, a legendary emperor (2734–2697 bc). Shen Nong was raised beside Jiang Creek, and adopted Jiang as one of his names.

Chinese : from an area in Shanxi province named Guo (written with a different character, pronounced the same). A younger brother of the famed virtuous duke Wen Wang (12th century bc) was enfeoffed this area and given the name Guo Shu. The Chinese character for the area was pronounced in the same way as a different character, the source of the present-day surname Guo, and people began to refer to Guo Shu with this homophonic character. Chinese : from a character that also means ‘kingdom’ or ‘state’. Descendants of the founder of the state of Qi during the Warring States period (403–221bc) adopted this character as their surname. Chinese : from the name of a state of Guo that existed during the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc). Following defeat of this state, residents of the area adopted its name as their surname.

Muslim: variant spelling of Ahmad.

Chinese : from the name of the state of Luo during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). This was granted to a descendant of Zhu Rong, a son of Zhuan Xu, legendary emperor of the 26th century bc. Subsequently, his descendants adopted the state name as their surname. Chinese : from the personal name of Jiang Luo, a son of the grand duke of the state of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). His descendants adopted his given name, Luo, as their surname. This character also means ‘camel’.

Chinese : from the name of the area of Gao in the state of Qi during the Western Zhou dynasty (1122–771 bc). A son of the royal family of Qi was granted the area of Gao, and subsequently his descendants adopted Gao as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of a state of Zheng. Xuan Wang, penultimate king (827–781 bc) of the Western Zhou Dynasty, granted the fief of Zheng to his younger brother, along with the title Duke Xuan of Zheng. In the time of Duke Xuan’s son, Duke Gong, the capital of the Zhou dynasty was destroyed and the king was killed, bringing to an end the Western Zhou dynasty. The new Zhou king moved the capital eastward, beginning the Eastern Zhou dynasty. Duke Gong of Zheng moved eastward as well, to an area in present-day Henan province in central China, establishing a new state of Zheng. His descendants later adopted Zheng as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of Liang Mountain in present-day Shaanxi province. During the reign of the Zhou dynasty emperor Xuan Wang (827–782 bc), Qin Zhong set out on an expedition to subdue the peoples to the west in Central Asia. Qin Zhong was killed, however, which caused his five sons to develop a bitter hatred of those tribes, and so they set out to avenge their father, eventually succeeding and defeating the peoples of the west. The emperor divided the area of Shang among them, and the second son received the area around Liang Mountain, from which his descendants developed the surname Liang. Subsequently, Liang was the name of two Chinese dynasties, the Earlier Liang Dynasty (502–557) and the Later Liang Dynasty (907–923).

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Kayasth) name, from Bengali daš ‘votary’, ‘servant’, from Sanskrit dasa ‘slave’, ‘servant’. It is also commonly used as the final element of compound given names, for example Bhagavandas ‘servant of god’, Mohandas ‘votary of Mohan (an epithet of the god Krishna)’.

Chinese : from the name of the area of Wei in present-day Shanxi province. During the Warring States period (403–221 bc), Hua Wan of the state of Jin repeatedly distinguished himself in battle, and as a reward was granted this area. His descendants subsequently adopted the place name Wei as their surname. Chinese : from the name of an area called Shiwei. A grandson of Peng Zu, who according to tradition lived for over 800 years and came to be a symbol of long life, was granted an area named Shiwei. His descendants adopted the second character of this name, Wei, as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the state of Wei. When the Zhou dynasty was established in 1122 bc, the new ruler Wu Wang left the conquered Shang people their capital, to rule themselves under the supervision of various Zhou appointees. The Shang convinced their overseers to revolt with them, but were soon put down by the Zhou. This time, Wu Wang put his younger brother Kang Shu, the eighth son of Wen Wang, in control of the area, naming it the state of Wei. Many descendants of Kang Shu later adopted Wei as their surname, although others adopted the name Kang (see Kang 1).

Muslim: variant of Muhammad. See also Mohammed.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic islam ‘peace’, the name of the religion of Muslims. Islam is mentioned in several places in the Qur’an, for example at 3:19 ‘Religion with Allah is Islam (peace)’ and 5:3 ‘I have chosen for you Islam (peace) as religion’. This name is often found in combinations, e.g. Nur-ul-Islam ‘light of Islam’.

Korean: there are two Chinese characters for this surname, covering sixteen clans. The smaller clan is the only clan to use one of the two Chinese characters, and it has only one or two households. The remaining clans all descend from a common ancestor, Song Chu-un, who seems to have migrated from Tang China to Korea sometime during the Shilla period. Sixty percent of the Songs live in southern Korea. Korean (Song): there are two Chinese characters for the surname Song, but one of them is registered for just a single household. Only the common Song clan, the Ch’angnyong clan, is treated here. This was founded by Song In-bo just prior to the establishment of the Koryo kingdom in 918. According to legend, Song In-bo died in Seoul. His son set out to transport his father’s body back to Ch’angnyong, but, the weather being poor, he decided to stop for the night and finish the journey in the morning. When he awoke, he discovered that his father’s body was missing. Upon investigation, he found that a tiger had dragged the body to a secluded grave site in the mountains near Ch’angnyong. It was there that the son buried his father and established his home. Many of the members of the Song clan today live in the Ch’angnyong area of Kyongsang province. Chinese : from a place name, the state of Song. After the Zhou overthrew the corrupt king of the Shang dynasty, Zhou Xin, in 1122 bc, the new Zhou dynasty granted the state of Song to the overthrown king’s half-brother, Wei Ziqi. His descendants eventually adopted the place name Song as their surname. This name was that of the Song dynasty, (960–1279), and in more recent times was borne by the powerful Soong siblings: T.V. Soong, once one of the richest men in the world; Soong Ch’ing-ling, wife of Sun Yat-Sen; and Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek.

Chinese : from an area called Xie, in present-day Henan province. Xuan Wang, the penultimate king (827–781 bc) of the Western Zhou dynasty, granted this area to one of his brothers-in-law, and the latter’s descendants adopted the place name Xie as their surname. Chinese : from the name of Xie City, which existed in present-day Henan province during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc).

Chinese : from the name of a state of Han, which existed during the early part of the Western Zhou dynasty (1122–771 bc), in present-day Shaanxi province. This was the fief of a younger brother of Cheng Wang, second king of the Zhou dynasty. The state of Han was later annexed by the state of Jin, but the area was enfeoffed by the Jin ruler to Wu Zi, a descendant of Wen Wang. Wu Zi’s descendants eventually adopted the name of the fief as their surname. Korean: there are two Chinese characters for the surname Han. However, one of these characters, meaning ‘China’, is extremely rare (only two households with this surname appeared in a recent census), so only the other will be considered here. Some records indicate that there are 131 clans of the Han family, but only one—the Han family of Ch’ongju, can be documented. Some sources name Han Ran as the founding ancestor of the Han family. Han Ran is recognized as one of the men who assisted the first Koryo king, Wang Kon, in setting up the Koryo kingdom in 918. More recent scholarship, however, postulates that the Ch’ongju Han clan’s founding ancestor was U-P’yong, one of three sons of the fortieth generation descendant of Kija, the founder of the ancient Choson kingdom (died 194 bc). The other two sons, U-song and U-Kyong, founded the Ki clan and the Songan clans, respectively. French: of uncertain origin. In some cases at least it is from a Breton word meaning ‘summer’ or a topographic name from a place named with Gaulish hafod ‘summer residence’. Dutch and Czech (Hán): from a reduced form of the personal name Johann(es) (see John). Jewish: variant of Hahn.

Spanish (García) and Portuguese: from a medieval personal name of uncertain origin. It is normally found in medieval records in the Latin form Garsea, and may well be of pre-Roman origin, perhaps akin to Basque (h)artz ‘bear’.

Muslim: variant of Muhammad.

Chinese : from the name of a state that existed during the Xia (2205–1766 bc) and Shang (1766–1122 bc) dynasties. At a much later date, descendants of the state’s rulers took the state name Deng as their surname. This was the family name of Deng Xiaoping (1904–97), effectively ruler of China from 1977 to his death twenty years later.

Chinese : according to legend, this name comes from Bai Huang, the name of a prehistoric Chinese leader. At a later date, the kingdom of Bai in the area of present-day Henan province gave its name to descendants of its ruling clan. The Chinese character for this name may also mean ‘cypress’. Chinese : from the name of the Victorious Duke Bai of the kingdom of Chu, who lived during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). This Chinese character may also mean ‘white’ or ‘clear’. Korean: variant of Pae.

Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from the Arabic personal name A?hmad ‘the most praised’, elative adjective from ?hamid (see Hamid). This is an epithet of the Prophet Muhammad. In the Qur’an (6:16) Jesus foretells the arrival of A?hmad (the Prophet Muhammad) in the words: ‘I have brought good news about a messenger who will come after me, whose name will be A?hmad’.

Chinese : of uncertain origin, originating in Shaanxi province. It may be a variant of another name from the same region and pronounced the same way (see 4 below, ). Chinese : the origin of this name is closely tied up with that of Zhuang. During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), many members of the ruling class of the state of Chu adopted as their surname Zhuang, the posthumously given name of a king of Chu. The name Zhuang was kept until the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220), when, to avoid a taboo on having the same name as the ruler (then Liu Zhuang), many people changed their surname from Zhuang to Yan. Chinese : from the ‘style name’ Yan. Yi Fu, a descendant of the grantee of the fief of Zhu (see Zhu 1) during the Zhou dynasty had the ‘style name’ Yan. Descendants adopted his style name as their surname. Chinese : there are two accounts of the origin of this name: one a place named Yan Village and the other Yan Town. Both places existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : variant of Zhen. Chinese : from the name of a person called Yan An from the state of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). Chinese : variant of Yin 1. Chinese : from the name of a state of Yan that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Americanized spelling of Jan.

Indian (chiefly Panjab): term used by Hindu and Sikh women either as the final element of a compound personal name or as a last name. It cannot be regarded as a true surname or family name. It goes back to Sanskrit kumari ‘girl’, ‘daughter’, which was reduced to kuar and then changed into kaur by metathesis. Among Sikhs, female names are often derived from male names by the addition of Kaur to the male name: e.g. Mahinder Kaur, from the male name Mahinder.

Chinese : from the name of the city of Feng in the state of Wei during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). The fifteenth son of the virtuous duke Wen Wang, Bi Gonggao, was granted the state of Wei soon after the founding of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc. A descendant of Bi Gonggao, Bi Wan, was granted Feng city, and his descendants took the city name as their surname. Chinese : from the name of a territory in what is now Henan province. A descendant of the second legendary emperor, Shen Nong (2734–2697 bc), was a tutor of the third legendary emperor, Huang Di (2697–2595 bc). In honor of this service he was granted an area called Feng, and his descendants adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : from the name of a personage who lived during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). At this time, Duke Mu of the state of Zheng had a son whose name contained this character for Feng, and his descendants adopted it as their surname. Chinese : from the name of an area called Feng (location unknown). The seventeenth son of the virtuous duke Wen Wang, who lived in the twelfth century bc, was granted an area called Feng, along with the title Marquis of Feng. His descendants adopted the name of the place as their surname.

Spanish (Hernández) and Jewish (Sephardic): patronymic from the personal name Hernando (see Fernando). This surname also became established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.

Spanish (Rodríguez) and Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Rodrigo.

Chinese : there are two main branches of the Cao line. One branch comes from Cao An, a great-grandson of the emperor Zhuan Xu (26th century bc). A descendant named Cao Xie was granted the state of Zhu when the Zhou dynasty came to power in 1122 bc. When Zhu was conquered by the state of Chu, many of the Zhu aristocracy adopted a modified form of the character Zhu as their surname (see Chu), but others kept the name Cao. The origin of the other branch also involves the granting of a state at the beginning of the Zhou dynasty: in 1122 bc Zhen Duo, a son of Wen Wang, was granted the state of Cao, a name subsequently adopted by his descendants. Other Romanized forms of this name include Tso, Cho, Tsao and Chou. Vietnamese: unexplained. Portuguese (Cão) and Galician equivalent of Spanish Cano.

Spanish (López): patronymic from the medieval personal name Lope (from Latin lupus ‘wolf’). This is one of the commonest of all Spanish surnames.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic hassan ‘beautifier’. The poet Hassan bin Sabit was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslim: variant spelling of Hasan. Irish (County Derry): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÓsáin ‘descendant of Ósán’, a personal name formed from a diminutive of os ‘deer’.

Muslim: variant spelling of Husain.

Spanish (González): patronymic from the personal name Gonzalo, a personal name of Visigothic origin, based on the Germanic element gunþ ‘battle’. Compare Portuguese Gonçalves (see Goncalves).

Spanish (Martínez): patronymic from the personal name Martin.

Muslim: from the personal name Ibrahim, Arabic form of Abraham. In Islam, Ibrahim is identified as a prophet, the ancestor of all the Semitic peoples, both Hebrew and Arab, and the father of Isma?il (see Ismail) and Is?haq (see Ishak).

Chinese :from the name of the fief of Peng, which was granted to a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu, who then became known as Peng Zu. According to tradition, Peng Zu lived for over 800 years, and so came to be a symbol of long life. His descendants adopted Peng as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of the former state of Cai, in present-day Henan province. When the Zhou dynasty displaced the Shang dynasty in 1122 bc, the defeated Shang were allowed to rule in the area of their old capital of Yin, under the stewardship of Zhou appointees. However, these Zhou appointees, among them Cai Shu, the 14th son of Wen Wang and younger brother of the new king, joined forces with the Shang in revolt. After the rebellion was suppressed, Cai Shu was banished, but his son was granted the state of Cai along with the title Earl of Cai. His descendants later adopted the place name Cai as their surname. Other spellings of this name, due to dialect differences and variation in Romanization, include Tsai, Choi, Choy, and Tsoi.

Chinese : from the name of a territory that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : from the name of a fiefdom called Xiao (in present-day Anhui province) that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). A descendant of the ruler of the state of Song was granted this fiefdom and subsequently his descendants adopted the place name as their surname.

Vietnamese: unexplained. Scottish: nickname from Old Norse trani ‘crane’.

Chinese : from the place name Pan, which existed in the state of Wei during the Zhou dynasty. Bi Gonggao, fifteenth son of the virtuous duke Wen Wang, was granted a state named Wei when the Zhou dynasty came to power in 1122 bc (see Feng 1). Bi Gonggao in turn granted the area called Pan to one of his sons, whose descendants eventually adopted Pan as their surname. This name is also Romanized as Poon, Pun, and Pon. Korean: There are two Chinese characters for this surname; only one of them, however, is common enough to warrant treatment here. There are three clans which use this character: the Kisong (also called the Koje), the Kwangju, and the Namp’yong. The founding ancestors of these clans were Koryo (918–1392) figures, and it is widely believed that they were related. Spanish and southern French (Occitan): metonymic occupational name for a baker or a pantryman, from Spanish and Occitan pan ‘bread’ (Latin panis). English and Dutch: metonymic occupational name for someone who cast pans, from Middle English, Middle Dutch panne ‘pan’. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): from Polish, Ukrainian, Yiddish pan ‘lord’, ‘master’, ‘landowner’, hence a nickname for a haughty person. Perhaps also an Americanized spelling or translation of German Pfann (North German Pann).

Chinese : variant of Zheng. Chinese : from the name of the area of Cheng during the Shang dynasty (1766–1122 bc). A high adviser who was a descendant of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu was granted the fiefdom of this area, and his descendants adopted its name as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the state of Cheng during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). The fifth son of Wen Wang was granted lordship of the state of Cheng following the fall of the Shang dynasty and the establishment of the Zhou dynasty. Subsequently, his descendants adopted the place name as their surname.

Chinese : from the secondary name, or ‘style name’, of a certain prince Bo Yuan, who lived during the Warring States period (722–481 bc). A grandson of his adopted the Yuan portion of this as his surname. Chinese : origin unknown. Chinese : origin unknown. Chinese : the earliest record of this name is of an adviser called Yuan Xi in the 12th century bc, during the later stage of the Shang dynasty. Another source of the name is an adviser who lived in the state of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), who was granted an area named Yuan; his descendants adopted the place name Yuan as their surname.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ra?hman ‘most gracious’, usually forming part of a compound name such as ?Abd ur-Ra?hman ‘servant of the Most Gracious’. ur-Ra?hman (al-Rahman) ‘the Most Gracious’ is an attribute of Allah. ?Abd ur-Ra?hman ibn ?Awf was one of the Companions to whom the Prophet Muhammad gave the good news of entering into paradise. This name is widespread throughout the Muslim world. German (Rahmann): variant of Rademann, topographic name from Low German Rade ‘area cleared of forest’, or a habitational name for someone from any of the places named Rade, from this word. Alternatively, it may be a habitational name for someone from Rahm (see Rahm 1).

Indian (northern states): Hindu (usually Ahir) name, from Sanskrit yadava ‘of Yadu’, ‘descendant of Yadu’. Yadu was a legendary Hindu king, believed to be an ancestor of the god Krishna, who for this reason is sometimes referred to as Yadava. Since Krishna is said to have been brought up among Ahirs, who were herdsmen, the surname Yadav is popular among them. In Maharashtra, this name is found among the Marathas.

Chinese : from the place name Su. A descendant of the emperor Zhuan Xu, who lived in the 26th century bc, was granted a fiefdom called Su, and his descendants eventually adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : from part of an official title, Zhisu Duwei, of the Western Han dynasty (206 bc–24 ad). This title was borne by the official in charge of granaries, an important role as granaries could be strategic military targets. A descendant of one such official adopted the character Su from the title as his surname. Chinese : from the name of an ancient kingdom called Su, which existed during the reign of the first of the three legendary emperors, Fu Xi (2852–2734 bc). Vietnamese: unexplained.

Spanish (Pérez) and Jewish (Sephardic): patronymic from the personal name Pedro, Spanish equivalent of Peter. Jewish: variant of Peretz.

Vietnamese (Lê): a royal or aristocratic name, the family name of the Lê Dynasty.

Chinese : from the name of a place called Fan, which existed during the Zhou dynasty. The Western Zhou dynasty’s penultimate king, Xuan Wang (827–781 bc), executed a direct descendant of the model emperor Yao. The latter’s son fled to the state of Jin, where he became a distinguished general and was granted the area called Fan. His descendants adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : from a different place of the same period, also written in English as Fan. Zhong Shanfu, a senior adviser to Xuan Wang (827–781 BC), the penultimate king of the Western Zhou dynasty, is considered to have been a major factor in the exceptional success of this king during a period of generally declining authority for the Zhou kings. He was successful in conquering and pacifying tribes to the north, south, and west, and for this service he was granted the area of Fan. His descendants took the place name Fan as their surname.

Chinese : from a character that also means ‘to supervise’ or ‘to manage’. The story goes that in the 23rd century bc, an adviser to the emperor Shun was given this surname due to his ability to supervise and train dragons. Additionally, at one time during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), Dong was part of the title of official historians. The descendants of a historian of the state of Jin adopted the character for Dong from their ancestor’s title and used it as a surname. Vietnamese ({D-}ông and {D-}ô`ng): unexplained.

Chinese : from the name of the area of Ye, in present-day Henan province. During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), a senior military adviser of the state of Chu was killed in battle; his son was granted the area of Ye, with the title Duke of Ye. The Duke of Ye was successful in battle, and his descendants adopted the place name Ye as their surname. Korean: variant of Yi.

Indian (northern and southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit rama ‘pleasing’, ‘charming’, name of an incarnation of Vishnu. In the northern states, it probably evolved into a family name from use as the final element of a compound personal names such as Atmaram (with Sanskrit atma ‘soul’) or Sitaram (with Sita, the name of Rama’s wife). In South India it is used only as a male given name, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S. among people from South India. Among Tamil and Malayalam speakers who have migrated from their home states, it is a variant of Raman. Dutch and English: from Middle Low German ram, Middle English ram ‘ram’, either in the sense ‘male sheep’ or in the sense ‘battering ram’ or ‘pile driver’. Swedish: ornamental name from a place name element, either from Old Norse hrafn ‘raven’ (Swedish ramm) or from dialect ramm ‘water meadow’. Jewish (Israeli): ornamental name from Hebrew ram ‘lofty’. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): acronymic name of uncertain etymology. Southern French: topographic name meaning ‘branch’ and denoting someone who lived in a leafy wooded area.

Chinese : from a region called Tian, which existed during the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc). A ruler of this region changed his surname to the name of the region. Vietnamese: variant of Tien.

Chinese : according to ancient texts, this name originated in the time of the Shang dynasty king Wu Ding (1324–1266 bc). Wu Ding dreamed about a man looking like a prisoner, and was told by a god that this was the wise man that he had been seeking. Wu Ding immediately commissioned a portrait of the mysterious man and searched everywhere for him. Finally, a man who looked exactly like the man in the dream was found performing hard labor building walls in Fu Cliffs (in present-day Shanxi province, by the Great Wall). Wu Ding rescued the man, whose name was Yue, and gave him the name Fu Yue. Fu Yue was made prime minister and, as expected, went on to become a great administrator. His descendants adopted Fu as their surname. Chinese : from a character meaning ‘symbol’, ‘tally’, or ‘magic figure’. This was one of the characters in a title meaning ‘keeper of the royal seals’. During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), a grandson of a duke of the state of Lu held a post as the keeper of royal seals. His descendants adopted a character from the job title as their surname. Chinese : name borne by descendants of Fu Chen, a senior minister during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc), and of Fu Fu, a member of the royal family of the state of Lu dring the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc).

Muslim: variant of Husain.

Spanish (Sánchez): patronymic from the personal name Sancho.

Chinese : from the name of a state that existed during the Zhou dynasty (in present-day Shaanxi province). When the second king of the Zhou dynasty, Cheng Wang (1115–1079 bc), defeated the state of Tang in present-day Shaanxi province, he changed its name to Du and granted it to a descendant of the model emperor Yao. Descendants of the new ruler subsequently adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : from the names of two princes of ancient territories, one from the state of Qi, and the other from the state of Zhen. Vietnamese (D{us}): unexplained.

Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from Portuguese pereira ‘pear tree’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word in Portugal and Galicia. The surname is also common in western India, having been taken there by Portuguese colonists.

Chinese : from the name of an ancient place (Yao Ruins), in present-day Henan province. According to legend, the model emperor Shun (2257–2205 bc) was conceived and born here, after his mother was so greatly moved by the beauty of a rainbow that she became pregnant. Some of Shun’s descendants later adopted the place name Yao as their surname.

Chinese : from the place name Zhongli. During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), some members of the state of Song adopted Zhongli as their surname, as they considered it to be the place which their ancestors came from. Some descendants later shortened the name to Zhong, while others kept Zhongli. Chinese : the origin of this name has been attributed to three different people. One is Zhong Kan, a scholar under the legendary emperor Ku, who lived 4500 years ago. Another is Zhong Sun, who lived in the state of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). A third is Zhong Ji, who lived during the Song dynasty (960–1279 ad).

Chinese : from the honorary surname, Jin Tianshi of Shao Hao, a son of the legendary emperor Huang Di of the 26th century bc. The character for jin also means ‘gold’ or ‘metal’. Some later descendants of Shao Hao adopted Jin as their surname. Chinese : from the name of Jin Shang, a chief official in the state of Chu during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Some of his descendants adopted this surname. Chinese : from the name of the Jin river. Wu Wang, the first king of the Zhou dynasty (1122–16 bc), granted the state of Tang to his third son. Since the Jin river flowed through it, the name of the state was later changed to Jin. Descendants of the third son adopted the new name of the state name as their surname. Korean: variant of Chin 4. Japanese: ‘ranks’ or ‘battle array’. The name is not common in Japan.

Korean: there is only one Chinese character for this surname, which is the third most common in Korea, and can be found in every part of the peninsula. The Pak clans claim no founding ancestors from foreign lands. Although some sources indicate that there are 270 Pak clans, only 44 of these can be documented. All Pak clans spring from one common semi-mythological ancestor named Pak Hyokkose. Before the establishment of the Shilla Kingdom, the southern tip of the peninsula is said to have been ruled by six elders who led the six tribes which inhabited that part of the country. In answer to their prayer for a leader, Pak Hyokkose arrived at the foot of a distant mountain in 69 bc inside a golden gourd-shaped egg. When the egg was opened, Pak Hyokkose emerged and, after taking a wife (who was born on the back of a dragon), established and ruled the new Shilla kingdom. Supposedly, the surname Pak denoted either the gourd-shaped egg in which the youth was found or the light which is said to have radiated from the boy’s head (the word pak in Korean can mean ‘gourd’ or ‘to shine brightly’). Dutch: probably an occupational name for a rider or driver of pack animals (see Packman).

Chinese : there are several sources of this surname; one of them is a certain Duke Ding who lived during the reign of Wu Wang, who established the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc.

Muslim: variant of Muhammad. This is the traditional English-language spelling. It is also common as a name adopted by Black Americans on conversion to Islam.

Indian (northern states): Hindu name found in several communities, meaning ‘darling’, from Sanskrit lala ‘cajoling’ (related to Sanskrit lalana ‘caressing’). In several modern Indian languages lal is a term of endearment for a child; it is also an epithet of the god Krishna. There is also a homonymous word lal in Hindi, from Persian meaning ‘ruby’, ‘red’, which may have increased the popularity of this name. It occurs more commonly as the final element of a compound personal name, as in Brajlal (Braj being the name of the place where the god Krishna is supposed to have lived as a child) and Motilal (Hindi moti ‘pearl’).

Chinese : from the name of Yin City, in present-day Shanxi province, or from a status name of a government official. A grandson of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) was granted Yin City and in due course his descendants adopted the name of the city as their surname. Additionally, throughout the Shang (1766–1122 bc) and Zhou (1122–221 bc) dynasties, there existed a high government position called Yin. Many descendants of Yin officials adopted the status name Yin as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the Yin dynasty and the city from which it takes its name. Midway through the Shang dynasty (1766–1122 bc), the Shang moved their capital to the city of Yin, in present-day Henan province. Some scholars divide the Shang dynasty into two parts, calling the first half the Shang dynasty, and the second half the Yin dynasty. After the Zhou conquered the Shang, many descendants of the vanquished Yin adopted the city name as their surname. Cambodian: unexplained.

Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the many places called Silva, or a topographic name from silva ‘thicket’, ‘bramble’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic mu?hammad ‘praiseworthy’ (derived from the verb ?hamida ‘praise’). This is the name of the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (570–632). He began to receive spiritual revelations at the age of 40. The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, was revealed to him by the Angel Jibril (Gabriel). As a personal name, this name is extremely common throughout the Muslim world.

English: unexplained. Perhaps a variant of Wren. Dutch (de Ren): origin unexplained. Variant spelling of German Renn. Swedish: soldier’s name, from ren ‘reindeer’. Chinese : from the name of Rencheng ‘Ren City’, which was granted to Yu Yang, the 25th son of the Emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc). Some of his descendants later adopted the place name as their surname.

Galician and Portuguese: common topographic name for someone who lived by a forge or iron workings, from Latin ferraria ‘forge’, ‘iron working’.

Chinese : from a person named Liao Shu’an in ancient China, about whom nothing more is known.

Indian (northern states): Hindu name found in several communities, from Sanskrit ma?n?dala, which has several meanings, including ‘sphere’ and ‘halo’.

Chinese : from the place name Cui, in present-day Shandong province. In the 11th century bc, the eldest son of Ding, Duke of Qi (see Ting) abdicated his right of succession and moved to the area of Cui in present-day Shandong province. His descendants eventually adopted the place name Cui as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of Ji Fang Shu, a senior adviser to the penultimate king of the Western Zhou dynasty, Xuan Wang (827–781 bc). He is known for the expeditions he undertook to calm southern tribes. His descendants adopted part of his name, Fang, as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the ancient state of Fang (in present-day Henan province). The model emperor Yao (2357–2257 bc) was admired by Confucius for his virtuous leadership and his selection of his successor, Shun, on grounds of merit rather than heredity. (Yao passed over his own son, Dan Zhu, who did not display governing ability, and chose Shun.) When Shun ascended the throne, he granted the state of Fang to Dan Zhu’s son. His descendants eventually adopted the name of the state Fang as their surname. German: from Middle High German vanc ‘catch’, ‘enclosure’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosed plot of land, a hunting ground, a place where traps were set (for game or fish), or a pit; or a byname, meaning ‘the catch’, for a foreigner who had been forced into bondage.

Portuguese: the usual Portuguese form of Alvares.

Muslim: from the Persian royal title Shah ‘king’, ‘emperor’. This was the title adopted by the kings of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–79). Shah is found in combination with other words, e.g. Shah Jahan (name of a Mughal emperor, ruled 1628–57) and Shah ?Alam ‘king of the world’ (name of a Mughal emperor, ruled 1707–12). This name is widespread in Iran and the subcontinent. Indian (Gujarat, Rajasthan): Hindu (Bania, Vania) and Jain name, from Gujarati sah ‘merchant’ (from Sanskrit sadhu ‘honest’, ‘good’). This name was originally Sah; it appears to have been altered under the influence of the Persian word for ‘king’ (see 1).

English (of Norman origin): nickname denoting someone who behaved in a regal fashion or who had earned the title in some contest of skill or by presiding over festivities, from Old French rey, roy ‘king’. Occasionally this was used as a personal name. English: nickname for a timid person, from Middle English ray ‘female roe deer’ or northern Middle English ray ‘roebuck’. English: variant of Rye (1 and 2). English: habitational name, a variant spelling of Wray. Scottish: reduced and altered form of McRae. French: from a noun derivative of Old French raier ‘to gush, stream, or pour’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a spring or rushing stream, or a habitational name from a place called Ray. Indian: variant of Rai.

Chinese : from a place called Yingqiu in the state of Qi, home of the ruling family of Qi during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Descendants of this family adopted part of the placename as their surname, a situation that persisted until the reign of the Qing dynasty emperor Yongzheng (ad 1723–35), whose personal name contained the character for Qiu. He enforced a traditional prohibition upon others bearing the same name as the emperor. To comply, those with the surname Qiu, , changed their name by adding an element to the character for Qiu which resulted in another character, , with the identical pronunciation. This modified form of the surname Qiu is the one most commonly encountered today. Chinese : there are two sources of this name. One is an area named Yingqiu, located in present-day Shandong province. This area was granted to a duke of the state of Qi, whose descendants adopted part of the place name as their surname. Another source is a man called Qiudun Shi, who was a member of the Hu minority during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–581 ad). Chinese : from a character in the personal name of Qiu Mu, a senior adviser to Duke Min Gong of the state of Song during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). After Duke Min Gong was killed by Wan of Song, Qiu Mu sent a punitive expedition against Wan of Song, which was, however, repulsed, with the result that Qiu Mu was killed as well. Coincidentally or not, the character for this name means ‘revenge’, and it was this character that was adopted by some of Qiu Mu’s descendants as a surname. Chinese : two sources are found for this name. One is a place called Qiu in the state of Wei during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). The other source is a family who originally used the character mentioned in 3 above, . To avoid trouble, the family switched to a different character, , which is also pronounced Qiu.

Chinese : during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), there were two sources of the name Meng. A son of a prince in the state of Lu was called Meng Sun, while a duke of the state of Wei had a ‘style name’ of Meng Zhi. Descendants of both adopted the Meng portion of their names as their surname. This was the family name of Meng Zi, known to the West as Mencius, the Confucian philosopher. Chinese : two sources of this surname are a General Men of the Qin Dynasty (221–206 bc) and a place named Mengshuang in Hebei province. Additionally, the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368 ad) was under the rule of Mongolia, known in Chinese as Menggu. Menggu became a surname, which in later times was generally shortened to Meng. German: from a form of the personal name Magnus. German: variant of Menger. Danish: habitational name from a place so named. Danish: variant of Mang.

Spanish (Ramírez): patronymic from the personal name Ramiro, composed of the Germanic elements ragin ‘counsel’ + mari, meri ‘fame’.

Chinese : from the name of Kang Shu, the eighth son of Wen Wang, who was granted the state of Wei (see Wei 3) soon after the founding of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc. Many of his descendants later adopted Kang as their surname. Another source of the name comes from the Kang Ju tribe, who moved into China from central Asia during the Han dynasty (206 bc–220 ad), and adopted their tribal name, Kang, as their surname. Chinese : variant of Geng 2. Korean: there are five Chinese characters for the surname Kang. Some records indicate that there are as many as one hundred separate Kang clans, but only four have actually been documented. There is one Chinese character for each clan. The fifth character is an alternate character for the smallest of the Kang clans, and is the result of a scribal error which was introduced in 1908. That segment of the smaller Kang clan which was labeled with the alternate character still uses it and recognizes it as the character for their surname. The largest clan, the Kang family of Chinju, first appears in the historical record in ad 597. Many members of the largest Kang clan still live in the area of Chinju of Kyongsang Province. The second Kang clan is centered on Cheju Island. The two smaller Kang clans have only a few households in all of Korea.

Indian (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka): Hindu and Parsi name which goes back to an official title meaning ‘village headman’, p??tel in Gujarati, Marathi, and Kannada (where it is pa?tela). It comes ultimately from Sanskrit pa?t?takila ‘tenant of royal land’. Among the Indians in the U.S, it is the most common family name.

Chinese : there are two sources for this character for Wen, which also means ‘warm’. One is a territory named Wen, and the other an area named Wenyi. Descendants of rulers of these areas adopted Wen as their surname. Chinese : from a character that also means ‘literature’. Its origin, however, is from the given name of an ancient personage called Wen. Chinese : from a character that also means ‘hear’. During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), in the state of Lu there existed a man who has a supplementary name, Wenren. His descendants adopted the first character of his name, Wen, as their surname. English: unexplained.

Chinese : from the place name Gu. Records of the this surname go back to the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc), when there existed a state called Gu. Much later, during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), there existed another state of Gu. Eventually, some descendants of the ruling class of both these areas adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : from a word meaning ‘valley’. During the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) there existed in the state of Qin a certain Viscount Fei Zi, a descendant of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu of the 26th century bc. Viscount Fei Zi was granted the area Qin Valley, and his descendants later adopted the word gu ‘valley’, as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the grandfather of the virtuous duke Wen Wang (1231–1135 bc), known as Gu Gong Tan Fu. The character for Gu, which also means ‘ancient’, was adopted by some of his descendants as a surname.

Spanish (Gómez): from a medieval personal name, probably of Visigothic origin, from guma ‘man’. Compare Gomes.

Vietnamese (Ph?am): unexplained.

Chinese : from the place name Jia. The third king of the Zhou dynasty, Kang (1078–1053 bc), made a grant of the fief of Jia. When the state of Jin later conquered Jia, the former ruling class adopted the place name Jia as their surname.

Chinese : from a name of the model emperor Yu (2205–2198 bc), who was also known as Xia Yu. His descendants adopted the first character of his name as a surname. Xia Yu was a gifted man, chosen by the previous emperor on the basis of merit. His son changed this type of merit-based succession, however, establishing the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc), the first dynasty in which the throne was passed on by heredity. The existence of the Xia dynasty has not been confirmed by archaeological evidence, but Chinese historians all accept its existence as fact.

Chinese : from a word meaning ‘water’ or ‘flood’. During the time of the emperors Yao and Shun in the 23rd century bc, there was a clan known as the Gonggongshi. They took the name Gong as a surname, but in order to escape their enemies, needed to change the character for their surname; by the addition of a component meaning ‘water’, the name was changed to Hong. Another legend provides a more colorful account: the Gonggongshi were a warrior people, and were able to bring about a flood. However, the emperor Yu succeeded in establishing flood control, and he banished the Gonggongshi. Descendants, in order to commemorate the ability of their ancestors to cause floods, changed their name from Gong to the word for ‘flood’, Hong. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Kang 1. Chinese : variant of Xiang 2. Chinese : variant of Hang 1. Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the Hong surname in Korea. Some sources indicate that there are 59 different Hong clans, but only four can be documented. Each of the four clans claim different founding ancestors. The oldest Hong clan’s founding ancestor, Hong Ch’on-ha, migrated to Koguryo, Korea, sometime in the first half of the seventh century. The Hong surname is a fairly common one and is found throughout the Korean peninsula.

Muslim: from Arabic ?abdul, ?abd al ‘servant of the …’. Abdul is normally a component of a compound name referring to one of the attributes of Allah mentioned in the Qur’an or the Hadith, for example ?Abdul?Aziz ‘servant of the Powerful’, ?Abdul-?Hakim ‘servant of the Wise’, ?Abdul-Qadir ‘servant of the Capable’.

Portuguese: patronymic from the Germanic personal name Rodrigo. The surname is also common in the cities of the west coast of India, having been taken there by Portuguese colonists. Variant spelling of Spanish Rodriguez.

English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smitan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

from a personal name, byname, or nickname, dos Santos (from Spanish Todos los Santos ‘All Saints’, Portuguese Todos os santos), typically bestowed on a child born on All Saints’ Day. in many cases, a habitational name from any of the places named Santos, from the dedication of a local church or shrine to all the saints. This is a very common Portuguese surname.

Spanish (Díaz): patronymic from the medieval personal name Didacus (see Diego).

Chinese : from a Chinese word denoting a feudal rank, often translated into English as ‘marquis’. One known source of the surname is Marquis Hou Min of the state of Jin in the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc).

Muslim: from the Arabic personal name ?Hasan ‘good’, ‘handsome’. Hasan (c.625–669) and his brother Husain were sons of the khalif ?Ali ibn Abi ?Talib (see Ali) and, through their mother Fatima, grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad. Shiite Muslims regard Hasan and his brother Husain as the true successors of Muhammad. The name is popular among Sunni Muslims as well as Shiites. Jewish: variant of Hazan.

Chinese : this name has at least two origins. The first is from one of the names of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), also known as You Xiong; some of his descendants adapted this name as their surname. A second origin traces it to the end of the Shang dynasty in the 12th century bc: at this time there lived in the state of Chu a wise scholar and author, Yu Xiong, who served as teacher to the duke of Zhou, Wen Wang, famous for his virtue. Some of Yu Xiong’s descendants adopted their illustrious forebear’s given name as their surname. Laotian and Hmong: unexplained.

Chinese : from the name of the ancient city of Zoutu. The legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) used this city as a military base. Both characters forming its name, Zou and Tu (see Tu), were adopted as surnames.

from a personal name based on Arabic ?alam ‘emblem’, ‘banner’, hence an epithet for a distinguished man. ?Alam-al-Huda (‘banner of guidance’) is an honorific title of the Prophet Muhammad. Alam is generally found in names in combination with other words. from a personal name based on Arabic ?alam, literally ‘world’. ?Alamgir (in combination with the Persian word gir ‘conqueror’) was a title of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (1618–1707), who ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1658 to 1707. This name is found in a variety of compounds, which are popular in the subcontinent, for example Badrul-?Alam ‘full moon of the world’.

Indian (northern and southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit prasada ‘favor’, ‘grace’, ‘offering’. In the northern states, it probably evolved into a family name from use as the final element in a compound personal name such as Deviprasad, meaning ‘gift of the god Hari’, Jagannathprasad ‘gift from the lord of the world (i.e. Shiva)’. In South India it is used only as a male given name, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S. among people from South India.

Chinese : from the name of Qin Valley, in present-day Gansu province. Gao Yao, a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu, was a famous minister under the model emperors Yao and Shun in the 23rd century bc; he is said to have been the first to introduce laws for the repression of crime. 1300 years later a descendant of his was rewarded for his talents in animal husbandry by being granted the lordship of Qin Valley as a vassal state. Later descendants adopted the place name Qin as their surname. Chinese : there are two branches of bearers of this character for the surname: one pronounced Qin, and the other Tan (see Tan), although both are represented with the same character.

Korean (Ch’oe): there is only one Chinese character for the surname Ch’oe. Of the 326 Ch’oe clans listed in some sources, only 43 distinct clans can be documented. Ch’oe is the fourth most common surname in Korea. The common Romanization Choi represents a French transliteration of the surname, which is actually pronounced more like Ch’wae. The first Ch’oe, Sob{ou}ldori, was one of the six elders of pre-Shilla Korea; he received his surname from the Shilla King Yuri Isag{uu}m in ad 32.

Chinese : from the title Marquis of Ji, which was awarded to a descendant of an ancient emperor. In due course his descendants adopted Ji as their surname. This character also means ‘write down’ or ‘record’. Chinese : from a term meaning ‘youngest brother’, which was also used as a personal name. The descendants of some of these youngest brothers adopted Ji as their surname. Chinese : there are two sources of this character as a surname. The first is from Bo Shu, a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc). He was given an honorary surname, Ji, which was adopted by his descendants and later slightly altered to another character for Ji (a prescient decision, as the older character now means ‘prostitute’ in modern Chinese, while the altered form means ‘auspicious’). The second source is from Manchuria. Chinese : from the state of Ji during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : from a byname of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), who supposedly acquired the name from the Ji river, by which he lived as a boy. A branch of his descendants kept the surname, and it was from this branch that the rulers of the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) claimed descent. Chinese : from one of the characters in the word dianji ‘library’, ‘collection of classical books and historical records’. In the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), there existed an official in charge of classical books and historical records. Descendants of at least one such official adopted this character as their surname. Chinese : from part of the name of an area called Huiji. A king of the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc) granted this area to his son, and its name was subsequently adopted by the son’s descendants as their surname. At the beginning of the Han dynasty (206 bc–220 AD) a branch of this clan move to an area in present-day Anhui province called Ji Mountain. The characters for Ji in the names Huiji and ‘Ji mountain’ are very similar and are pronounced the same; this branch of the family modified the surname to correspond to the name of their new home in Ji mountain.

Muslim: from Arabic ud-din (al-din), meaning ‘(of) the religion’, usually a suffix attached to another word forming a compound Arabic personal name such as ?Salla?h ud-Din (see Saladin).

Muslim: from the Arabic personal name Musa (the Biblical Moses). The Qur’an says (19:51): ‘He was specially chosen, and he was a Messenger and a Prophet.’ Southern Italian: habitational name from a place called Musa, particularly the one in Melito di Porto Salvo in Reggio Calabria, and the one in Nissorìa in Enna province, Sicily.

Chinese : the origin of this surname dates back to the time of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc). An adviser held the surname Gonggong, comprised of two different characters that are pronounced Gong in modern Chinese. The first of these characters served as the basis for two later surnames: some descendants combined the symbol for ‘water’ with that for Gong, creating the surname Hong (see Hong 1); others added the character for ‘dragon’, creating the surname Gong. Chinese : from a character meaning ‘palace’, part of the title of an official in charge of guarding the palace. During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), descendants of such an official adopted Gong as their surname. Chinese : from the name of the state of Gong-Bo, located in Henan province during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : of uncertain origin; this character came into use as a surname during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) in the state of Lu in present-day Shandong province. Chinese : from a character meaning ‘bow’. This name originated with Hui, a grandson of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc). Hui invented bows and arrows, an accomplishment that inspired two surnames: Gong, the character for ‘bow’, and Zhang (see Zhang), which is composed of the characters for ‘bow’ + ‘long’.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Kayasth) occupational name, from Sanskrit gho?sa ‘cowherd’.

Chinese : variant of Zhang 1. Chinese : The emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) had two advisers whose names contained this character; descendants of both of them are believed to have adopted Chang as their surname. Additionally, in the state of Wei during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) there existed a fief named Chang, the name of which was adopted by descendants of its ruling class. The Chinese character also has the meanings ‘often’ and ‘ordinary’. Chinese : variant of Zhang 2. Chinese : a rare name whose Chinese character also means ‘prosperous, flourishing’. This name is said to have originated 4500 years ago with Chang Yi, son of the legendary emperor Huang Di and father of emperor Zhuan Xu. Korean: there are 33 Chang clans in Korea, all but three of which use the same Chinese character for their surname. All of the Korean Chang clans had their origins in China, and, apart from the T{ou}ksu Chang clan and the Ch{ou}lgang Chang clan, they all originated from a single founding ancestor, Chang Ch{ou}n-p’il. He was born in China in 888 ad and fled to Korea with his father during a tumultuous period of Chinese history. The T{ou}ksu Chang clan’s founding ancestor, Chang Sul-long, stayed in Korea, having escorted Kory{ou} King Ch’ungy{ou}l’s queen-to-be from China to Korea in 1275. Most of the founding ancestors of the other Chang clans arrived in Korea from Y{uu}an China during the Kory{ou} period (ad 918–1392) or during the early Chos{ou}n period.

Spanish: from the plural of flor ‘flower’.

African: unexplained.

Portuguese: from the medieval personal name Gomes, probably Visigothic in origin, from guma ‘man’. This name is also common on the west coast of India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Chinese : from the area of Xue, in present-day Shandong province. During the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc) an official with the title ‘chief of carts’ was granted this area. Much later, in the state of Qi during the Warring States period (403–221 bc) the same area was granted to a prince. Descendants of both these men adopted the place name Xue as their surname.

Chinese : said to be from a modified form of the name of Lei Zu, principal wife of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) and the first woman to be designated empress. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Li 1. Dutch: nickname for a lazy person, from Middle Dutch lei ‘lazy’.

Indian: variant of Patel, found in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Galician, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places named Torres, all named with the plural of torre ‘tower’ (see Torre). Italian: habitational name from Torres in Belluno or Porto Torres in Sassari. In southern Italy the surname is sometimes a borrowing from Spanish (see 1). Dutch: from a short form of Victoris, from the Latin personal name Victorius.

Chinese : a surname that originated during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) from the name of the state of Qi, an area located in parts of present-day Shandong and Hebei provinces. Chinese : there are two sources of this name: the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) gave one of his sons the name Qi, and there existed in the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) a fief named Qi. Chinese : in the state of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) Sun Linfu, a high counselor, was granted the lordship of Qi. Sun Linfu became embroiled in power struggles within the state of Wei, however, and was defeated. His descendants fled to the state of Jin, where they adopted the name of their previous fiefdom, Qi, as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of a state called Lai (in present-day Henan province), which existed during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). Descendants of the ruling class of this state adopted its name as their surname. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Li 2. Vietnamese: unexplained. Polish: dialect variant of the personal name Lew ‘lion’ (see Lew 2).

Spanish and Portuguese: from a common and widespread religious Christian personal name from cruz ‘cross’ (Latin crux), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named Cruz or La Cruz, from this word.

English and French: nickname for a tall person, from Old English lang, long, Old French long ‘long’, ‘tall’ (equivalent to Latin longus). Irish (Ulster (Armagh) and Munster): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Longáin (see Langan). Chinese : from the name of an official treasurer called Long, who lived during the reign of the model emperor Shun (2257–2205 bc). his descendants adopted this name as their surname. Additionally, a branch of the Liu clan (see Lau 1), descendants of Liu Lei, who supposedly had the ability to handle dragons, was granted the name Yu-Long (meaning roughly ‘resistor of dragons’) by the Xia emperor Kong Jia (1879–1849 bc). Some descendants later simplified Yu-Long to Long and adopted it as their surname. Chinese : there are two sources for this name. One was a place in the state of Lu in Shandong province during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). The other source is the Xiongnu nationality, a non-Han Chinese people. Chinese : variant of Lang. Cambodian: unexplained.

Portugese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the towns called Ramos, in Portugal and Spain. Portuguese and Spanish: from the plural of ramo ‘branch’ (Latin ramus), a topographic name for someone who lived in a thickly wooded area.

Muslim: variant spelling of Husain.

Spanish (Fernández): patronymic from the personal name Fernando. The surname (and to a lesser extent the variant Hernandez) has also been established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.

Chinese : from the name of the youngest son of Duke Wu Gong of the state of Zheng during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). He was brought up by a doting mother and became an arrogant and domineering man. Upon being granted a fief, he raised an army with the goal of overthrowing his elder brother, Duke Zhuang Gong. Hearing of this, the latter remarked, ‘excessive unrighteous behavior must die of itself’, and as he expected, his younger brother failed. Nevertheless some of his descendants adopted Duan as their surname. Another source of the name is from Duan-gan Mu of the state of Wei during the Warring States period (403–221 BC). His descendants simplified Duan-gan to Duan and adopted that as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of the ancient country known in China as AnXi, located in present-day Uzbekistan. Traditional accounts record that the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) had a grandson named An (the character for ‘peace’) who moved to the far west to establish AnXi, losing contact with the Middle Kingdom. When the people of AnXi decided to return to China during the Han dynasty (206 bc–220 ad), they adopted their tribal name, An, as their surname. Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the An surname; it means ‘peace’. Some sources indicate that there are 109 An clans, but only six can be documented. All had one common founding ancestor, named Yi W{ou}n, who migrated from China to Shilla Korea in ad 807. Yi’s three sons played a major role in resisting Japanese aggression during the reign of the Shilla King Ky{ou}ngmun (861–875) and received the surname as a reward from the king. It is now quite a common Korean surname and can be found throughout the peninsula.

Muslim: variant of Sheikh.

Chinese : there are two accounts of the origin of this surname, which is represented by a character that also means ‘to’. The first account derives the name from Xiang Ji, a senior adviser to Wu Wang, the first king (1122–1116 bc) of the Zhou dynasty. The second account traces it to Xiang Fu, a son of a duke of the State of Song during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). Chinese : from the name of an ancient state of Xiang. Following the defeat of this state, its residents adopted its name as their surname. Chinese : from the name of Xiang, the fifth king of the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc).

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Kayasth) name, from Sanskrit pala ‘protector’, ‘keeper’, ‘guard’, ‘herdsman’ (compare gopala ‘cowherd’), an epithet of the god Krishna and a common personal name. A Pala dynasty that was founded by one Gopala in the 8th century ruled in Bengal and Bihar until the 12th century. Hungarian (Pál): from the personal name Pál, Hungarian form of Paul. This name is also found, spelled Pal, in Slovenia (Prekmurje) and northern and eastern Croatia.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of moral ‘mulberry tree’.

Chinese : from a place name, Wan City, that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) in Shaanxi province. Descendants of a marquise who was granted the territory adopted the city name as their surname. Chinese : variant of Wen 1. Chinese : variant of Yin 1. Dutch: occupational name for a maker or seller of winnowing fans, from Latin vannus. Scottish: variant of Wann.

English and Scottish: patronymic from the personal name John. As an American family name, Johnson has absorbed patronymics and many other derivatives of this name in continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

plural variant of Rey. Castilianized form of the Galician habitational name Reis.

Indian (northern states): Hindu (Bania) and Jain name, from Sanskrit gupta ‘secret’, ‘protected’. This is a well-known name of ancient India; the two greatest empires of ancient northern India were both founded by persons named Chandragupta (see also Chandra). The founder of the Maurya empire in the 4th century bc was Chandragupta Maurya. In the 4th century ad, the Gupta empire was founded by another Chandragupta, and a long line of Gupta kings ruled India for about 200 years.

Spanish (Jiménez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Jimeno, which is of pre-Roman origin.

Chinese : from the name of an area called Mao, in present-day Henan province, during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc. Bo Dan, the ninth son of Wen Wang, was granted this following the establishment of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc). In due course his descendants adopted the place name Mao as their surname. This character also means ‘hair’ or ‘feather’. This was the family name of Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the Chinese Communist Party chairman. Chinese : another son of Wen Wang—the third, Mao Shu—was granted a different state, whose name is also pronounced Mao. Descendants adopted the name of this state as their surname. This character also means ‘thatched’ or ‘type of grass used in thatching’. Cambodian: unexplained.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Kayasth) name, from Sanskrit višvasa ‘trust’.

Korean: There are two Chinese characters for the surname Kong. One of these is borne by only one clan, the other by two clans. One of the Kong clans claims Confucius as its ancestor, the 53rd ancestor of Confucius having migrated from his home in China to Koryo and settled in Ch’angwon, where his grave can still be seen today. The other two Kong clans, the Kimhae Kong and the Munch’on Kong clans both sprang from descendants of a famous T’ang Chinese scholar, Kong Yun-po. A man named Kong Myong-nye founded the Kimhae Kong clan when he was exiled to Kimhae during the reign of Choson King Songjong in the latter half of the fifteenth century. The founder of the Munch’on Kong clan, Kong Chin-on, was banished to Munchon in Hamgyong province during the reign of Choson King Sejong during the first half of the fifteenth century. Chinese : Cheng Tang was the first king of the Shang dynasty, founded in 1766 bc. Although now known as Cheng Tang, his surname was Zi, and he had a ‘style name’ (given around age 20) of Tai Yi. Later descendants of his combined the character for Zi with the character for Yi, creating the character for Kong, and adopted the latter as their surname. The Con in ‘Confucius’ represents this surname. Chinese : variant of Jiang 1. Chinese : variant of Gong 1. Cambodian: unexplained. Danish: nickname from Danish kong ‘king’, or occupational nickname for someone in the service of the king.

Vietnamese (Hoàng): unexplained.

English (also very common in Wales): patronymic from William.

Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from the Arabic personal name ?Abbas, literally ‘stern’, ‘austere’. ?Abbas was the name of an uncle (died 652) of the Prophet Muhammad, the ancestor of the Abbasid dynasty (see Abbasi). German: Latinized form of Abt ‘abbot’.

Spanish (Gutiérrez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Gutierre, from a Visigothic personal name of uncertain form and meaning, perhaps a compound of the elements gunþi ‘battle’ + hairus ‘sword’.

Korean (Ch{ou}ng): there are three Chinese characters used to represent the Ch{ou}ng surname. The clans that use two of these characters are quite rare and are mostly found in Ch{ou}lla province; their origins are obscure. The more common of the three clans is the oldest and is widely distributed throughout the peninsula. Only the clans which use this more common character will be treated here. Some sources indicate that there are 215 separate Ch{ou}ng clans, but only 32 of them can be documented. The earliest and largest Ch{ou}ng clan began in 32 ad when Chibaekho, one of the six ruling elders of pre-Shilla Korea, received the surname of Ch{ou}ng from the Shilla King Yuri Isag{uu}m (ad 24–57). Ch{ou}ng is one of the most common Korean surnames. Chinese : variant of Zhuang. Chinese : Cantonese form of Zang 1. Chinese : variant of Zhong. Chinese : variant of Zhang 1. Chinese : variant of Zong.

Chinese : from the name of Hao village, in present-day Shanxi province. The penultimate king of the Shang dynasty, Di Yi (1191–1155 bc) granted this place to one of his sons. Descendants of this son eventually adopted Hao as their surname.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Baishya) name meaning ‘merchant’, from Sanskrit sadhu ‘honest’, ‘good’.

Chinese : from a character meaning ‘mountain pass’ or ‘guarded passage’. This formed part of the title of an official in charge of guarding strategic passes. Descendants of one such official are known to have adopted the character as their surname. Another source is Guan Longfeng, a senior official during the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc). Chinese : from the name of the short-lived state of Guan created when the Zhou dynasty was established in 1122 bc. The third son of Wen Wang, Guan Shu, was granted this state. He soon betrayed his family’s trust, however, by allying himself, along with two of his brothers, with the descendants of the Shang dynasty that the Zhou had just displaced. This rebellion was put down and Guan Shu was killed. His clan dispersed, but some descendants later adopted the name Guan as their surname. The character for this name also means ‘tube’ or ‘pipe’ and ‘manage’.

Chinese : from the name of a place called Mo City (), said to have been founded by Zhuan Xu, legendary emperor who lived in the 26th century bc. The current Chinese character for Mo replaces another, rare or obsolete character. Another source of this name was a government post called Mo’ao, which existed during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) in the state of Chu. Descendants of a holder of the post adopted the first character of the title as their surname. Chinese : variant of Wu 5. Chinese : variant of Mao 1. Chinese : variant of Wu 3. Norwegian: variant of Moe.

Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Ruy, a short formnof Rodrigo. DK, kh, RS

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Oliveira, from Portuguese and Galician oliveira ‘olive grove’ (Late Latin olivarius, a derivative of Latin oliva ‘olive’), or a topographic name from this word.

Chinese : from a word meaning ‘money’. In the early part of the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 bc) lived Peng Fu, a grandson of Peng Zu, the venerable man who represents longevity in Chinese culture. He himself was a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu. Peng Fu became the chief financial official in an area of central China, now part of Jiangsu province. Qian, the Chinese character for ‘money’, was part of his title in this role, and was adopted by his descendants as their surname.

Scottish: nickname for a person with red hair, from Gaelic ruadh ‘red’. English (of Norman origin): variant of Ray 1, cognate of 3. French: from Old French rey, roy ‘king’ (from Latin rex, genitive regis), a nickname for someone who lived in a regal fashion or who had earned the title in some contest of skill or by presiding over festivities. Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: variant of Rai.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?sali?h ‘pious’, ‘righteous’, ‘virtuous’ (see the Qur’an 26: 83). Saleh is the name of a messenger of Allah (see the Qur’an 7:75). This name is widespread throughout the Muslim world.

Muslim: from the Arabic personal name ?Abdullah ‘servant of Allah’. This was the name of the father of the Prophet Muhammad, who died before Muhammad was born. In the Qur’an (19:30), Jesus calls himself ?Abdullah: ‘He (Jesus) said: I am the servant of Allah’. The name is also borne by Christian Arabs.

Chinese : from a place named Lan-tian (meaning ‘blue field’) in Guangdong province. Polish (Lan): perhaps from the vocabulary word lan ‘plowland’, ‘soil’. Polish (Lan): alternatively, perhaps a nickname from a derivative of lania ‘hind’, ‘doe’.

Spanish: from castillo ‘castle’, ‘fortified building’ (Latin castellum), a habitational name from any of numerous places so named or named with this word.

Spanish (Álvarez): from a patronymic form of the personal name Álvaro (see Alvaro).

English, Scottish, and Irish: generally a nickname referring to the color of the hair or complexion, Middle English br(o)un, from Old English brun or Old French brun. This word is occasionally found in Old English and Old Norse as a personal name or byname. Brun- was also a Germanic name-forming element. Some instances of Old English Brun as a personal name may therefore be short forms of compound names such as Brungar, Brunwine, etc. As a Scottish and Irish name, it sometimes represents a translation of Gaelic Donn. As an American family name, it has absorbed numerous surnames from other languages with the same meaning.

English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, German, Czech, Slovak, Spanish (Martín), Italian (Venice), etc.: from a personal name (Latin Martinus, a derivative of Mars, genitive Martis, the Roman god of fertility and war, whose name may derive ultimately from a root mar ‘gleam’). This was borne by a famous 4th-century saint, Martin of Tours, and consequently became extremely popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. As a North American surname, this form has absorbed many cognates from other European forms. English: habitational name from any of several places so called, principally in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, and Worcestershire, named in Old English as ‘settlement by a lake’ (from mere or mær ‘pool’, ‘lake’ + tun ‘settlement’) or as ‘settlement by a boundary’ (from (ge)mære ‘boundary’ + tun ‘settlement’). The place name has been charged from Marton under the influence of the personal name Martin.

English and Welsh: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Jon(e) (see John). The surname is especially common in Wales and southern central England. In North America this name has absorbed various cognate and like-sounding surnames from other languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

Basque: habitational name from several places in the provinces of Arava and Biscay called Mendoza, named with Basque mendi ‘mountain’ + otz ‘cold’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish: nickname from romero ‘pilgrim’, originally ‘pilgrim to Rome’ (see Romeo).

Muslim (especially common in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh): from a personal name based on Arabic ’iqbal ‘prosperity’, ‘success’. Allama Iqbal (1873–1938) was a great poet and philosopher in India.

Chinese : from the name of a place called Quwo, which existed in the state of Jin during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). A duke’s son was granted this place as a fiefdom, and in due course his descendants adopted Qu as their surname. Chinese : from the name of one of the ‘Three Gorges’ of the Yangtze river, Qutang Gorge. The first character of the name of the gorge gave its name to residents of the area. Chinese : from a city named Qu in the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). After it was granted to a member of the royal family, descendants adopted the name of the city as their surname.

Indian (Gujarat, Bombay city, and Rajasthan): Hindu and Parsi name meaning ‘king’ in modern Indian languages. Rana does not have a Sanskrit equivalent; it is probably a back-formation from ra?ni ‘queen’ (Sanskrit rajñi, based on the analogy that nouns ending in -i and denoting females usually have masculine counterparts ending in -a). The name Rana was used as a title by some Rajput kings. As a surname, it is now found among Rajputs as well as several other communities. It is cognate with the name Rane, which occurs in Maharashtra and Goa. Spanish and Italian: from rana ‘frog’, hence a nickname, perhaps for someone with bulging eyes. Galician (Raña): habitational name from a place so called in the province of A Coruña.

Galician, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from castro ‘castle’, ‘fortress’ (Latin castrum ‘fort’, ‘Roman walled city’): in Galicia and also in northern Portugal a habitational name from any of various places named with this word; in Italy either a topographic name or a habitational name.

Muslim: from the Arabic name An?sari ‘one who traces his lineage to one of the An?sar’. An?sar is the plural of Na?sir ‘friend’, ‘supporter’, a term traditionally used to denote the people of Medina who helped the Prophet Muhammad after the Hegira in 622 ad. Thabit ibn Qais al An?sari was one of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, to whom he gave the good news of entry into paradise.

Korean: the second most common surname in Korea, comprising about 16 percent of the total population. It is found in every part of the country. There are three Chinese characters for the surname Yi, but two of the three are quite rare, and one of these is not found outside North Korea. Although some sources indicate that there are as many as 546 different clans, only about 100 have been documented. The founder of the oldest clan, the Kyongju Yi, was named Yi Al–p’yong and lived in ad 32. He was one of the six original governors of pre-Shilla Korea. Aside from a few other Yi families that originated from the Kyongju Yi clan, most of the other 100 or so clans were formed at the end of the Koryo or beginning of the Choson periods. Some Korean Yi families trace their origins back to China. The founder of the Choson Kingdom, or Yi Dynasty, Yi Song-gye, was a member of the Yi clan from Chonju. This clan ruled the Korean peninsula from 1392 to 1910. Chinese : from an area named Yi, probably from Yi county in Hebei province.

Muslim (Iranian and Indian subcontinent): from the Persian form of Arabic ?Uthman. Compare Osman.

African: unexplained.

Chinese: there are three different surnames that are Romanized in pinyin as Bao. Other Romanizations include Bau, Pao, and Pau. Chinese : this character also means ‘abalone’, but the name comes from an old place name. The area of Bao was granted to a chief counselor of the state of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). His son took the place name as his surname and was called Bao Shuya. Bao Shuya was famous for his lofty moral character and was skilled at delegating authority, eventually becoming the first ‘Chief King’ of the Spring and Autumn period. Chinese : this Chinese character means ‘to wrap’ or ‘package’. The name is derived from the name of Shen Baoxu. Shen Baoxu was a senior official who lived 2500 years ago in the state of Chu. When the state of Chu was attacked by the state of Wu, Shen Baoxu went to the State of Qin to beg for aid. There, he reportedly cried for seven days and nights until the duke of Qin was moved to help rescue the state of Chu. Chinese : this character means ‘(violently) sudden’. It comes from the name of Bao Xingong, a duke during the Yin dynasty (1401–1122 bc).

Spanish: habitational name from places in Burgos or Lugo (Galicia) named Rojas, from a derivative of rojo ‘red’.

Chinese : probably from the name of a people living to the west of China in ancient times, who integrated with the Han Chinese during the Han dynasty (206 bc–220 ad). The character also means ‘finish’, ‘conclude’. Vietnamese: unexplained. Scandinavian: unexplained.

Muslim: variant of Mahmood.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Martim, vernacular form of Latin Martinus (see Martin). English and Dutch: patronymic from the personal name Martin.

Spanish: patronymic from the Basque personal name Orti (Latin Fortunius).

Vietnamese: unexplained.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname for someone with dark hair and a swarthy complexion, from Spanish and Portuguese moreno ‘dark-haired’, a word of uncertain origin, probably from Late Latin maurinus, a derivative of classical Latin Maurus ‘Moor’. Compare Moore 2.

Muslim and Hindu (mainly Panjab): status name from a title meaning ‘lord’, ‘ruler’, ‘chief’, from Arabic malik ‘king’. In the subcontinent this is often found as a title for the headman of a village. In Islam Al-Malik ‘the King’ is one of the attributes of Allah, regarded as ‘the king of mankind’ (Qur’an 114:2), and this word is used in combination in names such as ?Abd-ul Malik ‘servant of the King’. This was the name of an Umayyad khalif (685–705). Czech, Slovak (Malík), and Slovenian: nickname for a small person, from a pet form of a vocabulary word meaning ‘small’ (Polish maly, Czech malý ‘small’, Slovenian mali). Compare Maly.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous placed named Ribeiro, from ribeiro ‘stream’.

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or a patch of arable land, Middle English lee, lea, from Old English lea, dative case (used after a preposition) of leah, which originally meant ‘wood’ or ‘glade’. English: habitational name from any of the many places named with Old English leah ‘wood’, ‘glade’, as for example Lee in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, and Shropshire, and Lea in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and Wiltshire. Irish: reduced Americanized form of Ó Laoidhigh ‘descendant of Laoidheach’, a personal name derived from laoidh ‘poem’, ‘song’ (originally a byname for a poet). Americanized spelling of Norwegian Li or Lie. Chinese : variant of Li 1. Chinese : variant of Li 2. Chinese : variant of Li 3. Korean: variant of Yi.

Muslim: literally ‘of Allah’, usually a suffix attached to another word forming a compound Arabic personal name such as ?Abd-Ullah ‘servant of Allah’ (see Abdullah).

Muslim: from an Arabic personal name, ’Isma?il, name of a Prophet (Biblical Ishmael), son of Ibrahim (Abraham). Ibrahim left his second wife Hajar (Hagar) and their small son Ismail in the wilderness outside Mecca with only a short supply of food and water. Allah took pity on them and caused the well of Zamzam to spurt up in that desolate place, which saved their lives. Later, Ibrahim sought out his son Ismail, and together they built the Ka‘ba in Mecca, towards which all Muslims turn when praying. Arabs believe that Ismail was the founder of the Arab peoples, and for this reason Arabs are sometimes referred to as Ishmaelites. The term Ismaeli is of much more recent origin; it refers to a sect of Shiite Muslims headed by the Aga Khan, who claim descent from the Fatimid dynasty that ruled Egypt and North Africa from 909 to 1171. They take their name from Isma?il al-?Siddiq (699–765), son of the sixth Shiite imam, because they believe that the divine spirit passed to him and not to his brother Musa.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Fernando. This is one of the most common surnames in Portugal. This surname is also common in Goa and elsewhere on the west coast of India, having been taken there by Portuguese colonists.

English, French, German, Dutch, Danish, and South Indian: from the medieval personal name, of Biblical origin, from Aramaic t’om’a, a byname meaning ‘twin’. It was borne by one of the disciples of Christ, best known for his scepticism about Christ’s resurrection (John 20:24–29). The th- spelling is organic, the initial letter of the name in the Greek New Testament being a theta. The English pronunciation as t rather than th- is the result of French influence from an early date. In Britain the surname is widely distributed throughout the country, but especially common in Wales and Cornwall. The Ukrainian form is Choma. It is found as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. is used as a family name among families from southern India.

English, Welsh, German, etc.: ultimately from the Hebrew personal name yo?hanan ‘Jehovah has favored (me with a son)’ or ‘may Jehovah favor (this child)’. This personal name was adopted into Latin (via Greek) as Johannes, and has enjoyed enormous popularity in Europe throughout the Christian era, being given in honor of St. John the Baptist, precursor of Christ, and of St. John the Evangelist, author of the fourth gospel, as well as others of the nearly one thousand other Christian saints of the name. Some of the principal forms of the personal name in other European languages are Welsh Ieuan, Evan, Siôn, and Ioan; Scottish Ia(i)n; Irish Séan; German Johann, Johannes, Hans; Dutch Jan; French Jean; Italian Giovanni, Gianni, Ianni; Spanish Juan; Portuguese João; Greek Ioannes (vernacular Yannis); Czech Jan; Russian Ivan. Polish has surnames both from the western Slavic form Jan and from the eastern Slavic form Iwan. There were a number of different forms of the name in Middle English, including Jan(e), a male name (see Jane); Jen (see Jenkin); Jon(e) (see Jones); and Han(n) (see Hann). There were also various Middle English feminine versions of this name (e.g. Joan, Jehan), and some of these were indistinguishable from masculine forms. The distinction on grounds of gender between John and Joan was not firmly established in English until the 17th century. It was even later that Jean and Jane were specialized as specifically feminine names in English; bearers of these surnames and their derivatives are more likely to derive them from a male ancestor than a female. As a surname in the British Isles, John is particularly frequent in Wales, where it is a late formation representing Welsh Siôn rather than the older form Ieuan (which gave rise to the surname Evan). As an American family name this form has absorbed various cognates from continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) It is used as a given name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a surname among families from southern India.

Chinese : in ancient China there existed a clan called Ge, whose descendants came to use Ge as their surname. Another source of the name is from an area named Ge during the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc) in present-day Henan province. The descendants of the rulers of Ge eventually adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : from the ancient state of Ge that was granted to a descendant of the model emperor Yu (2205–2198 bc). Later descendants adopted the place name as their surname. French (Gé): variant of Gée.

Vietnamese: unexplained.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rivera, a variant of Ribera. Italian: northern variant of the southern (especially Sicily) topographic name Ribera. Catalan: in some cases, variant of Catalan Ribera.

This form represents at least ten different Chinese family names, as well as a Korean one. Chinese : variant of Zhu 1. Chinese : from the name of an adminstrative position during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). At this time, many dukes of the Zhou dynasty, including the duke of the state of Song, established a high administrative position which may be roughly translated as ‘Chu master’. The descendants of a Song Chu master took this title as their surname. Additionally, there was an area named Chu during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) which lent its name to the people who lived there. Chinese : variant of Zhu 2. Chinese : variant of Qu 1. Chinese : from the name of the state of Chu, one of the most powerful states of the Warring States period (403–221 bc), adopted as a surname by its ruling class. Chinese : variant of Ju. Chinese : variant of Qu 2. Chinese : variant of Qu 3. Chinese : variant of Zhu 3. Chinese : variant of Zhu 4. Korean: there are two Chinese characters for the Chu surname in use in Korea. One character has only one clan associated with it (the Shinan Chu clan), and while some records indicate that the other has as many as 25, only four can be documented; all of these descended from a common ancestor, Chu Hwang, who was naturalized in 907. The Shinan Chu clan is descended from a man named Chu Cham, a direct descendant of the Chinese philosopher Chu-tze. Chu Cham migrated from China to Korea some time in the early 13th century. Chu is a fairly common surname and is found throughout the peninsula.

Chinese : variant of Tang 2. Chinese : variant of Tang 3. Chinese : from a modification of the character Zhong (). In the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc), there existed a senior adviser whose name was Zhonggu. Much later, in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 ad), some descendants settled along a river that became known as the Tong Family river. As the Manchus moved southwards, some took up residence by this river and they too adopted Tong as their surname. Chinese : from Lao Tong, the ‘style name’ given to a son of Zhuan Xu, legendary emperor of the 26th century bc. Two of his sons became important advisers to the next emperor, Ku. Some descendants of Lao Tong adopted a character from his style name as their surname. Chinese: see also Dong. English: metonymic occupational name for a maker or user of tongs (Old English tang(e)), or a habitational name from one of the places named with this word (there are examples in Lancashire, Shropshire, and West Yorkshire), from their situation by a fork in a road or river, considered as resembling a pair of tongs. English: topographic name for someone who lived on a tongue of land, or a habitational name from a place named with this word (Old English tunge, Old Norse tunga), for example Tonge in Leicestershire. Alternatively, Reaney suggests that it may have been a nickname from the same word in the sense of a chatterbox or a scold. Dutch: from a short form of the personal name Antonius (see Anthony). It could also be from Dutch tong ‘tongue’ and hence a nickname for a chatterbox or scold, or possibly a shortening of Van Tongeren, a habitational name for someone from Tongeren in the province of Gelderland.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from Vargas in Santander province, or a topographic name from vargas, plural of varga, a dialect term used in various senses: ‘(thatched) hut’, ‘steep slope’, or ‘fenced pastureland which becomes waterlogged in winter’.

Chinese : this name probably arose during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) in the area of Gansu province; the details are unclear. It was borne by a person named Niu Wen, who was a descendant of the eldest brother of the last king of the Shang dynasty, Zhou Xin (1154–1123bc). Chinese : a second character pronounced Niu came into use as a surname during the Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420 ad) in Jiangsu province south of the Yangtze river. Tongan: unexplained.

Chinese : from the name of an area called Xing, which existed during in the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Descendants of the ruling family of this area adopted Xing as their surname. Another account of the origin of this name derives it from an area named Pingxing.

English, German, French, and Jewish: from the personal name, Hebrew Yosef ‘may He (God) add (another son)’. In medieval Europe this name was borne frequently but not exclusively by Jews; the usual medieval English vernacular form is represented by Jessup. In the Book of Genesis, Joseph is the favorite son of Jacob, who is sold into slavery by his brothers but rises to become a leading minister in Egypt (Genesis 37–50). In the New Testament Joseph is the husband of the Virgin Mary, which accounts for the popularity of the given name among Christians.

Portuguese: patronymic from the medieval personal name Lopo (from Latin lupus ‘wolf’).

Korean: there are two Chinese characters for the surname Cho. Some records indicate a total of 210 different clans which use the more common Cho character, but only fifteen can be documented with confidence. Each of these claims a different founding ancestor. Most of them trace their origins to the beginning of the Kory{ou} kingdom (early 10th century). Only one clan, the Ch’angny{ou}ng Cho, uses the other Chinese character. The founder of this clan’s name was Cho Kye-ryong. According to legend, there was a certain scholar named Yi Kwang-ok, whose daughter very much wanted to marry. A monk visited her and told her to go to Hwawang Mountain to pray at the dragon pond. The maiden did so, and upon her return found herself to be pregnant. In a dream, a young man with a crown and a jade belt appeared to her. A few months later, in the 48th year of the reign of the Shilla King Chinp’y{ou}ng (ad 626), she gave birth to a little boy under whose arm the Chinese character for Cho appeared in red. The king, understanding the boy to be special, named him Cho Kyeryong and married him to his daughter, the princess. So began the Ch’angny{ou}ng Cho clan. Chinese : Min variant of Cao. Chinese : variant of Zhuo.

Turkish: from the Turkish personal name Osman, Turkish form of Arabic ?Uthman. This was the name of the third of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs (ruled 644–656), one of the ten Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, to whom he gave the good news of entering into paradise. English: variant of Osmond. Dutch: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements ans ‘god’ + man ‘man’. Dutch: occupational name for an ox driver, from os ‘ox’, ‘bullock’ + man ‘man’. German (Osmann): variant of Ossmann (see Ossman). Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): of uncertain origin; perhaps a variant of Oshman or Hausman.

Indian: variant of Naik.

Chinese : from the name of a village called Pang, which was granted to a descendant of Bi Gonggao, the 15th son of the virtuous duke Wu Wang, whose magnanimous rule led to the establishment of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc. Later descendants adopted the name of the village as their surname. Chinese : from the name of a prince of the Yin dynasty (1401–1122 bc), Pang Boling. Chinese : variant of Peng. Korean: there are five Chinese characters for this surname; only one, however, is common enough to warrant treatment here. The clan associated with this character is the Onyang Pang. The founding ancestor of this clan was a Tang Chinese named Pang Chi, who lived in Hunan province, China, until his migration to Shilla in 669. There is a gap in the records after Pang Chi. The ancestor who settled in the Onyang area was named Pang Un. He served the early Koryo Wang Dynasty faithfully, so when he retired to the Onyang area, local geographic features were named after him and many of his descendants continued to live there, hence the name of their clan. Variant of German Bang.

Vietnamese (Bùi): unexplained. Belgian French and Dutch: from a northern French dialect variant of Bois.

Indian (northern states): Hindu name found in several communities, from Sanskrit candra ‘pleasant’, ‘shining’, ‘moon’. It is a common final element of compound personal names, such as Ramchand and Kishanchand, and appears subsequently to have evolved into a surname. Compare Chandra.

Chinese : from the name of a territory granted to a son of Xuan Wang (827–781 bc), the twelfth king of the Zhou dynasty.

Portuguese: occupational name from soeiro ‘swineherd’, Latin suerius. English: patronymic from a nickname for someone with reddish hair, from Anglo-Norman French sor ‘chestnut (color)’.

Chinese : from a byname of a certain Prince Yan, who lived during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) in the state of Zheng, in modern-day Henan province. He had the byname Ziyou, and the second character of this name was adopted as a surname by his descendants. Chinese : altered form of the surname Shen. During the Five Dynasties period (907–960) the founder of the state of Min, in present-day Fujian province, was called Wang Shen Zhi. The character in his name for Shen, , was pronounced in the same way as the character for the surname Shen, (see Shen 1). This spelled danger for those named Shen, as the culture of the time regarded imitation not as as flattery, but as criminal arrogance. A solution to the problem was developed by dropping from the portion signifying water, which changed the character into ,pronounced You. Korean: variant of Yu.

Chinese : from the place name Ni. During the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) there existed a fief of Ni (). After the state of Chu conquered Ni, descendants of the Ni aristocracy adopted Ni as their surname. The character for this Ni was not the same as that of the present-day surname however; later descendants, in order to evade their enemies, changed the form of the character, allowing the pronunciation to stay the same.

Chinese : Cantonese variant of Chen. Chinese : variant transcription of Zhan. Vietnamese (Chân): unexplained. Galician and Portuguese: topographic name from a field named Chan (Galician) or Chã (Portuguese), from Latin plana ‘level’, ‘flat’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on the Arabic adjective sa?id ‘lucky’, ‘fortunate’. Compare Saad.

Indian: variant of Misra.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from villages so called in the provinces of Seville and Badajoz, from a word meaning ‘iron smithy’, ‘blacksmith’s forge’ (a derivative of hierro ‘iron’, Latin ferrum). French: habitational name from the Gascon form of Ferrière, a place in Pyrénées-Atlantique. The place name is derived from Latina ferraria ‘iron-mine’, ‘iron-forge’.

Indian (northern states): Hindu name meaning ‘deity’, ‘god’, ‘lord’ in modern Indian languages, from Sanskrit or Middle Indo-Aryan ?thakkura. Compare Thakkar. Although this name is commonly associated with Kshatriyas, it is also found among Brahmans and other communities.

Portuguese: topographic name from barba, a type of plant, + -oso ‘place rich in this plant’.

Chinese : from the name of a prince of the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc).

From the Biblical personal name Adam, which was borne, according to Genesis, by the first man. It is the generic Hebrew term for ‘man’, probably from Hebrew adama ‘earth’. Compare the classical Greek legend that Zeus fashioned the first human beings from earth. It was very popular as a personal name among non-Jews throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, and the surname is found in one form or another in most of the countries of Europe. Jews, however, have never used this personal name, except in recent times under Polish and English influence. Among Scottish and Irish bearers it is sometimes a reduced form of McAdam.

Spanish: of uncertain derivation; possibly from lima ‘file’. Portuguese: topographic name for someone living on the banks of the river of this name (of pre-Roman origin, probably akin to a Celtic element lemos, limos ‘elm’).

Japanese: variously written, usually with characters meaning ‘bell tree’, the name is probably taken from Japan’s lovely pampas grass, susuki. An alternate pronunciation is Susuki. This is one of the two most common surnames in Japan, the other being Sato. Legend says that one Suzuki family descended from a priestly line named Hozumi, of Kumano in present-day Mie prefecture. The Hozumi, in turn, are listed in the Shinsen shojiroku and claim descent from the Mononobe clan.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the several places, as for example Medina-Sidonia in Cádiz province and Medina del Campo in Valladolid, so called from Arabic medina ‘city’. The surname is also borne by Sephardic Jews.

Muslim: shortened form of any of the many Arabic names formed with the word din ‘religion’, for example Saifuddin ‘sword of religion’ or Salahuddin ‘righteousness of religion’. Indian (northern states): Hindu name derived from Sanskrit dina ‘humble’. Scottish: unexplained. According to Black, this is an old Strathblane surname. Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from Yiddish din ‘thin’.

Korean (Ho): there is only one Chinese character for the Ho surname. Some records indicate that there are fifty-nine Ho clans, but only four have been identified and documented. All four clans descend from the same founding ancestor. In ad 48, a sixteen-year-old Indian princess is said to have arrived by boat on the shores of Korea. The Karak Kingdom’s King Suro married the woman, and out of respect for her origins allowed the second of their ten children to retain his mother’s surname, Ho. The Ho surname is very common and is widely distributed throughout the Korean peninsula. Vietnamese (Hô`): unexplained. Chinese: variant of He.

topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or river bank, or on the coast (ultimately from Latin costa ‘rib’, ‘side’, ‘flank’, also used in a transferred topographical sense), or a habitational name from any of numerous places named Costa or named with this word. of Greek origin (see Costas).

Spanish, Catalan, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places called Aguilar, from Latin aquilare ‘haunt of eagles’ (a derivative of aquila ‘eagle’), for example Aguilar de Campo in Palencia, Aguilar de la Frontera in Córdoba, and Aguilar de Segarra in Catalonia.

Portuguese: patronymic from the medieval personal name Didacus (genitive Didaci). Compare Diego. This name is also common in the former Portuguese colony of Goa and elsewhere on the west coast of India, having been taken there by Portuguese settlers.

Vietnamese ({D-}{aud}ng): unexplained. Chinese : The surname Dang comes from a branch of the ruling family of the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) that spread to the state of Jin and the state of Lu. The character now also means ‘political party’. German: from an old personal name Tanco, a cognate of modern German denken ‘to think’, Gedanke ‘thoughts’.

Chinese : from the name of Qiao mountain. The ancient Chinese emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), considered father of the Chinese people, is buried on Qiao mountain. In honor of this, some descendants later adopted the name of the mountain as their surname. Much later, during the Later Zhou dynasty (951–960 ad), the emperor ordered that the character for this name (which also means ‘bridge’) be modified to another similar character of the same pronunciation, the current character for the surname Qiao.

Muslim: variant of Muhammad.

Muslim: see Youssef.

Muslim: variant of Abdo.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a miller. The standard modern vocabulary word represents the northern Middle English term, an agent derivative of mille ‘mill’, reinforced by Old Norse mylnari (see Milner). In southern, western, and central England Millward (literally, ‘mill keeper’) was the usual term. The American surname has absorbed many cognate surnames from other European languages, for example French Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin; German Mueller; Dutch Molenaar; Italian Molinaro; Spanish Molinero; Hungarian Molnár; Slavic Mlinar, etc. Southwestern and Swiss German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Müller (see Mueller).

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Muslim and Hindu status name for a head of a community or caste, from Sanskrit catus- ‘four-way’, ‘all-round’ + dhuriya ‘undertaking a burden (of responsibility)’ (Sanskrit dhura ‘burden’). The title was originally awarded to persons of eminence, both Muslims and Hindus, by the Mughal emperors. The Khatris have a clan called Chowdhury. In some traditions the term is said to derive from a title for a military commander controlling four different fighting forces, namely navy, cavalry, infantry, and elephant corps, but this is probably no more than folk etymology.

Vietnamese: unexplained.

Portuguese ((da) Câmara) and Spanish (Cámara): from cámara ‘(main) room’ (from Latin camera), hence an occupational name for a courtier or servant who had access to the private living quarters of a king or noble.

Muslim (found almost exclusively among Sunni Muslims): from an Arabic personal name of uncertain etymology. It is thought to be related to Arabic ?amir, which means ‘prosperous’, ‘full of life’, ‘large’, ‘substantial’. The root word ?umr means ‘life’. ?Umar bin al-Kha?t?tab was the second of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs (ruled 634–44). He was known by the title al-Faruq ‘the distinguisher’, i.e. one who distinguishes between truth and falsehood. He was one of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad. The Persian poet ?Umar al-Khayyam (1048–1125), also known in English as Omar Khayyam, is the author of the classic poem, the Rubaiyyat. Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived by a group of elm trees, from the collective form of om ‘elm’.

Muslim: from the Persian personal name Akhtar ‘star’, ‘good luck’. Akhtar is used in combination with other words, for example Akhtar-ud-Din ‘star of religion (i.e. Islam)’. The name is found in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as Iran.

Vietnamese: unexplained. Chinese : origin unknown, although ancient accounts record its use in Guangdong and Henan provinces from an early date. The character for Mai also means ‘wheat’. Dutch, Danish, German, and French: variant of May.

religious byname from Portuguese vieria ‘scallop’ (Late Latin veneria, a derivative of the name of Venus; the goddess was often depicted riding on a scallop). The scallop was a symbol of the pilgrim who had been to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela. habitational name from any of numerous minor places called Vieiria.

Southern English: patronymic from David.

English: variant spelling of Nye. Chinese : from the name of Nie City, which existed during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). It was granted to a son of a duke of the state of Qi; his descendants adopted the name of the city as their surname.

English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from the personal name Will, a very common medieval short form of William.

Galician (Méndez): patronymic from the personal name Mendo (see Mendes, of which this is the Galician equivalent).

Found in Aragon. Derived from Greek word meaning to baptize. Also found in Baptista (see) and nickname is "Titta." Name in honor of John the Baptist.

Chinese : during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), a prince of the state of Yue was enfeoffed a region that included a mountain the name of which contained the Chinese character for Ou. Many of the prince’s descendants adopted this character as their surname. Other descendants adopted the surname Ou Yang (the most common of the two-character Chinese surnames), composed of this character together with a character meaning ‘sunny’, indicating the region to the south of the mountain. Cambodian or other Southeast Asian: unexplained.

English, French, German, and Dutch: from the personal name Paul (Latin Paulus ‘small’), which has always been popular in Christendom. It was the name adopted by the Pharisee Saul of Tarsus after his conversion to Christianity on the road to Damascus in about ad 34. He was a most energetic missionary to the Gentiles in the Roman Empire, and played a very significant role in establishing Christianity as a major world religion. The name was borne also by numerous other early saints. The American surname has absorbed cognates from other European languages, for example Greek Pavlis and its many derivatives. It is also occasionally borne by Jews; the reasons for this are not clear. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Phóil ‘son of Paul’. Compare McFall. Catalan (Paül): habitational name from any of several places named Paül. Spanish: topographic name from paúl ‘marsh’, ‘lagoon’. Spanish: Castilianized form of Basque Padul, a habitational name from a town of this name in Araba province.

Vietnamese (Hà): unexplained. Korean: there are two Ha clans, each with a unique Chinese character. The founding ancestor of the larger Ha clan was named Ha Kong-jin and settled in the Chinju area around ad 1010. Most of the modern descendants of Ha Kong-jin live in the Kyongsang and Cholla provinces. The founding ancestor of the smaller of the two clans was named Ha Hum, and he settled in the Taegu area after emigrating from Song China some time in the early part of the twelfth century. Most of the modern descendants of Ha Hum still live in the Taegu area. Chinese : variant of Xia. English: unexplained.

Galician and Spanish (Vázquez): variant of Vásquez (see Vasquez).

Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places in Spain and Portugal called Miranda. The derivation of the place name is uncertain; it may be of pre-Roman origin, or from Latin miranda ‘view’, ‘outlook’. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Galician and possibly also Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Vasco, reduced form of Spanish Velásquez (see Velasquez).

Muslim: see Haq.

Indian (northern states): Hindu (Rajput) and Sikh name of great and ancient prestige but unknown meaning. There is a legend that the ancestor of this Rajput clan emerged from a sacrificial fire with four arms, and so it was associated with the Sanskrit word chatur- meaning ‘four’, but this is no more than folk etymology. Chauhan kings ruled in Rajasthan and in neighboring states, and conquered Delhi and its neighborhood in the 12th century. The Chauhans, along with the Solankis, the Paramaras, and the Pariharas, call themselves Agnikulas ‘Fire Tribes’. According to the Agnikula legend, after the original Kshatriyas had been exterminated by Parashurama (see Arora), the Brahmans found themselves in need of protection from the demons that were harassing them, and so they prayed and made a special sacrifice to the god Shiva for assistance. Then, through divine intercession, there emerged from the sacrificial fire the ancestors of the four Rajput clans known as the Fire Tribes, and they vanquished the demons. Historians believe that these tribes were in reality foreign tribes that entered India and defeated the original Kshatriyas. As they became the staunch defenders of the Hindu ideals, they were admitted into the prestigious Kshatriya rank by the Brahmans. A clan of the Porwal Banias have also adopted this name and, because of the prestige associated with it, it has been adopted in many other communities as well.

Muslim and Indian (northern states): from an Arabic personal name based on amin ‘trustworthy’, ‘faithful’, ‘honest’. Al-Amin ‘the trustworthy’ is an honorific title of the Prophet Muhammad. The term is used in combination with other words to form compound names: for example, Ru?h-ul-Amin ‘faithful spirit’ is an epithet of the Angel Gabriel mentioned in the Qur’an (26:193). Al-Amin (787–813) was the name of the sixth Abbasid khalif of Baghdad. In India, the name came to be used as a term denoting a government official concerned with investigation of land claims and revenue claims, collection of revenue, and land surveying.

Chinese : from a title denoting a regional administrator in ancient China. The first of the ‘model emperors’, Yao, (2357-2257 bc), appointed four princes to administer the North, South, East and West. These were known as the Siyue, or ‘four mountains’. The surname Yue is derived from this title. Chinese : variant of Yu 2. Chinese : variant of Yu 4.

Vietnamese (Hu?nh): unexplained.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic rashid ‘wise’, ‘judicious’, ‘rightly guided’, ‘right-minded’. Al-Rashid ‘the Right-Minded’ is an epithet of Allah (see the Qur’an 11:87). Rashid is used in combination with other words, e.g. ?Abd ur-Rashid ‘servant of the Right-Minded’. Harun ur-Rashid (786–809) was the most famous of the Abbasid khalifs. This name is widespread throughout the Muslim world.

Spanish (Chávez): variant spelling of Chaves.

Chinese : from the name of the Tu river, a tributary of the Yangtze. Chinese : from one of the characters in the name of the ancient city of Zoutu. The legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc) used this city as a military base. Both characters of the city name, Zou (see Zou) and Tu, were adopted as surnames. Chinese: variant of Du. Vietnamese: unexplained.

Chinese : although the character for Gan is the same as that in the name of the western province Gansu, the two sources of the surname are not related to that of the province. One source of the surname is Gan Pan, a senior minister to the Shang dynasty king Wu Ding (1324–1266 bc). The other source is a town named Gan in Shaanxi province that was granted to a descendant of Wu Wang (who established the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc). The grantee’s descendants adopted the place name as their surname. Hispanic (Filipino): unexplained.

Indian (northeastern states): Hindu name found among several communities, from Sanskrit raja ‘king’. Indian (Karnataka): name found in the Bunt community of coastal Karnataka, of unknown meaning.

Indian (Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra), Bangladeshi, and Nepali: Hindu name from Sanskrit pradhana ‘chief’, originally a title, now widely used as a family name. In Maharashtra it is found in the Kayasth Prabhu community. In Bengal and Bangladesh it is used as a family name in both the Hindu and the Muslim communities.

Indian: Hindu name found in several communities meaning ‘chief’, ‘leader’, from Sanskrit nayaka.

Vietnamese ({D-}ô~): unexplained. Chinese : possibly a variant of Du 1. Korean: variant of To.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic karim ‘kind’, ‘generous’. Al-Karim ‘the Generous’ is an attribute of Allah. The word is found in compound names such as ?Abd ul-Karim ‘servant of the Most Generous’.

English: from a personal name that has the same origin as Jacob. However, among English speakers, it is now felt to be a separate name in its own right. This is largely because in the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611) the form James is used in the New Testament as the name of two of Christ’s apostles (James the brother of John and James the brother of Andrew), whereas in the Old Testament the brother of Esau is called Jacob. The form James comes from Latin Jacobus via Late Latin Jac(o)mus, which also gave rise to Jaime, the regular form of the name in Spanish (as opposed to the learned Jacobo). See also Jack and Jackman. This is a common surname throughout the British Isles, particularly in South Wales.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a tailor, from Old French tailleur (Late Latin taliator, from taliare ‘to cut’). The surname is extremely common in Britain and Ireland, and its numbers have been swelled by its adoption as an Americanized form of the numerous equivalent European names, most of which are also very common among Ashkenazic Jews, for example Schneider, Szabó, and Portnov.

South German: nickname for a lively, alert person, from Middle High German genge ‘sprightly’. Chinese : this surname was adopted during the Shang dynasty (1766–1122 bc) by inhabitants of an area called Geng. According to one source, Geng was a state; after it was conquered, some of the inhabitants adopted the name of the state as their surname. According to another source, Geng was the name of the city that was made capital of the region.

Vietnamese (Ngô): unexplained. Chinese : variant of Ao.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Salazar in Burgos, probably named with sala ‘hall’ + Basque za(h)ar ‘old’, and thus a Basque equivalent of Saavedra. Spanish: Castilianized variant of Basque Zaraitzu, a habitational name from a town so named in Navarre.

Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the surname Yun. Although some records indicate the existence of 149 clans, only ten can be documented. Each descends from a different ancestor. The largest, that of P’ap’yong, descends from a man named Shin Tal. According to legend, an old woman named Yun On, who lived in P’ap’yong, saw a rainbow over a lotus pond in the mountains. When she went to investigate, she found a boy in a box. The boy had scales under his arm and seven dark birth marks on his body. She raised him as her own and gave him the surname Yun. The oldest Yun clan, that of Tamwon, descends from a man named Shi-yong, who lived during the reign of the Shilla King Muyol (654–661). Chinese : from the second character of Jinyun, a title borne by certain officials under the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc). Americanized spelling of Czech Jun.

African: unexplained. Americanized spelling of German Kuhn or Dutch Koen.

Muslim: variant of Musa (Moses).

Muslim (frequent in Pakistan): from a personal name based on Persian nawaz ‘one who caresses, cherishes, or soothes’. Thus, ?Ali Nawaz means ‘cherished by Ali’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic mu?s?tafa ‘chosen’, from Arabic ?safa ‘to be pure’, ‘to be select’. For Muslims, Al-Mu?s?tafa is an epithet referring to the Prophet Muhammad, while among Arabic-speaking Christians it is applied to St. Paul. Mu?s?tafa is among the most popular personal names in the Islamic world. In Turkey, it is often chosen in honor of Mustafa Kamal Atatürk (1881–1938), founder of modern Turkey. Spanish (of Arabic origin): from the Arabic personal name (see 1 above). Italian: from the Arabic personal name (see 1 above), or from a nickname from Calabrian mustafà ‘strong man with a walrus moustache’.

Chinese : from the name of a state of Mou that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Descendants of the ruling class of this state adopted its name as their surname. Chinese : variant of Mo 1. Laotian: unexplained.

Spanish (Guzmán): of uncertain and disputed etymology, probably from a Germanic personal name. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Gusman.

Chinese : from the name of the ancient state of Jiao, in present-day Henan province. After conquering the Shang dynasty and becoming the first king of the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, Wu Wang granted the state of Jiao to a descendant of Shen Nong, a legendary emperor (2734–2697 bc). Later descendants adopted the name of the state as their surname.

Italian: from a reduced form of the personal name Radulfo, composed of hrod ‘renown’ + wulf ‘wolf’ (see Rolf). Indian (southern and western states and Orissa): Hindu name found among several communities, from Sanskrit raja ‘king’. It is freely added by men to their forename in several communities of Maharashtra, Goa, and Andhra Pradesh. Chinese : from the name of an area called Rao, which existed in the state of Zhao during the Warring States period (403–221 bc).

Japanese: one of the ten most common surnames, especially in eastern Japan. The original meaning was occupational: Wataribe ‘ferrymen’s guild’. Some bearers descend from Minamoto no Toru (822–895), a son of Emperor Saga. A common alternate reading is Watabe.

Scottish and northern English: very common patronymic from the personal name Ander(s), a northern Middle English form of Andrew. See also Andreas. The frequency of the surname in Scotland is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, so the personal name has long enjoyed great popularity there. Legend has it that the saint’s relics were taken to Scotland in the 4th century by a certain St. Regulus. The surname was brought independently to North America by many different bearers and was particularly common among 18th-century Scotch-Irish settlers in PA and VA. In the United States, it has absorbed many cognate or like-sounding names in other European languages, notably Swedish Andersson, Norwegian and Danish Andersen, but also Ukrainian Andreychyn, Hungarian Andrásfi, etc.

Ethnic name in various European languages (including Danish and English) meaning ‘Dane’. Romanian: unexplained. Vietnamese: unexplained.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Portugal and Galicia called Moreira, from moreira ‘mulberry tree’.

Muslim: from Arabic shaikh, a title denoting a political or spiritual leader of a community. Shaikh ul-Islam ‘leader of Islam’, was the title of the highest religious office in Ottoman Turkey. Shaikh also means ‘chief’ or ‘head’ (Qur’an 28:23). This name is found throughout the Muslim world.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?hamid ‘praising’, ‘praiser (of Allah)’, or ?hamid ‘praised’, ‘praiseworthy’. Al-?Hamid ‘the All-Laudable’ is an attribute of Allah. The name ?Abd-ul-Hamid means ‘servant of the All-Laudable’. The root ?hmd ‘praise’ is one of the most common elements in Arabic name forming; in addition to this name, it also lies behind names such as Ahmad and Muhammad.

Adjective from the latin "bellus" - beautiful.Found in Galicia, Orense, and Leon. Names of villages near Oviedo and Teruel. Derived from latin "bellus" - beautiful, perfect.Galician name found throughout the Peninsula.

Chinese : from a Chinese character meaning ‘cattail’, a long grass that grows in ponds. A family that owned ponds containing extraordinarily long cattails came to be called by this name. Chinese: see Bu. Korean: there is only one Chinese character and one clan for the surname Pu. There is no historical information on the founder of this clan, but there is a legend which tells of three men who appeared from a cave on the north side of Cheju Island’s Halla Mountain. These three men were the founders of the Yang, Ko, and Pu clans. The mythological founder of the Pu clan was Pu Ul-la. Shortly after the three men emerged from the cave, a box washed up on the shore of the island. Inside the box were three beautiful women, horses, cows, and agricultural seed. From these beginnings, the three established Cheju Island’s T’amnaguk kingdom and ruled peacefully for centuries. Unlike the descendants of Yang and Ko, however, the descendants of Pu were for the most part content to remain on Cheju Island. A 1930 census revealed that 80% of bearers of the Pu surname were still located on Cheju Island. Pu is considered a rare surname in Korea today.

Muslim: variant of Akhtar.

Indian: Hindu name from Sanskrit natha ‘lord’. This commonly occurs as the final element of compound personal names, from which it appears to have evolved into a surname.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Mendo, a reduced form of Menendo (see Menendez).

Spanish (Suárez): occupational name for a swineherd, Latin Suerius. Compare Portuguese Soares.

English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from Jack 1. As an American surname this has absorbed other patronymics beginning with J- in various European languages.

Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from the Arabic personal name ?Abd al-?Aziz ‘servant of the mighty’ or ‘servant of the beloved’. Al-?Aziz ‘the Invincible’ or ‘the Beloved’ is an attribute of Allah. Al-?Aziz (955–996) was the fifth Fatimid khalif of Egypt (975–996), noted among other things for his religious tolerance.

Spanish (from Galician): habitational name from Ortega in A Coruña province. Spanish: nickname from ortega ‘(female) black grouse’ (from Greek ortyx ‘quail’). Southern French (Occitan): topographic name from Occitan ortiga ‘nettle’ (Latin urtica, French ortie).

Portuguese, Galician, and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places with this name, denoting a place with an abundance of cardoons.

African: unexplained. Compare Bah. Arabic: from a shortened form of Aba, accusative case of Abu ‘father’. Vietnamese: unexplained. Chinese : from the name of the kingdom of Ba, which existed in Sichuan during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Descendants of some of the ruling class adopted the name of the kingdom as their surname. This character still has as one of its meanings an ancient name for Sichuan province. Researchers believe that another branch of the Ba clan came from Shanxi province during the Han dynasty (206 bc–220 ad). Additionally, when Manchus and Mongolians came from the north to China several hundred years ago, many adopted the surname Ba.

Muslim: status name for someone with a qualification in Islamic religious learning, from Persian mulla, a derivative of Arabic maula, maulwi ‘scholar’ (usually transcribed in English as mullah). Ethiopian: unexplained. Catalan: from a feminine form of Moll. Catalan (Mollà): variant spelling of the habitational name from any of the several places called Mollar in Catalonia and Valencia.

Portuguese: topographic name from campos ‘fields’, denoting someone who lived in the countryside as opposed to a town.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname from pinto ‘colorful’, ‘painted’. Spanish: habitational name from Pinto in Madrid. Catalan (Pintó): Catalan variant of Pintor ‘painter’. Portuguese: from a nickname from pinto ‘chick’. This name is also common in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists. Italian: from pinto ‘mottled’, ‘dotted’ (Late Latin pinctus, for classical Latin pictus ‘painted’), hence a nickname for a person with a blotchy or pock-marked complexion or pepper-and-salt hair, or in some parts of the south at least from the same word in the sense ‘lively or restless person’.

Muslim: from an Arabic personal name, Ashraf, meaning ‘most honorable’ or ‘most distinguished’, an elative adjective based on Sharif.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic khalil ‘friend’. Khalil-ullah ‘friend of Allah’ is an honorific title given to the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham). See the Qur’an 4:125: ‘Allah took Abraham as his friend.’

French: from the personal name Jean, French form of John. English: variant of Jayne.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname for a thin person, from Spanish, Portuguese delgado ‘slender’ (Latin delicatus ‘dainty’, ‘exquisite’, a derivative of deliciae ‘delight’, ‘joy’).

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic nur ‘light’, ‘illumination’. Al-Nur ‘the Light’, is an attribute of Allah. It is also found in compound names such as Nur Allah (Nurullah) ‘Light of Allah’ and Nur ud-Din (Nuruddin) ‘Light of Religion’. Dutch: ethnic name for a Norwegian.

Vietnamese (Tru'o'ng): unexplained.

Portuguese or Galician: patronymic from the personal name Nuno.

Chinese : from this character used as part of a personal name. Gao Yao, a great-grandson of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu, was a minister under the model emperors Yao and Shun in the 23rd century bc. He is famous for being the first to introduce laws for the repression of crime. A descendant of his had Shu as part of one of his names; this character was adopted by some later descendants as their surname. Chinese: see Xu.

Muslim: variant of Mian. In Panjab and Rajasthan it is also found as a Hindu name among a class of Hill Rajputs.

Muslim (widespread throughout the Muslim world): from a personal name based on Arabic anwar ‘brighter’, an elative adjective derived from nur ‘light’. Anwar (with a long a) is the plural of nur (see Noor) and means ‘rays (of light)’.

Portuguese and Spanish: habitational name from any of a number of places so named in Portugal or from Almeida in Zamora province, Spain, all named from Arabic as al-medina ‘the city’. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of numerous places named Molina, in particular the one in Guadalajara province.

Chinese : from the name of a prince of the state of Wu (see Wu1) named Ke Lu. Chinese , : see Ge.

Japanese (Ito): variously written; one of the ten most common Japanese surnames. The most usual rendering means ‘Fujiwara of Ise’ (Ise no Fujiwara); Ise is now part of Mie prefecture. These Ito claim descent from Fujiwara no Hidesato (10th century), of the northern branch of the clan. Another prominent Ito family (whose name means ‘eastern Izu’), one-tenth as numerous, takes its name from a district now part of Shizuoka prefecture. They too are of Fujiwara descent, through Sukechika (d. 1181), a grandson of Kudo Ietsugu of the southern Fujiwara. Both Ito surnames are found in the Ryukyu Islands.

English (mainly East Anglia): habitational name from Lyng in Norfolk, so named from Old English hlinc ‘hillside’, or from either of two places in Norfolk and Lincolnshire named Ling, from Old Norse lyng ‘ling’, ‘heather’. There is also a Lyng in Somerset, so named from Old English lengen ‘long place’. German: variant of Link. Chinese : from a word meaning ‘ice’. In ancient times, the imperial palace was able to enjoy ice in the summer by storing winter ice in a cellar, entrusting its care to an official called the iceman. This post was once filled during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) by a descendant of Kang Shu, the eighth son of Wen Wang, who had been granted the state of Wei soon after the establishment of the Zhou dynasty. Descendants of this particular iceman adopted the word for ice, ling, as their surname.

Spanish (Domínguez): patronymic from the personal name Domingo.

Spanish: habitational name from various places named with banda, probably in the sense ‘side’, ‘edge’, ‘part’. Hungarian: of uncertain origin; probably from the old secular personal name Bán. Jewish (from Poland): metonymic occupational name from Polish banda ‘ribbon’. In some instances, perhaps an altered spelling of German and Dutch Bande (see Band). Croatian or Serbian: nickname for a bandit, from banda ‘band’, ‘gang’. This name originates from the Kordun and Krajina region on the former border between Croatia and Bosnia.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Kayasth) name, from Sanskrit candra ‘pleasant’, ‘shining’, ‘moon’. It occurs commonly as the final element of compound given names such as Ramachandra and Krishnachandra. Compare Chand and Chander.

English: patronymic from Thomas. Thompson is widely distributed throughout Britain, but is most common in northern England and northern Ireland. Americanized form of Thomsen.

Spanish: habitational name from Conteraras, a place in the province of Burgos. The place name is derived from Late Latin contraria ‘surrounding area’, ‘region’ (from the preposition contra ‘opposite’, ‘against’, ‘hard by’).

Hawaiian: unexplained. Vietnamese (H{us’}a): unexplained. Chinese : one source of the name is Hua mountain, from the time of the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc). Also, during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc), a duke of the state of Song enfeoffed the city of Hua to his son, whose descendants adopted the name of the city as their surname. Hua also means ‘China’ or ‘Chinese’ in a broad sense, as in ‘Chinese culture’ or ‘the Chinese people’. Chinese : there is another Chinese name romanized as Hua, whose origins are not clear, but it is apparent that the name came into common use beginning with the Tang dynasty (618–907). This character for Hua also means ‘flower’. Chinese : Wu Wang, who established the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, granted the state of Hua along with the title of Earl to a subject. Descendants of this Earl of Hua adopted Hua as their surname. This character for Hua also means ‘slippery’ or ‘smooth’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic Aslam ‘most perfect’, ‘faultless’, an elative form of the adjective salim (see Salim).

Portuguese (and Galician): habitational name from any of various places called Araújo: in Portugal, in Coimbra, Elvas, Estremoz, Lisbon, Moncorvo, Monsão, Serpa, Setúbal, and Villa Verde; also in Ourense, Galicia.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named, from Portuguese and Galician rocha ‘rock’, ‘cliff’.

Irish and Scottish: variant of Ruane. Spanish (Ruán): possibly from ruán ‘roan’ (a color of horses), a variant of Ruano 2. Chinese : from the name of the state of Ruan, which existed during the later Shang dynasty (sometimes called the Yin dynasty, 1401–1122 bc). After this state was conquered by Wen Wang shortly before the Zhou dynasty displaced the Shang dynasty, the Ruan ruling class adopted the place name as their surname.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for an aggressive person or for a soldier, from an agent derivative of guerra ‘war’. Compare Guerra.

Jewish, Welsh, Scottish, English, French, Portuguese, German, Czech, Slovak (Dávid) and Slovenian: from the Hebrew personal name David ‘beloved’, which has been perennially popular among Jews, in honor of the Biblical king of this name, the greatest of the early kings of Israel. His prominence, and the vivid narrative of his life contained in the First Book of Samuel, led to adoption of the name in various parts of Europe, notably Britain, among Christians in the Middle Ages. The popularity of this as a personal name was increased in Britain, firstly by virtue of its being the name of the patron saint of Wales (about whom very little is known: he was probably a 6th-century monk and bishop) and secondly because it was borne by two kings of Scotland (David I, reigning 1124–53, and David II, 1329–71). Its popularity in Russia is largely due to the fact that this was the ecclesiastical name adopted by St. Gleb (died 1015), one of two sons of Prince Vladimir of Kiev who were martyred for their Christian zeal.

English, Scottish, German, Dutch, etc.: from the personal name Peter (Greek Petros, from petra ‘rock’, ‘stone’). The name was popular throughout Christian Europe in the Middle Ages, having been bestowed by Christ as a byname on the apostle Simon bar Jonah, the brother of Andrew. The name was chosen by Christ for its symbolic significance (John 1:42, Matt. 16:18); St. Peter is regarded as the founding head of the Christian Church in view of Christ’s saying, ‘Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church’. In Christian Germany in the early Middle Ages this was the most frequent personal name of non-Germanic origin until the 14th century. This surname has also absorbed many cognates in other languages, for example Czech Petr, Hungarian Péter. It has also been adopted as a surname by Ashkenazic Jews.

habitational name from any of numerous places named Soto or El Soto, from soto ‘grove’, ‘small wood’ (Latin saltus). Castilianized spelling of Asturian-Leonese Sotu, a habitational name from a town so named in Asturies. Castilianized spelling of the Galician equivalent, Souto.

Portuguese and Spanish: altered form (by misdivision) of Da Costa.

Russian, Belorussian, and Bulgarian: patronymic from the personal name Ivan.

Indian (northern states): Hindu (Brahman) name, from a much reduced form of Sanskrit upadhyaya ‘teacher’.

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Santana, an assimilated form of Santa Ana.

English, Scottish, and Irish: from Middle English whit ‘white’, hence a nickname for someone with white hair or an unnaturally pale complexion. In some cases it represents a Middle English personal name, from an Old English byname, Hwit(a), of this origin. As a Scottish and Irish surname it has been widely used as a translation of the many Gaelic names based on bán ‘white’ (see Bain 1) or fionn ‘fair’ (see Finn 1). There has also been some confusion with Wight. Translated form of cognate and equivalent names in other languages, such as German Weiss, French Blanc, Polish Bialas (see Bialas), etc.

Vietnamese (Du'o'ng): unexplained.

Chinese : from the name of a place called Ning, which existed in the state of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc).

Ethiopian: unexplained.

English: from Middle English more ‘moor’, ‘marsh’, ‘fen’, ‘area of uncultivated land’ (Old English mor), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in such a place or a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word, as for example Moore in Cheshire or More in Shropshire. English: from Old French more ‘Moor’ (Latin maurus). The Latin term denoted a native of northwestern Africa, but in medieval England the word came to be used informally as a nickname for any swarthy or dark-skinned person. English: from a personal name (Latin Maurus ‘Moor’). This name was borne by various early Christian saints. The personal name was introduced to England by the Normans, but it was never as popular in England as it was on the Continent. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mórdha ‘descendant of Mórdha’, a byname meaning ‘great’, ‘proud’, or ‘stately’. Scottish: see Muir. Welsh: from Welsh mawr ‘big’, applied as a nickname or distinguishing epithet.

Spanish (Mejía): probably from a religious byname (possibly under Jewish influence), from a vernacular form of Latin, Greek Messias ‘Messiah’, from Hebrew mašia?h ‘anointed’.

Jewish, English, Scottish, Dutch, French, Swedish, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish (Solomón): vernacular form of the Biblical Hebrew male personal name Shelomo (a derivative of shalom ‘peace’). This was fairly widespread in the Middle Ages among Christians; it has for generations been a popular Jewish name. In the Bible it is the name of King David’s successor, noted for his wisdom. Among Christians it was also used as a nickname for a man who was considered wise. In North America it is also found as an Anglicized form of Salomon and Salamon.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic zaman ‘time’, ‘age’, ‘era’, often used to form names in combination with other words, for example Nur uz-Zaman ‘light of the era’, Shams uz-Zaman ‘sun of the time’. Zaman is a popular name in the Indian subcontinent.

Chinese : from the name of a district called Weng that existed during the Zhou dynasty. A son of Zhao Wang, fourth king (1052–1002 bc) of the Zhou dynasty, was granted this district and his descendants adopted the place name as their surname. German: habitational name from any of several places so named in southern Germany and Austria. Danish: unexplained.

Chinese : from the name of an area called Mein during the Shang dynasty. Under the reign of the corrupt and cruel last king of the Shang dynasty, Zhou Xin (1154–1123 bc), a high counselor’s position was occupied by the prince of the area of Mei. The prince of Mei was loyal but outspoken, and many times criticized his ruler’s extravagant and dissolute behavior. This enraged the king, who executed the prince. The deceased’s descendants subsequently adopted the place name Mei as their surname. Dutch: variant of May. Italian: from a patronymic or plural form of a short form of the personal names Bartolomeo, Romeo, or Tolomeo. Italian: see Meo.

Arabic (mainly Lebanon and Syria): from the personal name ?Isa, Arabic form of Hebrew Yeshua, Greek Iesous (see Jesus). This name is born by both Christian and Muslim Arabs. In Islam ?Isa is a prophet, ‘a messenger of Allah and his word’ (Qur’an 4:171). In the Qur’an 19:30, he proclaims, ‘He (Allah) has given me the Book and established me as a Prophet.’

Japanese: meaning ‘(one who lives) in the mountains’ or ‘at the foot of the mountain’, this is one of the ten most common surnames; it is found predominantly in central and west-central Japan.

Chinese : variant of Lin 1. Chinese : variant of Lan. Vietnamese (Lâm): unexplained. Dutch and North German: from a short form of the personal name Lambert. Danish: nickname for a gentle person, from Old Norse lamb ‘lamb’, or possibly for a lame man, Old Norse lami.

Spanish, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic) (of Basque origin): regional name denoting someone from Navarre (see Navarra).

Japanese: variously written, usually with characters meaning ‘village in the middle’. One of the ten most common surnames, it is very ancient and also a very common place name. Listed in the Shinsen shojiroku.

Spanish and Portuguese: from Spanish and Portuguese machado ‘hatchet’ (a derivative of Macho 2), probably a nickname, but possibly also a habitational name, as this word is also a common element of place names.

Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia and Portugal named Andrade, perhaps originally villa Andr(e)ati ‘estate of a man named Andreas’.

Arabic and Jewish (Sephardic): variant of Sayed or Saeed.

English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish (Simón), Czech and Slovak (Šimon), Slovenian, Hungarian, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the personal name, Hebrew Shim‘on, which is probably derived from the verb sham‘a ‘to hearken’. In the Vulgate and in many vernacular versions of the Old Testament, this is usually rendered Simeon. In the Greek New Testament, however, the name occurs as Simon, as a result of assimilation to the pre-existing Greek byname Simon (from simos ‘snub-nosed’). Both Simon and Simeon were in use as personal names in western Europe from the Middle Ages onward. In Christendom the former was always more popular, at least in part because of its associations with the apostle Simon Peter, the brother of Andrew. In Britain there was also confusion from an early date with Anglo-Scandinavian forms of Sigmund (see Siegmund), a name whose popularity was reinforced at the Conquest by the Norman form Simund.

Indian (northern and southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit raja ‘king’. In the northern states, it probably evolved into a family name from use as the final element of a compound personal name such as Prithviraj ‘king of the earth’ . In South India it is used only as a male given name, but it has come to be used as a family name in the U.S. among people from South India. Among Tamil and Malayalam speakers who have migrated from their home states, it is a variant of Rajan.

Korean (So): although there are two Chinese characters for the So surname, one of these is extremely rare and can be discounted (there are only about two hundred people in Korea who use this rare character). Some records indicate that the more common character for So has as many as 165 clans, but only eleven of them can be documented. The first recorded ancestor of the So clans seems to be a Shilla figure named So Shin-il. According to some legends, the rulers of the Old Choson kingdom (died 194 bc) were driven from power by the Wiman Choson and settled in the Ich’on area. The So clans are among the descendants of these ancient rulers. About fifty percent of modern members of the So clans live in the Kyongsang provinces or in Cholla South province. Chinese : a Cantonese form of Su 1. Hungarian (Só): metonymic occupational name for a salt seller or producer, from só ‘salt’.

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Barry.' There can be little doubt that this was of Norman extraction; compare the French Du Barry. The Irish Barrys have made a large inroad in the American directories. I cannot say whether they are of the same parentage or not.

Muslim: from Arabic Rama?dan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, a sacred month of fasting for Muslims. It is sometimes chosen by Muslim parents as a name for children born in this month. In this month the Qur’an, the Holy Book of Islam, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Jibril (Gabriel). This name is widespread throughout the Muslim world.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Vega or La Vega, from vega ‘meadow’ (of pre-Roman origin, probably originally denoting irrigated land).

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic sa?d ‘good luck’, ‘good fortune’, ‘success’. Sa?d is often used to form names in combination with other words, for example Sa?d Allah (Sa?dullah) ‘joy of Allah’, an epithet of the Prophet Muhammad. Sa?d ibn Abu Waqqas was one of the ten Companions of the Prophet Muhammad. This name is prevalent in all Muslim countries. Jewish (Sephardic): a derivative of a personal name, either from Hebrew saad ‘support’ or from Arabic sa?d ‘good luck’ (see 1).

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Badajoz province called Alvarado.

South American spelling of Spanish Espinosa; the spelling with -z- represents a voiced pronunciation heard in some Latin-American countries, whereas in Castilian Spanish it now has an unvoiced -s-.

Catalan and Spanish: habitational name from any of various minor places called Cabrera, from Late Latin capraria ‘place of goats’ (a derivative of Latin capra ‘goat’).

Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads in Trøndelag, named with the definite plural form of Li 4. Chinese : the main source of this surname is Lian Cheng, a senior minister for the state of Qi, located in present-day Shandong province. Chinese : the name Lian is found in traditional accounts as long as 4500 years ago, part of the name of a descendant of the legendary emperors Huang Di and Zhuan Xu. Later descendants adopted Lian as their surname.

Galician and Spanish (Ríos): habitational name from any of the places called Ríos, predominantly in Galicia. Spanish (Ríós): habitational name from Ríós in Ourense, Galicia.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic salim or salim ‘safe’, ‘secure’, ‘perfect’, ‘complete’. Salim ibn ?Umayr was one of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad. French (Alsace): habitational name from a place named Salem in Haut-Rhin, named for the holy city of Jerusalem.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Portugal and Galicia named Teixeira (written Teijeira in Castilian Spanish), from a derivative of Portuguese and Galician teixo ‘yew tree’ (Latin taxus).

Spanish (León): habitational name from León, a city in northwestern Spain, named with Latin legio, genitive legionis ‘legion’, a division of the Roman army. In Roman times the city was the garrison of the 7th Legion, known as the Legio Gemina. The city’s name became reduced from Legion(em) to Leon(em), and in this form developed an unetymological association with the word for ‘lion’, Spanish león. Spanish: from the personal name León, from Greek leon ‘lion’ (see Lyon 2). Leon is also found as a Greek family name. Spanish: nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, from león ‘lion’. French (Léon) and English: variant of Lyon.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Marcos. Southern French (Occitan), Catalan (Marquès), and Spanish (Marqués): from marqués ‘marquis’, from the French word, either a nickname for someone who behaved like a marquis or an occupational nickname for a servant in the household of a marquis.

The Romanization Chi represents at least thirteen different Chinese surnames and a Korean one. Chinese : this character means ‘pond’ and is found in names of lakes and areas surrounding lakes. As many Chinese surnames originated in place names (often containing the word ‘pond’), so the surname Chi developed naturally from the word for ‘pond’. Chinese : variant of Ji 1. Chinese : variant of Qi 1. Chinese : variant of Qi 2. Chinese : variant of Ji 2. Chinese : variant of Ji 3. Chinese : variant of Qi 3. Chinese : variant of Ji 4. Chinese : variant of Ji 5. Chinese : variant of Ji 6. Chinese : variant of Zhi. Chinese : variant of Ji 7. Chinese : variant of Ji 8. Korean: There are two Chinese characters for the Chi surname, borne by different groups. The smaller of the two groups has only one clan associated with it, the majority of whose members live in Kangw{ou}n and Ch’ungch’{ou}n North Provinces of South Korea and North Korea’s P’y{ou}ngan North Province. The other group also has but one clan but a much larger population. Unlike many clans in Korea, the larger Chi family did not remain congregated in and around its clan seat but dispersed fairly evenly around the peninsula.

Muslim: variant of Mustafa.

Indian (northern states): Hindu (Rajput) name of unknown origin. The Solankis, earlier known as Chalukyas, are a Rajput clan that ruled in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh. They consider themselves one of the Agnikulas or Fire Tribes. See Chauhan for the Agnikula legend.

English and Welsh (very common in southern England and South Wales): patronymic from the medieval English personal name Harry, pet form of Henry. This name is also well established in Ireland, taken there principally during the Plantation of Ulster. In some cases, particularly in families coming from County Mayo, both Harris and Harrison can be Anglicized forms of Gaelic Ó hEarchadha. Greek: reduced form of the Greek personal name Kharalambos, composed of the elements khara ‘joy’ + lambein ‘to shine’. Jewish: Americanized form of any of various like-sounding Jewish names.

Japanese: ‘small forest’; one of the ten most common Japanese surnames, found especially in central Japan; the different families bearing this name are not all related. The name is also found in the Ryukyu Islands.

Chinese : the sixth son of the virtuous duke Wen Wang was granted the State of Huo (in present-day Shanxi province) when the Zhou dynasty was established in 1122 bc. His descendants adopted Huo as their surname.

Chinese : from the name of a state of Xin that existed during the Xia dynasty. King Qi (2197–2188 bc) granted this state to one of his sons, whose descendants adopted a modified form of the character for Xin as their surname.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name from Middle High German smit, German Schmied ‘blacksmith’. The German surname is found in many other parts of Europe, from Slovenia to Sweden.

African: unexplained. Compare Ba. Slovenian: unexplained.

Indian (northern states): Hindu (Brahman) name, Hindi pa?n?de, from Sanskrit pa?n?dita ‘scholar’. Compare Pandit. In Hindi pa?n?de, as well as being a family name, also denotes a Brahman engaged in either of two traditional Brahman occupations: teaching and cooking.

Chinese : a common surname among royalty in the state of Chu during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : from the place name Jingzhou, denoting an area which later became the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). Chinese : from a character that means ‘(water) well’. This originated with the Earl of Jing, a senior adviser in the state of Yu during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : from the name of the Marquis Jing of the state of Wei, who lived during the Warring States period (403–221bc).

Muslim: from an Arabic personal name, Idris. Idris is mentioned in the Qur’an as a prophet, and many legends are related of him in Arabic folklore and literature. Linguistically, his name corresponds to Hebrew Ezra, Greek Esdras, but the Muslim figure is not the same person as the Biblical prophet of this name. Some legends about him correspond more nearly to those about the Biblical Enoch. Idris ibn-Abdullah (died 793) was founder of the Idrisid dynasty which ruled Morocco from 789–926 ad.

Portuguese: from the personal name Duarte, Portuguese equivalent of Edward.

Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German: from the personal name Manuel, a short form of Emanuel. Catalan and Spanish: possibly also a habitational name from Manuel in Valencia province. Americanized form of any of various other European family names derived from Emanuel, for example the Greek patronymic Manouilidis.

Chinese : from the name of an area called Miao. During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) this area was granted to the son of a senior adviser of the state of Chu. The character for Miao also denotes the Miao ethnic group in China, but the surname does not have a Miao origin. Chinese : from a title posthumously bestowed upon the duke of Miao from the state of Qin during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc).

Indian: variant of Datta.

Indian (northern and southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit prakaša ‘light’. In the northern states, it probably evolved into a family name from use as the final element of a compound name such as Ramprakash. In South India it is used only as a male given name, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S. among people from South India.

Chinese : from the name of a village called Pei, which was granted to Bo Yi, a famous adviser to the model emperors Shun and Yao, in around 2200 bc. Some descendants adopted the village name as their surname. Chinese : from a place name, Beiqiu, in Hebei province. This is the surname of the architect I. M. Pei. This name is currently spelled Bei in China. Chinese : variant of Pi 1.

Italian and Catalan: from rosa ‘rose’ (Latin rosa), applied in part as a topographic name for someone who lived where wild roses grew, in part as a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a rose, and in part as a nickname for someone with a pink, rosy complexion. Portuguese and Spanish: in most cases a short form of a name such as (de la) Rosa (Spanish) or (da) Rosa (Portuguese), or occasionally from the female personal name Rosa. Polish and Czech: from the vocabulary word rosa ‘dew’, ‘juice’, ‘sap’, applied as a nickname.

Japanese (Kato): variously written; most bearers descend from the Fujiwara of Kaga (Kaga no Fujiwara). Kaga is now part of Ishikawa prefecture. Mostly found along the southeastern seaboard and in the Ryukyu Islands. One family was daimyo of Hizen (now Nagasaki prefecture). Hungarian (Kató): from a pet form of the female personal name Katalin (see Catherine).

Southeast Asian: unexplained.

Korean: there are two Chinese characters for this surname. The founding ancestors of all Korean Im clans were originally from China. Some sources indicate that there are 216 clans that use the most common character, but only two—the Naju Im family and the P’ongt’aek Im family—have actually been documented. The founding ancestor of the P’yongt’aek Im family, Im P’algup, immigrated to Korea from China during the Tang Dynasty and settled in the P’yongt’aek area. The Naju Im clan is said to be descended from the P’ongt’aek Im clan. Members of the Im clans which use this more common character are found throughout the peninsula. Although some sources indicate that there are 120 clans that use the other Im character, only two of these are documented: the Im clan of Changhung and the Im clan of P’ungch’on. The founders of these two clans are also from China. The founders of both the Changhung Im clan and the P’ungch’on Im clan came to Korea during the Koryo period (ad 918–1392), the latter while escorting a princess bride to the Koryo court. About fifty percent of the Ims bearing the less common character as a surname live in South Ch’ungch’ong province.

Korean (Ch{ou}n): there are three Chinese characters for the surname Ch{ou}n. Some sources number the clans which use the most common character as high as 178, but only seventeen have been documented. All of these descend from a common ancestor, Ch{ou}n S{ou}p. The founding king of the Kogury{ou} kingdom (37 bc–ad 668) had three sons, the youngest of whom went south and established what would later become one of Kogury{ou}’s rival kingdoms, Paekche. This son took with him ten servants, one of whom was Ch{ou}n S{ou}p. Five clans use the second most common Chinese character for their surname. These clans descended from different ancestors, at least two of whom migrated to Korea from China. The clan which uses the least common character, the Mun’gy{ou}ng Ch{ou}n, descends from an ancestor named Ch{ou}n Yu-g{ou}m. Ch{ou}n Yu-g{ou}m was a minister sent from China to visit the Kory{ou} court in the mid 14th century. He decided to stay in Korea and married the elder sister of a famous Kory{ou} general, Ch’oe Y{ou}ng. When the Kory{ou} kingdom fell to the Chos{ou}n kingdom in 1392, Ch{ou}n abandoned his government post and retired to the countryside to pass the remainder of his years in peaceful obscurity.

Japanese (Saito): variously written, this is one of the ten most common surnames, especially in northeastern Japan. The Saito descend from Fujiwara no Nobumochi, a 10th-century head of the Saigu Shrine; thus, Saigu no Fujiwara or Saito.

English, French, Danish, Dutch, and German: from a short form of the personal name Matthias (see Matthew) or any of its many cognates, for example Norman French Maheu. English, French, Dutch, and German: from a nickname or personal name taken from the month of May (Middle English, Old French mai, Middle High German meie, from Latin Maius (mensis), from Maia, a minor Roman goddess of fertility). This name was sometimes bestowed on someone born or baptized in the month of May; it was also used to refer to someone of a sunny disposition, or who had some anecdotal connection with the month of May, such as owing a feudal obligation then. English: nickname from Middle English may ‘young man or woman’. Irish (Connacht and Midlands): when not of English origin (see 1–3 above), this is an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Miadhaigh ‘descendant of Miadhach’, a personal name or byname meaning ‘honorable’, ‘proud’. French: habitational name from any of various places called May or Le May. Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name from Mayen, a place in western Germany. Americanized spelling of cognates of 1 in various European languages, for example Swedish Ma(i)j. Chinese : possibly a variant of Mei 1, although this spelling occurs more often for the given name than for the surname.

Variant of Spanish González (see Gonzalez).

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Francisco (see Francis).

from a personal name based on ?awad ‘reverence’, ‘kindness’. occupational name from awwad ‘lute maker’ or ‘lute player’. possibly also from ?awwa?d ‘one who compensates or indemnifies’.

Spanish: possibly from correa ‘leather strap’, ‘belt’, ‘rein’, ‘shoelace’, plural correas (Latin corrigia ‘fastening’, from corrigere ‘to straighten’, ‘to correct’), applied as a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of such articles.

Catalan: topographic name from Catalan perera ‘pear tree’. Galician and Portuguese: variant of Pereira. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named for the dedication of their churches to St. James (Sant Iago). The apostle St. James the Greater is the patron saint of Spain; there is a medieval legend that, after the death of Christ, he did not meet a speedy end under Herod Agrippa, but visited and evangelized the Iberian peninsula. His alleged burial site at Compostela has been a place of pilgrimage from all over Europe for over a thousand years.

Korean: there is only one Chinese character used for the Min surname. There is a legend that the Min clan’s founding ancestor, Ch’ing-do, was a descendant of Ch’a kon, one of the ten disciples of Confucius. Ch’ing-do, an emissary from China to the Koryo kingdom, decided to stay and settled in the Yohung area. The surname Min can be found throughout Korea, but it is particularly concentrated in Cholla and Kyongsang provinces. Chinese : the source of this name was the character’s former meaning, ‘sympathy for those who die young’. The descendants of various people who died young adopted Min as their surname. Dutch: nickname from Middle Dutch minne ‘beloved’, ‘sweetheart’. Dutch: from a reduced form of the personal name Dominicus (see Dominick).

Korean: there is one Chinese character for the Hwang surname. Some sources indicate that there are 163 Hwang clans, but only eleven can be positively documented. The founding ancestor of the Hwang clans was named Hwang Nak. He was a Chinese emissary who had been sent on a mission to Vietnam. Instead of going to Vietnam, however, he went to Korea and settled there in ad 23. Each of Hwang Nak’s three sons were founding ancestors of their own clans, and some of their descendants founded additional Hwang clans. Chinese : variant of Huang.

Indian (northern states): Hindu (chiefly Brahman) name, from Sanskrit pa?n?dita ‘scholar’. Compare Pandey.

African (Touré) and Muslim: unexplained.

Chinese : in the state of Song during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) there existed a leader who was posthumously given the name of the duke of Mu. His descendants adopted Mu as their surname. Chinese : variant of Mou 1. Hawaiian: unexplained.

Chinese : Min (Taiwanese) form of Ke. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Gao. Chinese : variant of Ge 1. Chinese : variant of Ge 2. Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the surname Ko. There are ten different Ko clans, but they are all descended from the Ko clan of Cheju Island. There is no historical information regarding the founder of this clan, but there is a legend which tells of three men who appeared from a cave on the north side of Cheju Island’s Halla Mountain. These three men were the founders of the Yang clan, the Pu clan, and the Ko clan, the latter being named Ko Ul-la. Some days after the three men emerged from the cave, a box was washed up on the shore of the island. In the box were three women, horses, cows, and agricultural seed. From these beginnings, the three established Cheju Island’s T’amnaguk kingdom and ruled peacefully. Ko is a common surname found throughout the Korean peninsula. Approximately ten percent of Cheju Island’s present-day population consists of members of the Ko family. Hungarian (Ko): from ko ‘stone’, a word from the ancient Finno-Ugric word stock of Hungarian (cognate with Finnish kivi, Estonian keve), hence a topographic name for someone who lived on stony ground or by a notable outcrop of rock, or alternatively a metonymic occupational name for a mason or stonecutter.

Chinese : from the name of Gao Chai, a disciple of Confucius during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). His descendants adopted this character as their surname; it also means ‘firewood’. Korean: variant of Chae.

Slovenian: from a short form of the personal name Rajmund (see Raymond), formed with the suffix -a. Slovenian: nickname from the dialect word munda (of uncertain origin), used as a name for a bull. Hispanic (Mexico): unexplained.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robin.

Muslim: from the Arabic personal name Suleiman (see Solomon). Suleiman (Solomon) is regarded in Islam as a prophet (Qur’an 27:17). Suleiman the Magnificent (1498–1566) was a renowned khalif of the Ottoman Empire. This name is widespread throughout the Muslim world.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: variant of Chakrabarti.

Spanish (Juárez): regional variant of Suárez (see Suarez).

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic kamal ‘perfection’, ‘integrity’. It is found in compound names such as Kamal ud-Din ‘perfection of religion’. Hindu name found among people from Sind, Pakistan, which goes back to the personal name of an ancestor, derived from Sanskrit kamala ‘lotus’. The personal name is common in India, and has become a family name in the U.S. among South Indians.

Indian (chiefly Rajasthan and Gujarat): Jain name from Sanskrit jaina ‘derived from Jina’ or ‘follower of Jina’. Jina, meaning ‘triumphant’, is an epithet for a saint of the Jain religion.

English (especially Yorkshire) and Scottish: occupational name for a fuller, Middle English walkere, Old English wealcere, an agent derivative of wealcan ‘to walk, tread’. This was the regular term for the occupation during the Middle Ages in western and northern England. Compare Fuller and Tucker. As a Scottish surname it has also been used as a translation of Gaelic Mac an Fhucadair ‘son of the fuller’.

Muslim (mainly Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh; also Iran): from a personal name based on Arabic akbar ‘greater’, ‘greatest’, an elative adjective from kabir ‘great’. Allahu Akbar (‘Allah is the Greatest’) is a slogan of Muslims throughout the world. The Mughal emperor known in English as Akbar the Great (Jalal ud-Din Akbar; 1542–1605) extended his rule from a base in Panjab to cover most of the Indian subcontinent by the time of his death. His rule was notable for the integration of Hindus and Muslims in positions of power.

English: occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally a member of a minor religious order who undertook such duties. The word clerc denoted a member of a religious order, from Old English cler(e)c ‘priest’, reinforced by Old French clerc. Both are from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klerikos, a derivative of kleros ‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’, with reference to the priestly tribe of Levites (see Levy) ‘whose inheritance was the Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members of religious orders who learned to read and write, so that the term clerk came to denote any literate man.

English (but most common in Wales): from Lowis, Lodovicus, a Norman personal name composed of the Germanic elements hlod ‘fame’ + wig ‘war’. This was the name of the founder of the Frankish dynasty, recorded in Latin chronicles as Ludovicus and Chlodovechus (the latter form becoming Old French Clovis, Clouis, Louis, the former developing into German Ludwig). The name was popular throughout France in the Middle Ages and was introduced to England by the Normans. In Wales it became inextricably confused with 2. Welsh: from an Anglicized form of the personal name Llywelyn (see Llewellyn). Irish and Scottish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Lughaidh ‘son of Lughaidh’. This is one of the most common Old Irish personal names. It is derived from Lugh ‘brightness’, which was the name of a Celtic god. Americanized form of any of various like-sounding Jewish surnames.

Spanish (Ávila): habitational name from Ávila in old Castile. Its name, first recorded in the Latin forms Avela and Abulia, is of unknown derivation and meaning. Portuguese and Galician: from Davila, a topographic name for someone from a town or village, da vila, reinterpreted as d’Avila.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: variant of Chowdhury.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: variant of Chowdhury.

Spanish and Italian: from a personal name, in origin an ethnic name for a Frank, a member of the Germanic people who inhabited the lands around the river Rhine in Roman times. See also Frank. The personal name was popularized by the cult of San Franco di Assergi. Italian and Spanish: nickname or status name from franco ‘free’ (usually denoting a freed slave). Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Spanish surname.

African: unexplained. Possibly from Arabic nadiy ‘generous’, ‘open-handed’.

Spanish: from the popular medieval personal name Arias which is probably of Germanic origin. Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Spanish family name.

French, Welsh, and English: from the French form of the Germanic personal name Carl ‘man’ (which was Latinized as Carolus). In France the personal name was popular from an early date, due to the fame of the Emperor Charlemagne (?742–814; Latin name Carolus Magnus, i.e. Charles the Great). The Old French form Charles was briefly introduced to England by the Normans, but was rare during the main period of surname formation. It was introduced more successfully to Scotland in the 16th century by the Stuarts, who had strong ties with France, and was brought by them to England in the 17th century. Its frequency as a Welsh surname is attributable to the late date of Welsh surname formation. Old English Ceorl ‘peasant’ is also found as a byname, but the resulting Middle English form, Charl, with a patronymic in -s, if it existed at all, would have been absorbed by the French form introduced by the Normans. Compare Carl. English variants pronounced with initial k- for the most part reflect the cognate Old Norse personal name Karl, Karli. Swedish: ornamental form of a Frenchified form of the Old Norse personal name Karl.

Spanish: habitational name from places called Luna in Zaragoza, Araba, and Lleón provinces. Jewish (Sephardic): from the female personal name Luna (Spanish luna ‘moon’).

Spanish and Portuguese: from a personal name of uncertain, possibly pre-Roman, origin.

English, Scottish, Welsh, French, German, Dutch, Hungarian (Sámuel), Jewish, and South Indian: from the Biblical male personal name Samuel (Hebrew Shemuel ‘Name of God’). This name is also well established in South India. In North America this has absorbed other European cognates such as Greek Samouelidis. It is found as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. is used as a family name among families from southern India.

Spanish (Márquez): patronymic from the personal name Marcos.

Muslim: adjectival derivative of Muhammad.

Portuguese: topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous oak tree, carvalho, or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Muslim and Jewish (Sephardic): from a personal name based on Arabic salim ‘perfect’, ‘faultless’, ‘safe’, ‘secure’. Salim bin Thabet was one of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad. The Mughal emperor Jahangir (1605–1627) was also known as Prince Salim. This is a widespread name in all Muslim countries.

Muslim: see Kassem.

Variant spelling (mainly French and South Indian) of Emanuel, which was used in the Middle Ages by Christians as an alternative name for Christ. The name was also borne by a 3rd-century martyr. Among Christians in India it is used as a given name, and in the U.S. it has come to be used as a last name among families from southern India.

Muslim: variant of Rahman. Variant of German Rehmann.

Spanish: from the personal name Bautista, Spanish form of Baptist.

Portuguese: religious byname from Portuguese nascimento ‘birth’, ‘nativity’ (Late Latin nascimentum, from nasci ‘to be born’). This was one of the epithets of the Virgin Mary (Maria do Nascimento), and was also used as a given name for children born at Christmas.

Muslim: variant of Haq.

Spanish and Portuguese: from a Germanic personal name composed of a metathesized form of frið ‘peace’ (or farð ‘journey’, ‘expedition’) + nanð ‘daring’, ‘boldness’. See also Ferdinand. This family name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Muslim: variant of Mahmood.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic salman ‘safe’. Salman al-Farsi was one of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad. This name is widespread throughout the Muslim world. Variant of Suleiman. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Salmon 2. English, French, Dutch, and German: from a reduced form of Salomon. Compare Salmon 1.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic kabir ‘splendid’, ‘magnificent’. Al-Kabir ‘the Magnificent’ is an attribute of Allah.

German and Dutch: patronymic from a short form of a Germanic (Frisian) personal name with agi ‘sword’ as its first element. Scottish: from a shortened form of the Gaelic personal name Adhamh ‘Adam’.

Korean (Ch’a): there is only one Chinese character for the Ch’a surname, and the Y{ou}nan Ch’a clan is the only clan. Their founding ancestor was Ch’a Hyoj{ou}n, son of Yu Ch’a-tal (10th century ad). Ch’a is a fairly common surname throughout the Korean peninsula, but most of the clan’s members live in Ky{ou}ngsang province, Hwanghae province, or P’y{ou}ngan province. Chinese : variant of Zha.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with fuentes, plural of fuente ‘spring’, ‘well’ (see Fuente), as for example Fuentes (Cuenca, Albacete, and Segovia provinces), Fuentes Calientes (Teruel), Fuentes de León (Badajoz), Fuentes de Valdepero (Palencia).

Portuguese: from the personal name Domingos, Portuguese equivalent of Dominick.

Spanish (Marín), French, English, Slovenian, Croatian, and Romanian: from the Latin personal name Marinus, borne by several minor early saints. Originally this was a Roman family name derived from Marius (compare Marie), but was often taken to mean ‘of the sea’. Italian (Venetia): variant of Marino. Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian: from the personal name Marija or its short form Mara (see Maria). Galician and Spanish: habitational name from a place called Marín, in particular the one in Pontevedra, Galicia. French: occupational name for a sailor, Old French marin (Late Latin marinus, a derivative of mare ‘sea’). Asturian-Leonese (Marín): occupational name for a sailor in Asturies.

French (Cissé): habitational name from a place called Cissé in Vienne. African: unexplained.

English (very common in England, especially in the south Midlands, and in Wales) and German (especially northwestern Germany): patronymic from the personal name Adam. In the U.S. this form has absorbed many patronymics and other derivatives of Adam in languages other than English. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

West African: unexplained.

English, Scottish, Irish, German, and Scandinavian: from Middle English hall (Old English heall), Middle High German halle, Old Norse holl all meaning ‘hall’ (a spacious residence), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a hall or an occupational name for a servant employed at a hall. In some cases it may be a habitational name from places named with this word, which in some parts of Germany and Austria in the Middle Ages also denoted a salt mine. The English name has been established in Ireland since the Middle Ages, and, according to MacLysaght, has become numerous in Ulster since the 17th century.

English and Scottish: nickname from Middle English king, Old English cyning ‘king’ (originally merely a tribal leader, from Old English cyn(n) ‘tribe’, ‘race’ + the Germanic suffix -ing). The word was already used as a byname before the Norman Conquest, and the nickname was common in the Middle Ages, being used to refer to someone who conducted himself in a kingly manner, or one who had played the part of a king in a pageant, or one who had won the title in a tournament. In other cases it may actually have referred to someone who served in the king’s household. The American surname has absorbed several European cognates and equivalents with the same meaning, for example German König (see Koenig), Swiss German Küng, French Leroy. It is also found as an Ashkenazic Jewish surname, of ornamental origin. Chinese : variant of Jin 1. Chinese , , , : see Jing.

Muslim: variant of Abdullah.

Muslim and Jewish (Sephardic): from an Arabic personal name based on habib ‘beloved’, ‘friend’, used by both Muslims and Jews. Habibullah ‘beloved of Allah’ is an epithet of Mohammad.

English, Scottish, and northern Irish: distinguishing name (Middle English yunge, yonge ‘young’), for the younger of two bearers of the same personal name, usually distinguishing a younger brother or a son. In Middle English this name is often found with the Anglo-Norman French definite article, for example Robert le Yunge. Americanization of a cognate, equivalent, or like-sounding surname in some other language, notably German Jung and Junk, Dutch (De) Jong(h) and Jong, and French Lejeune and LaJeunesse. assimilated form of French Dion or Guyon. Chinese: see Yang.

Portuguese and Galician: occupational name for a hunter, moneiro. This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

Arabic: variant of Issa. Japanese: written with characters meaning ‘that’ and ‘help’. The name is found mostly in the Ryukyu Islands.

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian (Dániel), Romanian, and Jewish: from the Hebrew personal name Daniel ‘God is my judge’, borne by a major prophet in the Bible. The major factor influencing the popularity of the personal name (and hence the frequency of the surname) was undoubtedly the dramatic story in the Book of Daniel, recounting the prophet’s steadfast adherence to his religious faith in spite of pressure and persecution from the Mesopotamian kings in whose court he served: Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar (at whose feast Daniel interpreted the mysterious message of doom that appeared on the wall, being thrown to the lions for his pains). The name was also borne by a 2nd-century Christian martyr and by a 9th-century hermit, the legend of whose life was popular among Christians during the Middle Ages; these had a minor additional influence on the adoption of the Christian name. Among Orthodox Christians in Eastern Europe the name was also popular as being that of a 4th-century Persian martyr, who was venerated in the Orthodox Church. Irish: reduced form of McDaniel, which is actually a variant of McDonnell, from the Gaelic form of Irish Donal (equivalent to Scottish Donald), erroneously associated with the Biblical personal name Daniel. See also O’Donnell.

Korean: there is one Chinese character for the Son surname. Some sources mention as many as 118 clans for the Son family, but only seven can be documented. According to legend, the Son clan’s founding ancestor was named Kuryema and was one of the six pre-Shilla elders who made Pak Hyokkose the first king of Shilla. The first documented ancestor, however, was called Sun. Sun is said to have lived a poverty-stricken existence in the Shilla period. His son was a voracious eater and ate Sun’s old mother’s food as well as his own. Sun, feeling that he could always get another son but that his mother was irreplaceable, decided to go into the mountains to bury his son. When he dug into the ground, however, he found a bell. He hung the bell on a nearby tree and rang it. So loud and clear was the cry of the bell that the king heard it in the palace below and came to investigate. The king was amazed at the bell and gave Sun a house and food. Later, a Buddhist temple was built on that spot. The founding ancestor of the Iljik (or Andong) Son clan originally bore the surname Sun, but during the reign of Koryo king Hyonjong (1009–1031), Sun was changed to Son. English: from Middle English sone ‘son’, hence a distinguishing epithet for a son who shared the same personal name as his father. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Sohn, or Sonn.

Muslim: variant of Abdullah.

Muslim: from the Arabic personal name ?Husayn, a diminutive of ?Hasan ‘good’, ‘handsome’ (see Hasan). Husain (c. 626–680) and his elder brother Hasan were sons of the khalif ?Ali ibn Abi ?Talib (see Ali) and, through their mother Fatima, grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad. The death of Husain in a massacre at Karbela signaled the beginning of a long period of internecine strife in the Muslim world. Shiite Muslims regard Hasan and his brother Husain as the true successors of Muhammad, and observe the day of his death as a day of mourning. The name is popular among Sunni Muslims as well as Shiites.

English, Scottish, and northern Irish: occupational name for a maker of machinery, mostly in wood, of any of a wide range of kinds, from Old English wyrhta, wryhta ‘craftsman’ (a derivative of wyrcan ‘to work or make’). The term is found in various combinations (for example, Cartwright and Wainwright), but when used in isolation it generally referred to a builder of windmills or watermills. Common New England Americanized form of French Le Droit, a nickname for an upright person, a man of probity, from Old French droit ‘right’, in which there has been confusion between the homophones right and wright.

Muslim: variant of Abdo.

English and Scottish: from a Celtic personal name of great antiquity and obscurity. In England the personal name is now usually spelled Alan, the surname Allen; in Scotland the surname is more often Allan. Various suggestions have been put forward regarding its origin; the most plausible is that it originally meant ‘little rock’. Compare Gaelic ailín, diminutive of ail ‘rock’. The present-day frequency of the surname Allen in England and Ireland is partly accounted for by the popularity of the personal name among Breton followers of William the Conqueror, by whom it was imported first to Britain and then to Ireland. St. Alan(us) was a 5th-century bishop of Quimper, who was a cult figure in medieval Brittany. Another St. Al(l)an was a Cornish or Breton saint of the 6th century, to whom a church in Cornwall is dedicated.

Japanese: ‘miscanthus reed’; rare as a surname in Japan. In America the name may be the result of shortening any of several other names beginning with kaya, such as Kayashima, none of which is common by itself. Turkish and Greek: from a personal name based on Turkish kaya ‘rock’, or nickname for a tough or obstinate person.

Japanese: from a common place name meaning ‘lucky (or good) rice paddy’. The surname is variously written; it is very common throughout Japan, especially in the west and the Ryukyu Islands. It is listed in the Shinsen shojiroku.

Muslim: from Arabic ?abduh ‘his servant’, i.e. ‘his (Allah’s) servant’. ?Abduh is one of the epithets of the Prophet Muhammad.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic akram ‘most generous’, an elative form of Karim.

Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan (Móra): habitational name from any of the places named Mora, in some cases from mora ‘mulberry’ (Late Latin mora, originally the plural of classical Latin morum). Occitan and Catalan (Morà): from Morandus, an old personal name of uncertain derivation and meaning. Italian: topographic name from Old Italian mora ‘pile of stones’. Hungarian (Móra): from a pet form of the personal name Móricz, Hungarian form of Morris. Czech and Polish: from a short form of a personal name, e.g. Czech Mauric, Polish Maurycy, derived from Latin Mauritius (see Morris). Polish: possibly a nickname from mora ‘sickness’, ‘plague’. Czech: possibly a nickname from mora ‘vampire’.

Muslim: variant of Salim.

Muslim: variant of ?Siddiq ‘truthful’ (see Siddiqi).

Japanese: from a word meaning ‘horse-riding ground’, ‘race track’; a common place name. The surname is found mostly in west central Japan. One Baba family in Kai (now Yamanashi prefecture) were samurai, vassals of the Takeda family. Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Hungarian: from the Slavic word baba ‘old woman’, ‘grandmother’, ‘witch’, hence an unflattering nickname for a man thought to resemble an old woman. In Czech baba can also mean ‘coward’. Hungarian (Bába): habitational name from one of many places called Bába, in Abaúj, Borsod, Somogy, and Vas counties of Hungary, and Közép-Szolnok county, now in Romania. Arabic (Baba): from a diminutive of Abu ‘father’.

Japanese: from a place name meaning ‘mountain rice paddy’; the surname, like the place name, is very common, so that many of its bearers may be unrelated. The surname is especially common along the eastern seaboard. It is listed in the Shinsen shojiroku.

Chinese : from the name of a fiefdom called Teng in present-day Shandong province, which existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Accounts of the name Teng in fact go back much further, to the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), who had a son called Teng. The Zhou dynasty name is documented from 1122 bc, when the fourteenth son of Wen Wang, the founder of the dynasty, was granted a fief named Teng in present-day Shandong province. His descendants eventually adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : variant spelling of Deng.

One who came from Sandoval, in Spain.The latin "sancto-vallis" - holy valley - provides the meaning of this surname. One who dwells in a holy valley.Castilian name from political subdivision of Villadiego (Burgos), and descended from Count Fernán-González.

Spanish (Velásquez): patronymic from the personal name Velasco.

Chinese : from the name of a city called Si, which existed in the State of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). Chinese : variant of Shi 3. Dutch: unexplained.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Spain and Portugal named Estrada, from estrada ‘road’, Latin stata (via) (from sternere ‘to strew or cover’), a term denoting a paved way.

Muslim and Jewish (Sephardic): from Arabic abu ‘father’, in Muslim names used to form the ‘kunya’ (name meaning ‘father of’) in combination with the name of a man’s child, usually his firstborn son. Thus, a man might be addressed as Abu ?Hasan ‘father of Hasan’ rather than by his personal name, say ?Ali. In traditional Muslim society, a man is generally known and addressed by his kunya, rather than by his ism (his personal name), the use of which can seem unduly familiar. Abu-Bakr, literally ‘father of the Young Camel’ is the name by which Muhammad’s son-in-law, the first of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs (ruled 632–634) is known. Abu-?Talib ‘father of the Seeker’ was an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. Abu-Fadl, ‘father of the Virtuous one’ was the kunya of ?Abbas, another uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. A kunya may also be used to form a nickname, as in the case of Abu-Turab ?Ali ‘Ali, father of dust’, a kunya of Khalif Ali, the fourth of the ‘rightly guided’ khalifs, conferred on him by the Prophet Muhammad.

English: one of the most common and widespread of English surnames, either a nickname for someone who was fond of dressing in this color (Old English grene) or who had played the part of the ‘Green Man’ in the May Day celebrations, or a topographic name for someone who lived near a village green, Middle English grene (a transferred use of the color term). In North America this name has no doubt assimilated cognates from other European languages, notably German Grün (see Gruen). Jewish (American): Americanized form of German Grün or Yiddish Grin, Ashkenazic ornamental names meaning ‘green’ or a short form of any of the numerous compounds with this element. Irish: translation of various Gaelic surnames derived from glas ‘gray’, ‘green’, ‘blue’. See also Fahey. North German: short form of a habitational name from a place name with Gren- as the first element (for example Greune, Greubole).

English: ethnic name for someone with Scottish connections. Scottish and Irish: ethnic name for a Gaelic speaker.

English: patronymic from the personal name Robert. This surname is very frequent in Wales and west central England. It is also occasionally borne by Jews, presumably as an Americanized form of a like-sounding Jewish surname.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rivas or Ribas, a variant of Ribas. in some cases, variant of Catalan Ribes (see Ribas).

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived in a place overgrown with broom, from a collective form of escoba ‘broom’ (Late Latin scopa), or a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word: for example, Escobar de Campos (León), Escobar de Polendos (Segovia), and three minor places in Murcia.

Chinese : from a character in the name of the state of Zhu Lou, which existed during the Zhou dynasty. After Wu Wang established the dynasty in 1122 bc, he granted Zhu Lou to a descendant of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu. Later descendants took the character for Lou from the place name as their surname. Chinese : variant of Lu 2. Dutch (de Lou): variant of Lau. Scottish: unexplained.

Spanish (Durán) and Catalan: from the personal name Durand (see Durant, Durante). English: variant of Durant. Polish: from a derivative of Dura. Czech: from a derivative of Dura.

Vietnamese ({D-}inh): unexplained.

English: variant of Day 1 and 2. German: topographic name from a field name in North Rhine-Westphalia, denoting a sizeable piece of land. Welsh: from Dai or Dei, pet forms of the personal name Dafydd, Welsh form of David. Indian (Bengal and Orissa) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Kayasth) name, probably from Sanskrit deya ‘suitable for a gift’.

Spanish (Benítez): patronymic from Benito.

Spanish (Cortés), Catalan (Cortès), and Portuguese (Cortês): from cortés ‘courteous’, ‘polite’, a derivative of corte (see Corte), a nickname for a refined person, sometimes no doubt given ironically. Spanish and Portuguese (Cortes): habitational name from any of numerous places in Spain and Portugal named with cortes, plural of corte ‘court’.

Scottish: variant spelling of Muir. Welsh: from mawr ‘big’ (see Moore). French: nickname for a dark-skinned person, from Old French more ‘Moor’ (Latin maurus) (see Moore 2). French (also Moré): nickname from Old French of more ‘Moor’ or from moré, moret ‘dark brown’ (diminutive forms). The term was also used to refer to dark-colored cloth. French (Moré): from a short pet form of a Germanic personal name beginning with Maur-, Mor- ‘Moor’, for example, Morbold (+ bold ‘bold’, ‘brave’) or Morbert (+ berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’). Indian (Maharashtra); pronounced as two syllables: Hindu (Maratha) name, probably from Marathi mor ‘peacock’ (Sanskrit mayura). It is based on the name of a Maratha clan.

Chinese : from Kuang Chengzi, a legendary figure from the time of the legendary emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc). Chinese : from a city called Kuang that existed in the state of Lu during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc).

Vietnamese ({D-}ào): unexplained.

Korean (Kwon): there is only Chinese character for the Kwon surname. Some sources list as many as 56 clans, but only two are documented. One of these, the Andong Kwon clan, was founded by a Shilla aristocrat named Kim Shin who helped Wang Kon, the founder of the Koryo kingdom, establish himself as ruler in 918. The new king bestowed upon Kim Shin a new surname: Kwon, meaning ‘authority’. The Andong Kwon clan has one of the oldest extant printed genealogies in Korea. The Yech’on Kwon clan’s original surname was Hun. However, the name Hun was chosen for the Koryo king Myongjong’s posthumous name in 1197. To avoid having living people using a king’s posthumous name, the Hun family were directed to change their name to Kwon. The head of the Hun clan at this time became Kwon So, the founding ancestor of the Yech’on Kwon clan. Approximately two thirds of all present-day Kwon clan members live in the Kyongsang provinces. Chinese : variant of Guan 1. Chinese : variant of Guan 2.

Ethiopian: probably from Amharic abeba ‘flower’, ‘blossom’.

Welsh: patronymic from the personal name Iefan (see Evan), with redundant English patronymic -s.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic qamar ‘moon’. Hungarian: from kamara ‘little room’, from Latin camera or camara ‘house’, ‘room’, ‘royal treasury’. The most common Hungarian variant of this surname, Kamarás, is a status name for the treasurer of a court or of the royal household, or alternatively for a chamberlain. Compare German Kammerer.

Scottish: nickname from Gaelic cam ‘crooked’, ‘bent’ + beul ‘mouth’. The surname was often represented in Latin documents as de bello campo ‘of the fair field’, which led to the name sometimes being ‘translated’ into Anglo-Norman French as Beauchamp. In New England documents, Campbell sometimes occurs as a representation of the French name Hamel.

Muslim (common in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India): from a title of Persian origin, a short form of Arabic Amir ‘prince’, ‘commander’. Polish: from a short form of any of various Old Polish personal names containing the element mir ‘peace’, ‘quiet’, ‘esteem’, for example Miroslaw or Jaromir. Catalan: patronymic from Mir, a medieval personal name of Germanic origin (see Miro). French: variant of Mire 1.

Chinese : from a word meaning ‘cart’. During the Han dynasty (206 bc–220 ad) there was a prime minister who became to old to walk very far unaided, so he had himself brought to and from work in a cart, and became known as ‘Prime Minister Cart’. His descendants adopted the character for cart as their surname. Chinese : variant of Xie 1. Vietnamese: unexplained. Korean: variant of Chae. Spanish: from a pet form of the personal name José.

Southeast Asian: unexplained. Dutch: variant of Winne. English: variant spelling of Wynn.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic khalid ‘eternity’, ‘eternal’, ‘remaining’. Khalid ibn-al-Walid (d. 642) was the Muslim military leader who brought about the defeat of the Byzantine Empire and its expulsion from Syria. The Prophet Muhammad called him Sayf-ullah ‘sword of Allah’.

Catalan: habitational name from any of several places called Borges in Catalonia, for example, Les Borges Blanques, in Lleida, or Les Borges del Camp, in Tarragona. Portuguese: of disputed etymology; possibly a habitational name for someone from Bourges in France. German: from a short form of the medieval personal name Liborius. Danish: from the German patronymic Borchers.

English: variant of Lum. Dutch: perhaps from a short form of a Germanic personal name, Lieman or Liemaar. Korean: variant of Im. Chinese : Fujian variant of Lin 1. Filipino: unexplained.

from the French personal name Pierre (see Peter). from Old French pierre ‘stone’, ‘rock’ (Latin petra), a topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of stony soil or by a large outcrop of rock, or a metonymic occupational name for a quarryman or stonemason.

West African: probably a variant of the Muslim name Diab.

Indian (Andhra Pradesh): Hindu name, from Telugu re?d?di ‘village headman’. The Kapus or Reddis are the largest caste in the former Madras Presidency (which included most of southern India before the reorganization of the Indian states on linguistic lines). Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Roidigh, a variant of Ó Rodaigh (see Roddy).

Aymara (or possibly also Quechua): Castilianized variant of Qhispi, most probably a nickname from Aymara qhispi ‘glass’, ‘precious stone’ (or from Quechua qhispi umiña ‘diamond’). This name is mainly found in Bolivia and Peru.

Muslim: see Youssef.

Spanish: habitational name from a place named Lara de los Infantes in Burgos province.

English and Scottish: extremely common and widely distributed topographic name for someone who lived on or by a hill, Middle English hill (Old English hyll). English: from the medieval personal name Hill, a short form of Hilary (see Hillary) or of a Germanic (male or female) compound name with the first element hild ‘strife’, ‘battle’. German: from a short form of Hildebrand or any of a variety of other names, male and female, containing Germanic hild as the first element. Jewish (American): Anglicized form of various Jewish names of similar sound or meaning. English translation of Finnish Mäki (‘hill’), or of any of various other names formed with this element, such as Mäkinen, Heinämaki, Kivimäki.

Catalan (València) and Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called València or Valencia, principally the major city in eastern Spain, which was formerly the capital of an independent Moorish kingdom of the same name, until it was reconquered in 1239 by James I, king of the Catalan dynasty, and became part of the Crown of Aragon together with the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Aragon. The city was apparently named from an honorary title derived from Latin valens ‘brave’.

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a copse or thicket, Middle English s(c)hage, s(c)hawe (Old English sceaga), or a habitational name from any of the numerous minor places named with this word. The English surname was also established in Ireland in the 17th century. Scottish and Irish: adopted as an English form of any of various Gaelic surnames derived from the personal name Sitheach ‘wolf’. Americanized form of some like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish surname. Chinese : variant of Shao.

Spanish (Félix), Portuguese, English, German, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from a medieval personal name (Latin Felix, genitive Felicis, meaning ‘lucky’, ‘fortunate’). This was a relatively common Roman family name, said to have been first adopted as a nickname by Sulla. It was very popular among early Christians and was borne by a large number of early saints.

Spanish form of Basque Agirre, a topographic name from Basque ager, agir ‘open space’, ‘pasture’. This is found as the first element of several place names, reflected in surnames such as Aguirrezabal(a) ‘broad open space’; the modern surname may be a shortening of any of these.

Muslim: from either of two Arabic personal names, based on ?sadiq ‘friend’, ‘companion’ (see the Qur’an 26:101) or ?siddiq ‘righteous’, ‘upright’ (see the Qur’an 19:54).

nickname for an ugly or stupid person, from Spanish mal donado ‘ill-favored’. The phrase is a compound of mal ‘badly’ + donado ‘given’, ‘endowed’, past participle of donare ‘to give’, ‘to bestow’. habitational name from Maldonado, a village in the province of Albacete.

Muslim: variant of Omar. French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements aud ‘wealth’ + mari, meri ‘renowned’. As a Huguenot name, it is also found in Germany. Possibly a respelling of German Ohmer.

Spanish (Calderón): topographic name from an augmentative of caldera ‘basin’, ‘crater’, ‘hollow’, a common element of stream and mountain names, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example Calderón in Valencia province. Alternatively, it may be a metonymic occupational name from the same word in the sense ‘kettle’, ‘cauldron’.

English and Scottish: patronymic from the medieval personal name Nel or Neal, Anglo-Scandinavian forms of the Gaelic name Niall (see Neill). This was adopted by the Scandinavians in the form Njal and was introduced into northern England and East Anglia by them, rather than being taken directly from Gaelic. Americanized spelling of the like-sounding Scandinavian names Nilsen, Nielsen, and Nilsson.

Chinese: variant of Wang. Chinese: variant of Huang.

Spanish: variant spelling of Valdés (see Valdes).

English: occupational name, from Middle English bakere, Old English bæcere, a derivative of bacan ‘to bake’. It may have been used for someone whose special task in the kitchen of a great house or castle was the baking of bread, but since most humbler households did their own baking in the Middle Ages, it may also have referred to the owner of a communal oven used by the whole village. The right to be in charge of this and exact money or loaves in return for its use was in many parts of the country a hereditary feudal privilege. Compare Miller. Less often the surname may have been acquired by someone noted for baking particularly fine bread or by a baker of pottery or bricks. Americanized form of cognates or equivalents in many other languages, for example German Bäcker, Becker; Dutch Bakker, Bakmann; French Boulanger. For other forms see Hanks and Hodges (1988).

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ra?him ‘merciful’, ‘compassionate’. Ur-Ra?him ‘the Merciful’ is an attribute of Allah (see the Qur’an 2:173). The name is also found in combinations such as ?Abd ur-Ra?him ‘servant of the Merciful’.

Portuguese: from correia ‘leather strap’, ‘belt’, ‘rein’, ‘shoelace’ (Latin corrigia ‘fastening’, from corrigere ‘to straighten’, ‘to correct’), applied as a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of such articles.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for a belligerent person or for a soldier, from guerra ‘war’. In some cases the Italian name may represent a short form of various compound personal names containing this element, for example Vinciguèrra. The Iberian name may in some cases reflect a misinterpretation of the Basque base ezquerra, esquerra, from esker ‘left-handed’. Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gerra, a topographic name for someone who lived in a break or depression in a range of hills, from Basque gerri ‘waist’.

Vietnamese: unexplained.

Indian (north-central India): Hindu name, from Sanskrit varman ‘armor’, ‘protection’. Although it was once associated exclusively with the Kshatriya class, it has now been adopted by many non-Kshatriya communities.

Muslim (?Arif): from the Arabic adjective ?arif ‘learned’, ‘expert’.

Chinese : name borne by descendants of Xu Jianbo, a senior official of the state of Jin during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc).

English, Welsh, French, South Indian, etc.: from the personal name George, Greek Georgios, from an adjectival form, georgios ‘rustic’, of georgos ‘farmer’. This became established as a personal name in classical times through its association with the fashion for pastoral poetry. Its popularity in western Europe increased at the time of the Crusades, which brought greater contact with the Orthodox Church, in which several saints and martyrs of this name are venerated, in particular a saint believed to have been martyred at Nicomedia in ad 303, who, however, is at best a shadowy figure historically. Nevertheless, by the end of the Middle Ages St. George had become associated with an unhistorical legend of dragon-slaying exploits, which caught the popular imagination throughout Europe, and he came to be considered the patron saint of England among other places. As an American family name, this has absorbed cognates from other European languages, including German Georg and Greek patronymics such as Georgiou, Georgiadis, Georgopoulos, and the status name Papageorgiou ‘priest George’. In English-speaking countries, this surname is also found as an Anglicized form of Greek surnames such as Hatzigeorgiou ‘George the Pilgrim’ and patronymics such as Giorgopoulos ‘son of George’. It is used as a given name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a surname among families from southern India.

Spanish (especially southern Spain): habitational name from any of various places called Vera or La Vera, named with vera ‘river bank’.

Chinese : from the name of a man called Xi Zhong, credited with inventing the carriage, who lived during the Xia dynasty (2205–1766 bc).

Spanish (Cárdenas): habitational name from places in the provinces of Almería and Logroño named Cárdenas, from the feminine plural of cárdeno ‘blue’, ‘bluish purple’ (Late Latin cardinus, from carduus ‘thistle’). Presumably the noun tierras ‘lands’ is to be understood, and the reference is to land covered with bluish plants, such as thistles or vines.

Scottish and English: unexplained; possibly a respelling of Munn, from Old Norse Munni, Munnr, a byname meaning ‘mouth’. Korean: there are two Chinese characters for the surname Mun. Although some records indicate that there are as many as 131 Mun clans, only three can be traced. The founding ancestor of the oldest of these, the Namp’yong Mun clan, was named Mun Ta-song and was born in 472. According to legend, he was found by Shilla King Chabi Maripkan in a stone box at the end of a rainbow by a lotus pond. The Chinese character Mun was inscribed in the box, so the king gave that as a surname to the child. The founders of the other two Mun clans were originally named Cha and Kim, but after studying in China they changed their names to Mun (the Chinese character Mun means ‘writing’ or ‘literature’).

Spanish: probably a Castilianized or Americanized form of Sousa, or (less likely) from sosa ‘seaweed’.

Muslim: variant spelling of Haidar. South German: habitational name for someone from a place called Haid, or a topographic name for someone who lived on a heath (see Heid).

Spanish (also found in Portugal and Brazil): topographic name for someone who lived by a mountain ridge or chain of hills, from an adjectival derivative of serra.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a tailor, literally ‘cutter’, from Middle High German snider, German Schneider, Yiddish shnayder. The same term was sometimes used to denote a woodcutter. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.

Scottish, English, Dutch, German, Danish, Swedish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a tall person, from Older Scots, Middle English, Middle Dutch, Middle German, and Danish lang ‘long’, Swedish lång. Hungarian: from láng ‘flame’, hence probably a nickname for a passionate person, or a man with a fighting spirit. Alternatively it may be an indirect occupational name for a smith or someone who worked with fire. Chinese : from the name of a place called Lang City in the state of Lu, founded during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) by a grandson of the ruler. His descendants lived there and adopted Lang as their surname. Vietnamese (Lãng): unexplained.

German and Dutch: from Middle High German meier, a status name for a steward, bailiff, or overseer, which later came to be used also to denote a tenant farmer, which is normally the sense in the many compound surnames formed with this term as a second element. Originally it denoted a village headman (ultimately from Latin maior ‘greater’, ‘superior’). Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name Meyer (from Hebrew Meir ‘enlightener’, a derivative of Hebrew or ‘light’). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Meidhir, from meidhir ‘mirth’. Danish: variant spelling of Meier 3.

English: unexplained. The name is now found only in Hampshire, but was formerly more widespread. Iranian: from a female personal name, Parvin, Persian name of the Pleiades (constellation).

Vietnamese (Lý) and Hmong: unexplained. English: variant of Lye.

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Figueroa, from a derivative of figueira ‘fig tree’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?hadi ‘leader’, ‘guide’. Al-?Hadi ‘the Guide’ is one of the names of Allah. It is also a title of ?Ali ibn Muhammad Naqi, tenth imam of the Shiites (died 868).

Romanian: ethnic name for a Hungarian. Indian (Maharashtra): Hindu (Maratha) name meaning ‘crocodile’.

habitational name from any of the numerous places named Villanueva, from Spanish villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + nueva (feminine) ‘new’ (Latin nova). Castilianized spelling of Catalan and Galician Vilanova, a habitational name from a frequent place name, of the same derivation as 1 above.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the various minor places, for example in the provinces of Burgos, Guadalajara, and Valladolid, named from Spanish padilla ‘frying pan’, ‘breadpan’ (Latin patella, a diminutive of patina ‘shallow dish’), a word which was commonly used in the topographical sense of a gentle depression.

Chinese : surname borne by descendants of a man named Ju, who lived during the early part of the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : variant of Zhu 1. Korean: variant of Chu.

Basque: habitational name or topographic name from Basque ai ‘slope’, ‘hillside’ + al(h)a ‘pasture’.

Muslim: from an Arabic personal name based on na?sir ‘granter of victory’. Compare Nasir, Nassar. German: habitational name for someone from any of the places called Nassen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, and Bavaria. German (Näßer): variant of Naser 2.

English (also common in Wales): patronymic from Edward.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of the places in the provinces of Barcelona, Cuenca, and Burgos named Pineda, from Spanish and Catalan pineda ‘pine forest’. in some instances possibly Asturian-Leonese Piñeda, from a town called Piñeda in Asturies.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rosales, from the plural of rosal, collective of rosa ‘rose’ (see Rosal). Galician (Rosalés): name for someone from Rosal, a town in Baixo Miñ district in Galicia.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Cúáin ‘descendant of Cúán’ (see Coyne). Chinese : from a word that means ‘coin’. During the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) the coin official was an important functionary in charge of currency. Descendants of a coin official adopted the character as their surname. However, another character, , meaning ‘all’, pronounced identically, came to be used more often as a surname. Chinese : from the state of Quan, which existed during the Shang dynasty (1766–1122 bc). The name of the state is identical to a word meaning ‘power’. The Shang king Wu Ding granted the state to his grandson, whose descendants adopted Quan as their surname.

Muslim: from an Arabic surname indicating descent from or association with Husain.

Spanish: nickname for a man with white or fair hair or a pale complexion, from blanco ‘white’. Italian (Sicily): variant of Bianco, perhaps influenced by French blanc and Spanish (see 1 above).

Muslim: variant spelling of Mansur. Egyptian Arabic: habitational name from the city of Mansoura, in in the Nile Delta. It was named for a battle in 1250 in which the Saracens destroyed a Crusader force, capturing King Louis IX of France and holding him and many of his knights to ransom. Mansouras is also found as a Greek family name; there was a large Greek community in Mansoura until comparatively recently.

Muslim: variant of Rahman.

Chinese : variant of Shen 2. Chinese : variant of Shan 2. Other Southeast Asian: unexplained.

Portuguese: habitational name from any of various places called Brito. The place name is probably related to the root britt-. Compare Breton.

Spanish: nickname for a person with some peculiarity of the cheek or jaw, Spanish carrillo. The word is attested since the 13th century, but its origin is uncertain. It appears to be a diminutive of carro ‘cart’, ‘wagon’, and it has been suggested that the reference is to the movements of the jaw in chewing. The surname may also have denoted originally a bold or shameless person; for the semantic development compare Cheek.

Indian (Gujarat, Maharashtra, southern states): Hindu name meaning ‘father’, derived from Prakrit bappa, used as a respectful term of address for a man, also as a term of endearment for a male child. In Gujarat and Maharashtra the family name comes from the respectful term of address, while in the southern states the term of endearment evolved into a male given name, which is used as a family name among South Indians in the U.S.

Norwegian: habitational name from a farm name in Hordaland related to rong ‘stern (of a boat)’. Chinese : there are two sources of this surname. One is Rong Cheng, a senior minister to Emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), who is credited with the invention of the Chinese calendar. A second source is the title of an official who was in charge of ceremonial music, rongguan, during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : from the name of another senior minister to the Emperor Huang Di (2697–2595 bc), called Rong Yuan. A second source of the surname written with this character is a city called Rong, which was granted to a minister of the Zhou dynasty king Cheng Wang (1115–1078 bc). Chinese : when the state of Zhou overthrew the corrupt and brutal last king of the Shang dynasty, Zhou Xin, to establish the Zhou dynasty in 1122 bc, the son of Zhou Xin was granted the area of the former Shang capital. The Zhou believed that, in order to obtain the mandate of heaven necessary to rule, they had to grant lands and titles to the principal descendants of the great emperors of the past, even if that meant granting lands to the progeny of their enemies. Zhou Xin’s son rose in revolt against the new rulers and was killed. To replace him with another descendant of the Emperor Cheng Tang, the Zhou this time chose Zhou Xin’s elder half-brother, who was regarded as a virtuous man and who had attempted to curb Zhou Xin’s excesses; he was granted the title Duke of Song, but is usually known as Wei, Viscount of Song. Chinese sources state that the surname Rong was used by his ancestors, but do not indicate its origin. The Rong were a non-Chinese people living on the border of Chinese territories during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and this may be the source.

from the Middle English, Old French personal name Michel, vernacular form of Michael. nickname for a big man, from Middle English michel, mechel, muchel ‘big’. Irish (County Connacht): surname adopted as equivalent of Mulvihill.

English: nickname for someone born on a Sunday, from Middle English Sunday.

Spanish (Velázquez): variant of Velasquez.

Japanese (common in western Japan and the Ryukyu Islands): from a common place name; many bearers therefore may be unrelated. According to folklore, a habitation near a pine tree (matsu) from which a deity would issue to visit mortals would be named Matsumoto: ‘place of the (divine) pine tree’. See also Matsuda and Matsuoka.

English, German, Dutch, and Jewish: from the personal name Michael, ultimately from Hebrew Micha-el ‘Who is like God?’. This was borne by various minor Biblical characters and by one of the archangels, the protector of Israel (Daniel 10:13, 12:1; Rev. 12:7). In Christian tradition, Michael was regarded as the warrior archangel, conqueror of Satan, and the personal name was correspondingly popular throughout Europe, especially in knightly and military families. In English-speaking countries, this surname is also found as an Anglicized form of several Greek surnames having Michael as their root, for example Papamichaelis ‘Michael the priest’ and patronymics such as Michaelopoulos.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?amir ‘prince’, ‘commander’, ‘master’. ?Amri-al-Mu’minin ‘commander of the faithful’ was a title of Muslim khalifs. Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?amir ‘prosperous’. Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Arabic name.

Muslim: from the Arabic personal name Khalaf, literally ‘successor’, which is often used in combination with the father’s or the grandfather’s name. Khalaf bin Ahmad, an amir of the 10th century, was noted as a generous patron of learning.

Dutch, Danish, North German, English, Polish, etc.; Czech and Slovak (Ján): from the personal name Jan, a vernacular form of Latin Johannes (see John). Slovenian: from a pet form of the personal name Janez (see John). Muslim: unexplained. Chinese : variant of Zhan.

Indian (northern states): altered form of Tripathi.

Muslim (especially common in Pakistan): from a personal name based on Persian javed ‘eternal’.

Portuguese: unexplained. This very common Portuguese surname seems to have originated in Andalusia, Spain.

Indian (northern states): Hindu and Jain name, from modern Indo-Aryan bh?g?t ‘devotee’, ‘votary’, from Sanskrit bhakta, a derivative of the verb root bhaj- ‘to serve or adore’. As a Hindu name it is found in several communities, including the Banias in several states and the Marathas in Maharashtra.

English and Scottish: from Maurice, an Old French personal name introduced to Britain by the Normans, Latin Mauritius, a derivative of Maurus (see Moore). This was the name of several early Christian saints. In some cases it may be a nickname of the same derivation for someone with a swarthy complexion. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Muirghis, a variant of Ó Muirgheasa (see Morrissey). Welsh: Anglicized form of the Welsh personal name Meurig (from Latin Mauritius), which was gradually superseded in Wales by Morus, Morys, a derivative of the Anglo-Norman French form of the name (see 1). German: variant of Moritz. Americanized form of any of various like-sounding Jewish surnames (see Morse).

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Dutch, and German: from the personal name Gil, from French Gille(s), from Latin Aegidius (see Giles). German: from Slavic gil ‘bullfinch’, probably a nickname for a simpleton.

North African and Muslim: unexplained. Perhaps a variant of Salah.

Japanese: from a very common place name. The meaning as now written is ‘mountain entrance’, but originally the full meaning was ‘entrance to the mountain forest’ (yamabayashi no iriguchi). The surname occurs most frequently in western Japan. It is listed in the Shinsen shojiroku.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic latif ‘kind’, ‘gentle’. Al-Latif ‘the Kind’ is an attribute of Allah. This name is found in combinations such as ?Abd-al-Latif ‘servant of the Kind’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic mahdi ‘guided’. This was the name of the twelfth Shiite imam, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 939, giving rise to a belief that he will return and unite Muslims under his leadership, triumphing over injustice.

Muslim: variant of Rashid.

Greek, Spanish (Elías), Catalan, Portuguese, English, Welsh, French (Élias), German, Dutch, Hungarian (Éliás), Czech (Eliáš), and Jewish: from a medieval personal name, the New Testament Greek form of Hebrew Eliyahu ‘Jehovah is God’ (Anglicized as Elijah in the Old Testament of the King James Bible). This name was borne by a Biblical prophet, but its popularity among Christians in the Middle Ages was a result of its adoption by various early saints, including a 7th-century bishop of Syracuse and a 9th-century Spanish martyr.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a maker of objects of wood, metal, or bone by turning on a lathe, from Anglo-Norman French torner (Old French tornier, Latin tornarius, a derivative of tornus ‘lathe’). The surname may also derive from any of various other senses of Middle English turn, for example a turnspit, a translator or interpreter, or a tumbler. English: nickname for a fast runner, from Middle English turnen ‘to turn’ + ‘hare’. English: occupational name for an official in charge of a tournament, Old French tornei (in origin akin to 1). Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from a place called Turno or Turna, in Poland and Belarus, or from the city of Tarnów (Yiddish Turne) in Poland. Translated or Americanized form of any of various other like-meaning or like-sounding Jewish surnames. South German (T(h)ürner): occupational name for a guard in a tower or a topographic name from Middle High German turn ‘tower’, or a habitational name for someone from any of various places named Thurn, for example in Austria.

English, Dutch, North German, and Jewish (western Ashkenazic): patronymic from the personal name Philip. In North America this name has also absorbed cognate names from other European languages, for example Italian Filippi, Polish Filipowicz.

Iranian: variant of Reza.

Northern English: occupational name for a servant or attendant, from the Middle English word swein ‘servant’ or Old Norse sveinn ‘boy’, ‘servant’. In Old Norse this word is also found as a personal name in the form Sveinn; so in some cases the origin may be patronymic. Scottish and Irish: reduced form of McSwain.

Ethiopian: unexplained.

Muslim: see Youssef.

Chinese : from the name of Zhuo Hua, a senior adviser in the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc).

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese (Solís): habitational name from Solís in Asturies or a similarly named place elsewhere. English: from a medieval personal name bestowed on a child born after the death of a sibling, from Middle English solace ‘comfort’, ‘consolation’. The word also came to have the sense ‘delight’, ‘amusement’, and in some cases the surname may have arisen from a nickname for a playful or entertaining person.

English: occupational name for a transporter of goods, Middle English cartere, from an agent derivative of Middle English cart(e) or from Anglo-Norman French car(e)tier, a derivative of Old French caret (see Cartier). The Old French word coalesced with the earlier Middle English word cart(e) ‘cart’, which is from either Old Norse kartr or Old English cræt, both of which, like the Late Latin word, were probably originally derived from Celtic. Northern Irish: reduced form of McCarter.

Japanese: variously written, but most often with a character meaning ‘forest’, and denoting the sacred grove around a Shinto shrine. The character used to list the name in the Shinsen shojiroku means ‘guard’ or ‘keeper’. The name is mostly found in west-central Japan, the island of Shikoku, and in the Ryukyu Islands. Another name, properly Romanized as Mori, is written phonetically with the characters for ‘hair’ and ‘advantage’, but bearers of this name are also of the original Mori family. There were several daimyo families named Mori, the greatest originating in Aki (now part of Hiroshima prefecture). From their base in Choshu (Nagato: now part of Yamaguchi prefecture), they ruled much of western Honshu in the 16th century, until restricted by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to Choshu. Italian: patronymic form of Moro. German (Möri): from a pet form of the personal name Morhart (see Morath). Hungarian (Móri): habitational name for someone from a place called Mór in Fejér county of Hungary. Hungarian: patronymic from the personal name Mór, from Latin Maurus.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Murchadha ‘descendant of Murchadh’, a personal name composed of the elements muir ‘sea’ + cath ‘battle’, i.e. ‘sea-warrior’. This was an important family in Tyrone.

from a personal name based on na?sir ‘supporter’, ‘helper’ (Qur’an 9:116). from a personal name based on na?sir ‘protector’. It is found in compounds such as Nasruddin (Arabic Na?sir ud-Din) ‘protector of religion’, i.e. ‘defender of the faith (Islam)’. Compare Nasser.

Japanese (earlier pronounced Inoe); topographic name meaning ‘above the well’, found in western Japan and the Ryukyu Islands. Some bearers were daimyo of Mikawa (now part of Aichi prefecture); others were samurai from western Honshu and southern Kyushu.

Spanish, Galician, Aragonese, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places called with Salas, like Salas and Salas de los Barrios, (Galicia), Salas de los Infantes, (Burgos province), Salas Altas and Salas Baxas (Aragon), from the plural of Sala. Catalan and Asturian-Leonese: variant of Sales. Americanized spelling of Hungarian Szálas, a nickname from szálas ‘tall’.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from bravo ‘fierce’, ‘violent’, ‘courageous’ (from Latin barbarus ‘barbarian’, ‘ruffian’).

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Galician: from parra ‘vine bower’, ‘trellis’, a topographic name or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word.

Korean: There is only one Chinese character for this surname. Although some sources indicate that there are 157 different clans of the Paek family, modern research has shown them all to have derived from a single clan, the Suwon Paek. The clan’s founding ancestor was named Paek U-kyong; he migrated to Korea from China in 780.

Scottish: originally an occupational name for an administrative official of an estate, from Middle English stiward, Old English stigweard, stiweard, a compound of stig ‘house(hold)’ + weard ‘guardian’. In Old English times this title was used of an officer controlling the domestic affairs of a household, especially of the royal household; after the Conquest it was also used more widely as the native equivalent of Seneschal for the steward of a manor or manager of an estate.

Portuguese: habitational name from any of at least seven minor places so called. Tavarés: variant of Tabarés (see Tabares).

Muslim: from Persian afzal (Arabic af?dal), literally ‘better’ or ‘best’, used as an epithet for a learned man.

Indian: variant of Varma.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Coileáin and Mac Coileáin (see Cullen 1). English: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Col(l)in, a pet form of Coll, itself a short form of Nicholas. Americanized form of French Colin.

English: occupational name for a maker and repairer of wooden vessels such as barrels, tubs, buckets, casks, and vats, from Middle English couper, cowper (apparently from Middle Dutch kuper, a derivative of kup ‘tub’, ‘container’, which was borrowed independently into English as coop). The prevalence of the surname, its cognates, and equivalents bears witness to the fact that this was one of the chief specialist trades in the Middle Ages throughout Europe. In America, the English name has absorbed some cases of like-sounding cognates and words with similar meaning in other European languages, for example Dutch Kuiper. Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of Kupfer and Kupper (see Kuper). Dutch: occupational name for a buyer or merchant, Middle Dutch coper.

Spanish: variant of Galician Quinteiro, a habitational name from Quintero in Ourense province, Galicia, so named from quinteiro ‘farmstead’.

Muslim: Arabic family name meaning ‘descended from or associated with A?hmad’ (see Ahmad).

Indian (Kerala): Hindu (Nayar) name denoting membership of the Nayar community, which is from Malayalam nayar ‘leader’, ‘lord’, ‘soldier’ (from Sanskrit naya(ka) ‘leader’ + the honorific plural ending -r). The Nayars were regarded as protectors of the land. Northern Irish: reduced form of McNair.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Ceallaigh ‘descendant of Ceallach’, an ancient Irish personal name, originally a byname meaning ‘bright-headed’, later understood as ‘frequenting churches’ (Irish ceall). There are several early Irish saints who bore this name. Kelly is now the most common of all Irish family names in Ireland.

Portuguese and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous pine tree or by a pine forest, from pinheiro ‘pine’, or habitational name for any of the numerous places named Pinheiro.

German: from a short form of any of a number of personal names beginning with Old High German adal ‘noble’. Compare Edel. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from Adel ‘nobility’. Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic adil ‘just’, ‘legally competent (as a witness)’.

German (also Wägner) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a carter or cartwright, from an agent derivative of Middle High German wagen ‘cart’, ‘wagon’, German Wagen. The German surname is also well established in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, eastern Europe, and elsewhere as well as in German-speaking countries.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a weaver, Middle High German wëber, German Weber, an agent derivative of weben ‘to weave’. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe, being found for example as a Czech, Polish, Slovenian, and Hungarian name.

French (Dubé): of uncertain origin. It may be a habitational name for someone from any of various places called Le Bec, which are named either from Gaulish becco ‘high ground’ or from Germanic bec ‘stream’ (see Beck). Breton: nickname meaning ‘pigeon’. Eastern German, Sorbian, or other Slavic: from Sorbian or Slavic dub ‘oak’, hence a nickname for a strong or solid man, a topographic name for someone who lived by a prominent oak or in an area where oak trees were abundant, or a habitational name for someone from a place named with this word, for example Dubá or Doubé, both frequent Czech place names. North German: variant of Duwe. Indian (northern states); pronounced as two syllables: Hindu (Brahman) name meaning ‘one who knows (or has studied) two Vedas’, from Sanskrit dvivedi ‘one who knows two Vedas’, from dvi ‘two’ + veda ‘Veda’, ‘knowledge’. This name is a cognate of Gujarati Dave.

Muslim: variant of Salaam.

Welsh: from the Old Welsh personal name Morcant, which is of uncertain but ancient etymology. Irish: importation of the Welsh surname, to which has been assimilated more than one Gaelic surname, notably Ó Muireagáin (see Merrigan). Scottish: of uncertain origin; probably from a Gaelic personal name cognate with Welsh Morcant.

Vietnamese: unexplained. Dutch (De Van): metonymic occupational name for a winnower or a maker of winnowing fans, from Middle Dutch van(ne) ‘fan’. English: Western English variant of Fann. Czech (Van): from a pet form of the personal name Václav, Old Czech Veceslav (see Vacek). Ukrainian: from a short form of the personal name Ivan, Slavic form of John.

English: nickname for the taller of two men with the same name, from Old English leng(ra) ‘longer’, ‘taller’, comparative of lang (see Lang). German: variant of Lang. Chinese : from an ancient official title, Lingguan, denoting a court official in charge of music. The character for Ling is written similarly to that for Leng (), and the surname evolved to the latter form. Cambodian: unexplained.

Vietnamese: unexplained.

Dweller in a damp place, or on land which is newly cultivated.Ancient Galician and Portuguese surname, and name of villages near Orense, Santander, and Oviedo. Means "lleno de barro," to fill a pit."Barro" could refer to a humid place or land that is plowed.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician: from the personal name Pedro, Spanish and Portuguese equivalent of Peter. Catalan (Pedró): topographic name from Catalan pedró, padró ‘memorial stone’, or a variant of Padro.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Palacio.

English: occupational name for a gamekeeper employed in a medieval park, from an agent derivative of Middle English parc ‘park’ (see Park 1). This surname is also found in Ireland. Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish names.

Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the Na surname. Some sources indicate that there are 46 different Na clans, but only two of them can be documented, and it is believed that these two sprang from a common founding ancestor. The Na clan’s founding ancestor, Na Pu, migrated from China sometime during the mid-seventh century and settled in the Naju area. Chinese : there are two sources of this surname. One is the state of Na that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). The other source is the Hu ethnic group, some of whom adopted Na as their surname.

Japanese: variously written, with Chinese characters used phonetically. Listed in the Shinsen shojiroku, the Abe claim descent from Ohiko, first son of the mythical Emperor Kogen. There are several places in Japan named Abe, which means ‘sun festival’ in the Ainu language. Some Ainu connections may be assumed, but the name could also be purely habitational. It is found mostly in northeastern Japan, the island of Kyushu, and the Ryukyu Islands.

Japanese: very common place name and surname, especially in western and northeastern Japan. Variously written, the original meaning is ‘tree village’. Some bearers are descended from the Fujiwara, Mononobe, and other noble families.

Spanish: variant of Cortés (see Cortes).

Irish: variant of Doane. Vietnamese ({D-}oàn): unexplained.

Indian: Hindu (Brahman) name, from Sanskrit jyoti?si ‘astrologer’.

Indian (Maharashtra); pronounced as two syllables: Hindu (Maratha) name, probably from Sanskrit mana ‘respect’ or manya ‘respectable’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic fara?h ‘joy’, ‘happiness’, ‘delight’.

Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the surname Nam, meaning ‘south’. As many as fifty-seven Nam clans are mentioned in the records, but of these only four can be positively documented. The founding ancestor of the Nam clans was a man named Kim Ch’ung. He was an emissary from Tang, China, on his way to Japan when a southerly storm blew his ship northward and forced it aground in Shilla, Korea. The Shilla king Kyongdok (742–765), noting that he had come from the south, renamed the emissary Nam in 755.

One who came from Barrios (district, suburb); the name of many places in Spain.Popular surname found in most of the Peninsula, but mainly in northern areas: Leon, Vizcaya, and Burgos. Over 30 towns and villages in all parts of Spain with this name which implies a political subdivision, a ward or suburb.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Kayasth) name of unknown meaning. Hungarian: from a pet form of the personal name Bertalan (Hungarian form of Bartholomew) or Bernát (see Bernhard). Basque: habitational name from Bera, a town in Navarre, Basque Country. Catalan (Berà): habitational name from Berà, a place in Tarragona, Catalonia.

Scottish and northern English: from Middle English belle ‘bell’, in various applications; most probably a metonymic occupational name for a bell ringer or bell maker, or a topographic name for someone living ‘at the bell’ (as attested by 14th-century forms such as John atte Belle). This indicates either residence by an actual bell (e.g. a town’s bell in a bell tower, centrally placed to summon meetings, sound the alarm, etc.) or ‘at the sign of the bell’, i.e. a house or inn sign (although surnames derived from house and inn signs are rare in Scots and English). Scottish and northern English: from the medieval personal name Bel. As a man’s name this is from Old French beu, bel ‘handsome’, which was also used as a nickname. As a female name it represents a short form of Isobel, a form of Elizabeth. Scottish: Americanized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Mhaoil ‘son of the servant of the devotee’ (see Mullen 1). Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead in western Norway named Bell, the origin of which is unexplained. Scandinavian: of English or German origin; in German as a habitational name for someone from Bell in Rhineland, Germany, or possibly from Belle in Westphalia. Americanized spelling of German Böhl or Böll (see Boehle, Boll).

Japanese: the name could mean ‘three arrows’, ‘three valleys’ or ‘shrine’, the latter being the most common. Some occurrences in America are the result of shortening longer names.

English, Scottish, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish: from the Hebrew personal name Gavriel ‘God has given me strength’. This was borne by an archangel in the Bible (Daniel 8:16 and 9:21), who in the New Testament announced the impending birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:26–38). It has been a comparatively popular personal name in all parts of Europe, among both Christians and Jews, during the Middle Ages and since. Compare Michael and Raphael. It was the name of a famous patriarch and archbishop of Serbia (died 1659). In Russia it was the official Christian name of St. Vsevolod (died 1138). In the U.S. this name has absorbed cognate names from other European languages, for example the Greek patronymics Gabrielis, Gabrielatos, Gabrielidis, Gabrielakos, Gabrieloglou.

Muslim: from an Arabic personal name, ?Hammad ‘much praising’, an intensive form of Hamid.

Indian (southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit šankara ‘one who brings about happiness or prosperity’ (from Sanskrit šam ‘happiness’, ‘prosperity’ + -kara ‘causing’). This is an epithet of the god Shiva. It is a variant of Sankaran among people who have migrated from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In India it is found only as a male personal name, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S. among South Indians.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Baidya, Kayasth) name, from Sanskrit sena ‘army’, ‘armament’. It occurs frequently in Sanskrit literature as the final element of compound names.

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, etc.: from the Latin personal name Lucas (Greek Loukas) ‘man from Lucania’. Lucania is a region of southern Italy thought to have been named in ancient times with a word meaning ‘bright’ or ‘shining’. Compare Lucio. The Christian name owed its enormous popularity throughout Europe in the Middle Ages to St. Luke the Evangelist, hence the development of this surname and many vernacular derivatives in most of the languages of Europe. Compare Luke. This is also found as an Americanized form of Greek Loukas. Scottish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Lùcais (see McLucas).

German, Danish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a fisherman, from Fisch + the agent suffix -er. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of roble ‘oak’, or a habitational name from Los Robles in Lleón, named from the same word.

Ethiopian: unexplained.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic faruq ‘distinguisher’, i.e. ‘one who distinguishes truth from falsehood’. Al-Faruq was a byname of ?Umar ibn al-Kha?t?tab, the second ‘rightly guided’ khalif (ruled 634–644), renowned for his stern and uncompromising execution of justice.

West African: unexplained.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic jamal ‘beauty’, ‘grace’. This name is also found in compounds such as Jamal ud-Din ‘Beauty of Religion’.

Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Hans.

mainly a topographic name for someone who lived in or by a wood or a metonymic occupational name for a woodcutter or forester, from Middle English wode ‘wood’ (Old English wudu). nickname for a mad, eccentric, or violent person, from Middle English wod ‘mad’, ‘frenzied’ (Old English wad), as in Adam le Wode, Worcestershire 1221.

Frisian, Dutch, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Ade. Scottish: habitational name from the old lands and barony of Auden or Aden in Aberdeenshire.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Pedro, Portuguese equivalent of Peter.

Aragonese, Catalan, and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in Aragon, Catalonia, and Navarre called Peralta, from Latin petra alta ‘high rock’. This name is also established in Italy.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Espinosa, from a collective form of espina ‘thorn’.

possibly Basque: unexplained.

Japanese: ‘forest’; variously written, found mostly in western Japan and the Ryukyu Islands. Listed in the Shinsen shojiroku. One family produced several noted scholars during the Tokugawa era (1600–1867).

Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Croatian: patronymic from the personal names Pyotr (Russian), Petr (Bulgarian) and Petar (Macedonian, Serbian, and Croatian) (see Peter). It may also be a reduced form of Slovenian Petrovic, patronymic from the personal name Peter.

Muslim: see Hamid.

Japanese: variously written; the characters are also read Kiyomizu, and both words mean ‘pure water’. It is found throughout Japan, especially in the east. One family bearing this name is descended from Tokugawa Shigeyoshi (1745–1795), a son of the 9th Tokugawa Shogun, Ieshige.

African: unexplained.

Chinese : variant of Zhang 1. Korean: variant of Chang

Jewish; also Welsh and English: from the Biblical name borne by the Israelite leader who led the Israelites out of Egypt, as related in the Book of Exodus. The Hebrew form of the name, Moshe, is probably of Egyptian origin, from a short form of any of various ancient Egyptian personal names, such as Rameses and Tutmosis, meaning ‘conceived by (a certain god)’. However, very early in its history it acquired a folk etymology, being taken as a derivative of the Hebrew root verb mšh ‘draw (something from the water)’, and was associated with a story of the infant Moses being discovered among the bullrushes by Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2: 1–10). Moses is the usual English spelling. As a Welsh family name, it was adopted among Dissenter families in the 18th and 19th centuries. As a North American family name, it has absorbed forms of the name from other languages, for example Moise and Moshe.

Muslim: adjectival derivative of Sayed.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Miguel, equivalent to Michael.

German: topographic name for someone who lived on a mountainside or slope, from an agent derivative of Middle High German halde ‘slope’. Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (usually, Brahman) name, also written Haldar. It is probably derived from Sanskrit haladhara ‘one who holds a plow’, an epithet of Balarama, the brother of the god Krishna. Balarama is said to have used a weapon shaped like a plowshare.

English: occupational name for a cook, a seller of cooked meats, or a keeper of an eating house, from Old English coc (Latin coquus). There has been some confusion with Cocke. Irish and Scottish: usually identical in origin with the English name, but in some cases a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cúg ‘son of Hugo’ (see McCook). In North America Cook has absorbed examples of cognate and semantically equivalent names from other languages, such as German and Jewish Koch. Erroneous translation of French Lécuyer (see Lecuyer).

Scottish and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Wat (see Watt)

English (also common in Wales): patronymic from the Middle English and Anglo-Norman French personal name Hugh. Welsh: variant of Howells. Irish and Scottish: variant Anglicization of Gaelic Mac Aodha (see McCoy).

Spanish (of Basque origin): Castilianized form of the Basque personal name Otxoa, equivalent of Latin lupus ‘wolf’.

Spanish, Galician and Portuguese: topographic name for someone who lived in a lean-to built against the wall of a larger building, from Spanish pared, Portuguese and Galician parede ‘(house) wall’. Servants often lived in buildings of this sort outside manor houses, and masons constructed huts of this kind on the site of their labors, making temporary use of the walls of the new building. There are also numerous places named with this word, and the surname may also be a habitational name from any of these.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ma?hmud, ‘praiseworthy’, ‘commendable’ (a derivative of ?hamida ‘to praise’; compare Muhammad). This is a popular name in all the countries of the Muslim world.

Spanish: nickname for an elegant or haughty person, from lozano ‘splendid’, later ‘good-looking’.

Muslim: see Hamid.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from the title of rank conde ‘count’, a derivative of Latin comes, comitis ‘companion’. English: unexplained.

Muslim: variant of Musa (Moses).

English: patronymic from the personal name Roger.

Vietnamese: unexplained.

Portuguese and Catalan: from the personal name Xavier, Portuguese and Catalan forms of Basque Xabier (see Javier).

Basque: Castilianized form of Basque Gebara, a habitational name from a place in the Basque province of Araba. The origin and meaning of the place name are uncertain; it is recorded in the form Gebala by the geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century ad. This is a rare name in Spain.

Portuguese (Osório) and Spanish: from a medieval personal name Osorius, of uncertain origin. It is perhaps a metathesized form of Latin Orosius (Greek Orosios, a derivative of oros ‘mountain’), the name borne by a 4th-century Iberian theologian and historian, who was famous in Spain throughout the Middle Ages.

English: occupational name for a watchman or guard, from Old English weard ‘guard’ (used as both an agent noun and an abstract noun). Irish: reduced form of McWard, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Bhaird ‘son of the poet’. The surname occurs throughout Ireland, where three different branches of the family are known as professional poets. Surname adopted by bearers of the Jewish surname Warshawski, Warshawsky or some other Jewish name bearing some similarity to the English name. Americanized form of French Guerin.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Salinas, from the plural of salina ‘saltworks’ (Latin salinae, a derivative of sal ‘salt’).

Spanish and Portuguese: habitational name from any of several places named for a spring that dried up during the summer months, from fonte seca ‘dry well’.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Persian Riaz, from Arabic riya?d, plural of raw?dah ‘garden’.

Spanish: habitational name from places named Valenzuela in Córdoba and Ciudad Real. The place name is a diminutive of Valencia, literally ‘Little Valencia’.

Muslim: variant of Suleiman.

Chinese : from the name of Da Ao, a teacher of the legendary emperor Zhuan Xu (26th century bc).

Vietnamese: unexplained.

Spanish: from the personal name Alonso, a cognate of Alfonso.

Spanish: metonymic occupational name for a cobbler or shoemaker, from zapato ‘half boot’. Spanish and Galician: possibly also a habitational name from the places in Pontevedra and Ávila called Zapata.

Muslim: variant spelling of Younes.

Catalan, French, English, German (also Romann), Polish, Hungarian (Román), Romanian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian: from the Latin personal name Romanus, which originally meant ‘Roman’. This name was borne by several saints, including a 7th-century bishop of Rouen. English, French, and Catalan: regional or ethnic name for someone from Rome or from Italy in general, or a nickname for someone who had some connection with Rome, as for example having been there on a pilgrimage. Compare Romero.

Chinese : this surname has three main sources. Two of them are from the state of Lu during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc), part of present-day Shandong province. A senior official of the state of Lu was granted a city named Fei, while the son of a certain duke was granted a county named Fei. Both of these place names were adopted by descendants as surnames. A third source of the name is Fei Zhong, a high minister of the Yin dynasty (1401–1122 bc).

English: from the personal name Francis (Old French form Franceis, Latin Franciscus, Italian Francisco). This was originally an ethnic name meaning ‘Frank’ and hence ‘Frenchman’. The personal name owed much of its popularity during the Middle Ages to the fame of St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), whose baptismal name was actually Giovanni but who was nicknamed Francisco because his father was absent in France at the time of his birth. As an American family name this has absorbed cognates from several other European languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988). Jewish (American): an Americanization of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames, or an adoption of the non-Jewish surname.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Brahman) name, of which the Sanskrit version, Mukhyopadhyaya, is ostensibly composed of mukhya ‘principal’, ‘chief’ + upadhyaya ‘teacher’. However, in fact the first element relates to a Bengali place name, probably Mukhati. The Sanskrit version, with its rather grander meaning, is a later coinage based on this name, which actually means ‘teacher from a place called Mukhati (or similar)’. Compare Chatterjee.

Southern Italian: topographic name from Sicilian manna ‘ash tree’. Southern Italian: from a feminine form of Manno. Southern Italian: possibly from La Manna, with loss of the definite article, from Old Italian Alamanna ‘Germania’. Dutch: from a personal name derived from the Germanic personal name Man(n)hard, composed of the elements mann ‘man’, ‘human’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Freitas, or a topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of stony ground, from Portuguese (pedras) freitas ‘broken stones’, Late Latin (petrae) fractae. Compare Fragoso.

English, French, German, and Dutch: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements ric ‘power(ful)’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.

English, Spanish, and Portuguese: nickname for a loyal or trustworthy person, from Old French leial, Spanish and Portuguese leal ‘loyal’, ‘faithful (to obligations)’, Latin legalis, from lex, ‘law’, ‘obligation’ (genitive legis).

Muslim: from the Arabic family name ?Abbasi, a derivative of the personal name ?Abbas (see Abbas), denoting someone descended from or associated with someone called ?Abbas, in particular a descendant of the Abbasid dynasty of khalifs, who ruled the Islamic world from 750, when they founded a new capital in Baghdad, to 1258, when they were destroyed by the Mongols.

status name for a steward or official, Middle English bail(l)i (Old French baillis, from Late Latin baiulivus, an adjectival derivative of baiulus ‘attendant’, ‘carrier’ ‘porter’). topographic name for someone who lived by the outer wall of a castle, Middle English bail(l)y, baile ‘outer courtyard of a castle’, from Old French bail(le) ‘enclosure’, a derivative of bailer ‘to enclose’, a word of unknown origin. This term became a place name in its own right, denoting a district beside a fortification or wall, as in the case of the Old Bailey in London, which formed part of the early medieval outer wall of the city. habitational name from Bailey in Lancashire, named with Old English beg ‘berry’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’. Anglicized form of French Bailly.

Spanish (of Basque origin): habitational name from Orozco in Bilbao province.

Indian (Bengal) and Bangladeshi: Hindu (Brahman) name, the first element of which, Ban-, is a shortened form of the village name Bandoghat. The final element -jee is derived from jha (greatly reduced form of Sanskrit upadhyaya ‘teacher’); thus, Banerjee ‘teacher from the village of Bandoghat’. In Bengali names formed with -jee, the initial element is believed to indicate a village granted by Ballal Sen, a legendary ancient king of Bengal, to the ancestor of the person bearing the surname. A Sanskrit version of this name, Vandyopadhyaya, was coined later, from the elements vandya ‘venerable’ + upadhyaya ‘teacher’.

Spanish and French: from the medieval personal name Ponce, ultimately from Pontius, a Roman family name of uncertain origin, perhaps an ethnic name for someone from Pontus (named with Greek pontos ‘ocean’) in Asia Minor, or an Italic cognate of Latin Quintus ‘fifth’ (i.e. ‘fifth-born’). The name was borne by two 3rd-century saints, a Carthaginian deacon and a martyr of Nice, but was not widely popular in the Middle Ages because of the inhibiting influence of the even more famous Pontius Pilate. In some cases, though, the surname may have been originally used for someone who had played the part of this character in a religious play.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of Zamora in northwestern Spain, capital of the province which bears its name.

Dutch: nickname from kaal ‘bald’. English: habitational name from the villages of East and West Keal in Lincolnshire, which are named from Old Norse kjolr ‘ridge’. Perhaps an altered spelling of German Köhl (see Kohl). Indian (Maharashtra); pronounced as two syllables: Hindu descriptive nickname from Sanskrit kala ‘black’, found among Brahmans, Marathas, and other communities. The Konkanasth Brahmans have a clan called Kale.

Portuguese: from coelho ‘rabbit’ (Latin cuniculus), applied as a nickname for someone thought to resemble a rabbit in some way.

Indian (northern and southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit naraya?na, an epithet of the god Vishnu. In the northern states, it appears to have evolved into a family name from the final element of compound personal names such as Ramnarayan (from Ram, name of an incarnation of Vishnu, + Narayan). In South India, it is used only as a male given name, but has become a family name among South Indians in the U.S. It is a variant of Narayanan among Tamil and Malayalam speakers who have migrated from their home state.

Japanese: ‘small field’; variously written, mostly found in western Japan. In its Romanized form, the surname is often confused with Ono, which means ‘large field’ and is also a common place name and surname throughout Japan and in the Ryukyu Islands. Some bearers of the surname are descended from the Minamoto. Ono is listed in the Shinsen shojiroku.

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the Basque Country named Ibarra, from ibar ‘meadow’ + the definite article -a.

Mexican: unexplained; probably from a native American language. Cambodian or other southeastern Asian: unexplained.

Spanish: occupational name from caballero ‘knight’, ‘soldier’, ‘horseman’ (from Late Latin caballarius ‘mounted soldier’).

Spanish: from mercado ‘market’, topographic name for someone living by a market or metonymic occupational name for a market trader.

English: from the medieval personal name Benedict (Latin Benedictus meaning ‘blessed’). In the 12th century the Latin form of the name is found in England alongside versions derived from the Old French form Beneit, Benoit, which was common among the Normans. See also Benedict.

Spanish: unexplained. This is a frequent name in Spain.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: from a personal name bestowed in honor of the great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (Tommaso d’Aquino in Italian). Italian: habitational name from a place called Aquino (see D'aquino).

Spanish and Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived near a gate or fence, from Spanish and Catalan barrera ‘barrier’. topographic name for someone who lived by a clay pit, Spanish barrera, barrero (a derivative of barro ‘mud’, ‘clay’).