1000 Most Common Last Names in Canada

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).

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.

French: from a collective form of Tremble, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a group of aspen trees. This is a very common name in French-speaking Canada.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.)

Scottish: see McDonald.

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.

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.

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.

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).

French: variant of Blanc 1 (‘white’, ‘blond’, ‘pale’), with the definite article le.

French (Côte): topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or riverbank, less often on the coast, from Old French coste (Latin costa ‘rib’, ‘side’, ‘flank’, also used in a transferred topographical sense). There are several places in France named with this word, and the surname may also be a habitational name from any of these. English: topographic name from Middle English cote, cott ‘shelter’, ‘cottage’ (see Coates).

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

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).

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

French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements wald ‘rule’ + hari, heri ‘army’ (see Walter). This name is also found in Switzerland and may have been brought to the U.S. from there.

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.

English and French: from a diminutive of the medieval nickname and personal name More (see Moore). Italian: Venetian variant of Morini. Spanish (Morín): possibly a derivative of Moro. Dutch: from a short pet form of a Germanic compound personal name beginning with Maur-, Mor- (see More 4).

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

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.

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

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.

French: occupational name for a fur trader, from Old French pelletier (a derivative of pellet, diminutive of pel ‘skin’, ‘hide’).

French: topographic name for someone who lived by a road, French voie (Latin via). This is a very common secondary surname in Canada; it was first seen in Cap Rouge in 1667, taken there from Charente Maritime, and has also been used independently since 1690.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robin.

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.

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

French: diminutive of Fort.

French: from Old French eveske ‘bishop’, Latin episcopus (see Bishop), with the definite article l(e), hence an occupational name for a member of a bishop’s household, or a nickname for a solemn person. This is the most frequent of several alternative spellings in French Canada.

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’.

nickname for a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion, from Older Scots reid ‘red’. topographic name for someone who lived in a clearing, from Old English r¯d ‘woodland clearing’. Compare English Read.

Scottish and English (of Norman origin): habitational name for someone from Rots near Caen in Normandy, probably named with the Germanic element rod ‘clearing’. Compare Rhodes. This was the original home of a family de Ros, who were established in Kent in 1130. Scottish and English: habitational name from any of various places called Ross or Roos(e), deriving the name from Welsh rhós ‘upland’ or moorland, or from a British ancestor of this word, which also had the sense ‘promontory’. This is the sense of the cognate Gaelic word ros. Known sources of the surname include Roos in Humberside (formerly in East Yorkshire) and the region of northern Scotland known as Ross. Other possible sources are Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, Ross in Northumbria (which is on a promontory), and Roose in Lancashire English and German: from the Germanic personal name Rozzo, a short form of the various compound names with the first element hrod ‘renown’, introduced into England by the Normans in the form Roce. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a breeder or keeper of horses, from Middle High German ros, German Ross ‘horse’; perhaps also a nickname for someone thought to resemble a horse or a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a horse. Jewish: Americanized form of Rose 3.

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.

habitational name, deriving in most cases from the place so called in Annandale, in Dumfriesshire. This is derived from the genitive case of the personal name John + Middle English tone, toun ‘settlement’ (Old English tun). There are other places in Scotland so called, including the city of Perth, which used to be known as St. John’s Toun, and some of these may also be sources of the surname. variant of Johnson (see John), with intrusive -t-.

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’.

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 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.

French (of Norman origin): from a diminutive of Berger. The name is common in both New England and LA.

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’.

French (also English, imported to Britain by the Normans): from the Germanic personal name Landric, a compound of land ‘land’ + ric ‘powerful’, ‘ruler’.

French: topographic name for someone who lived by a pear tree, poirier, from Old French perier.

Scottish: regional name from Moray in northeastern Scotland, which is probably named with Old Celtic elements meaning ‘sea’ + ‘settlement’. Irish (southern Ulster): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Muireadhaigh ‘descendant of Muireadhach’ (the name of several different families in various parts of Ireland), or a shortened form of McMurray. Irish: reduced form of MacIlmurray, Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Mhuire (see Gilmore).

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.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Dhomhnuill, a patronymic from the personal name Domhnall, which is composed of the ancient Celtic elements domno- ‘world’ + val- ‘might’, ‘rule’.

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.

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

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.

French: variant of Gérard (see Gerard).

English: variant spelling of Clark.

Southern English: patronymic from David.

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.

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.

Scottish and English: habitational name from Grantham in Lincolnshire, recorded in Domesday Book as Graham (as well as Grantham, Grandham, and Granham). See also Grantham.

French: from a personal name of Gaulish origin, represented in Latin records in the form Caraunus. This name was borne by a 5th-century Breton saint who lived at Chartres and was murdered by robbers; his legend led to its widespread use as a personal name during the Middle Ages. English (of Norman origin) and French: habitational name for someone from Cairon in Calvados, France. English and French: metonymic occupational name for a carter, or possibly a cartwright, from a Norman and Picard form of Old French c(h)arron ‘cart’.

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.

Scottish: of uncertain origin. The earliest recorded forms of this family name, dating from the mid-12th century, are de Fresel, de Friselle, and de Freseliere. These appear to be Norman, but there is no place in France with a name answering to them. It is possible, therefore, that they represent a Gaelic name corrupted beyond recognition by an Anglo-Norman scribe. The modern Gaelic form is Friseal, sometimes Anglicized as Frizzell. The surname Fraser is also borne by Jews, in which case it represents an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.

French: occupational name for a baker, Old French fournier (Latin furnarius), originally the man responsible for cooking the dough in the fourneau ‘oven’ (see Baker). This surname is frequently Americanized as Fuller.

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.

French: habitational name from any of the extremely numerous places in France named with Old French beu, bel ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ + lieu ‘place’, ‘location’. The name is occasionally also found in England; it is then either a Norman name from one of the French places just mentioned or derives from an English place name of the same origin, Beaulieu (pronounced byoo-lee) in Hampshire, seat of the Montagu family.

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.

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: 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).

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.

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.

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.

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: 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.

French: apparently a nickname for a soldier, from Old French pointe ‘point (of a lance)’. Compare Lance. In Canada this is recorded as a secondary surname (from 1693 in Montreal), which has also been used independently since 1710.

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).

Canadian French: variant spelling of Ouellette.

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.

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

Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Ceannéidigh ‘descendant of Ceannéidigh’, a personal name derived from ceann ‘head’ + éidigh ‘ugly’.

French: occupational name for a nailer, someone who made and sold nails, from an agent derivative of clou ‘nail’ (Latin clavus).

Scottish and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robert. This surname is especially common in Scotland, where Robert was a popular personal name and the name of three kings of Scotland, including Robert the Bruce (1274–1329).

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.

French: variant of Lefèvre. The -b- occurs in this form of the name by reason of hypercorrection influenced by the Latin word faber ‘craftsman’.

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

Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from what is now a deserted village in the parish of Barkby, Leicestershire. This is named from Old English hamel ‘crooked’ + dun ‘hill’. Hamilton near Glasgow was founded by the Hamiltons and named after them. In Ireland, this name may have replaced Hamill in a few cases. It has also been used as the equivalent of the Irish (Cork) name Ó hUrmholtaigh.

French: from the plural of jardin ‘garden’ (Old French jart), with the preposition and definite article des ‘from the’; a topographic name or a habitational name from any of numerous minor places so named. In the U.S., this name was often translated as Gardner.

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.)

English: from a short form of the personal names Giles, Julian, or William. In theory the name would have a soft initial when derived from the first two of these, and a hard one when from William or from the other possibilities discussed in 2–4 below. However, there has been much confusion over the centuries. Northern English: topographic name for someone who lived by a ravine or deep glen, Middle English gil(l), Old Norse gil ‘ravine’. Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille (Scottish), Mac Giolla (Irish), patronymics from an occupational name for a servant or a short form of the various personal names formed by attaching this element to the name of a saint. See McGill. The Old Norse personal name Gilli is probably of this origin, and may lie behind some examples of the name in northern England. Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac An Ghoill (see Gall 1). Norwegian: habitational name from any of three farmsteads in western Norway named Gil, from Old Norse gil ‘ravine’. Dutch: cognate of Giles. Jewish (Israeli): ornamental name from Hebrew gil ‘joy’. German: from a vernacular short form of the medieval personal name Aegidius (see Gilger). Indian (Panjab): Sikh name, probably from Panjabi gil ‘moisture’, also meaning ‘prosperity’. There is a Jat tribe that bears this name; the Ramgarhia Sikhs also have a clan called Gill.

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.

as a Highland clan name it is from a nickname from Gaelic cam ‘crooked’, ‘bent’ + sròn ‘nose’. in the Lowlands it is also a habitational name from any of various places called Cameron, especially in Fife.

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Morris.

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.

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

English and (especially) Scottish (of Norman origin), and French: nickname from Anglo-Norman French graund, graunt ‘tall’, ‘large’ (Old French grand, grant, from Latin grandis), given either to a person of remarkable size, or else in a relative way to distinguish two bearers of the same personal name, often representatives of different generations within the same family. English and Scottish: from a medieval personal name, probably a survival into Middle English of the Old English byname Granta (see Grantham). Probably a respelling of German Grandt or Grand.

French: according to Morlet, from a variant of Nadal.

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.

English, Scottish, Dutch, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Peter. Irish: Anglicized form (translation) of Gaelic Mac Pheadair ‘son of Peter’. Americanized form of cognate surnames in other languages, for example Dutch and North German Pieters.

English (common in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders): Middle English nickname for someone who was strong in the arm. Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Labhradha Tréan ‘strong O’Lavery’ or Mac Thréinfhir, literally ‘son of the strong man’, both from Ulster.

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.

French (Hébert) and Dutch: assimilated form of Herbert. German: variant of Heber 1. Dutch: from the personal name Egbert.

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).

French: metonymic occupational name for a breeder of poultry or nickname for a timorous person, from a diminutive of Old French poule ‘chicken’. It is sometimes Americanized as Poland.

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.

French: from a variant of the personal name Michel (see Michael).

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.

English and German: from a medieval personal name, a pet form of Martin or Marta. English and French: metonymic occupational name for a smith or a nickname for a forceful person, from Old French martel ‘hammer’ (Late Latin martellus). Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, gained his byname from the force with which he struck down his enemies in battle. Spanish and Portuguese: from Portuguese martelo, Old Spanish martel ‘hammer’ (Late Latin martellus), or an Iberianized form of the Italian cognate Martello.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Fergus.

English: nickname for someone with gray hair or a gray beard, from Old English græg ‘gray’. In Scotland and Ireland it has been used as a translation of various Gaelic surnames derived from riabhach ‘brindled’, ‘gray’ (see Reavey). In North America this name has assimilated names with similar meaning from other European languages. English and Scottish (of Norman origin): habitational name from Graye in Calvados, France, named from the Gallo-Roman personal name Gratus, meaning ‘welcome’, ‘pleasing’ + the locative suffix -acum. French and Swiss French: habitational name from Gray in Haute-Saône and Le Gray in Seine-Maritime, both in France, or from Gray-la-ville in Switzerland, or a regional name from the Swiss canton of Graubünden.

from the personal name Pa(s)quet, a pet form of Pascal. from Old French pacquet ‘bundle (of faggots)’, a diminutive of paque ‘parcel’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a gatherer or seller of firewood or kindling. In North America, spellings of surnames in -ette are not normally feminine, but reflects the practice of sounding the final -t, which is not the usual practice in European French.

English and Scottish: status name or occupational name from Middle English, Old French maresc(h)al ‘marshal’. The term is of Germanic origin (compare Old High German marah ‘horse’, ‘mare’ + scalc ‘servant’). Originally it denoted a man who looked after horses, but by the heyday of medieval surname formation it denoted on the one hand one of the most important servants in a great household (in the royal household a high official of state, one with military responsibilities), and on the other a humble shoeing smith or farrier. It was also an occupational name for a medieval court officer responsible for the custody of prisoners. An even wider range of meanings is found in some other languages: compare for example Polish Marszalek (see Marszalek). The surname is also borne by Jews, presumably as an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.

French: topographic name for someone who lived near a sorb or service tree, Old French cormier (from corme, the name of the fruit for which the tree was cultivated, apparently of Gaulish origin).

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Simon,' from the nick. Sim, whence Simpson, with intrusive 'p', as in Thompson, Hampson, &c. Sims or Simms is the genitive of Sim; compare William and Williams.Robertus Symmes, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

English and Scottish: from the Breton personal name Aeruiu or Haerviu, composed of the elements haer ‘battle’, ‘carnage’ + vy ‘worthy’, which was brought to England by Breton followers of William the Conqueror, for the most part in the Gallicized form Hervé. (The change from -er- to -ar- was a normal development in Middle English and Old French.) Reaney believes that the surname is also occasionally from a Norman personal name, Old German Herewig, composed of the Germanic elements hari, heri ‘army’ + wig ‘war’. Irish: mainly of English origin, in Ulster and County Wexford, but sometimes a shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAirmheadhaigh ‘descendant of Airmheadhach’, a personal name probably meaning ‘esteemed’. It seems to be a derivative of Airmheadh, the name borne by a mythological physician. Irish (County Fermanagh): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEarchaidh ‘descendant of Earchadh’, a personal name of uncertain origin.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille Eathain, a patronymic from a personal name meaning ‘servant of (Saint) John’. The family bearing this name were chieftains in several islands of the Inner Hebrides. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Eóin, cognate with 1, from a different Gaelic form of Johannes (John). Compare McGlone.

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.

French: from le clerc ‘the clerk’, occupational name for a scribe or secretary (see Clerc, Clark). North American spelling variant of Leclair, Leclere.

French: nickname for someone with a fat belly, from a derivative of bedaine, a regional variant of boudaine ‘fat’. Alternatively, it may be a variant of Bedat, a habitational name from a place so named.

French: variant of Granier.

English, Scottish, and Irish: from Rousel, a commonnAnglo-Norman French nickname for someone with red hair, a diminutivenof Rouse with the hypocoristic suffix -el.n Americanized spelling of German Rüssel, from a pet formnof any of the various personal names formed with the Old High Germannelement hrod ‘renown’. EG

metonymic occupational name for a tailor, from Old French cousture ‘seam’ (Latin consutura, from (con)suere ‘to sew (together)’). metonymic occupational name for a holder of a smallholding, Old French couture ‘small plot’, ‘kitchen garden’ (Late Latin cultura, in classical Latin used in the abstract sense ‘cultivation’, ‘agriculture’, from colere ‘to till or tend’).

French: topographic name for someone who lived in a clearing, Old French essart (Late Latin exsartum, past participle of exsarire ‘to weed out’, ‘grub up’), with the definite article l’, or a habitational name from various places named Lessard or Lessart from this word.

French: from the Latin personal name Quiricus or Cyricus, Greek Kyrikos or Kyriakos, ultimately from Greek kyrios ‘lord’, ‘master’. This name was borne by a 4th-century martyr, a small child martyred with his mother St. Julitta in 304 ad (see Quilici). In North America it is sometimes Americanized as Sears.

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.

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.

French: from the personal name Bernier, from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements bern ‘bear’ + hari ‘army’. German (from Slavic): habitational name from a place so named in Mecklenburg.

English, French, Dutch, and German: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements land ‘land’, ‘territory’ + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’. In England, the native Old English form Landbeorht was replaced by Lambert, the Continental form of the name that was taken to England by the Normans from France. The name gained wider currency in Britain in the Middle Ages with the immigration of weavers from Flanders, among whom St. Lambert or Lamprecht, bishop of Maastricht in around 700, was a popular cult figure. In Italy the name was popularized in the Middle Ages as a result of the fame of Lambert I and II, Dukes of Spoleto and Holy Roman Emperors.

French (Normandy): habitational name from any of various places in Normandy, so named from Old Norse lundr ‘grove’, with the definite article la.

German and Dutch: patronymic from Fries.

French: variant of Blaise.

French (also Prou): from a western and southern French variant of French Preux, a nickname meaning ‘wise’, ‘worthy’, or ‘valiant’. Compare Prue.

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).

French: occupational name for a gunmaker, a seller of guns, or the keeper of an arsenal. The French word arsenal (Italian arsenale) is from Arabic dar a?s-?sina?a ‘house of fabrication’, ‘workshop’. This spelling of the surname, which is much more common in North America than in France, has been assimilated to that of other French surnames ending in -ault, for example Thibault.

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.

Scottish and northern Irish: patronymic from Hendry, a chiefly Scottish variant of the personal name Henry 1. Some Scottish families with this name have ancestors whose name was Henryson.

English: patronymic from Deemer. French: habitational name apparently associated with a specific domain; the source is unclear, because of the wide range of local variants.

English (of Norman origin), French, and North German: from Giselbert, a Norman personal name composed of the Germanic elements gisil ‘pledge’, ‘hostage’, ‘noble youth’ (see Giesel) + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’. This personal name enjoyed considerable popularity in England during the Middle Ages, partly as a result of the fame of St. Gilbert of Sempringham (1085–1189), the founder of the only native English monastic order. Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.

Scottish, English, and northern Irish: variant of Hunt, a Middle English secondary derivative formed with the addition of the agent noun suffix -er.

Scottish, northern English, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): patronymic from the personal name David. As a Jewish name, the last element comes from German Sohn ‘son’. Americanized spelling of Norwegian and Danish Davidsen or Swedish Davidsson, patronymics from the personal name David.

topographic name for someone ‘from the well’ (Old French puis). variant spelling of Dupuy 1.

English: from a Middle English personal name, Elyat, Elyt. This represents at least two Old English personal names which have fallen together: the male name A{dh}elgeat (composed of the elements a{dh}el ‘noble’ + Geat, a tribal name; see Jocelyn), and the female personal name A{dh}elg¯{dh} (composed of the elements a{dh}el ‘noble’ + g¯{dh} ‘battle’). The Middle English name seems also to have absorbed various other personal names of Old English or Continental Germanic origin, as for example Old English Ælfweald (see Ellwood). English: from a pet form of Ellis. Scottish: Anglicized form of the originally distinct Gaelic surname Elloch, Eloth, a topographic name from Gaelic eileach ‘dam’, ‘mound’, ‘bank’. Compare Eliot.

Irish: Anglicized form (translation) of Breathnach ‘Briton’. It was used in particular to denote the Welshmen who arrived in Ireland in the wake of Strongbow’s Anglo-Norman invasion of 1170.

French: from a diminutive of turc ‘Turk’, which may be an ethnic name, but is also found as a nickname for someone who had traveled to the eastern Mediterranean on a crusade. Compare English, Dutch, and German Turk.

French (Lémieux): habitational name from Leymieux, Loire. It is sometimes translated as Better or Betters, association with French mieux ‘better’.

Northern English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Harry.

French: secondary surname for Pepin, from la chance ‘luck’, hence a nickname for a lucky person (or ironically, an unlucky one).

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.

English: patronymic from the personal name Richard. This has undoubtedly also assimilated like-sounding cognates from other languages, such as Swedish Richardsson.

French: variant spelling of Baudoin.

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: reduced form of Forster. English: nickname from Middle English foster ‘foster parent’ (Old English fostre, a derivative of fostrian ‘to nourish or rear’). Jewish: probably an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames, such as Forster.

French: from a pet form of the Old French personal name Gosse.

Scottish: see McKenzie.

Scottish: habitational name from a place in Berwickshire (Borders), named with Welsh gor ‘spacious’ + din ‘fort’. English (of Norman origin) and French: habitational name from Gourdon in Saône-et-Loire, so called from the Gallo-Roman personal name Gordus + the locative suffix -o, -onis. Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Mag Mhuirneacháin, a patronymic from the personal name Muirneachán, a diminutive of muirneach ‘beloved’. Jewish (from Lithuania): probably a habitational name from the Belorussian city of Grodno. It goes back at least to 1657. Various suggestions, more or less fanciful, have been put forward as to its origin. There is a family tradition among some bearers that they are descended from a son of a Duke of Gordon, who converted to Judaism in the 18th century, but the Jewish surname was in existence long before the 18th century; others claim descent from earlier Scottish converts, but this is implausible. Spanish and Galician Gordón, and Basque: habitational name from a place called Gordon (Basque) or Gordón (Spanish, Galician), of which there are examples in Salamanca, Galicia, and Basque Country. Spanish: possibly in some instances from an augmentative of the nickname Gordo (see Gordillo).

English: occupational name for a fisherman, Middle English fischer. The name has also been used in Ireland as a loose equivalent of Braden. As an American family name, this has absorbed cognates and names of similar meaning from many other European languages, including German Fischer, Dutch Visser, Hungarian Halász, Italian Pescatore, Polish Rybarz, etc. In a few cases, the English name may in fact be a topographic name for someone who lived near a fish weir on a river, from the Old English term fisc-gear ‘fish weir’. Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a fisherman, Yiddish fisher, German Fischer. Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó Bradáin ‘descendant of Bradán’, a personal name meaning ‘salmon’. See Braden. Mistranslation of French Poissant, meaning ‘powerful’, but understood as poisson ‘fish’ (see Poisson), and assimilated to the more frequent English name.

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).

English and French: from Middle English, Old French parent ‘parent’, ‘relative’, hence a nickname for someone who was related to an important member of the community. English and French: nickname for someone of striking or imposing appearance, from Middle English, Old French parent ‘notable’, ‘impressive’.

French: from a derivative of Thierry.

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.

English: patronymic from the personal name Roger.

southern French: from a southern pet form of the personal name Pierre, French form of Peter. This name is also established in England, taken there by the Huguenots. French: habitational name from places in Côte d’Or, Manche, Jura, and Mayenne named Perron or Le Perron, from pierre ‘stone’, ‘rock’. Spanish (Perrón): probably from an augmentative of perro ‘dog’. Italian: shortened form of Perrone.

Scottish and English: patronymic from Gibb.

Irish: simplified form of Mulryan. Irish: reducednform of O’Ryan, an Anglicized form of Gaelic ÓnRiagháin (modern Irish Ó Riain) ‘descendant ofnRian’; Ó Maoilriain ‘descendant ofnMaoilriaghain’, or Ó Ruaidhín ‘descendant of thenlittle red one’. Ryan is one of the commonest surnames in Ireland;nthere has been considerable confusion with Regan. KaM Americanized spelling of German Rein. EG

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.

French: variant of Langlais.

French: derivative of the Old French personal name Perre, variant of Pierre, French form of Peter.

Scottish and northern English: patronymic from a pet form of Pate, a short form of Patrick. Irish: in Ulster of English or Scottish origin; in County Galway, a surname taken by bearers of Gaelic Ó Caisín ‘descendant of the little curly-headed one’ (from Gaelic casán), which is usually Anglicized as Cussane.

French: from the Old French personal name Teobaud, Tibaut (see Theobald).

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Leòid, a patronymic from a Gaelic form of the Old Norse personal name Ljótr ‘ugly’.

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.

English and French: occupational name for a trader, from Old French mercier (see Mercer).

Scottish and northern Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Aodha ‘son of Aodh’, an ancient personal name meaning ‘fire’. Etymologically, this is the same name as McCoy.

French: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Villeneuve or Vilneuve, from ville ‘settlement’ + neuve ‘new’. Most of the places so called were named when they were bestowed upon a new owner.

English and French: from the Norman personal name Raimund, composed of the Germanic elements ragin ‘advice’, ‘counsel’ + mund ‘protection’. Americanized spelling of German Raimund, a cognate of 1.

Scottish spelling of Thompson.

French: habitational name from any of various places called Dion(s) and Dionne, all apparently derived from a Gaulish element divon- ‘(sacred) spring’. Compare Dee 3.

occupational name for someone employed at a fortress or castle, from a derivative of Old French fort ‘stronghold’ (from the adjective fort ‘strong’). possibly a variant of Forestier.

French: nickname for a man with dark hair or a swarthy complexion, from a diminutive of Old French carbon ‘charcoal’ (Latin carbo, genitive carbonis).

English, French, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and Slovenian: from a Germanic personal name (see Bernhard). The popularity of the personal name was greatly increased by virtue of its having been borne by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (c.1090–1153), founder and abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux. Americanized form of German Bernhard or any of the other cognates in European languages; for forms see Hanks and Hodges 1988.

English, French, German, Dutch, Hungarian (Róbert), etc: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements hrod ‘renown’ + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’. This is found occasionally in England before the Conquest, but in the main it was introduced into England by the Normans and quickly became popular among all classes of society. The surname is also occasionally borne by Jews, as an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.

French and English (Norman and Huguenot): topographic name for someone who lived in a wood, from the fused preposition and definite article du ‘from the’ + French bois ‘wood’ (see Bois). In both England and America the name has been translated as Wood.

French: variant of Géroux (see Gerou).

Chinese : variant of Liang.

French: occupational nickname for a baker, from du four ‘(the man) from the oven’.

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.

from a learned variant of Old French pareis ‘Paradise’, Greek paradeisos (see Paradise). As a toponym this was applied to verdant places, and it is quite common as a place name in Nord and Normandy; the surname, therefore, can be a topographic or habitational name. topographic name from Old French parvis ‘square in front of a church’.

Scottish and English: from Middle English blak(e) ‘black’ (Old English blæc, blaca), a nickname given from the earliest times to a swarthy or dark-haired man. Scottish and English: from Old English blac ‘pale’, ‘fair’, i.e. precisely the opposite meaning to 1, and a variant of Blake 2. Blake and Black are found more or less interchangeably in several surnames and place names. English: variant of Blanc as a Norman name. The pronunciation of the nasalized vowel gave considerable difficulty to English speakers, and its quality was often ignored. Scottish and Irish: translation of various names from Gaelic dubh ‘black’ (see Duff). Danish and Swedish: generally, probably the English and Scottish name, but in some cases perhaps a variant spelling of Blak, a nickname from blak ‘black’. In some cases, a translation of various names meaning ‘black’, for example German and Jewish Schwarz.

Welsh and English: patronymic from the personal name Davy (Welsh Dafydd, Dewi), a pet form of David.

Canadian spelling of French (Norman and Champenois) Ouilet, from a Frenchified form of Willet, a pet form of William.

French: from a reduced form of the Germanic personal name Hildo (see Hildebrand, Houde). French: habitational name from any of several places in Normandy called La Houle or Les Houles, named in Old French with the singular or plural of houle ‘cave’. English: variant of Hole.

Scottish: see McLeod.

French (Ménard): variant of Maynard.

English, Scottish, French, and German: from the name of the flower, Middle English, Old French, Middle High German rose (Latin rosa), in various applications. In part it is a topographic name for someone who lived at a place where wild roses grew, or a habitational name for someone living at a house bearing the sign of the rose. It is also found, especially in Europe, as a nickname for a man with a ‘rosy’ complexion. As an American surname, this name has absorbed cognates and similar-sounding names from other European languages. English: variant of Royce. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from the word for the flower (German Rose, Yiddish royz), or a metronymic name from the Yiddish female personal name Royze, derived from the word for the flower.

French: regional name for someone from Champagne, named in Latin as Campania (from campus ‘plain’, ‘flat land’). This is also the name of various villages in France, and in some cases the family name may derive from one of these.

French (Planté): topographic name for someone living by an area of planted ground, a herb garden, shrubbery, or more specifically a vineyard. English: variant of Plant.

English and Scottish: variant of Mill 1. English: either a metronymic form of Mill 2, or a variant of Miles. Irish: in Ulster this is the English name, but elsewhere in Ireland it may be a translation of a Gaelic topographic byname, an Mhuilinn ‘of the mill’.

French (Benoît): from the personal name Benoit, French form of Benedict.

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

Scottish and Irish: see McLean.

French: nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces, from the Old French title of rank duc ‘duke’ (from Latin dux ‘leader’, genitive ducis), or else an occupational name for a servant employed in a ducal household.

French: topographic name for someone who lived in a dense forest or perhaps a copse of evergreens, from Old French bois ‘wood’ (see Bois) + vert, verd ‘green’. This name is sometimes translated as Greenwood.

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).

French and English: from the Old French, Norman, and Middle English personal name A(i)llard. This is of Germanic origin, being found in the continental form Adelard and in Old English as Æ{dh}elheard, both meaning ‘noble hardy’.

French: topographic name from Old French gaut ‘wood’, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word, for example in Loir-et-Cher, Marne, and Eure-et-Loire.

English, Scottish, and Irish: variant spelling of Hamill. French: topographic name for someone who lived and worked at an outlying farm dependent on the main village, Old French hamel (a diminutive from a Germanic element cognate with Old English ham ‘homestead’). German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name from the city of Hamlin, German Hameln, Yiddish Haml, where the Hamel river empties into the Weser. The name of the river probably derives from the Germanic element ham ‘water meadow’. Dutch: metonymic occupational name for a shepherd, from Middle Dutch hamel ‘wether’, ‘castrated ram’.

German: from a short form of any of various Germanic personal names beginning with wig ‘battle’, ‘war’.

English: patronymic from the personal name Steven. It is also found in this spelling as a Dutch and North German name, and as an Americanized form of some like-sounding Jewish name, as well as cognate names in other European languages such as Stefan and Steffen and their derivatives.

French (Bérubé): habitational name from some minor place named with Old French bel ru ‘beautiful stream’, with the subsequent pleonastic addition of bé, variant of bel ‘beautiful’.

French: habitational name from Lemay in Maine-et-Loire. English: nickname from Middle English may ‘young lad’ or ‘girl’, with the Old French definite article le.

French: topographic name for someone who lived near a cross set up by the roadside or in the marketplace, from French la croix ‘the cross’ (Latin crux, crucis). In some cases the surname may have denoted one who carried the cross in church processions. Compare the English equivalent, Cross. It is a very frequent French Canadian secondary surname, perhaps for a person who swore by the cross, and has also been used independently since 1670.

French: nickname for someone with red hair, from a diminutive of Roux.

French: metronymic from La Belle, literally ‘the beautiful (woman)’ (Old French beu, bel ‘fair’, ‘lovely’).

French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements ragin ‘counsel’ + wald ‘rule’ (equivalent to English Reynold).

French: unexplained. The name is very frequent in New England.

North German: patronymic from Klass, a Low German reduced form of Nikolaus (see Nicholas).

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.

English: occupational name for the servant of a parish priest or parson, or a patronymic denoting the child of a parson, from the possessive case of Middle English persone, parsoun (see Parson). English: many early examples are found with prepositions (e.g. Ralph del Persones 1323); these are habitational names, with the omission of house, hence in effect occupational names for servants employed at the parson’s house. Irish: usually of English origin (see above), but sometimes a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Phearsain, which is of Highland Scottish origin (see McPherson).

English and French: variant of Bertram.

Welsh: Anglicized form of Welsh ap Herry ‘son of Herry’, a variant of Harry (see Harris). English: topographic name for someone who lived near a pear tree, Middle English per(r)ie (Old English pyrige, a derivative of pere ‘pear’). This surname and a number of variants have been established in Ireland since the 17th century.

English and French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements haim, heim ‘home’ + ric ‘power’, ‘ruler’, introduced to England by the Normans in the form Henri. During the Middle Ages this name became enormously popular in England and was borne by eight kings. Continental forms of the personal name were equally popular throughout Europe (German Heinrich, French Henri, Italian Enrico and Arrigo, Czech Jindrich, etc.). As an American family name, the English form Henry has absorbed patronymics and many other derivatives of this ancient name in continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) In the period in which the majority of English surnames were formed, a common English vernacular form of the name was Harry, hence the surnames Harris (southern) and Harrison (northern). Official documents of the period normally used the Latinized form Henricus. In medieval times, English Henry absorbed an originally distinct Old English personal name that had hagan ‘hawthorn’. Compare Hain 2 as its first element, and there has also been confusion with Amery. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hInnéirghe ‘descendant of Innéirghe’, a byname based on éirghe ‘arising’. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Éinrí or Mac Einri, patronymics from the personal names Éinrí, Einri, Irish forms of Henry. It is also found as a variant of McEnery. Jewish (American): Americanized form of various like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish names.

English and Welsh: from the medieval personal name Elis, a vernacular form of Elijah (see Elias). In Wales this surname absorbed forms derived from the Welsh personal name Elisedd, a derivative of elus ‘kindly’, ‘benevolent’.

Chinese : variant of Wu 1. Chinese : variant of Wu 4.

Scottish and northern Irish: from Anglo-Norman French waleis ‘Welsh’ (from a Germanic cognate of Old English wealh ‘foreign’), hence an ethnic name for a Welsh speaker. In some cases this clearly denoted an incomer to Scotland from Wales or the Welsh Marches, but it may also have denoted a Welsh-speaking Scot: in western Scotland around Glasgow, the Welsh-speaking Strathclyde Britons survived well into the Middle Ages. Jewish: this surname has been adopted in the 19th and 20th centuries as an Americanized form of various Ashkenazic Jewish surnames, e.g. Wallach.

Scottish and northern English: topographic name for someone who lived by a stream or streams, from the Middle English nominative plural or genitive singular of burn (see Bourne). Scottish: variant of Burnhouse, habitational name from a place named with burn ‘stream’ + house ‘house’. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Broin (see Byrne). Jewish (American): Americanized and shortened form of Bernstein.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a stonemason, Middle English, Old French mas(s)on. Compare Machen. Stonemasonry was a hugely important craft in the Middle Ages. Italian (Veneto): from a short form of Masone. French: from a regional variant of maison ‘house’.

English: occupational name for a hunter, Old English hunta (a primary derivative of huntian ‘to hunt’). The term was used not only of the hunting on horseback of game such as stags and wild boars, which in the Middle Ages was a pursuit restricted to the ranks of the nobility, but also to much humbler forms of pursuit such as bird catching and poaching for food. The word seems also to have been used as an Old English personal name and to have survived into the Middle Ages as an occasional personal name. Compare Huntington and Huntley. Irish: in some cases (in Ulster) of English origin, but more commonly used as a quasi-translation of various Irish surnames such as Ó Fiaich (see Fee). Possibly an Americanized spelling of German Hundt.

English and Scottish: from Middle English, Old French parc ‘park’; a metonymic occupational name for someone employed in a park or a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a park. In the Middle Ages a park was a large enclosed area where the landowner could hunt game. English and Scottish: from a medieval pet form of the personal name Peter. Compare Parkin. Swedish: ornamental name from park ‘park’. Korean: variant of Pak.

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.

Northern and central French: topographic name for someone who lived near a spring or well, Old French fontane, Late Latin fontana, a derivative of classical Latin fons (see Font).

Southern French (Séguin): from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements sigi ‘victory’ + wine ‘friend’.

French: variant spelling of Terrien.

English: patronymic from the personal name Andrew. This is the usual southern English patronymic form, also found in Wales; the Scottish and northern English form is Anderson. In North America this name has absorbed numerous cases of the various European cognates and their derivatives. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

Scottish, English, and northern Irish: habitational name from any of the various places, for example in Lanarkshire (Scotland) and Dorset and Lancashire (England) called Crawford, named in Old English with crawe ‘crow’ + ford ‘ford’. English: variant of Crowfoot (see Crofoot).

English and Irish: from a word that originally denoted a wine steward, usually the chief servant of a medieval household, from Norman French butuiller (Old French bouteillier, Latin buticularius, from buticula ‘bottle’). In the large households of royalty and the most powerful nobility, the title came to denote an officer of high rank and responsibility, only nominally concerned with the supply of wine, if at all. Anglicized form of French Boutilier. Jewish (from Poland and Ukraine): occupational name for a bottle maker, from Yiddish butl ‘bottle’ + the agent suffix -er.

English: from the possessive case of Brook (i.e. ‘of the brook’). Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. Americanized spelling of German Brucks.

French: from the Norman personal name Gervase, of disputed etymology. The name was borne by a certain St. Gervasius, around whom a cult grew up following the discovery of his remains in Milan in 386.

English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived by a patch of wet ground overgrown with brushwood, northern Middle English kerr (Old Norse kjarr). A legend grew up that the Kerrs were left-handed, on theory that the name is derived from Gaelic cearr ‘wrong-handed’, ‘left-handed’. Irish: see Carr. This surname has also absorbed examples of German Kehr.

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.

Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived by a dike, Dutch dijk. Compare Dyke.

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.

Scottish, English, German, Dutch; also found in many other cultures: from the personal name Alexander, classical Greek Alexandros, which probably originally meant ‘repulser of men (i.e. of the enemy)’, from alexein ‘to repel’ + andros, genitive of aner ‘man’. Its popularity in the Middle Ages was due mainly to the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great (356–323 bc)—or rather to the hero of the mythical versions of his exploits that gained currency in the so-called Alexander Romances. The name was also borne by various early Christian saints, including a patriarch of Alexandria (ad c.250–326), whose main achievement was condemning the Arian heresy. The Gaelic form of the personal name is Alasdair, which has given rise to a number of Scottish and Irish patronymic surnames, for example McAllister. Alexander is a common forename in Scotland, often representing an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name. In North America the form Alexander has absorbed many cases of cognate names from other languages, for example Spanish Alejandro, Italian Alessandro, Greek Alexandropoulos, Russian Aleksandr, etc. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) It has also been adopted as a Jewish name.

Welsh: Anglicized form of Welsh ap Rhys ‘son of Rhys’ (see Reece). This is one of the commonest of Welsh surnames. It has also been established in Ireland since the 14th century, where it is sometimes a variant of Bryson. English: the name is also found very early in parts of England far removed from Welsh influence (e.g. Richard Prys, Essex 1320), and in such cases presumably derives from Middle English, Old French pris ‘price’, ‘prize’, perhaps as a metonymic occupational name for a fixer of prices. Americanized spelling of Jewish Preuss or Preis.

Irish (of Anglo-Norman origin): habitational name from Burgh in Suffolk, England. This is named with Old English burh ‘fortification’, ‘fortified manor’. Norwegian: Americanized form of Børke, a habitational name from any of eight farms in southeastern Norway, named with Old Norse birki ‘birch wood’. German: variant of Burk.

English and Scottish: patronymic from the medieval personal name Saunder, reduced vernacular form of Alexander.

French: nickname for a wine drinker, from Old French bei(vre), boi(vre) ‘to drink’ + vin ‘wine’. This name is sometimes translated as Drinkwine.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Coinnich, patronymic from the personal name Coinneach meaning ‘comely’. Compare Menzies.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Briain ‘descendant of Brian’, a personal name probably based on the element bre- ‘hill’, with the transferred sense ‘eminence’, i.e. ‘exalted one’. See also Bryan. In Ireland there has also been some confusion with O’Byrne (see Byrne).

French: occupational name for a weaver, Old French tissier (Late Latin texarius, a derivative of texere ‘to weave’).

English and German: patronymic from the personal name Richard. Richards is a frequent name in Wales.

English: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Lorens, Laurence (Latin Laurentius ‘man from Laurentum’, a place in Italy probably named from its laurels or bay trees). The name was borne by a saint who was martyred at Rome in the 3rd century ad; he enjoyed a considerable cult throughout Europe, with consequent popularity of the personal name (French Laurent, Italian, Spanish Lorenzo, Catalan Llorenç, Portuguese Lourenço, German Laurenz; Polish Wawrzyniec (assimilated to the Polish word wawrzyn ‘laurel’), etc.). The surname is also borne by Jews among whom it is presumably an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Ashkenazic surnames.

English (chiefly central and northern England): variant of Holme. Scottish: probably a habitational name from Holmes near Dundonald, or from a place so called in the barony of Inchestuir. Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Thomáis, Mac Thómais (see McComb). In part of western Ireland, Holmes is a variant of Cavish (from Gaelic Mac Thámhais, another patronymic from Thomas).

French: variant spelling of Dion.

French: nickname for a greedy or voracious man, from Old French goulet ‘gullet’, a diminutive of goule ‘throat’ (Latin gula). It may also be in part a topographic name for someone who lived by a narrow pass or defile.

Irish: reduced form of O’Sullivan, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Súileabháin ‘descendant of Súileabhán’, a personal name composed of the elements súil ‘eye’ + dubh ‘black’, ‘dark’ + the diminutive suffix -án.

Irish (Leinster and Munster) and English (of Norman origin): habitational name for someone from Pois, a place in Picardy (said to have been named with Old French pois ‘fish’ because of its well-stocked river), from Old French Pohier ‘native of Pois’. English: nickname for a poor man, or ironically for a miser, from Middle English, Old French povre, poure ‘poor’ (Latin pauper). Woulfe gives this also as the meaning of the Norman Irish name, which in early records is found as le Poer, believing it to be a nickname for someone who has taken a vow of poverty.

English: from a Middle English pet form of Nicholas. English: from a Middle English personal name derived from the Old English byname Cola (from col ‘(char)coal’, presumably denoting someone of swarthy appearance), or the Old Norse cognate Koli. Scottish and Irish: when not of English origin, this is a reduced and altered form of McCool. In some cases, particularly in New England, Cole is a translation of the French surname Charbonneau. Probably an Americanized spelling of German Kohl.

variant spelling of Gay. nickname from Old French guai ‘unfortunate’, ‘ill-starred’.

French: occupational name for a young servant, Old French page, with the definite article le. The word came from Italian paggio, apparently ultimately from Greek paidion, diminutive of pais ‘boy’, ‘child’.

French: from a diminutive of Lauze, a metonymic occupational name for a slater, derived from Gaulish lausa ‘slate’, ‘roofing stone’.

Scottish and Irish: see McKay.

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.

English and French: from a medieval personal name (Latin Vincentius, a derivative of vincens, genitive vincentis, present participle of vincere ‘to conquer’). The name was borne by a 3rd-century Spanish martyr widely venerated in the Middle Ages and by a 5th-century monk and writer of Lérins, as well as various other early saints. In eastern Europe the name became popular in honor of Wincenty Kadlubek (died 1223), a bishop of Kraków and an early chronicler. Irish: the English surname has been established in the south of Ireland since the 17th century, and has also been adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Mac Dhuibhinse ‘son of the dark man of the island’.

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.

French: from a diminutive of vache (from Latin vacca ‘cow’), an occupational name for a cowherd. In New England, this name is sometimes Americanized as Cowan.

French: probably an altered spelling of Robichon or Roubichou, pet forms of Robert.

French: nickname for a gentle-natured person, from Old French dolz, dous ‘sweet’, ‘pleasant’ (from Latin dulcis).

French and English: from the Old French personal name Jacques, the usual French form of Latin Jacobus (see Jacob). The English surname is either a late introduction from France or a Frenchification of Jakes. In English this surname is traditionally pronounced as two syllables, jay-kwez.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duinn, Ó Doinn ‘descendant of Donn’, a byname meaning ‘brown-haired’ or ‘chieftain’. English: nickname for a man with dark hair or a swarthy complexion, from Middle English dunn ‘dark-colored’. Scottish: habitational name from Dun in Angus, named with Gaelic dùn ‘fort’. Scottish: nickname from Gaelic donn ‘brown’. Compare 1.

French: diminutive of Grave 3. North German: nickname for someone with gray hair or a gray beard, from Low German graw.

French, Scottish, and German: from Old French Picard ‘Picard’, a regional name for someone from Picardy in northern France. French: from a pejorative derivative of pic ‘pick’, ‘pike’, cognate of Pike 3 and 4. Jewish (western Ashkenazic): Frenchification of the German name Bickhart.

English and French: nickname for someone who had some special connection with the Christmas season, such as owing the particular feudal duty of providing a yule-log to the lord of the manor, or having given a memorable performance as the Lord of Misrule. The name is from Middle English, Old French no(u)el ‘Christmas’ (Latin natalis (dies) ‘birthday’). It was also used as a given name for someone born during the Christmas period.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dubhghaill ‘descendant of Dubhghall’, a personal name composed of the elements dubh ‘black’ + gall ‘stranger’. This was used as a byname for Scandinavians, in particular to distinguish the darker-haired Danes from fair-haired Norwegians. Compare McDougall, McDowell.

English: patronymic from Matthew. In North America, this form has assimilated numerous vernacular derivatives in other languages of Latin Mat(t)hias and Matthaeus. Irish (Ulster and County Louth): used as an Americanized form of McMahon.

English and southern French: from Middle English, Old French car(r)ier (Late Latin carrarius, a derivative of carrum ‘cart’, ‘wagon’, of Gaulish origin); in English an occupational name for someone who transported goods, in French for a cartwright. French: occupational name for a stonemason or quarryman, carrier.

French: see Paquette.

French: from a derivative of More 4 or 5.

French: habitational name from any of the numerous places called La Roque or Laroque, from a southern and Picard form of roche ‘rock’ (see Laroche). In Canada, it is a frequent secondary, which has also been used independently since 1717; it is sometimes translated as Rock.

English, Scottish, and German: patronymic from Peter. Americanized form of similar surnames of non-English origin (such as Petersen, or Swedish Pettersson). In VT, there are Petersons who were originally called by the French name Beausoleil; in some documentation this was translated fairly literally as Prettysun, which was then assimilated to Peterson.

English: occupational name for a merchant or trader, Middle English chapman, Old English ceapmann, a compound of ceap ‘barter’, ‘bargain’, ‘price’, ‘property’ + mann ‘man’.

Scottish (of Norman origin): name of a powerful Scottish clan, originally a habitational name from Saint-Clair-sur-Elle in La Manche or Saint-Clair-l’Évêque in Calvados, so called from the dedication of their churches to St. Clarus (see Clare 3). Jewish: Americanized form of some like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish surname.

English: from Middle English, Old French palmer, paumer (from palme, paume ‘palm tree’, Latin palma), a nickname for someone who had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Such pilgrims generally brought back a palm branch as proof that they had actually made the journey, but there was a vigorous trade in false souvenirs, and the term also came to be applied to a cleric who sold indulgences. Swedish (Palmér): ornamental name formed with palm ‘palm tree’ + the suffix -ér, from Latin -erius ‘descendant of’. Irish: when not truly of English origin (see 1 above), a surname adopted by bearers of Gaelic Ó Maolfhoghmhair (see Milford) perhaps because they were from an ecclesiastical family. German: topographic name for someone living among pussy willows (see Palm 2). German: from the personal name Palm (see Palm 3).

Scottish: regional name from the former county of this name, so named from Old Norse suðr ‘south’ + land ‘land’ because the territory lay south of Scandinavia and the Norse colonies in the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

Scottish and Irish (of Scottish origin): from the Gaelic personal name Donnchadh, composed of the elements donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + a derivative of cath ‘battle’, Anglicized in Ireland as Donagh or Donaghue. Compare Donahue. Irish (Sligo): used as an Anglicized equivalent of Gaelic Ó Duinnchinn ‘descendant of Donncheann’, a byname composed of the elements donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + ceann ‘head’.

English: from Cocke in any the senses described + the suffix -s denoting ‘son of’ or ‘servant of’. Irish (Ulster): mistranslation of Mac Con Coille (‘son of Cú Choille’, a personal name meaning ‘hound of the wood’), as if formed with coileach ‘cock’, ‘rooster’.

Scottish and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Steven. As a North American surname, it has assimilated some European cognates such as Stefan and Steffen and their derivatives.

French: nickname for a quick-tempered or unpleasant person, from Old French pelon ‘spiky outer case of a chestnut’.

French: variant of Valencourt, a topographic name meaning ‘low-lying farm’.

Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived near a steep or precipitous rock, from Gaelic creag, a word that has been borrowed in Middle English as crag(g).

English and Scottish: occupational name for the gatekeeper of a walled town or city, or the doorkeeper of a great house, castle, or monastery, from Middle English porter ‘doorkeeper’, ‘gatekeeper’ (Old French portier). The office often came with accommodation, lands, and other privileges for the bearer, and in some cases was hereditary, especially in the case of a royal castle. As an American surname, this has absorbed cognates and equivalents in other European languages, for example German Pförtner (see Fortner) and North German Poertner. English: occupational name for a man who carried loads for a living, especially one who used his own muscle power rather than a beast of burden or a wheeled vehicle. This sense is from Old French porteo(u)r (Late Latin portator, from portare ‘to carry or convey’). Dutch: occupational name from Middle Dutch portere ‘doorkeeper’. Compare 1. Dutch: status name for a freeman (burgher) of a seaport, Middle Dutch portere, modern Dutch poorter. Jewish (Ashkenazic): adoption of the English or Dutch name in place of some Ashkenazic name of similar sound or meaning.

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

French, English, and Dutch: from the Germanic personal name Godin-, a pet form of any of various compound names beginning with god, got ‘god’. Compare Godbold, Goddard, and Godfrey.

French: probably a variant of Chartrain, a habitational name for someone from the city of Chartres.

English, German, Dutch (De Mann), and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a fierce or strong man, or for a man contrasted with a boy, from Middle English, Middle High German, Middle Dutch man. In some cases it may have arisen as an occupational name for a servant, from the medieval use of the term to describe a person of inferior social status. The Jewish surname can be ornamental. English and German: from a Germanic personal name, found in Old English as Manna. This originated either as a byname or else as a short form of a compound name containing this element, such as Hermann. Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish male personal name Man (cognate with 1). Indian (Panjab): Hindu (Jat) and Sikh name of unknown meaning.

English, Scottish, and French: status name for a young servant, Middle English and Old French page (from Italian paggio, ultimately from Greek paidion, diminutive of pais ‘boy’, ‘child’). The surname is also common in Ireland (especially Ulster and eastern Galway), having been established there since the 16th century. North German: metonymic occupational name for a horse dealer, from Middle Low German page ‘horse’. (Pagé): North American form of French Paget.

French: from a Gascon diminutive of Combe. In Canada, this name is particularly associated with Acadia (see Comeaux).

Chinese : variant of Zhang 1. Chinese : variant of Zhang 2. Chinese : variant of Jiang.

Scottish: habitational name from the island of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, the Gaelic name of which is Bód (genitive Bóid).

French: topographic name for someone living among rose bushes, from the fused preposition and definite article des ‘from the’ + the plural of Old French rosier ‘rose bush’. This was sometimes confused with Desrochers, even in French language documents.

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.

French: metronymic derived from Gertrude, or perhaps from a pet form of the personal name Thouroude. Compare Trudeau.

English and North German: from a personal name or nickname meaning ‘stag’, Middle English hert, Middle Low German hërte, harte. German: variant spelling of Hardt 1 and 2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name or a nickname from German and Yiddish hart ‘hard’. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAirt ‘descendant of Art’, a byname meaning ‘bear’, ‘hero’. The English name became established in Ireland in the 17th century. French: from an Old French word meaning ‘rope’, hence possibly a metonymic occupational name for a rope maker or a hangman. Dutch: nickname from Middle Dutch hart, hert ‘hard’, ‘strong’, ‘ruthless’, ‘unruly’.

English: occupational name, a variant of Penn 1, with the agent suffix -er. North German (including Lower Rhineland): variant of Pfänner, from Pfann ‘pan’; according to Bahlow, a name denoting the owner of a salt-boiling pan. German: habitational name from Penna near Leipzig. Eastern German: in some cases a topographic name (of Salzburg emigrants) in East Prussia, equivalent of Baintner, Paintner (see Bainter), from Middle High German biunte ‘separate part of land or enclosure belonging to a village’.

English: habitational name from any of several places named with the plural of Old English well(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’, or a topopgraphical name from this word (in its plural form), for example Wells in Somerset or Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk. Translation of French Dupuis or any of its variants.

Of French origin; unexplained. It is sometimes Americanized as Robtoy.

English: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Piers (see Pierce). The surname is also quite common in Ireland, where it has been established for many centuries. Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish surnames.

French: habitational name from Rioux in Charente-Maritime or Rioux-Martin in Charente, or any of various minor places named with this word. Southern French: topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, from Old Provençal rieu (Latin rivus).

French: topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of stony soil or by a large outcrop of rock, from Old French pierre ‘stone’, ‘rock’ (Latin petra, from Greek), with the definite article la, or a habitational name from various places named Lapierre or La Pierre, with the same meaning. It may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a quarryman or stone carver. In the U.S. it is often translated as Stone.

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

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.

French: topographic name, from Old French du mont ‘from the mount’.

French: metonymic occupational name for a cartwright, from Old French charron ‘cart’ (Latin carro, genitive carronis, a derivative of carrum ‘cart’).

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a ford, Middle English, Old English ford, or a habitational name from one of the many places named with this word, such as Ford in Northumberland, Shropshire, and West Sussex, or Forde in Dorset. Irish: Anglicized form (quasi-translation) of various Gaelic names, for example Mac Giolla na Naomh ‘son of Gilla na Naomh’ (a personal name meaning ‘servant of the saints’), Mac Conshámha ‘son of Conshnámha’ (a personal name composed of the elements con ‘dog’ + snámh ‘to swim’), in all of which the final syllable was wrongly thought to be áth ‘ford’, and Ó Fuar(th)áin (see Foran). Jewish: Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. Translation of German Fürth (see Furth).

Scottish: habitational name from any of the various places called Douglas from their situation on a river named with Gaelic dubh ‘dark’, ‘black’ + glas ‘stream’ (a derivative of glas ‘blue’). There are several localities in Scotland and Ireland so named, but the one from which the surname is derived in most if not all cases is 20 miles south of Glasgow, the original stronghold of the influential Douglas family and their retainers.

English: nickname from the animal, Middle English, Old English fox. It may have denoted a cunning individual or been given to someone with red hair or for some other anecdotal reason. This relatively common and readily understood surname seems to have absorbed some early examples of less transparent surnames derived from the Germanic personal names mentioned at Faulks and Foulks. Irish: part translation of Gaelic Mac an tSionnaigh ‘son of the fox’ (see Tinney). Jewish (American): translation of the Ashkenazic Jewish surname Fuchs. Americanized spelling of Focks, a North German patronymic from the personal name Fock (see Volk). Americanized spelling of Fochs, a North German variant of Fuchs, or in some cases no doubt a translation of Fuchs itself.

French Canadian variant of French Gingreau, unexplained.

English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived in the woods (see Wood). Irish: English name adopted as a translation of Ó Cuill ‘descendant of Coll’ (see Quill), or in Ulster of Mac Con Coille ‘son of Cú Choille’, a personal name meaning ‘hound of the wood’, which has also been mistranslated Cox, as if formed with coileach ‘cock’, ‘rooster’.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Dick.

English and Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name from La Varrenne in Seine-Maritime, France, named with a Gaulish element probably descriptive of alluvial land or sandy soil. English: topographic name for someone who lived by a game park, or an occupational name for someone employed in one, from Anglo-Norman French warrene or Middle English wareine ‘warren’, ‘piece of land for breeding game’. Irish: adopted as an Englsih form of Gaelic Ó Murnáin (see Murnane, Warner).

German: nickname for a physically strong person, from Middle High German louwe, lauwe ‘lion’. In some cases the surname may have been originally from a house sign. North German: topographic name for someone living in a bush-covered area or clearing, Middle Low German lo, loch, lage. North German and Dutch: from a vernacular short form of the personal name Laurentius (see Lawrence). Dutch: nickname from Middle Dutch laeu ‘lazy’, ‘indifferent’, ‘faint-hearted’. Chinese : Cantonese form of Liu 1. Chinese : Cantonese form of Liu 3. Chinese : variant of Lao 2.

English: topographic name or metonymic occupational name for someone who lived by or worked at a barn or barns, from Middle English barn ‘barn’, ‘granary’. In some cases, it may be a habitational name from Barnes (on the Surrey bank of the Thames in London), which was named in Old English with this word. English: name borne by the son or servant of a barne, a term used in the early Middle Ages for a member of the upper classes, although its precise meaning is not clear (it derives from Old English beorn, Old Norse barn ‘young warrior’). Barne was also occasionally used as a personal name (from an Old English, Old Norse byname), and some examples of the surname may derive from this use. Irish: possibly an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Bearáin ‘descendant of Bearán’, a byname meaning ‘spear’. French: variant of Bern. Jewish: variant of Parnes.

English: nickname from Middle English chow (Old English ceo) ‘jackdaw or crow’. Chinese : variant of Zhou. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Zou. Chinese : variant of Cao 1. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Chao 4.

English: occupational name for someone employed in the pantry of a great house or monastery, from Middle English spense ‘larder’ + the agent suffix -er.

from a diminutive of Old French gendre ‘son-in-law’ (Latin gener). habitational name from Gendron in Namur province, Belgium.

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.

English: patronymic from Reynold.

French and English: occupational name for a buyer and seller of goods, from Old French, Middle English march(e)ant, Late Latin mercatans, from Latin mercari ‘to trade’, from merx ‘commerce’, ‘exchange’, ‘merchandise’. In the Middle Ages the term was used mainly to denote a wholesale dealer.

Southern French: nickname from Gascon dialect audet ‘bird’, variant of standard Occitan ausèl (modern French oiseau).

Danish, Norwegian, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Jens, a reduced form of Johannes (see John). This is Denmark’s most frequent surname.

French: from Old French vi(g)ne ‘vineyard’ (Latin vinea, a derivative of vinum ‘wine’), hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a vineyard; a metonymic occupational name for a vine dresser or the owner of a vineyard; or a habitational name from any of numerous places so named. In Canada, this is a frequent secondary surname, which has also been used alone since 1708.

Scottish: habitational name from a district in Ayrshire, first recorded in 1153 in the form Cunegan, a Celtic name of uncertain origin. The spellings in -ham, first recorded in 1180, and in -ynghame, first recorded in 1227, represent a gradual assimilation to the English place-name element -ingham. Irish: surname adopted from Scottish by bearers of Gaelic Ó Cuinneagáin ‘descendant of Cuinneagán’, a personal name from a double diminutive of the Old Irish personal name Conn meaning ‘leader’, ‘chief’.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an tSaoir ‘son of the craftsman’. Compare Irish McAteer.

French: reduced form of Bourrique, from a personal name, probably a derivative of bourre ‘tawny’, ‘fawn’ (from Latin burrus), hence denoting a man with tawny hair.

French and Canadian (Lavallée): topographic name for someone who lived in a valley, Old French val (Latin vallis), with the definite article la; or a habitational name from any of numerous places called Lavallée. French Canadian: secondary surname, used to distinguish a branch of a family (for example the Paquettes) living in a valley, as opposed to others, for example those living by a river (Paquette dit LaRivière).

English: habitational name from any of the many places throughout England named Bradley, from Old English brad ‘broad’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’. Scottish: habitational name from Braidlie in Roxburghshire. Irish (Ulster): adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Brolcháin.

Plural form of French Duchêne (see Duchene).

Scottish: see McKinnon.

French Canadian: probably a variant of Laroche, used as a secondary surname for Gautier since 1743.

English (of Welsh origin): Anglicized form of Welsh ap Hywel ‘son of Hywel’, a personal name meaning ‘eminent’ (see Howell). Irish: mainly of Welsh origin as in 1 above, but sometimes a surname adopted as equivalent of Gaelic Mac Giolla Phóil ‘son of the servant of St. Paul’ (see Guilfoyle).

English: patronymic from Daw 1.

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.

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.

habitational name from Currie in Midlothian, first recorded in this form in 1230. It is derived from Gaelic curraigh, dative case of currach ‘wet plain’, ‘marsh’. habitational name from Corrie in Dumfriesshire (see Corrie). Scottish spelling of Irish Curry or, in Arran, an Anglicization of Mac Mhuirich (see McMurray).

English: ethnic name for someone from Flanders. In the Middle Ages there was considerable commercial intercourse between England and the Netherlands, particularly in the wool trade, and many Flemish weavers and dyers settled in England. The word reflects a Norman French form of Old French flamenc, from the stem flam- + the Germanic suffix -ing. The surname is also common in south and east Scotland and in Ireland, where it is sometimes found in the Gaelicized form Pléimeann. German: variant of Flemming, cognate with 1.

English and French: regional name from Old French Poitevin, denoting someone from Poitou in western France. The form Potvin has long been established in England and was brought to the U.S. from there. However, French bearers of the surname Poitevin also came to the New World, where their surname underwent a similar transformation on arrival in New England.

French: from a pet form of Droue, an unattested variant of the personal name Dreue. This is from the Germanic personal name Drogo (see Drew 2).

French (mainly Poitou), and French Canadian: topographic name for someone who lived by a nursery or plantation (often one planted with vines), from French plant ‘(nursery) plantation (of trees, bushes)’; or a habitational name from places in Loire and Vienne called La Plante.

French: from the Germanic personal name Waldo (from waldan ‘to govern’).

English: status name from Middle English knyghte ‘knight’, Old English cniht ‘boy’, ‘youth’, ‘serving lad’. This word was used as a personal name before the Norman Conquest, and the surname may in part reflect a survival of this. It is also possible that in a few cases it represents a survival of the Old English sense into Middle English, as an occupational name for a domestic servant. In most cases, however, it clearly comes from the more exalted sense that the word achieved in the Middle Ages. In the feudal system introduced by the Normans the word was applied at first to a tenant bound to serve his lord as a mounted soldier. Hence it came to denote a man of some substance, since maintaining horses and armor was an expensive business. As feudal obligations became increasingly converted to monetary payments, the term lost its precise significance and came to denote an honorable estate conferred by the king on men of noble birth who had served him well. Knights in this last sense normally belonged to ancient noble families with distinguished family names of their own, so that the surname is more likely to have been applied to a servant in a knightly house or to someone who had played the part of a knight in a pageant or won the title in some contest of skill. Irish: part translation of Gaelic Mac an Ridire ‘son of the rider or knight’. See also McKnight.

Americanized spelling of Swedish Olsson or Danish and Norwegian Olsen.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAodha ‘descendant of Aodh’, a personal name meaning ‘fire’ (compare McCoy). In some cases, especially in County Wexford, the surname is of English origin (see below), having been taken to Ireland by the Normans. English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Devon and Worcestershire, so called from the plural of Middle English hay ‘enclosure’ (see Hay 1), or a topographic name from the same word. English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Dorset, Greater London (formerly in Kent and Middlesex), and Worcestershire, so called from Old English h?se ‘brushwood’, or a topographic name from the same word. English: patronymic from Hay 3. French: variant (plural) of Haye 3. Jewish (Ashkenazic): metronymic from Yiddish name Khaye ‘life’ + the Yiddish possessive suffix -s.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a weaver, early Middle English webbe, from Old English webba (a primary derivative of wefan ‘to weave’; compare Weaver 1). This word survived into Middle English long enough to give rise to the surname, but was already obsolescent as an agent noun; hence the secondary forms with the agent suffixes -er and -ster. Americanized form of various Ashkenazic Jewish cognates, including Weber and Weberman.

French (Carrière): topographic name for someone who lived on a fairly major thoroughfare, originally a road passable by vehicles as well as pedestrians (from Late Latin carraria (via), a derivative of carrum ‘cart’). Italian: occupational name for a carter or cartwright (see Carriero).

Muslim: variant spelling of Ahmad.

French: from a pet form of Paque, Pasque, a female personal name taken from Pasques ‘Easter’. Compare Pascal.

English: variant spelling of Paine. This is also a well-established surname in Ireland.

French: see Thibodeaux.

English: from Middle English biscop, Old English bisc(e)op ‘bishop’, which comes via Latin from Greek episkopos ‘overseer’. The Greek word was adopted early in the Christian era as a title for an overseer of a local community of Christians, and has yielded cognates in every European language: French évêque, Italian vescovo, Spanish obispo, Russian yepiskop, German Bischof, etc. The English surname has probably absorbed at least some of these continental European cognates. The word came to be applied as a surname for a variety of reasons, among them service in the household of a bishop, supposed resemblance in bearing or appearance to a bishop, and selection as the ‘boy bishop’ on St. Nicholas’s Day.

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a stone-built wall, e.g. one used to fortify a town or to keep back the encroachment of the sea (Old English w(e)all, from Latin vallum ‘rampart’, ‘palisade’). Northern English: topographic name for someone who lived by a spring or stream, northern Middle English wall(e) (Old English (Mercian) wæll(a); compare Well). Irish: re-Anglicized form of de Bhál, a Gaelicized form of de Valle, the name of a Norman family established in Munster and Connacht. German: topographic name for someone who lived by a defensive wall, Middle High German wal. German: variant of Wahl 2. German: from a short form of the personal name Walther. Swedish: ornamental name from Swedish vall ‘grassy bank’, ‘pasture’, ‘grazing ground’, or in some cases a habitational name from a place named with this element.

English (or Norman origin) and French: habitational name from any of several places in France, for example in Manche and Somme, that are named with Old French beu, bel ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ + champ(s) ‘field’, ‘plain’. In English the surname is generally pronounced Beecham.

habitational name from any of several places called Chabot, from caput ‘head’, ‘summit’. from chabot ‘bull-head’, a species of fish with a large head, hence a nickname for someone with a big head and a small body.

French: nickname, or perhaps an occupational name for a torch bearer, from flamme ‘fire’ + the definite article la.

French (Paré): occupational name for someone who finished cloth, from the past participle of parer ‘to prepare’. This is a frequent name in ME.

French and English: from the French medieval personal name Blancard, Blanchard, from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements blank ‘white’, ‘shining’ + hard ‘strong’, ‘brave’.

English: nickname for a small man, or distinguishing epithet for the younger of two bearers of the same personal name, from Middle English littel, Old English l¯tel, originally a diminutive of l¯t (see Light 3). Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó Beagáin ‘descendant of Beagán’ (see Begin). Translation of French Petit and Lepetit; also used as an English form of names such as Jean-Petit ‘little John’. Translation of any of various other European name meaning ‘little’.

English and German: from Middle English, Middle High German west ‘west’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived to the west of a settlement, or a regional name for someone who had migrated from further west.

English: from the Norman personal name Huard, Heward, composed of the Germanic elements hug ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘spirit’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’. English: from the Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Haward, composed of the Old Norse elements há ‘high’ + varðr ‘guardian’, ‘warden’. English: variant of Ewart 2. Irish: see Fogarty. Irish (County Clare) surname adopted as an equivalent of Gaelic Ó hÍomhair, which was formerly Anglicized as O’Hure.

occupational name from Old French uissier ‘usher’, ‘doorkeeper’, with the definite article l(e). occupational name from Old French huchier ‘carpenter’, ‘joiner’, ‘cabinetmaker’.

Northern English and Scottish: patronymic from Nichol.

English: habitational name from a place name that is very common in central and northern England. The derivation in most cases is from Old English burh ‘fort’ (see Burke) + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

English: from a pet form of David. English: from the Middle English personal name Day(e) or Dey(e), Old English Dæi, apparently from Old English dæg ‘day’, perhaps a short form of Old English personal names such as Dægberht and Dægmund. Reaney, however, points to the Middle English word day(e), dey(e) ‘dairy maid’, ‘(female) servant’ (from Old English d?ge, cognate with Old Norse deigja ‘female servant’, ultimately from a root meaning ‘to knead’, and related to the word for dough), which he says came to be used for a servant of either sex. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Deaghaidh (see O’Dea). Scottish: from an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Daìdh, a colloquial form of David. Welsh: from Dai, a pet form of the personal name Dafydd, Welsh form of David.

French: from a diminutive of Bout, which in some cases is derived from Old French bout ‘end’, ‘extremity’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived at the edge of a town or village, and in others from a Germanic personal name formed with bodo ‘messenger’.

French: from a diminutive or pet form of Blanche. Canadian respelling of Blanchet.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cárthaigh ‘son of Cárthach’, a personal name meaning ‘loving’. This is the name of an important Munster family.

habitational name for someone from a place named Dugay, for example in Charente, Dordogne, and Rhône. Spelling variant of Du Gué, a topographic name for someone who lived by a ford, gué.

Chinese : variant of Zhong 1. Chinese : variant of Zong. Chinese : variant of Zhong 2. Chinese : variant of Cong. Korean: variant of Ch{ou}ng (see Chong).

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.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Atkin.

Northern English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from William.

French: status name from Old French burgeis ‘inhabitant and (usually) freeman of a (fortified) town’, ‘burgess’ (from bourg ‘fortification’).

French and English: ethnic name for a Breton, from Old French bret (oblique case breton) (see Brett).

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Berold,' the French Berraud. This great surname appears as a personal name in Domesday: Baret, Yorkshire.Stephanus fil. Beroldi, Pipe Roll, 5 Henry II.Berard de Wattlesfeld, Suffolk, 1273.

French (Pépin) and English: from the Old French personal name Pepis, oblique case Pepin (introduced to Britain by the Normans). Of uncertain origin, it was borne by several Frankish kings, most notably Pepin le Bref, father of Charlemagne, and remained popular throughout the early Middle Ages. Reaney and Wilson suggest that late-formed examples of the English surname may alternatively be from Old French pepin, pipin ‘seed of a fruit’, and thus a metonymic occupational name for a gardener or grower of fruit trees. This surname is also established in northwest Germany, around Cologne.

French and English (of Norman origin): from the Old French personal name Auger or Alger (see Alger). German: variant of Auer, the g reflecting Frisian -oog contained in place names like Wangeroog.

Breton: nickname meaning ‘sturgeon’, borrowed from French esturgeon.

English, Scottish, and French: nickname for a brave or foolhardy man, from Old French, Middle English hardi ‘bold’, ‘courageous’ (of Germanic origin; compare Hard 1). Irish: in addition to being an importation of the English name, this is also found as an Anglicized form (by partial translation) of Gaelic Mac Giolla Deacair ‘son of the hard lad’. Scottish: variant spelling of Hardie 2.

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.

French: topographic name for someone living among boulders, from fused preposition and plural definite article des + the plural of rocher ‘boulder’, or a habitational name from any of several places named with this word. This name was sometimes confused with Desrosiers, even in French language documents.

Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Lochlainn ‘son of the Scandinavian’, a patronymic from the personal name Lochlann (see Laughlin).

French: topographic name for someone who lived on a riverbank, from a derivative of rive ‘(river) bank’.

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.

French: nickname from a diminutive of cho(u)e ‘jackdaw’ + the pejorative suffix -ard.

French: occupational name for a watchman, from Old French veille ‘watch’, ‘guard’ (Latin vigilia ‘watch’, ‘wakefulness’).

French: from Old French racine ‘root’; a metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of root vegetables, or a nickname for a tenacious and stubborn man. It is frequently found translated as Root.

French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements bald ‘bold’ + ric ‘power’.

German: habitational name from any of several places called Neufeld, also the German name for Konielspol near Lódz in Poland. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Neufeld ‘new field’.

French: habitational name from any of numerous places so named, from Old French roche ‘rocky crag’, ‘stony outcrop’, or a topographic name from the same word. In Canada it is a frequent secondary surname, which has also been used independently since 1683; it is often translated as Rock.

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.

from a Germanic female personal name Hrodberga, composed of the elements hrod ‘renown’ + bergo ‘protection’. possibly a metonymic occupational name, from roberge, a term denoting a type of warship.

English, French, and Dutch: from the Latin personal name Clemens meaning ‘merciful’ (genitive Clementis). This achieved popularity firstly through having been borne by an early saint who was a disciple of St. Paul, and later because it was selected as a symbolic name by a number of early popes. There has also been some confusion with the personal name Clemence (Latin Clementia, meaning ‘mercy’, an abstract noun derived from the adjective; in part a masculine name from Latin Clementius, a later derivative of Clemens). As an American family name, Clement has absorbed cognates in other continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

French (Giguère): unexplained.

French: derogatory nickname from chiasse ‘excrement’.

French: from montagne ‘mountain’, with the definite article la, either a habitational name for someone who lived on a mountain or perhaps a nickname for a very large man.

French, Spanish (Denís), and Portuguese: from the personal name Denis (Spanish Denís), variant of Dennis. Ukrainian: from the personal name Denys (see Dennis).

English, Scottish, Welsh, and German: from the Old French personal name Olivier, which was taken to England by the Normans from France. It was popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages as having been borne by one of Charlemagne’s paladins, the faithful friend of Roland, about whose exploits there were many popular romances. The name ostensibly means ‘olive tree’ (see Oliveira), but this is almost certainly the result of folk etymology working on an unidentified Germanic personal name, perhaps a cognate of Alvaro. The surname is also borne by Jews, apparently as an adoption of the non-Jewish surname. Catalan and southern French (Occitan): generally a topographic name from oliver ‘olive tree’, but in some instances possibly related to the homonymous personal name (see 1 above).

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.

French (Gélinas): possibly from an augmentative of Old French gelin or geline ‘hen’. It is often found in Canada with Lacourse as a secondary surname.

Scottish, English, Welsh, French, German, Dutch, Hungarian (Sámson), and Jewish: from the Biblical name Samson (Hebrew Shimshon, a diminutive of shemesh ‘sun’). Among Christians it was sometimes chosen as a personal name or nickname with reference to the great strength of the Biblical hero (Judges 13–16). In Wales another association was with the 6th-century Welsh bishop Samson, who traveled to Brittany, where he died and was greatly venerated. His name, which is probably an altered form of an unknown Celtic original, was popularized in England by Breton followers of William the Conqueror, and to some extent independently from Wales.

English: from Old English stan ‘stone’, in any of several uses. It is most commonly a topographic name, for someone who lived either on stony ground or by a notable outcrop of rock or a stone boundary-marker or monument, but it is also found as a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked in stone, a mason or stonecutter. There are various places in southern and western England named with this word, for example in Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Somerset, Staffordshire, and Worcestershire, and the surname may also be a habitational name from any of these. Translation of various surnames in other languages, including Jewish Stein, Norwegian Steine, and compound names formed with this word.

English, Scottish, and Irish: occupational name for a player on the harp, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Middle Dutch harp ‘harp’. The harper was one of the most important figures of a medieval baronial hall, especially in Scotland and northern England, and the office of harper was sometimes hereditary. The Scottish surname is probably an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Chruiteir ‘son of the harper’ (from Gaelic cruit ‘harp’, ‘stringed instrument’). This surname has long been present in Ireland.

from Old Occitan colomb ‘dove’ (Latin columbus), hence a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of doves, or a nickname for a person of a mild and gentle disposition. from a personal name of the same origin. The name in its Latin forms Columbus and Columba was popular among early Christians because the dove was considered to be the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

French: nickname for a person with red hair, from Old French rous ‘red(-haired)’ (Latin russ(e)us), with the definite article le. This name is associated with the Huguenots in British America; notably, with silversmiths in SC and NY.

French: from Old French charette ‘cart’, a diminutive of char(re), probably acquired as a metonymic occupational name for a user or maker of carts.

English: occupational name for an arrowsmith, Middle English, Old French flech(i)er (from Old French fleche ‘arrow’).

English (chiefly Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the Midlands) and Scottish: occupational name for a weaver, early Middle English webber, agent derivative of Webb.

Indian (Panjab): Sikh name (from Sanskrit siddha ‘accomplished’) derived from the name of a major Jat tribe. The Sidhu trace their origin to Jaisal, a Bhatti Rajput who was founder of Jaisalmer. Among his descendants was Khiwa, who married a Jat woman and had by her Sidhu, the ancestor of the Sidhu tribe.

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.

Northern English and Scottish: variant of Kerr. Irish (Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Carra ‘descendant of Carra’, a byname meaning ‘spear’. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Chathair, a Donegal name meaning ‘son of the servant of Cathair’.

English: topographic name for someone who lived in a lane, Middle English, Old English lane, originally a narrow way between fences or hedges, later used to denote any narrow pathway, including one between houses in a town. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Laighin ‘descendant of Laighean’, a byname meaning ‘spear’, or ‘javelin’. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Luain ‘descendant of Luan’, a byname meaning ‘warrior’. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Liatháin (see Lehane). Southern French: variant of Laine. Possibly also a variant of Southern French Lande.

French: topographic name for someone who lived by a hornbeam, from Old French charme ‘hornbeam’ (Latin carpinus), with fused preposition and article du ‘from the’.

French: from a diminutive of Forge, designating a blacksmith.

Scottish: variant of Monroe. In Ireland, Munroe has come to replace the surname Mulroy in some cases.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Maoláin, a patronymic from the byname Maolán, a diminutive of maol ‘bald’, ‘tonsured’. In Scotland the usual spelling is Macmillan. Compare Mullen.

'What craftsman art thou?' said the king.

French: secondary surname, a nickname for an affectionate man or a philanderer, from Old French amoureux ‘loving’, ‘amorous’ (Latin amorosus, a derivative of amor ‘love’), with the the definite article l’.

French: variant of Lebeau.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Toisich ‘son of the chief’.

French (Léger) and English: from the Germanic personal name Leodegar (see Ledger). French: nickname from léger ‘light’, ‘superficial’. English: see Letcher. Dutch (also de Leger): occupational name from Middle Dutch legger, ligger ‘bailiff’, ‘tax collector’.

French: topographic name for someone ‘from the bridge’, French pont (see Pont), with fused preposition and definite article du ‘from the’.

English (chiefly Midlands and northern England, especially Yorkshire): patronymic from Hann or the byname Hand. Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAmhsaigh (see Hampson 2). Irish: variant of McKittrick. Respelling of Scandinavian Hansen or Hansson. Jewish (Ashkenazic): metronymic from the female personal name Hanna.

French: from a personal name derived from the Germanic personal name Markwulf, Markolf, composed of the elements mark ‘borderland’ + wulf ‘wolf’. The name was borne by a 6th-century abbot of Cotentin, who is commemorated in various place names in Normandy: for example Saint-Marcouf in Calvados and Manche.

French (Vallée): topographic name for someone who lived in a valley, from Old French vallée.

from a pet form of the personal name Marc, French form of Mark 1. metonymic occupational name for a vine-grower, from Old French marcotte ‘vineshoot forming a layer’.

French: topographic name from la casse ‘the oak’ (a word of Gaulish origin). French: metonymic occupational name for box maker, la casse ‘the box’.

German: from a Germanic personal name, a reduced form of Reinmar, composed of the elements ragin ‘counsel’ + mari, meri ‘fame’.

English and Scottish: metonymic occupational name for a servant employed in the pantry of a great house or monastery, from Middle English spense ‘larder’, ‘storeroom’ (a reduced form of Old French despense, from a Late Latin derivative of dispendere, past participle dispensus, ‘to weigh out or dispense’).

Southern French: topographic name from an Occitan equivalent of voisinage ‘communal holdings’, perhaps, or a literal ‘neighbor’.

French (Grégoire): from the personal name Grégoire, French form of Gregory.

English: patronymic from Hick 1. This is a widespread surname in England, and is common in the southwest and southern Wales. Dutch and German: patronymic from Hick. Compare Hix.

English (mainly Yorkshire): patronymic from Mayer 1, i.e. ‘son of the mayor’. English: patronymic from mire ‘physician’ (see Myer 1). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Midhir, probably a variant of Ó Meidhir ‘mayor’ (see Mayer 1).

French: topographic name for someone who lived at a place where wild roses grew; or a habitational name from a town house bearing the sign of a rose. It may also have been a nickname for a man with a ‘rosy’ complexion, as well as a nickname of a soldier. In Canada it is a frequent secondary surname, which has also been used independently since 1704, and often translated as Rose in English.

English and Scottish: variant spelling of Low. German (Löwe): see Loewe. Jewish (Ashkenazic; Löwe): ornamental name from German Löwe ‘lion’. Jewish (Ashkenazic): Germanized form of Levy.

Altered spelling of German Bayer or Beyer. German: habitational name for someone from Boye (near Celle-Hannover). English: variant of Bowyer. Danish: habitational name from a place so named. The surname is also found in Norway and Sweden, probably from the same source.

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.

French: perhaps related to Old French palorde, a type of shellfish, and hence an occupational surname for a harvester of such comestibles.

French (La Brècque): habitational name from La Brèque in Seine-Maritime, named with the Norman form of brèche (see Labreche). It may also be a Norman topographic name for someone living by a gap or breach of some kind.

Irish and Scottish: see McNeil.

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.

North German and Danish: reduced form of the personal name Matthias or Mathies(s) (see Matthew).

Scottish: see McPherson.

English and Scottish: from Middle English stele ‘steel’, hence a nickname for someone considered as hard and durable as steel, or metonymic occupational name for a foundry worker.

French Canadian (La Liberté): secondary surname for many names, especially Colin (see Collins), from liberté ‘freedom’, with the definite article la; it has also been used independently since 1743.

French (Létourneau): from Old French estournel ‘starling’ (Late Latin sturnellus, a diminutive of classical Latin sturnus), with the definite article l’, hence a nickname for a chattering, gregarious person or a metonymic occupational name for a birdcatcher.

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Braose' or 'Brause,' the castle of Braose, 'now Brieuse, two leagues from Falaise in Normandy' (Lower). Spelt in every conceivable manner. I only furnish a few instances. Sussex, I believe, was the original home of the family.

French: habitational name from any of various places in France named Beauregard for their fine view or fine aspect, for example in Ain, Dordogne, Drôme, Lot, and Puy-de-Dôme, from beau ‘fair’, ‘lovely’ + regard ‘aspect’, ‘outlook’.

French: nickname for someone with an unusually pale complexion, from a derivative of Old French blou ‘blue’.

French (Duchesne): topographic name from Old French chesne ‘oak’, with fused preposition and definite article du ‘from the’.

English: patronymic from Jenkin. Jenkins is one of the most common names in England, especially southwestern England, but is also especially associated with Wales.

French (western): from a pet form of Martin 1. English: habitational name from Martineau in France. The name was also taken to England by Huguenot refugees in the 17th century (see below).

English and French (Léonard): from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements leo ‘lion’ (a late addition to the vocabulary of Germanic name elements, taken from Latin) + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’, which was taken to England by the Normans. A saint of this name, who is supposed to have lived in the 6th century, but about whom nothing is known except for a largely fictional life dating from half a millennium later, was popular throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages and was regarded as the patron of peasants and horses. Irish (Fermanagh): adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Mac Giolla Fhionáin or of Langan. Americanized form of Italian Leonardo or cognate forms in other European languages.

Scottish: reduced form of Gaelic Mac Gille Iosa ‘son of the servant of Jesus’. Compare McLeish. The usual spelling in Scotland is Gillies. Dutch form of Giles.

English: nickname for a newcomer to a place, from Middle English newe ‘new’ + man ‘man’. This form has also absorbed several European cognates with the same meaning, for example Neumann. (For other forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

English: variant spelling of Shepherd.

English: nickname for a short, fat person, from Middle English bal(le) ‘ball’ (Old English ball, Old Norse b{o,}llr). English: topographic name for someone who lived on or by a knoll or rounded hill, from the same Middle English word, bal(le), used in this sense. English: from the Old Norse personal name Balle, derived either from ballr ‘dangerous’ or b{o,}llr ‘ball’. South German: from Middle High German bal ‘ball’, possibly applied as a metonymic occupational name for a juggler, or a habitational name from a place so named in the Rhine area. Dutch and German: short form of any of various Germanic personal names formed with the element bald (see Bald).

Scottish and northern English: variant spelling of Allen. This is the more common spelling of the name in Scotland and northern England; in Scotland it is often found as an English form of the Gaelic name McAllen (see McAllan).

English: variant of Mace 1. French (Picardy): metonymic occupational name from masse ‘mace’, ‘hammer’. French: habitational name from places called Masse (Allier and Cô-d’Or), or La Masse (Eure, Lot, Puy-de-Dôme, Saône-et-Loire). French (Massé): habitational name from a place called Massé in Maine-et-Loire, so named from Gallo-Roman Macciacum (from the personal name Maccius + the locative suffix -acum). Dutch: from Middle Dutch masse ‘clog’; ‘cudgel’, perhaps a metonymic occupational name for someone who wielded a club. Dutch: possibly a variant of Maas 1, or a patronymic from Mas.

French: from a frequent Old French personal name, a pet form of Ace or Asse, Germanic A(t)zo, a pet form of any of the many Germanic compound names that had adal ‘noble’ as their first element. Dutch: from the Dutch cognate of this personal name, Asselijn.

English and German: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements ric ‘power(ful)’ + hari, heri ‘army’. The name was introduced into England by the Normans in the form Richier, but was largely absorbed by the much more common Richard. Americanized spelling of German Ritscher, a variant of Richard.German: nickname or status name from Sorbian rycer ‘knight’.

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.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Coinn ‘descendant of Conn’ (see O’Quinn). This is the name of several families in Ulster and counties Clare, Longford, and Mayo.

French: topgraphic name for someone who lived near a spring or well, a variant of Fontaine, with the definite article la.

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.

Welsh: descriptive nickname from Welsh llwyd ‘gray’. In Welsh the color term llwyd also includes shades of brown, and it is likely that, when used with reference to younger men, llwyd denoted brown or mouse-colored hair.

English: patronymic from Wilkin.

possibly from a diminutive of Old French bisse ‘fine linen’ (see Bisset). (Normandy) topographic name for someone who lived in an area of scrub land or by a prominent clump of bushes, from Old French buisson ‘bush’, ‘scrub’ (a diminutive of bois ‘wood’).

English (chiefly southwestern England and South Wales): occupational name for a fuller, from an agent derivative of Middle English tuck(en) ‘to full cloth’ (Old English tucian ‘to torment’). This was the term used for the process in the Middle Ages in southwestern England, and the surname is more common there than elsewhere. Compare Fuller and Walker. Americanized form of Jewish To(c)ker (see Tokarz). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Tuachair ‘descendant of Tuachar’, a personal name composed of the elements tuath ‘people’ + car ‘dear’, ‘beloved’. Possibly also an Americanized form of German Tucher, from an occupational name for a cloth maker or merchant, from an agent derivative of Middle High German tuoch ‘cloth’.

French: from the personal name Mathieu, vernacular derivative of Latin Mathias or Matthaeus (see Matthew).

English, French, Spanish, and Dutch: from Middle English, Old French cardinal ‘cardinal’, the church dignitary (Latin cardinalis, originally an adjective meaning ‘crucial’). The surname may have denoted a servant who worked in a cardinal’s household, but was probably more often bestowed as a nickname on someone who habitually dressed in red or who had played the part of a cardinal in a pageant, or on one who acted in a lordly and patronizing manner, like a prince of the Church.

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: 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 and German: from a very widely used personal name of Germanic origin, composed of the elements arn ‘eagle’ + wald ‘rule’. In addition, it has probably absorbed various European cognates and their derivatives (for the forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988). English: habitational name from either of the two places called Arnold (see Arnall). Jewish (Ashkenazic): adoption of the German personal name, at least in part on account of its resemblance to the Jewish name Aaron.

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.

French: topographic name from Old French du val ‘from the valley’ (from Latin vallis). English: variant of Duvall 1.

Respelling of French Doucet.

Irish (Derry, Connacht, Munster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Conchobhair ‘descendant of Conchobhar’, a personal name which is said to have begun as Cú Chobhair, from cú ‘hound’ (genitive con) + cobhar ‘desiring’, i.e. ‘hound of desire’. Present-day bearers of the surname claim descent from a 10th-century king of Connacht of this name. In Irish legend, Conchobhar was a king of Ulster who lived at around the time of Christ and who adopted the youthful Cú Chulainn.

French Canadian: probably from a derivative of poule, ‘chicken’.

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.

English: occupational name for someone who was employed in the private living quarters of his master, rather than in the public halls of the manor. The name represents a genitive or plural form of Middle English cha(u)mbre ‘chamber’, ‘room’ (Latin camera), and is synonymous in origin with Chamberlain, but as that office rose in the social scale, this term remained reserved for more humble servants of the bedchamber.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Néill ‘descendant of Niall’ (see Neill).

French: habitational name given to someone from France, at the time when the name only applied to those lands belonging to the French king (excluding many areas of what is now France), or from the Île de France, a region centered on Paris. It was a surname given to soldiers in the feudal period. In French Canada it is a secondary surname, which has also been used alone since 1714. .

Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Scotland called Blair, named with Scottish Gaelic blàr (genitive blàir) ‘plain’, ‘field’, especially a battlefield (Irish blár).

French: occupational name from the agent derivative of Old French troter ‘to walk fast’ (see Trotter 1).

English: occupational name for a bird-catcher (a common medieval occupation), Middle English fogelere, foulere (Old English fugelere, a derivative of fugol ‘bird’).

English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Hudde (see Hutt 1). This surname is particularly common in Yorkshire and is also well established in Ireland.

English: reduced form of Gardener. Probably a translated form of German Gärtner (see Gartner).

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Loingsigh ‘descendant of Loingseach’, a personal name meaning ‘mariner’ (from long ‘ship’). This is now a common surname in Ireland but of different local origins, for example chieftain families in counties Antrim and Tipperary, while in Ulster and Connacht there were families called Ó Loingseacháin who later shortened their name to Ó Loingsigh and also Anglicized it as Lynch. Irish (Anglo-Norman): Anglicized form of Gaelic Linseach, itself a Gaelicized form of Anglo-Norman French de Lench, the version found in old records. This seems to be a local name, but its origin is unknown. One family of bearers of this name was of Norman origin, but became one of the most important tribes of Galway. English: topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or hillside, Old English hlinc, or perhaps a habitational name from Lynch in Dorset or Somerset or Linch in Sussex, all named with this word.

Scottish: from a pet form of the personal name Rich, a short form of Richard.

Scottish (Selkirk): unexplained. French (Émond): variant of Haymond.

Scottish: habitational name from Lindsey in Lincolnshire, England. This is first found in the form Lindissi, apparently a derivative of the British name of Lincoln. To this was later added the Old English element eg ‘island’, since the place was virtually cut off by the surrounding fenland. The surname was taken to Scotland at an early date and is the name of an important and powerful Scottish family. Irish: adopted as an equivalent of various Gaelic names (see Lindsey).

German (of Slavic origin): from a pet form of a Slavic form of Peter. French (Piché): variant of Pichet (see Pichette).

Irish (Galway and Mayo): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Béara or Ó Beargha (see Barry 1). Scottish and northern Irish: variant spelling of Barrie. English: habitational name from any of several places named with Old English byrig, dative case of burh ‘fortified manor house’, ‘stronghold’, such as Berry in Devon or Bury in Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester, Suffolk, and West Sussex. French: regional name for someone from Berry, a former province of central France, so named with Latin Boiriacum, apparently a derivative of a Gaulish personal name, Boirius or Barius. In North America, this name has alternated with Berrien. Swiss German: pet form of a Germanic personal name formed with Old High German bero ‘bear’ (see Baer).

Scottish: habitational name from Buchanan, a place near Loch Lomond, perhaps named with Gaelic buth chanain ‘house of the canon’.

French: from the adjective clair ‘bright’, ‘light’. Generally this would have been a nickname for a cheerful individual, although derivation from the personal name Clair (see Clare) is also possible. North American spelling variant of Leclerc.

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.

Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Néill, a patronymic from the personal name Niall (genitive Néill), thought to mean ‘champion’ (see Neill). In Scotland MacNeills are associated with Barra and Gigha in the Hebrides; some of them went to Antrim and Derry in Ireland.

Scottish: habitational name from a place near Aberdeen, so named from Gaelic forba ‘field’, ‘district’ + the locative suffix -ais. The place name is pronounced in two syllables, with the stress on the second, and the surname until recently reflected this. Today, however, it is generally a monosyllable. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Firbhisigh ‘son of Fearbhisigh’, a personal name composed of Celtic elements meaning ‘man’ + ‘prosperity’. A family of this name in Connacht was famous for its traditional historians, compilers of the Book of Lecan.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cearbhaill or Ó Cearbhaill ‘son (or descendant) of Cearbhall’, a personal name of uncertain origin, perhaps from cearbh ‘hacking’ and hence a byname for a butcher or nickname for a fierce warrior.

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the bird' perhaps from the singing propensities of the original bearer; compare 'He sings like a bird.' Also compare Nightingale, Sparrow, Finch, Lark, &c.David le Brid, Oxfordshire, 1273.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Fhionghuin, a patronymic from a Gaelic personal name meaning ‘fair born’ or ‘fair son’. It is also translated as Love, and has been taken as being from Gaelic Mac Ionmhuinn ‘son of the beloved one’.

French: diminutive or pet form of Laur 1 and 2. It may also be a reduced and altered form of Scottish McLaren. Possibly also an Americanized spelling of Slovenian Lavrin, derivative of the personal name Lavrencij, Latin Laurentius (see Lawrence).

French: ornamental surname borne by servants or soldiers in feudal France, from Old French flor ‘flower’ + the definite article la. Perhaps the most common of the distinguishing names in French Canada, it is associated as a secondary surname with some sixty family names and has been used independently since 1705.

Jewish (Sephardic): shortened form of Rodriguez. French: of Spanish or Portuguese origin (see Rodriguez).

English and Catalan: occupational name for a trader, from Old French mercier, Late Latin mercarius (an agent derivative of merx, genitive mercis, ‘merchandise’). In Middle English the term was applied particularly to someone who dealt in textiles, especially the more costly and luxurious fabrics such as silks, satin, and velvet.

French: topographic name for someone who lived near a prominent ash tree, from Old French fresne ‘ash’ (from Latin fraxinus), with fused preposition and definite article du ‘from the’.

Scottish and northern English: patronymic from Law 1. Americanized form of Swedish Larsson.

Southern French: topographic name, with fused preposition and definite article du, for someone who lived in an isolated dwelling in the country rather than in a village, from Occitan mas ‘farmstead’, from Late Latin mansum, mansus.

English and Scottish: status name from Middle English burge(i)s, Old French burgeis ‘inhabitant and (usually) freeman of a (fortified) town’ (see Burke), especially one with municipal rights and duties. Burgesses generally had tenure of land or buildings from a landlord by burgage. In medieval England burgage involved the payment of a fixed money rent (as opposed to payment in kind); in Scotland it involved payment in service, guarding the town. The -eis ending is from Latin -ensis (modern English -ese as in Portuguese). Compare Burger.

English, Scottish, and northern Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name from a place in Calvados, France, so named from Old French mont ‘hill’ + a Germanic personal name composed of the elements guma ‘man’ + ric ‘power’. In Ireland this surname has been Gaelicized as Mac Iomaire and in Scotland as Mac Gumaraid.

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.

Indian (Panjab): Sikh name based on the name of a Jat tribe, of unexplained origin.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fearghail ‘descendant of Fearghal’, a personal name composed of the elements fear ‘man’ + gal ‘valor’.

French (Larivière): habitational name from any of various places in northern France called Rivière, from the plural form of Old French rivière ‘river’ (originally meaning ‘riverbank’, from Latin riparia, a derivative of ripa ‘bank’), with the definite article la; also a topographic name from the same word. This is a frequent secondary surname in Canada, used to distinguish a branch of a particular family living near a river, as opposed to those living on higher ground (Lamont) or on a hill (Descoteaux); it has also been used independently since 1749.

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.

Chinese : Cantonese variant of Cai 1. Chinese : variant of Xu 1. Korean: variant of Choe.

Scottish: see McMillan.

Indian (Panjab): Hindu and Sikh name said to be from an ancestral place name, Daranagar. The Dhaliwals are a Jat tribe, said to be Bhatti Rajputs.

English, French, North German, Danish, Catalan, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, etc.: from the personal name Albert, composed of the Germanic elements adal ‘noble’ + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’. The standard German form is Albrecht. This, in its various forms, was one of the most popular of all European male personal names in the Middle Ages. It was borne by various churchmen, notably St. Albert of Prague, a Bohemian prince who died a martyr in 997 attempting to convert the Prussians to Christianity; also St. Albert the Great (?1193–1280), an Aristotelian theologian and tutor of Thomas Aquinas. It was also the name of princes and military leaders, such as Albert the Bear (1100–70), Margrave of Brandenburg. In more recent times it has been adopted as a Jewish family name.

English: status name for a peasant farmer or husbandman, Middle English bonde (Old English bonda, bunda, reinforced by Old Norse bóndi). The Old Norse word was also in use as a personal name, and this has given rise to other English and Scandinavian surnames alongside those originating as status names. The status of the peasant farmer fluctuated considerably during the Middle Ages; moreover, the underlying Germanic word is of disputed origin and meaning. Among Germanic peoples who settled to an agricultural life, the term came to signify a farmer holding lands from, and bound by loyalty to, a lord; from this developed the sense of a free landholder as opposed to a serf. In England after the Norman Conquest the word sank in status and became associated with the notion of bound servitude. Swedish: variant of Bonde.

French: nickname for a wealthy man, from la ‘the’ bonté ‘goodness’, ‘wealth’. This is a frequent secondary surname in Canada.

from a Middle English short form of Lawrence. topographic name for someone who lived near a hill, northern Middle English law (from Old English hlaw ‘hill’, ‘burial mound’).

French: variant of Thibault.

French: from Old French pel(l)erin, pelegrin ‘pilgrim’; a nickname for a person who had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land or to a famous holy site elsewhere. See also Pilgrim.

French: from the Old French personal name Germain. This was popular in France, where it had been borne by a 5th-century saint, bishop of Auxerre. It derives from Latin Germanus ‘brother’, ‘cousin’ (originally an adjective meaning ‘of the same stock’, from Latin germen ‘bud’, ‘shoot’). In the Romance languages, especially Italian, the popularity of the equivalent personal name has been enhanced by association with the meaning ‘brother (in God)’, and in Spanish the cognate surname is derived from the vocabulary word meaning ‘brother’ rather than from a personal name. The feminine form, Germaine, which occurs as a place name in Aisne, Marne, and Haute-Marne, is associated with a late 16th-century saint from Provençal, the daughter of a poor farmer, who was canonized in 1867. English: variant of German.

topographic name for someone who lived by a hedgerow or in a row of houses built next to one another, from Middle English row (northern Middle English raw, from Old English raw). from the medieval personal name Row, a variant of Rou(l) (see Rollo, Rolf) or a short form of Rowland. English name adopted by bearers of French Baillargeon.

French: from an agent derivative of trépan ‘auger’ (Latin trepanum), hence an occupational name for someone who drilled holes in bone or stone, perhaps even someone who practised medical trepanning (of the cranium).

Scottish: patronymic from a pet form of Pate 1.

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

German: from a personal name composed of Old High German gisil ‘hostage’, ‘pledge’, ‘noble offspring’ (see Giesel) + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’, a cognate of Giselbert.

French: from a pet form of the personal name Thouroude or perhaps Gertrude.

Southern French: nickname for a pleasant or amiable person, from a diminutive of sabor ‘flavor’, ‘taste’ (Old French saveur). The name Sabourin was introduced to England through Huguenot immigration, and from there it may have been brought to North America.

English, French, German, Polish, and Slovenian; Spanish and Hungarian (Jordán): from the Christian baptismal name Jordan. This is taken from the name of the river Jordan (Hebrew Yarden, a derivative of yarad ‘to go down’, i.e. to the Dead Sea). At the time of the Crusades it was common practice for crusaders and pilgrims to bring back flasks of water from the river in which John the Baptist had baptized people, including Christ himself, and to use it in the christening of their own children. As a result Jordan became quite a common personal name.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from German braun ‘brown’ (Middle High German brun), referring to the color of the hair, complexion, or clothing, or from the personal name Bruno, which was borne by the Dukes of Saxony, among others, from the 10th century or before. It was also the name of several medieval German and Italian saints, including St. Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian order (1030–1101), who was born in Cologne.

English: topographic name from Middle English dene ‘valley’ (Old English denu), or a habitational name from any of several places in various parts of England named Dean, Deane, or Deen from this word. In Scotland this is a habitational name from Den in Aberdeenshire or Dean in Ayrshire. English: occupational name for the servant of a dean or nickname for someone thought to resemble a dean. A dean was an ecclesiastical official who was the head of a chapter of canons in a cathedral. The Middle English word deen is a borrowing of Old French d(e)ien, from Latin decanus (originally a leader of ten men, from decem ‘ten’), and thus is a cognate of Deacon. Irish: variant of Deane. Italian: occupational name cognate with 2, from Venetian dean ‘dean’, a dialect form of degan, from degano (Italian decano).

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.

French: from an Old French personal name of Germanic origin, composed of Old High German ercan ‘precious’, ‘excellent’ (see Arcand) + bald ‘bold’, ‘daring’.

English (De Lisle) and French: topographic and habitational name (see Lyle).

Scottish and northern Irish: patronymic from James.

French: probably a nickname, from a diminutive of drôle ‘lively’, ‘cheeky’.

English: nickname for a refined person, sometimes no doubt given ironically, from Old French, Middle English curteis, co(u)rtois ‘refined’, ‘accomplished’ (a derivative of Old French court, see Court 1). English: from Middle English curt ‘short’ + hose ‘leggings’, hence a nickname for a short person or one who wore short stockings. This nickname was borne by William the Conqueror’s son Robert, but it is not clear whether it has given rise to any surnames. Altered form of French Courtois.

French: occupational name for a physician, Old French mire (from Latin medicus), with the definite article le.

German: status name for a village headman, from a contracted form of Middle High German schultheize. The term originally denoted a man responsible for collecting dues and paying them to the lord of the manor; it is a compound of sculd(a) ‘debt’, ‘due’ + a derivative of heiz(z)an ‘to command’. The surname is also established in Scandinavia. Jewish (Ashkenazic): from German Schulze (see 1 above). The reason for adoption are uncertain, but may perhaps have referred to a rabbi, seen as the head of a Jewish community, or to a trustee of a synagogue.

Welsh: from a medieval Latinized form, Griffinus, of the Welsh personal name Gruffudd (see Griffith). English: nickname for a fierce or dangerous person, from Middle English griffin ‘gryphon’ (from Latin gryphus, Greek gryps, of Assyrian origin). Irish: Anglicized (part translated) form of Gaelic Ó Gríobhtha ‘descendant of Gríobhtha’, a personal name from gríobh ‘gryphon’.

English, etc.: variant spelling of Cook.

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).

French: variant of Gaudreau.

Chinese : variant of Lu 2. Chinese : variant of Luo 1. Chinese : variant of Lao 2. Vietnamese (Lô˜, L[ocircdotu]): unexplained. Variant spelling of German Loh. Variant spelling of English Low. Swedish: unexplained.

South German and Swiss German: metonymic occupational name for a ferryman, from Middle High German ver(e). The name is common in Zurich, where, according to Bahlow, a journeyman of the boatmen’s guild named Feer is recorded in 1468.

Scandinavian: respelling of Norwegian and Danish Carlsen or Swedish Carlsson. Dutch and German: patronymic from Carl. See also Karlson.

French: habitational name for someone from any of various places named with Old French mareis, maresc ‘marsh’, as for example Les Marets, in Seine-et-Marne, Centre, Nord, and Picardy.

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a stone cross set up by the roadside or in a marketplace, from Old Norse kross (via Gaelic from Latin crux, genitive crucis), which in Middle English quickly and comprehensively displaced the Old English form cruc (see Crouch). In a few cases the surname may have been given originally to someone who lived by a crossroads, but this sense of the word seems to have been a comparatively late development. In other cases, the surname (and its European cognates) may have denoted someone who carried the cross in processions of the Christian Church, but in English at least the usual word for this sense was Crozier. Irish: reduced form of McCrossen. In North America this name has absorbed examples of cognate names from other languages, such as French Lacroix.

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.

French: unexplained.

English: occupational name for a maker of wheels (for vehicles or for use in spinning or various other manufacturing processes), from an agent derivative of Middle English whele ‘wheel’. The name is particularly common on the Isle of Wight; on the mainland it is concentrated in the neighboring region of central southern England.

French (also Prévost) and English: from Old French prevost ‘provost’ (from Latin praepositus, past participle of praeponere ‘to place in charge’), a status name for any of various officials in a position of responsibility. Prevost is a Huguenot name in Britain, while Le Prevost is a Guernsey surname.

French: variant of Charette.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Griogair ‘son of Griogar’, Gaelic form of the personal name Gregory.

English, Scottish, and Irish (of Norman origin); also French: nickname from Middle English, Old French noble ‘high-born’, ‘distinguished’, ‘illustrious’ (Latin nobilis), denoting someone of lofty birth or character, or perhaps also ironically someone of low station. The surname has been established in Ireland since the 13th century, but was re-introduced in the 17th century and is now found mainly in Ulster. Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of Knöbel, a surname derived from an archaic German word for a servant. This was the name of a famous rabbinical family which moved from Wiener Neustadt to Sanok in Galicia in the 17th century; several members subsequently emigrated to the U.S. Jewish: Americanized form of Nobel. German: probably a Huguenot name (see 1). Possibly an altered form of German Knobel or Nobel.

English: from Middle English provost ‘provost’, an occupational name for the head of a religious chapter or educational establishment, or, since such officials were usually clergy and celibate, a nickname for a self-important person. French: northern and western form of Prevost.

English: variant of Free. Irish: Anglicized (‘translated’) form of Gaelic Ó Saoraidhe (see Seery). In New England, an English equivalent of French Foissy (see Foisy). Translation of German Freimann (see Freiman).

English and French: variant of Durant. Americanized form of Hungarian Durándi, a habitational name for someone from a place called Duránd, in former Szepes county.

North American French spelling of Morisset.

Welsh: variant of Reese. Americanized spelling of German Reis.

Variant of French Labarge (see Barge).

Canadian variant of French Debien, from bien ‘property’, ‘possessions’.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Dubhghaill, ‘son of Dubhghall’, a personal name composed of the elements dubh ‘black’ + gall ‘stranger’. This was originally a byname used to distinguish the darker-haired Danes from the fair-haired Norwegians. Compare Doyle.

French Canadian: common secondary surname, also used independently since 1784, from la joie ‘joy’, hence a nickname for a happy, cheerful person.

Northern English and Scottish: occupational name from Old English bæcestre ‘baker’, variant (originally a feminine form) of bæcere (see Baker).

English: nickname denoting someone with very white hair or an exceptionally pale complexion, from Old English snaw ‘snow’. Americanized and shortened form of any of the Jewish ornamental names composed with German Schnee, Schnei, Schneu ‘snow’ as the first element.

English: patronymic from Hopkin. The surname is widespread throughout southern and central England, but is at its most common in South Wales. Irish (County Longford and western Ireland): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Oibicín, itself a Gaelicized form of an Anglo-Norman name. In other parts of the country this name is generally of English origin.

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.

Scottish and English: from an extremely common Middle English personal name, Wat(t), a short form of Walter.

French: from the personal name Aubin (Latin Albinus, a derivative of albus ‘white’). This was the name of several minor early Christian saints, including a famous bishop of Angers (died c. 554). At an early date, this name became confused with the Germanic personal name Albuin (see Albin).

French: of uncertain derivation; perhaps a diminutive of Crotte, a topographical name from Latin crypta ‘grotto’. Since the name Crotte is spelled and pronounced the same as a word meaning ‘excrement’, a family might have welcomed the opportunity to vary it.

Scottish: patronymic from a short form of Matthew.

ethnic name for someone from France, Middle English frensche, or in some cases perhaps a nickname for someone who adopted French airs. variant of Anglo-Norman French Frain.

French: topographic name from la chapelle ‘the chapel’. This is common as a secondary surname in Canada.

French: perhaps from Old French estier, ‘canal’, designating someone living near a canal; or perhaps a variant of Astier or Hatier. This name is sometimes Americanized as Achy.

English: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Hawkin, a diminutive of Hawk 1 with the Anglo-Norman French hypocoristic suffix -in. English: in the case of one family (see note below), this is a variant of Hawkinge, a habitational name from a place in Kent, so called from Old English Hafocing ‘hawk place’. Irish: sometimes used as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó hEacháin (see Haughn).

Indian (Panjab): Sikh name of unknown meaning. The Dhillon are one of the largest and most widely distributed Jat tribes in the Panjab. Like other Jat tribes, the Dhillon claim to be Rajputs by origin.

Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from any of the places in Scotland so called, principally that near Auchinleck. They all get their names from Gaelic lagan, a diminutive of lag ‘hollow’. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Leocháin ‘descendant of Leochán’ (earlier spelled Lothchán), a personal name of unexplained origin.

French: from the Old French personal name Gauvin (see Gavin).

Of French origin: possibly an Americanized spelling of Ferlin, from a term denoting a small weight, perhaps applied as a nickname for a slight person or a metonymic occupational name for someone whose work involved the making or use of weights.

Northern Irish, Scottish, and English: variant of Irvin. English: from the Middle English personal name Irwyn, Erwyn, or Everwyn, Old English Eoforwine, composed of the elements eofor ‘wild boar’ + wine ‘friend’. From the Welsh personal name Urien (see Uren).

Danish, Norwegian, and North German (especially Schleswig-Holstein): patronymic from the personal name Niels, a reduced form of Nikolaus (see Nicholas).

Scottish: reduced form of McCowen.

French: ethnic name for a man from Malta, from maltais ‘Maltese’.

English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the many places called Mor(e)ton, named in Old English as ‘settlement (tun) by or on a marsh or moor (mor)’. Swedish: variant of Martin. French: contracted form of Moreton 2. Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames or of various other non-English names bearing some kind of similarity to it.

English (mainly southern England and South Wales) and Irish: from the Old English personal name Hearding, originally a patronymic from Hard 1. The surname was first taken to Ireland in the 15th century, and more families of the name settled there 200 years later in Tipperary and surrounding counties. North German and Dutch: patronymic from a short form of any of the various Germanic compound personal names beginning with hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.

Scottish and northern Irish: patronymic from the personal name Dick.

English: occupational name for someone who stripped the hide from animals, to be used in the production of fur garments or to be tanned for leather, from an agent derivative of Middle English skin ‘hide’, ‘pelt’ (Old Norse skinn).

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

North German and Dutch: patronymic from Marten. English: variant of Martins.

French: diminutive of Roche.

French (Lafrenière): topographic name from frenière ‘place of ash trees’. This is a secondary surname particularly associated with the name Foisy, although also used independently since 1749. It is often Americanized as Freeman.

French: nickname, originally d’Avout, for someone who was born in the month of August (Old French auoust, from Latin (mensis) Augustus, from the name of the first Roman emperor), or who owed a feudal obligation to help with the harvest in that month.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Coluim ‘son of Colum’, a personal name derived from Latin columba ‘dove’ (now often found as Calum). This was the name of the 6th-century missionary known in English as St. Columba (521–97), who converted the Picts to Christianity and founded an influential monastery on the island of Iona.

Scottish and northern Irish: probably a variant of Curzon.

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).

French (Labbé): from Old French l’abe(t), ‘the priest’; an occupational name for someone employed in the household of a priest, or in some cases perhaps for the priest himself.

French Canadian: variant of Gastonguay, which is a combination of the first and last names of the first bearer of the name in Canada, Gaston Guay or Gay.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Craith, a patronymic from a personal name, possibly Mac Raith ‘son of grace’, from rath ‘grace’, ‘prosperity’.

English: from the Old Norse personal name Ásbjorn, composed of the elements ás ‘god’ + björn ‘bear’. This was established in England before the Conquest, in the late Old English form Osbern, and was later reinforced by Norman Osbern. The surname Osborne has also been widely established in Ireland since the 16th century.

Scottish: from the personal name Christie, a pet form of Christian.

Northern English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Hutchin, a pet form of Hugh.

Dutch: variant of Loewe.

French: topographic name for someone who lived near the gates of a fortified town (and often was in charge of them; thus in part a metonymic occupational name), from Old French porte ‘gateway’, ‘entrance’ (from Latin porta, ‘door’, ‘entrance’), with the definite article la. In French Canada it is a secondary surname, which has also been used alone since 1670.

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.

French: in most cases probably from Guillemette, a female personal name derived from Guillaume, or in some cases a respelling of Guillemet, from a masculine pet form of the same name.

(predominantly southern) Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Braonáin ‘descendant of Braonán’, a personal name from a diminutive of braon ‘moisture’, ‘drop’. Compare Breen. (predominantly northern) Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Branáin ‘descendant of Branán’, a personal name meaning ‘little raven’ (see Brannigan).

English and Scottish: from Middle English abbott ‘abbot’ (Old English abbod) or Old French abet ‘priest’. Both the Old English and the Old French term are derived from Late Latin abbas ‘priest’ (genitive abbatis), from Greek abbas, from Aramaic aba ‘father’. This was an occupational name for someone employed in the household of or on the lands of an abbot, and perhaps also a nickname for a sanctimonious person thought to resemble an abbot. In the U.S. this name is also sometimes a translation of a cognate or equivalent European name, e.g. Italian Abate, Spanish Abad, or German Abt.

Welsh, English, and Irish: variant spelling of Pierce.

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.

English: status name for a mayor, Middle English, Old French mair(e) (from Latin maior ‘greater’, ‘superior’; compare Mayor). In France the title denoted various minor local officials, and the same is true of Scotland (see Mair 1). In England, however, the term was normally restricted to the chief officer of a borough, and the surname may have been given not only to a citizen of some standing who had held this office, but also as a nickname to a pompous or officious person. German and Dutch: variant of Meyer 1. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Meyer 2.

French: ethnic name for an Angevin (someone from Anjou), with the definite article l’. This is a frequent secondary surname in French Canada. The name is sometimes found as Bergevin.

Irish, English, and German: variant spelling of Wolf.

Altered spelling of French Carriveau.

Son of Gerald: v. Gerald.

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’).

French: topographic name for someone ‘from the fields’, French champs (see Champ).

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.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUiginn ‘descendant of Uiginn’, a byname meaning ‘viking’, ‘sea-rover’ (from Old Norse víkingr). Irish: variant of Hagan. English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Higgin, a pet form of Hick.

French (also La Rochelle): habitational name from any of a number of places with this name, especially the port in Charente-Maritime. It occurs as a secondary surname in French Canada.

English: patronymic from the personal name Stephen (see Steven).

Scottish: habitational name from a place near Melrose in Roxburghshire. The place name is first recorded in 1144 in the form Mackeswell ‘Mack’s spring or stream (Old English well(a))’. Irish: this surname is common in Ulster, where it has sometimes been adopted as an alternative to Miskell. Jewish: arbitrary adoption of the Scottish name, or Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.

English, Dutch, and North German (Pötter): occupational name for a maker of drinking and storage vessels, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Middle Low German pot. In the Middle Ages the term covered workers in metal as well as earthenware and clay.

English, French, and German: from the personal name Austin, a vernacular form of Latin Augustinus, a derivative of Augustus. This was an extremely common personal name in every part of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, owing its popularity chiefly to St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430), whose influence on Christianity is generally considered to be second only to that of St. Paul. Various religious orders came to be formed following rules named in his honor, including the ‘Austin canons’, established in the 11th century, and the ‘Austin friars’, a mendicant order dating from the 13th century. The popularity of the personal name in England was further increased by the fact that it was borne by St. Augustine of Canterbury (died c. 605), an Italian Benedictine monk known as ‘the Apostle of the English’, who brought Christianity to England in 597 and founded the see of Canterbury. German: from a reduced form of the personal name Augustin.

Southern French: from a diminutive of French Bourrasse (see Bouras).

French: variant spelling of Lagasse. Written Lagacé or Lagasse, it occurs as a secondary surname for Mignier, established in Canada by 1668.

North American spelling of French Bissonet, a topographic name from a diminutive of Old French buisson ‘bush’, ‘scrub’ (see Bisson).

Jewish (from Belarus): variant of Begun. Variant of the Irish surname Beggin, Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Beagáin ‘descendant of Beagán’, a personal name from the diminutive of beag ‘small’.

English: variant of Gold.

English (southern): patronymic either from the personal name Simon (see Simon) or, as Reaney and Wilson suggest, from the medieval personal name Simund (composed of Old Norse sig ‘victory’ + mundr ‘protection’), which after the Norman Conquest was taken as an equivalent Simon, with the result that the two names became confused.

Respelling of a Scandinavian and North German patronymic derived from the Old Norse personal name Eiríkr, which is composed of ei ‘ever’, ‘always’ (or a reduced form of ein ‘one’, ‘only’) + rík ‘power’. The main forms are Erichsen, Eriksen, Ericsson, and Eriksson.

Irish (Munster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÍceadh ‘descendant of Ícidhe’, a byname meaning ‘doctor’, ‘healer’. English: from a pet form of Hick.

English and German: patronymic from Walter.

English: variant of Black 1, meaning ‘swarthy’ or ‘dark-haired’, from a byform of the Old English adjective blæc, blac ‘black’, with change of vowel length. English: nickname from Old English blac ‘wan’, ‘pale’, ‘white’, ‘fair’. In Middle English the two words blac and blac, with opposite meanings, fell together as Middle English blake. In the absence of independent evidence as to whether the person referred to was dark or fair, it is now impossible to tell which sense was originally meant. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Bláthmhaic ‘descendant of Bláthmhac’, a personal name from bláth ‘flower’, ‘blossom’, ‘fame’, ‘prosperity’ + mac ‘son’. In some instances, however, the Irish name is derived from Old English blæc ‘dark’, ‘swarthy’, as in 1 above. Many bearers are descended from Richard Caddell, nicknamed le blac, sheriff of Connacht in the early 14th century. The English name has been Gaelicized de Bláca.

habitational name from a place called Cantin, in Nord. spelling variant of Quantin, from the Old French personal name Quentin, Quintin (from Latin Quintinus, a derivative of Quintus ‘fifth-born’).

English: variant spelling of Read 1.

French: habitational name from Doyon in the province of Namur in present-day Belgium.

Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived by a dam or weir on a river. Compare Ware. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Mhaoir ‘son of the steward’ (see McNair). Irish: Anglicized form, based on an erroneous translation (as if from Gaelic cora ‘weir’, ‘stepping stones’), of various Gaelic names such as Ó Corra and Ó Comhraidhe (see Corr and Curry).

French: from a pet form of Robert.

German (eastern): from the medieval German personal name Rempel, a pet form of the Germanic personal name Rambold. Compare Remmel 1.

English, northern Irish, and French: from Middle English, Old French beste ‘animal’, ‘beast’ (Latin bestia), applied either as a metonymic occupational name for someone who looked after beasts—a herdsman— or as a derogatory nickname for someone thought to resemble an animal, i.e. a violent, uncouth, or stupid man. It is unlikely that the name is derived from best, Old English betst, superlative of good. By far the most frequent spelling of the French surname is Beste, but it is likely that in North America this form has largely been assimilated to Best. German: from a short form of Sebastian.

Northern English and Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Stephen (see Steven).

Possibly of English origin; unexplained.

English: from the Norman personal name Malg(i)er, Maug(i)er, composed of the Germanic elements madal ‘council’ + gar, geer ‘spear’. The surname is now also established in Ulster. Hungarian: from a shortened form of majorosgazda (see Majoros), or a derivative of German Meyer 1. Polish, Czech, and Slovak: from the military rank major (derived from Latin maior ‘greater’), a word related to English mayor and the German surname Meyer. Catalan and southern French (Occitan): from major ‘major’ (Latin maior ‘greater’), denoting a prominent or important person or the first-born son of a family. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Meyer 2.

Scottish: variant (the usual spelling in Scotland) of Ramsey.

French Canadian spelling of French Fréchet, a habitational name from places in Haute Garonne and Hautes Pyrénées, so named from Gascon dialect frèche, herèche ‘ash tree’ + the diminutive ending -et.

English: occupational name for a barber, Anglo-Norman French barber, Old French barbier, from Late Latin barbarius, a derivative of barba ‘beard’. In the Middle Ages barbers not only cut hair and shaved beards, but also practised surgery and pulled teeth. Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name from German Barbier ‘barber’. Catalan: occupational name for a barber, barber (see 1). Americanized form of any of numerous cognates of 1 in different languages, for example Spanish Barbero, Portuguese Barbeiro, French Barbier, Italian Barbieri.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÓgáin ‘descendant of Ógán’, a personal name from a diminutive of óg ‘young’, also ‘young warrior’. In the south, some bearers claim descent from an uncle of Brian Boru. In northern Ireland a surname of the same form was Anglicized as Hagan.

French: perhaps derived from Provenchère, a habitational name from either of two places so called in Doubs and Haute-Saône; or from places called Provenchères in Orne, Aveyron, Vosges, and Haute-Marne.

French: habitational name, with the preposition d(e) ‘from’, for someone from Oiron in Deux-Sèvres.

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.

French: from a pet form of Waldhari, a personal name of Germanic origin formed with wald ‘rule’, ‘power’ + hari, heri ‘army’.

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the sharp,' the quick, keen, cutting. Naturally this was a sobriquet likely to be handed down as being complimentary. Several instances have lately cropped up where the child has received the baptismal name Luke, which looks as if a little humour were intended.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÓileáin, a variant of Ó hAoláin, from a form of Faolán (with loss of the initial F-), a personal name representing a diminutive of faol ‘wolf’. Compare Whelan. English and Scottish: habitational name from Holland, a division of Lincolnshire, or any of the eight villages in various parts of England so called, from Old English hoh ‘ridge’ + land ‘land’. The Scottish name may also be from places called Holland in Orkney, Houlland in Shetland, Hollandbush in Stirlingshire, and Holland-Hirst in the parish of Kirkintilloch. English, German, Jewish (Ashkenazic), Danish, and Dutch: regional name from Holland, a province of the Netherlands.

English: habitational name from any of the extremely numerous places called Sutton, from Old English suð ‘south’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

French: topographic name denoting someone who lived in a rocky place, literally ‘from the (du) crag (rocher)’. In North America the surname has often become confused with Desrochers and Desrosiers. Variant of German Duracher, a habitational name for someone from Durach near Kempten in Bavaria.

English and French: nickname from Middle English, Old French prince (Latin princeps), presumably denoting someone who behaved in a regal manner or who had won the title in some contest of skill. Translation of German and Ashkenazic Jewish Prinz or of a word meaning ‘prince’ in some other language.

English: topographic name for someone who lived by or in a marsh or fen, Middle English mershe (Old English mersc), or a habitational name from any of various minor places named with this word, for example in Shropshire and Sussex.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Floinn ‘descendant of Flann’, a byname meaning ‘red(dish)’, ‘ruddy’. There were families of this name in various parts of Ireland.

English: topographic name for someone who lived beside a stream, from northern Middle English bekke ‘stream’ (Old Norse bekkr). English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in northern France, for example Bec Hellouin in Eure, named with Old Norman French bec ‘stream’, from the same Old Norse root as in 1. English: probably a nickname for someone with a prominent nose, from Middle English beke ‘beak (of a bird)’ (Old French bec). English: metonymic occupational name for a maker, seller, or user of mattocks or pickaxes, from Old English becca. In some cases the name may represent a survival of an Old English byname derived from this word. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a baker, a cognate of Baker, from (older) South German beck, West Yiddish bek. Some Jewish bearers of the name claim that it is an acronym of Hebrew ben-kedoshim ‘son of martyrs’, i.e. a name taken by one whose parents had been martyred for being Jews. North German: topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, from Low German Beke ‘stream’. Compare the High German form Bach 1. Scandinavian: habitational name for someone from a farmstead named Bekk, Bæk, or Bäck, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a stream.

French: topographic name or habitational name, a variant of Lamarque 1.

Scottish and English: patronymic from the personal name Sander (see Alexander).

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Colmáin ‘descendant of Colmán’. This was the name of an Irish missionary to Europe, generally known as St. Columban (c.540–615), who founded the monastery of Bobbio in northern Italy in 614. With his companion St. Gall, he enjoyed a considerable cult throughout central Europe, so that forms of his name were adopted as personal names in Italian (Columbano), French (Colombain), Czech (Kollman), and Hungarian (Kálmán). From all of these surnames are derived. In Irish and English, the name of this saint is identical with diminutives of the name of the 6th-century missionary known in English as St. Columba (521–97), who converted the Picts to Christianity, and who was known in Scandinavian languages as Kalman. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Clumháin ‘descendant of Clumhán’, a personal name from the diminutive of clúmh ‘down’, ‘feathers’. English: occupational name for a burner of charcoal or a gatherer of coal, Middle English coleman, from Old English col ‘(char)coal’ + mann ‘man’. English: occupational name for the servant of a man named Cole. Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of Kalman. Americanized form of German Kohlmann or Kuhlmann.

English (northern): patronymic from Hodge.

French (Lépine): topographic name from Old French espine ‘thorn bush’ (Latin spina); or a habitational name from any of several places called Épine or l’Épine, named with this word. Occasionally the name may derive from the same word used in a transferred sense of the crest or ridge of a hill.

English, Irish (Ulster), Scottish, and Dutch: name applied either to a Scandinavian or to someone from Normandy in northern France. The Scandinavian adventurers of the Dark Ages called themselves norðmenn ‘men from the North’. Before 1066, Scandinavian settlers in England were already fairly readily absorbed, and Northman and Normann came to be used as bynames and later as personal names, even among the Saxon inhabitants. The term gained a new use from 1066 onwards, when England was settled by invaders from Normandy, who were likewise of Scandinavian origin but by now largely integrated with the native population and speaking a Romance language, retaining only their original Germanic name. French: regional name for someone from Normandy. Dutch: ethnic name for a Norwegian. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Nordman. Jewish: Americanized form of some like-sounding Ashkenazic name. In at least one case it is an Americanized form of Novominsky, the name of a family from Uman in Ukraine. On coming to the United States around 1900, a member of this family changed his name to Norman, after which some relatives in Russia adopted this name in place of Novominsky. Swedish: from norr ‘north’ + man ‘man’.

English: patronymic from Watt. This surname is also well established in South Wales.

English and Scottish: variant spelling of Penny.

French: from Old French corbeil(le) ‘basket’ (Late Latin corbicula, a diminutive of corbis ‘basket’), a metonymic occupational name for a maker and seller of baskets. It may also be a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word because of a depression in the ground. This surname is sometimes Americanized as Kirby.

French: occupational name for a miller, meunier (Old French mounier, from an agent derivative of Latin molina ‘mill’).

French: from a diminutive of Old French fils ‘son’ (Latin filius), used to denote the youngest son of a family.

Jewish and English: patronymic from the personal name Jacob. As a Jewish surname it has also assimilated various other patronymics from the same personal name, as for example Jacobowitz.

French: from the personal name, French form of Julian. English: variant spelling of Julian.

Northern English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived in a small hut or bothy, Middle English both(e), especially a cowman or shepherd. The word is of Scandinavian origin (compare Old Danish both, Old Norse buð) and was used to denote various kinds of temporary shelter, typically a cowshed or a herdsman’s hut. In the British Isles the surname is still more common in northern England, where Scandinavian influence was more marked, and in Scotland, where the word was borrowed into Gaelic as both(an).

Indian (Panjab): Sikh name based on the name of a tribe in the Jat community.

French: topographic name from l’abri ‘the shelter’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word.

German, Dutch (also de Klein(e)) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German, Dutch, German klein ‘small’, or Yiddish kleyn. This was a nickname for a person of small stature, but is also often found as a distinguishing name for a junior male, usually a son, in names such as Kleinhans and Kleinpeter. This name is common and widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.

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

English: from the Middle English personal name Bartlet, a pet form of Bartholomew.

French: topographic name for someone who lived by a fortified stronghold, Old French motte, a word of Gaulish origin denoting a hillock or mound (see Moat), with the definite article la. The surname is also a habitational name from any of several places named with this word.

North German: variant spelling of Jantzen.

Scottish: habitational name from Chisholme near Hawick in southern Scotland, which derives its name from Old English c¯se, cese ‘cheese’ (Latin caseus) + holm ‘piece of dry land in a fen’ and refers to a waterside meadow good for dairy farming and hence for producing cheeses. In the 14th century members of this family migrated to the Highlands, settling in Strathglass, where their name was Gaelicized as Siosal.

Irish (especially northeastern Ulster): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAnnaigh ‘descendant of Annach’, a byname of uncertain meaning. English: from the medieval female personal name Hannah or Anna, ultimately from Hebrew Chana ‘He (God) has favored me’ (i.e. with a child). The name is borne in the Bible by the mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 1: 1–28), and there is a tradition (unsupported by Biblical evidence) that it was the name of the mother of the Virgin Mary; this St. Anne was a popular figure in medieval art and legend. Scottish: variant of Hannay. German: from a pet form of the personal name Hans.

French: from the Old French nickname Capdiou ‘God’s head’, applied to someone who habitually uttered this oath.

French Canadian form of Faucheux ‘mower’.

French: diminutive of Role, a metonymic occupational name for a scribe, from Old French role ‘scroll’.

Variant spelling of French Fillion.

French: status name from Old French vasseor, a short form of vavasour, a term of the feudal system for a tenant ranking immediately below a baron. Such a tenant would have been a prosperous man, and the surname may have been used for someone in his service more often than for the man himself. The term is probably derived from medieval Latin vassus vassorum ‘vassal of vassals’, i.e. vassal-in-chief.

French: from douceur ‘sweetness’, presumably denoting a person of sweet disposition. It has been used independently as a surname since 1724.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Hoffmann ‘steward’. Dutch: occupational name for a farm laborer or a gardener, someone who worked at the hof, the manor farm.

English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Benne, a pet form of Benedict (see Benn). English: habitational name from a place in Oxfordshire named Benson, from Old English Benesingtun ‘settlement (Old English tun) associated with Benesa’, a personal name of obscure origin, perhaps a derivative of Bana meaning ‘slayer’. Jewish (Ashkenazic): patronymic composed of a pet form of the personal name Beniamin (see Bien, Benjamin) + German Sohn ‘son’. Scandinavian: altered form of such names as Bengtsson, Bendtsen, patronymics from Bengt, Bendt, etc., Scandinavian forms of Benedict.

French: from franc ‘open’, ‘generous’ + coeur ‘heart’; a nickname for a warm generous person or a habitational name from places so named in Côtes d’Armor and Yonne. This surname is often Americanized as Hart.

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.

Son of Patrick: v. Patrick.

English: nickname from the vocabulary word lord, presumably for someone who behaved in a lordly manner, or perhaps one who had earned the title in some contest of skill or had played the part of the ‘Lord of Misrule’ in the Yuletide festivities. It may also have been an occupational name for a servant in the household of the lord of the manor, or possibly a status name for a landlord or the lord of the manor himself. The word itself derives from Old English hlaford, earlier hlaf-weard, literally ‘loaf-keeper’, since the lord or chief of a clan was responsible for providing food for his dependants. Irish: English name adopted as a translation of the main element of Gaelic Ó Tighearnaigh (see Tierney) and Mac Thighearnáin (see McKiernan). French: nickname from Old French l’ord ‘the dirty one’. Possibly an altered spelling of Laur.

Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Dhomhnuill ‘son of Domhnall’ (see McDonald). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Conaill ‘son of Conall’, a personal name probably composed of the elements con, an inflected form of cú ‘hound’ or ‘wolf’, + gal ‘valor’. This was borne by many early chieftains and warriors of Ireland, including the Ulster hero Conall Cearnach, and one of the two sons of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who gave his name to Tir Conaill ‘Conall’s land’, otherwise known as County Donegal. It was further popularized by the fame of a 7th-century Irish saint, abbot of Inis Caoil.

Scottish: variant of Cochran.

Jewish: from Hebrew kohen ‘priest’. Priests are traditionally regarded as members of a hereditary caste descended from Aaron, brother of Moses. See also Kaplan.

French (of Norman origin) and English: nickname for someone who behaved like a marquis or an occupational name for a servant in the household of a marquis, from Old Northern French marquis. The title originally referred to the governor of a border territory (from a Germanic word; compare March 1 and Mark 2). Marquises did not form part of the original French feudal structure of nobility; the title was first adopted by the Counts of Toulouse because of their possessions in the border region beyond the Rhône. Scottish: shortened form of McMarquis (Gaelic Mac Marcuis), a patronymic from the personal name Marcus (see Mark).

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a small hill or a man-made mound or barrow, Middle English how (Old Norse haugr), or a habitational name from a place named with this word, such as Howe in Norfolk and North Yorkshire. English: variant of Hugh. Jewish (American): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. Americanized form of Norwegian Hove.

English: patronymic from Bate (see Bartholomew). Americanized form of German Betz. See also Betts.

Irish: variant spelling of Reilly. English: habitational name from Ryley in Lancashire, so named from Old English ryge ‘rye’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. There is a Riley with the same meaning in Devon, but it does not seem to have contributed to the surname, which is more common in northern England.

Danish and Norwegian: patronymic from the personal name Olaf, Olav (Old Norse Óláfr, Ólafr, variant Óleifr, earlier Anleifr, from proto-Scandinavian elements meaning ‘ancestor’ + ‘heir’, ‘descendant’). Olaf has always been one of the most common Scandinavian names; it continued to be popular in the Middle Ages, in part as a result of the fame of St. Olaf, King of Norway, who brought Christianity to his country c.1030. This surname, the second most common in Norway, is also established in England, notably in the Newcastle upon Tyne area. German (Ölsen): habitational name from any of several places so named, in Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Rhineland.

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a place used for archery practice, from Middle English butte ‘mark for archery’, ‘target’, ‘goal’. In the Middle Ages archery practice was a feudal obligation, and every settlement had its practice area. English: topographic name from Middle English butte ‘strip of land abutting on a boundary’, ‘short strip or ridge at right angles to other strips in a common field’. English: from Middle English butte, bott ‘butt’, ‘cask’, applied as a metonymic occupational name for a cooper or as a nickname possibly for a heavy drinker or for a large, fat man. English: from a Middle English personal name, But(t), of unknown origin, perhaps originally a nickname meaning ‘short and stumpy’, and akin to late Middle English butt ‘thick end’, ‘stump’, ‘buttock’ (of Germanic origin). German and English: in both Middle Low German and Middle English the word but(te) denoted various types of marine fish, originally a fish with a blunt head, for example halibut (German Heilbutt) or turbot (German Steinbutt), and the surname may in some cases be a metonymic occupational name for a seller of fish or salt fish. Kashmiri: variant of Bhatt.

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.

English: habitational name from any of the many places so named, from Old English neowe ‘new’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. According to Ekwall, this is the commonest English place name. For this reason, the surname has a highly fragmented origin.

Of French origin: it appears in Canada first with the secondary surname Jolibois (literally ‘joyful (or attractive) wood’), of which it may be a variant.

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.

French: variant of Rousseau. Compare English Russell.

French: nickname for a gloomy curmudgeon, from gronder ‘to mutter or grumble’ (Latin grundire).

English: variant of Lyon 3. Irish: variant of Lyon 4.

Americanized form of Swedish Larsson, Danish and Norwegian Larsen. English: patronymic from a pet form of Lawrence.

Scottish (common in Aberdeenshire): occupational name for a miller or someone who lived at a mill, Old English mylen ‘mill’ (see Mill, Milner). The Scottish name found its way to Ireland; MacLysaght records that it has been in Dublin since the early 18th century. In some cases it has absorbed Irish Moyle.

Scottish and northern Irish: variant spelling of Miller.

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the savage' (compare Wild). It is curious that Wild and Savage should be so popular as sobriquets, but fierceness was fascinating. The invariable forms are Salvage, Sauvage, and Savage.Geoffrey le Sauvage, Leicestershire, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp.

Chinese: see Yang.

English and Scottish: occupational name for an archer, Middle English bow(e)man, bouman (from Old English boga ‘bow’ + mann ‘man’). This word was distinguished from Bowyer, which denoted a maker or seller of the articles. It is possible that in some cases the surname referred originally to someone who untangled wool with a bow. This process, which originated in Italy, became quite common in England in the 13th century. The vibrating string of a bow was worked into a pile of tangled wool, where its rapid vibrations separated the fibers, while still leaving them sufficiently entwined to produce a fine, soft yarn when spun. Americanized form of German Baumann (see Bauer) or the Dutch cognate Bouman.

(Celtic) Eager Help [Irish Gal(l)chobhair-gall, eager (also a foreigner) + the aspirated form of cobhair, help]

French: from a pet form of the Germanic personal name Warinwald, composed of the elements war(in) ‘guard’ + waldan ‘to govern’.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Phearsain ‘son of the parson’ (see Parsons). This is the surname of various ecclesiastical families in Aberdeenshire and Argyll; it is also established in northern Ireland.

French: nickname for a plump person, from a diminutive of Old French rond ‘round’ (Latin rotundus).

English: from the medieval personal name Den(n)is (Latin Dionysius, Greek Dionysios ‘(follower) of Dionysos’, an eastern god introduced to the classical pantheon at a relatively late date and bearing a name of probably Semitic origin). The name was borne by various early saints, including St Denis, the martyred 3rd-century bishop of Paris who became the patron of France; the popularity of the name in England from the 12th century onwards seems to have been largely due to French influence. The feminine form Dionysia (in the vernacular likewise Den(n)is) is also found, and some examples of the surname may represent a metronymic form. English: variant of Dench. Irish (mainly Dublin and Cork): of the same origin as 1 and 2, sometimes an alternative form to Donohue but more often to MacDonough, since the personal name Donnchadh was Anglicized as Donough or Denis. Irish (Ulster and Munster): Anglicized form of the rare Gaelic name Ó Donnghusa ‘descendant of Donnghus’, a personal name from donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + gus ‘vigor’.

Scottish: variant of Stewart.

English (mainly northern) and Scottish: nickname for someone thought to resemble a fox, for example in cunning or slyness, or perhaps more obviously in having red hair, from northern Middle English tod(de) ‘fox’ (of unknown origin).

Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cormaic ‘son of Cormac’, a personal name composed of the elements corb ‘raven’ + mac ‘son’.

French (Norman and Champenois): from a Frenchified spelling of Wimet, a variant of Willemet, a pet form of William.

English (of Norman origin): from a personal name, Hamo(n), which is generally from a continental Germanic name Haimo, a short form of various compound names beginning with haim ‘home’, although it could also be from the Old Norse personal name Hámundr, composed of the elements hár ‘high’ + mund ‘protection’. As an Irish name it is generally an importation from England, but has also been used to represent Hamill 3 and, more rarely, McCammon.

English: occupational name for a hardener of metals or a baker, from an agent derivative of Middle English harde(n); this verb is known to have been used with reference to metals and to heating dough. North German, Frisian, and Danish: from a personal name, Harder, Herder. South German: topographic name or habitational name from any of the places named with Middle High German hart ‘woodland used as pasture’.

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.

English: habitational name from any of various places called Blackburn, but especially the one in Lancashire, so named with Old English blæc ‘dark’ + burna ‘stream’. The surname is mainly found in northern England.

French: diminutive of Hamel 2.

North American form of French Frenet, a topographic name for someone who lived on a property of which ash trees were a characteristic feature, from a diminutive of Old French fresne (French frêne) ‘ash tree’.

Chinese : variant of Feng 1. Chinese : variant of Feng 2. Chinese : variant of Feng 3. Chinese : variant of Feng 4.

French: probably an Alsatian French form of German Pflug ‘plow’.

Vietnamese (Hu?nh): unexplained.

Origin unidentified.

German: from the Germanic personal name Hildibert, composed of the elements hild ‘strife’, ‘battle’ + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’.

French: from a pet form of the female personal name Simone (see Simon). North American spelling of French Monet.

French: altered spelling of Duquet, a topographic name for someone who lived by a quayside, or alternatively of Duguet (see Duga).

French: variant spelling of Jolly.

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

Scottish: habitational name from a barony in Aberdeenshire, which is first recorded c.1180 in the form Lesslyn, of obscure origin. Leslie in Fife is said to be named for this place; in some cases the surname may come from there. English: possibly from a double diminutive of the personal name Lece (see Leece), thus Lecelin.

from the medieval personal name Fleuri (Latin Florius, a derivative of the Roman family name Florus, from flos ‘flower’, genitive floris). This name was borne by a 3rd-century saint martyred in Nicomedia under the emperor Decius. There seems to have been some confusion with a Germanic personal name composed of the elements hlod ‘fame’ + ric ‘power’. habitational name from any of the various places in northern France which get their names from the Gallo-Roman personal name Florus (see above) + the locative suffix -acum. nickname from Old French fluri ‘flowered’, ‘variegated’ (a derivative of flur Flower). This could have denoted someone who dressed in an extravagant mixture of colors or perhaps one who had a blotchy complexion.

French: Norman or Picard variant of Champeau.

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

English, North German, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): patronymic from the personal name Daniel.

English: from the Norman personal name Gervase, composed of the Germanic element gari, ger ‘spear’ + a second element of uncertain meaning and original form. The name was borne by a saint, martyred under the Roman Emperor Domitian, who became one of the patrons of Milan.

Scottish: Anglicized form of a patronymic from the Gaelic personal name Macraith, meaning ‘son of grace’.

English: habitational name from any of the various places, for example in Derbyshire, County Durham, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, and West Yorkshire, so named from Old English stan ‘stone’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. Americanized form of any of various like-sounding names in other European languages, for example Polish Stanislawski and Greek Anastasiou.

English: from the Middle English personal name Godewyn, Old English Godwine, composed of the elements god ‘good’ + wine ‘friend’.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places named with Old English bere or bær ‘barley’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’, i.e. an outlying grange. Compare Barwick. German and central European (e.g. Czech and Slovak Barton): from a pet form of the personal name Bartolomaeus (see Bartholomew).

French: variant of Lafont.

German: nickname for a blacksmith, or for a small and lively or irritable individual, from Middle High German vunke ‘spark’.

French: from the personal name Heude, Houde, derived from the Germanic name Hildo (see Hildebrand). French (Houdé): from the personal name Oudet, a Frenchified form of the Germanic name Odo, derived from the element aud ‘wealth’.

English: variant spelling of Gardener.

English, Welsh, and Scottish: from the medieval personal name Huet, a diminutive of Hugh. See also Hew. The surname has also long been established in Ireland. English: topographic name for someone who lived in a newly made clearing in a wood, Middle English hewett (Old English hiewet, a derivative of heawan ‘to chop’,‘to hew’).

French: topographic name for someone living among rocks, from the fused preposition and definite article des + the plural of French roche ‘rock’, or a habitational name from any of several places named with this word. In North America, this name has been confused with Laroche, and translated as Rock.

French: from a derivative of Old French co(u)sin, cusin ‘cousin’ (see Cousin).

French: topographic name for someone who lived by an elm tree (see Orme).

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the Bar,' i.e. the entrance to the city or town; v. Bargate, usually made of posts and chain.Maurice de la Barre. Devon, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp.

English: nickname for a clever trickster, from Old English prætt ‘trick’, ‘tricky’, ‘cunning’ (which is found in use as a byname in the 11th century). This surname is quite common in southeastern Ireland.

Irish (mainly County Donegal) and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Brighde, from earlier Mac Giolla Bhrighde (Irish), Mac Gille Brighde (Scottish) ‘son of the servant of (Saint) Brighid’. Compare Kilbride.

(southern) reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Foghladha ‘descendant of Foghlaidh’, a byname meaning ‘pirate’, ‘marauder’. (northern) Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Searraigh (see McSharry), chosen because of its phonetic approximation to English foal.

English: from Middle English lamb, a nickname for a meek and inoffensive person, or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of lambs. See also Lamm. English: from a short form of the personal name Lambert. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Luain (see Lane 3). MacLysaght comments: ‘The form Lamb(e), which results from a more than usually absurd pseudo-translation (uan ‘lamb’), is now much more numerous than O’Loan itself.’ Possibly also a translation of French agneau.

Irish (Donegal): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Baoithghill ‘descendant of Baoithgheall’, a personal name of uncertain meaning, perhaps from baoth ‘rash’ + geall ‘pledge’.

Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosure, Middle English hay(e), heye (Old English (ge)hæg, which after the Norman Conquest became confused with the related Old French term haye ‘hedge’, of Germanic origin). Alternatively, it may be a habitational name from any of various places named with this word, including Les Hays and La Haye in Normandy. The Old French and Middle English word was used in particular to denote an enclosed forest. Compare Haywood. This name was taken to Ireland (County Wexford) by the Normans. Scottish and English: nickname for a tall man, from Middle English hay, hey ‘tall’, ‘high’ (Old English heah). Scottish and English: from the medieval personal name Hay, which represented in part the Old English byname Heah ‘tall’, in part a short form of the various compound names with the first element heah ‘high’. French: topographic name from a masculine form of Old French haye ‘hedge’, or a habitational name from Les Hays, Jura, or Le Hay, Seine-Maritime. Spanish: topographic name from haya ‘beech tree’ (ultimately derived from Latin fagus). German: occupational name from Middle High German heie ‘guardian’, ‘custodian’ (see Hayer). Dutch and Frisian: variant of Haye 1.

Scottish: variant of Johnston.

Chinese and Korean: variant of Ma.

Scottish: occupational name from Gaelic bàrd ‘bard’, ‘poet’, ‘minstrel’, or of Gaelic Mac an Baird ‘son of the bard’.

Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived on a moor, from a Scots form of Middle English more ‘moor’, ‘fen’.

Irish: variant of Cumming, with the addition of English patronymic -s.

Scottish: patronymic from Donald, often representing a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Dhomhnaill (see McDonald).

French (western and southwestern): topographic name for someone living in or near a ravine, from la combe ‘the ravine’ (a word of Gaulish origin, related to English Combe).

English (of Norman origin) and North German: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements war(in) ‘guard’ + heri, hari ‘army’. The name was introduced into England by the Normans in the form Warnier. English (of Norman origin): reduced form of Warrener (see Warren 2). Irish (Cork): Anglicization of Gaelic Ó Murnáin (see Murnane), found in medieval records as Iwarrynane, from a genitive or plural form of the name, in which m is lenited.

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.

Chinese : variant of Guan 1. Chinese : variant of Guan 2. Korean: variant of Kwon.

Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille Easbuig (Scottish), Mac Giolla Easpaig (Irish), patronymics from a byname meaning ‘servant of the bishop’.

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

Jewish, English, German, Portuguese, French, Dutch, and southern Indian: derivative, via Latin Jacobus, from the Hebrew personal name ya‘aqobh (Yaakov). In the Bible, this is the name of the younger twin brother of Esau (Genesis 25:26), who took advantage of the latter’s hunger and impetuousness to persuade him to part with his birthright ‘for a mess of potage’. The name is traditionally interpreted as coming from Hebrew akev ‘heel’, and Jacob is said to have been born holding on to Esau’s heel. In English Jacob and James are now regarded as quite distinct names, but they are of identical origin (see James), and in most European languages the two names are not distinguished. 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.

regional name for someone who had migrated from the North (i.e. further north in England, or from Scotland or Scandinavia), from Old French nor(r)eis ‘northerner’. topographic name for someone who lived in a house on the north side of a settlement or estate, from Middle English north ‘north’ + hous ‘house’. occupational name for a wet-nurse or foster mother, from Old French nurice, norrice (Latin nutrix, genitive nutricis).

Chinese : variant of Qiu 1. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Zhao. Chinese : variant of Qiu 2. Chinese : variant of Qiu 3. Chinese : variant of Qiu 4.

Scottish and northern Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Pharthaláin, a patronymic from the personal name Parthalán, which is most probably from Latin Bartholomaeus (see Bartholomew).

Northern English, Scottish, and northern Irish: from the Old Norse byname Orri ‘blackcock’ (the male black grouse). Scottish: nickname for someone with a sallow complexion, from Gaelic odhar ‘pale’, ‘dun’. English: topographic name for someone who lived on a shore or ridge, from Old English ora ‘shore’, ‘hill-slope’, ‘flat-topped ridge’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word (see Ore).

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’.

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.

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).

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

English, Dutch, and Jewish: variant of Samson. The -p- was introduced in the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Shimshon. The English surname has also long been established in Ireland. In North America, this name has absorbed other European cognates, for example Greek Sampsonakis, Sampsonides.

English and Dutch: patronymic from Nichol. Jewish (American): Americanized form of any of various like-sounding Jewish names.

Scottish and English: from a short form of Richard. Although found in every part of Britain, the form Dick is especially common in Scotland, and it was from there, in the 17th century, that the surname was taken to northern Ireland. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from Middle High German dic(ke) ‘thick’, ‘strong’, ‘stout’, or in the case of the Jewish name from modern German dick ‘fat’ or Yiddish dik. German: topographic name for someone who lived by a thicket or patch of thick undergrowth, from Middle High German dicke, a special use of dic(ke) ‘thick’. North German: from a short form of a Germanic personal name Theodicho, formed with theud ‘people’, ‘race’.

English: habitational name for someone from Kent, an ancient Celtic name. The surname is also frequent in Scotland and Ireland. In Irrerwick in East Lothian English vassals were settled in the middle of the 12th century and in Meath in Ireland in the 13th century.

French: from the Norman personal name Godebald, composed of the Germanic elements god ‘good’ or god, got ‘god’ + bald, bold ‘bold’, ‘brave’.

German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a person with red hair, from Middle High German rot, German rot ‘red’. As a Jewish surname it is also at least partly ornamental: its frequency as a Jewish surname is disproportionate to the number of Jews who, one may reasonably assume, were red-headed during the period of surname adoption. German and English: topographic name for someone who lived on land that had been cleared, Old High German rod, Old English rod, roð. German: from a short form of any of the various Germanic personal names with the first element hrod ‘renown’. Compare Rode 1, Ross 3.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of various places named Medeiros, from Portuguese and Galician medeiro ‘place where shocks of maize are gathered’ (a derivative of meda ‘shock’, ‘stack’, Latin meta ‘(pyramid-shaped) post’).

French (Beaupré): topographic name from Old French beu ‘lovely’ + pred ‘meadow’. The nautical term beaupré ‘bowsprit’ may have given rise to its use as a secondary surname for a sailor.

English: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements bald ‘bold’, ‘brave’ + wine ‘friend’, which was extremely popular among the Normans and in Flanders in the early Middle Ages. It was the personal name of the Crusader who in 1100 became the first Christian king of Jerusalem, and of four more Crusader kings of Jerusalem. It was also borne by Baldwin, Count of Flanders (1172–1205), leader of the Fourth Crusade, who became first Latin Emperor of Constantinople (1204). As an American surname it has absorbed Dutch spellings such as Boudewijn. Irish: surname adopted in Donegal by bearers of the Gaelic name Ó Maolagáin (see Milligan), due to association of Gaelic maol ‘bald’, ‘hairless’ with English bald.

German: from a reduced form of the Germanic personal name Anselm.

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a hill with a sharp point, from Old English pic ‘point’, ‘hill’, which was a relatively common place name element. English: metonymic occupational name for a pike fisherman or nickname for a predatory individual, from Middle English pike. English: metonymic occupational name for a user of a pointed tool for breaking up the earth, Middle English pike. Compare Pick. English: metonymic occupational name for a medieval foot soldier who used a pike, a weapon consisting of a sharp pointed metal end on a long pole, Middle English pic (Old French pique, of Germanic origin). English: nickname for a tall, thin person, from a transferred sense of one of the above. English: from a Germanic personal name (derived from the root ‘sharp’, ‘pointed’), found in Middle English and Old French as Pic. English: nickname from Old French pic ‘woodpecker’, Latin picus. Compare Pye and Speight. Irish: in the south, of English origin; in Ulster a variant Anglicization of Gaelic Mac Péice (see McPeake). Americanized spelling of German Peik, from Middle Low German pek ‘sharp, pointed tool or weapon’. Compare 4 above or from a Germanic personal name (see 6 above).

Welsh: from the Welsh personal name Owain, probably a borrowing in Roman times of Latin Eugenius (see Eugene), but possibly of more ancient Celtic origin, cognate with Gaelic Eoghan. Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eoghain ‘son of Eoghan’ (see McEwen).

French: topographic name for someone living among laurels, a combination of the fused preposition and plural definite article des ‘from the’ + the plural of Old French lorier ‘laurel’. It is a frequent secondary surname in Canada.

Variant spelling of French Maillou, a dialect form of Maillot ‘big mallet’. Compare Maillet. Sometimes Anglicized as Mayhew.

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: altered form of Indian Prasad.

Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Murchadha (see McMorrow).

French: from a pet form of Job 1 and 2.

Scottish, northern Irish, and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Roger 1.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Artair, a patronymic from the Gaelic form of the personal name Arthur.

Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mag Uidhir ‘son of Odhar’, a byname meaning ‘sallow’. This was the name of the ruling family of Fermanagh from the 13th–17th centuries.

Vietnamese (Ph?am): unexplained.

French: in its earliest Canadian manifestations this name is found as Dumay, with spelling variants Dumé, Dumetz, etc., indicating that it is probably a variant of Dumas. However, there has been confusion with various other names, including Demers, Demerce, and Massé (see Masse).

French: from a pet form of Houde 1.

English: patronymic from the personal name Will.

English and French: variant of Richard.

English: occupational name for an official who was responsible for protecting land or enclosed forest from damage by animals, poachers, or vandals, from Middle English hay ‘enclosure’ (see Hay 1) + ward ‘guardian’.

Scottish, also common in northern Ireland: habitational name from Irvine in Ayrshire, which is named from a Celtic river, Welsh ir, yr ‘green’, ‘fresh’ + afon ‘water’. There has been much confusion with Irving and Irwin.

English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived on the slope of a hillside or by a riverbank, from northern Middle English banke (from Old Danish banke). The final -s may occasionally represent a plural form, but it is most commonly an arbitrary addition made after the main period of surname formation, perhaps under the influence of patronymic forms with a possessive -s. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Bruacháin ‘descendant of Bruachán’, a byname for a large-bellied person. The English form was chosen because of a mistaken association of the Gaelic name with bruach ‘bank’.

English: variant spelling of Forrest. It is also found in both French and Catalan as a surname in this spelling, with the same origin and meaning. Translation of French Laforêt (see Laforest).

Americanized spelling of French Chamberlin.

German (Müller) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a miller, Middle High German müller, German Müller. In Germany Müller, Mueller is the most frequent of all surnames; in the U.S. it is often changed to Miller.

German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Slovenian, Czech, Hungarian, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): ethnic or regional name for someone from Franconia (German Franken), a region of southwestern Germany so called from its early settlement by the Franks, a Germanic people who inhabited the lands around the river Rhine in Roman times. In the 6th–9th centuries, under leaders such as Clovis I (c. 466–511) and Charlemagne (742–814), the Franks established a substantial empire in western Europe, from which the country of France takes its name. The term Frank in eastern Mediterranean countries was used, in various vernacular forms, to denote the Crusaders and their descendants, and the American surname may also be an Americanized form of such a form. English, Dutch, German, etc.: from the personal name Frank, in origin an ethnic name for a Frank. This also came be used as an adjective meaning ‘free’, ‘open-hearted’, ‘generous’, deriving from the fact that in Frankish Gaul only people of Frankish race enjoyed the status of fully free men. It was also used as a Jewish personal name.

Scottish: variant of McClellan.

French: topographic name for someone who lived on or by an eminence with a flat top, from a diminutive of plamont ‘flat-topped mountain’.

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.

Southern English: variant spelling of Pool 1. Possibly an Americanized form of German Puhl or Pfuhl(e) (see Pool 4).

English: habitational name from any of the extremely numerous places (most notably one in Lancashire) so called from Old English preost ‘priest’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; the meaning may have been either ‘village with a priest’ or ‘village held by the Church’. Scottish: habitational name from Presto(u)n, now Craigmillar, in Midlothian. This name has also been established in Ireland since the 13th century.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Mathghamhna, a patronymic from the byname Mathghamhain meaning ‘good calf’. This was the name of two (unrelated) chieftain families in counties Clare and Monaghan. In northern Ireland it is sometimes Anglicized as Matthews, since Matha was the Irish form of the Biblical name.

Dutch, German, Danish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a baker of bread, or brick and tiles, from backen ‘to bake’. English: occupational name for a maker or user of mattocks or pickaxes, from an agent derivative of Old English becca ‘mattock’.

English: from Middle English schepherde ‘shepherd’ (composed of words meaning ‘sheep’ + ‘herdsman’ or ‘guardian’), hence an occupational name for a shepherd. This English form of the name has absorbed cognates and equivalents from several other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

Welsh: patronymic from Griffith.

French: habitational name from Pîtres in Eure. French: variant of pestre, pistre, agent derivatives of Old French pestel ‘pestle’, hence a metonymic occupational name for an apothecary or grocer. Italian (Pitrè): unexplained.

French (Normandy and Picardy): habitational name, with fused preposition and definite article du, for someone from any of the numerous minor places named with buc, a dialect form of bois ‘wood’.

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).

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Donnghaile ‘descendant of Donnghal’, a personal name composed of the elements donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + gal ‘valor’. It is claimed that most bearers of this surname in Donegal descend from Donnghal O’Neill, 17th in descent from Niall of the Nine Hostages; there were also other families of the same name in Sligo and Cork.

English, German, Danish, and Swedish: nickname or byname for someone of a frosty or gloomy temperament, from Middle English, Middle High German, Danish, Swedish winter (Old English winter, Old High German wintar, Old Norse vetr). The Swedish name can be ornamental. Jewish (Ashkenazic): from German Winter ‘winter’, either an ornamental name or one of the group of names denoting the seasons, which were distributed at random by government officials. Compare Summer, Fruhling, and Herbst. Irish: Anglicized form ( part translation) of Gaelic Mac Giolla-Gheimhridh ‘son of the lad of winter’, from geimhreadh ‘winter’. This name is also Anglicized McAlivery. Mistranslation of French Livernois, which is in fact a habitational name, but mistakenly construed as l’hiver ‘winter’.

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the small'; compare Large, Bigg, Little, &c.Robert le Small, Huntingdonshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.Henry le Smale, Cambridgeshire, ibid.Richard le Smale, Close Rolls, 9 Edward II.

French (Legaré): nickname from the past participle of Old French esgarer ‘to be troubled or abandoned’.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Broin ‘descendant of Bran’, a personal name based on bran ‘raven’. Bran was the name of a son of the King of Leinster, who died at Cologne in 1052, and also of the hero of an 8th century voyage tale.

English: nickname from Middle English scharp ‘keen’, ‘active’, ‘quick’. Irish (County Donegal): Anglicized (part translated) form of Gaelic Ó Géaráin ‘descendant of Géarán’, a byname from a diminutive of géar ‘sharp’. Americanized form of any of several European names with similar meaning, for example German Scharf.

English: from a personal name that was popular throughout Christendom in the Middle Ages. The Greek original, Gregorios, is a derivative of gregorein ‘to be awake’, ‘to be watchful’. However, the Latin form, Gregorius, came to be associated by folk etymology with grex, gregis, ‘flock’, ‘herd’, under the influence of the Christian image of the good shepherd. The Greek name was borne in the early Christian centuries by two fathers of the Orthodox Church, St. Gregory Nazianzene (c. 325–390) and St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 331–395), and later by sixteen popes, starting with Gregory the Great (c. 540–604). It was also the name of 3rd- and 4th-century apostles of Armenia. In North America the English form of the name has absorbed many cognates from other European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

French: habitational name from places in Eure and Somme called Gamaches, first recorded in the 8th century as Gannapio and Gammapium respectively. The place names are of uncertain origin; one suggestion is that they may have been named with the Celtic elements cam ‘bent’, ‘winding’ + apia ‘water’.

Welsh: from the personal name Hywel ‘eminent’, popular since the Middle Ages in particular in honor of the great 10th-century law-giving Welsh king. English: habitational name from Howell in Lincolnshire, so named from an Old English hugol ‘mound’, ‘hillock’ or hune ‘hoarhound’.

French: reduced form of Charretier, an occupational name for a carter, from an agent derivative of Old French charette ‘cart’ (see Charette).

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Rob, a short form of Robert.

Northern Irish and Scottish: variant of McKay.

German: patronymic from a short form of a Germanic compound personal name beginning with wini ‘friend’.

French (Guérin): from the Germanic personal name Warin, a short form of various compound names beginning with war(in) ‘guard’. This is found as a Huguenot name, established in Ireland (County Limerick).

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Walton. The first element in these names was variously Old English walh ‘foreigner’, ‘Briton’, genitive plural wala (see Wallace), w(e)ald ‘forest’, w(e)all ‘wall’, or wæll(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’.

French: topographic name for someone who lived by a patch of waste land, Old French gast. Compare Gast.

Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Coinnigh ‘descendant of Coinneach’, an Old Irish personal name equivalent to Scottish Kenneth. This was borne by a 6th-century monk and saint who gave his name to the town of Kilkenny ‘church of Coinneach’. Irish: possibly an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Cionaodha ‘descendant of Cionaodh’, a personal name of unexplained etymology.

Irish: variant of Whelan.

English (of Norman origin): via Old French from the Germanic personal name Milo, of unknown etymology. The name was introduced to England by the Normans in the form Miles (oblique case Milon). In English documents of the Middle Ages the name sometimes appears in the Latinized form Milo (genitive Milonis), although the normal Middle English form was Mile, so the final -s must usually represent the possessive ending, i.e. ‘son or servant of Mile’. English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Mihel, an Old French contracted form of Michael. English: occupational name for a servant or retainer, from Latin miles ‘soldier’, sometimes used as a technical term in this sense in medieval documents. Irish (County Mayo): when not the same as 1 or 3, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Maolmhuire, Myles being used as the English equivalent of the Gaelic personal name Maol Muire (see Mullery). Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): unexplained. Dutch: variant of Miels, a variant of Miele 3.

English, Scottish, and northern Irish: habitational name from any of several places in England and Scotland, variously spelled, that are named with Old English cald ‘cold’ + well(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’. Caldwell in North Yorkshire is one major source of the surname; Caldwell in Renfrewshire in Scotland another.

Variant of French Guyet (see Guyette).

French: habitational name from any of the places in Normandy called La Mare, from Old Northern French mare ‘pool’, ‘pond’ (Old Norse marr).

Scottish: variant of Beatty.

French: variant spelling of Arsenault.

Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó hUainín ‘descendant of Uainín’ (see Honan 2). variant spelling of Green as an English name or as an Americanized form of name of similar meaning in some other European language.

French: variant spelling of Baudin, a diminutive of Baud meaning ‘joyful’.

Chinese : variant of Fang 1. Chinese : variant of Feng 1. Chinese : variant of Fang 2.

English (Shropshire; of Norman origin): nickname meaning ‘little crow’, ‘raven’, from Anglo-Norman French, Middle English corbet, a diminutive of corb, alluding probably to someone with dark hair or a dark complexion. The name was taken from Shropshire to Scotland in the 12th century and to northern Ireland in the 17th century, and thence to North America by one group of bearers of the name. Irish: see Corban.

German (Dück): nickname for a shirker or a sneak.

English (of Norman origin) and French: from a French form of the Germanic personal name Wido, which is of uncertain origin. This name was popular among the Normans in the forms Wi, Why as well as in the rest of France in the form Guy. English: occupational name for a guide, Old French gui (a derivative of gui(d)er ‘to guide’, of Germanic origin).

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dochartaigh ‘descendant of Dochartach’, a byname from do + cartach ‘not loving’. The family were chieftains in Donegal.

Scottish: habitational name a place near Kilmarnock named Dunlop, from Gaelic dùn ‘fort’ + possibly lápach ‘muddy’. The traditional pronunciation places the stress on the second syllable, although nowadays it is usually placed on the first. Irish: variant of Dunleavy. Irish: Scottish surname adopted by bearers of Gaelic Ó Lapáin ‘descendant of Lapán’, a byname or from lápán ‘mire’, ‘dirt’ (used figuratively of a poor man) or ‘little paw’.

Muslim: variant spelling of Husain.

French: from a diminutive of Blanc.

English: topographic name for someone who lived by an ash tree, a variant of Ash by misdivision of Middle English atten ash ‘at the ash’, or a habitational name from any of the many places in England and Wales named Nash, from this phrase, as for example Nash in Buckinghamshire, Herefordshire, or Shropshire. The name was established from an early date in Wales and Ireland. Jewish: of unknown origin, possibly an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.

French: from a pet form of the Old French personal name Hue, Hughe (see Hugh).

English: occupational name for a worker in wood, Norman French carpentier (from Late Latin carpentarius ‘cartwright’). Translation of German Zimmermann, French Charpentier, Italian Carpentieri, or cognates and equivalents in various other languages.

French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’ + helm ‘helmet’.

French: variant of Brun (‘brown’), with the definite article le. This is a name associated with the Huguenots in the U.S.

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’.

English (mainly southern): variant spelling of Thorn 1. Swedish: ornamental name from thorn, an ornamental spelling of torn ‘thorn bush’.

Danish and Norwegian: patronymic from the personal name Lars, Scandinavian equivalent of Lawrence.

from the Germanic personal name Huard, composed of hug ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘spirit’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’. Compare Howard. nickname from Old French huard ‘owl’ (a derivative of huer ‘to cry or howl’). There has probably also been some confusion with Houard.

German or Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived on or by a hill or mountain, from Middle High German berc. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe. Scandinavian: habitational name for someone who lived at a farmstead named with Old Norse bjarg ‘mountain’, ‘hill’. In Sweden this is commonly found as an element of ornamental names. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Berg ‘mountain’, ‘hill’, or a short form of any of the many ornamental surnames containing this word as the final element, for example Schönberg (see Schoenberg) and Goldberg.

Scottish: habitational name from a place in Glasgow, apparently so named from a diminutive of a British cognate of Gaelic poll ‘pool’, ‘pit’. The surname is also common in northeastern Ulster. German: ethnic name for someone from Poland. Americanized form of Jewish Polak.

French: variant of Vial. German (Silesia): habitational name from a place named Viau near Liegnitz.

English: patronymic from Mann 1 and 2. Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Mainnín ‘descendant of Mainnín’, probably an assimilated form of Mainchín, a diminutive of manach ‘monk’. This is the name of a chieftain family in Connacht. It is sometimes pronounced Ó Maingín and Anglicized as Mangan.

French: Canadian secondary surname (meaning ‘fair way’) to the primary names Petit-Hus, Millet, Pinard, Rèche, and Fleurant.

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.

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.

English: from Old English Englisc. The word had originally distinguished Angles (see Engel) from Saxons and other Germanic peoples in the British Isles, but by the time surnames were being acquired it no longer had this meaning. Its frequency as an English surname is somewhat surprising. It may have been commonly used in the early Middle Ages as a distinguishing epithet for an Anglo-Saxon in areas where the culture was not predominantly English--for example the Danelaw area, Scotland, and parts of Wales--or as a distinguishing name after 1066 for a non-Norman in the regions of most intensive Norman settlement. However, explicit evidence for these assumptions is lacking, and at the present day the surname is fairly evenly distributed throughout the country. Irish: see Golightly.

reduced form of Shanahan. reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Seanáin ‘descendant of Seanán’, a personal name based on a pet form of seán ‘old’. in County Clare, a reduced Anglicized form of Mac Giolla tSeanáin ‘son of the servant of St. Seanán’. In the Irish midlands Leonard and Nugent have been adopted as equivalents of this name.

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.

French: perhaps an occupational name, derived from testre, tétre, variants of tistre ‘to weave’. This name has been Americanized as Roe or Rowe.

nickname for a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion, from Middle English re(a)d ‘red’. topographic name for someone who lived in a clearing, from an unattested Old English ried, r¯d ‘woodland clearing’. habitational name from various places: Read in Lancashire, the name of which is a contracted form of Old English r?gheafod, from r?ge ‘female roe deer’, ‘she-goat’ + heafod ‘head(land)’; Rede in Suffolk, so called from Old English hreod ‘reeds’; or Reed in Hertfordshire, so called from an Old English ryhð ‘brushwood’.

Irish: variant spelling of Hines. English: patronymic from Hine. Possibly an Americanized spelling of German Heins or Heinz.

South German: topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow, from Middle High German matte ‘meadow’. Dutch (van der Matt(e)): topographic name for someone who lived by a meadow, or habitational name from any of various places named Made or Maete, from Middle Dutch matte, matta ‘meadow’. Southern French: possibly a habitational name from the common demesne name La Matte, La Mathe, derived from Occitan mata ‘bush’, ‘shrub’, ‘thicket’, ‘brush’. Compare Mata 1.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dúnadhaigh ‘descendant of Dúnadhach’, a personal name meaning ‘fortress-holder’ (from dún ‘fortress’, ‘fortified hill’). Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Maol Dhomhnaigh, or of Mac Giolla Dhomnaigh (see Maloney). Scottish: habitational name from the Scottish barony of Downie or Duny in the parish of Monikie in Angus (on Tayside), named from Gaelic dùn ‘hill’ + the locative suffix -ach.

Scottish: see McFarlane.

French: from a variant of the personal name Patrice (see Patrick). Variant of Scottish Petrie.

Northern English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Nik(k)e, a short form of Nicholas. French: variant of a contracted form of Nickesson, a pet form of Nick, from Nicolas.

Altered spelling (common in Quebec) of the French occupational name Aillot or Hayot ‘garlic seller’, from ail ‘garlic’.

English, Scottish, and North German: patronymic from Sander 1.

patronymic from Reeve. topographic name for someone who lived on the margin of a wood, from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter eves ‘at the edge’ (Old English æt þære efese).

English: occupational name for a dresser of cloth, Old English fullere (from Latin fullo, with the addition of the English agent suffix). The Middle English successor of this word had also been reinforced by Old French fouleor, foleur, of similar origin. The work of the fuller was to scour and thicken the raw cloth by beating and trampling it in water. This surname is found mostly in southeast England and East Anglia. See also Tucker and Walker. In a few cases the name may be of German origin with the same form and meaning as 1 (from Latin fullare). Americanized version of French Fournier.

English: from a Middle English personal name derived from the Old English female personal name Lufu ‘love’, or the masculine equivalent Lufa. Compare Leaf 2. English and Scottish: nickname from Anglo-Norman French lo(u)ve ‘female wolf’ (a feminine form of lou). This nickname was fairly commonly used for men, in an approving sense. No doubt it was reinforced by crossing with post-Conquest survivals of the masculine version of 1. Scottish: see McKinnon. Dutch (de Love): respelling and reinterpretation of Delhove, a habitational name from Hove and L’Hoves in Hainault, for example.

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.

French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements wig ‘battle’, ‘combat’ + mund ‘protection’.

(of Norman origin) habitational name from Béthune in Pas-de-Calais, France (see Bethune). from the medieval personal name Be(a)ton, a pet name from a short form of Bartholomew or Beatrice. Anglicization of Gaelic Mac Beath (see McBeth).

English: status name for a cottager (see Cotter 2), or a topographic name for someone who lived in a relatively humble dwelling (from Middle English cotes, plural (or genitive) of cote, cott), or a habitational name from any of the numerous places named with this word, especially Coates in Cambridgeshire and Cotes in Leicestershire. Scottish: variant of Coutts. Americanized spelling of German and Jewish Kotz or German Koths, from a variant of the medieval personal name Godo (see Gottfried).

English: variant spelling of Chinn. Chinese : variant of Jin 1. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Qian. Chinese : variant of Qin 1. Chinese : variant of Qin 2. Chinese : variant of Jin 2. Chinese : variant of Jin 3. Korean: there are four Chinese characters for the surname Chin, representing five clans. At least three of the clans have origins in China; most of them migrated to Korea during the Kory{ou} period (ad 918–1392).

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).

French: from a diminutive of Cosse 2.

topographic name, with fused preposition and definite article du ‘from the’, from Old French sauz, the old subjective case of salix ‘willow’. topographic name, with fused preposition and definite article du ‘from the’, from Old French saut ‘grove’, ‘copse’ (from Latin saltus), or a habitational name from any of the places named Le Sault, for example in Ain and Vaucluse.

Northern English (chiefly Northumbrian) and Scottish: variant, altered by folk etymology, of Trumble, on theory that it denoted a nickname for a man thought to be strong and brave enough to turn back a charging bull, from Middle English turn(en) ‘to turn’ + bul(l)e ‘bull’.

Irish (originally of County Limerick, later of Counties Cork and Kilkenny): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Donndubháin ‘descendant of Donndubhán’, a personal name composed of the elements donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + dubh ‘black’ + the diminutive suffix -án.

Muslim: variant of Muhammad. See also Mohammed.

English: occupational name for a maker or seller of gloves, Middle English glovere, an agent noun from Old English glof ‘glove’.

French: patronymic from the personal name Clair (see Clair) or the nickname Leclair (‘the cheerful one’): (fils) à Leclair ‘(son) of Leclair’. It has also absorbed cases of Auclerc (from LeClerc).

French: occupational name for someone who kept watch over harvested crops, Old French messier ‘harvest master’ (Late Latin messicarius, agent derivative of messis ‘harvest’).

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.

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.

French: from Old French chevalier ‘knight’ (literally ‘horseman’, ‘rider’, from Late Latin caballarius, a derivative of caballus ‘horse’). In the Middle Ages only men of comparative wealth were able to afford the upkeep of a riding horse. It is likely that in the majority of cases the surname was originally a nickname, or an occupational name for a knight’s servant, rather than a status name, for most men of the knightly class belonged to noble families which had more specific surnames derived from their estates.

English (Norfolk): patronymic from a pet form of Nicholas.

Scottish and English: ethnic name for someone from Wales or a speaker of the Welsh language. Compare Walsh and Wallace. Irish: variant of Walsh. Americanized spelling of German Welsch. Americanized form of Ukrainian Volosin (see Woloszyn).

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Ciardha, a midland family name meaning ‘descendant of Ciardha’, a personal name derived from ciar ‘dark’, ‘black’. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Fhiachra ‘son of Fiachra’. English: habitational name from Carey in Devon or Cary in Somerset, named for the rivers on which they stand; both river names probably derive from the Celtic root car- ‘love’, ‘liking’, perhaps with the meaning ‘pleasant stream’. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from the manor of Carrey, near Lisieux, Normandy, France, of uncertain origin. Welsh and Cornish: variant of Carew. Possibly an Americanized form of German Gehrig or Gehring.

Irish (northern Armagh): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cana ‘son of Cana’, a personal name or byname meaning ‘wolf cub’.

French: from an Old French personal name, a variant of Hilaire (see HilLary).

French: variant of Rivet.

German, Dutch, Swedish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): topographic name for someone who lived in the mountains or hills (see Berg). As a Jewish name it is mainly ornamental. It is found as a surname throughout central and eastern Europe, either as a surname of German origin or as a German translation of a topographic name with similar meaning, for example Slovenian Gricar, Hribar, Gorjan or Gorjanc. Norwegian: habitational name from any of various farms so named with the plural of Berg ‘mountain’. French: occupational name for a shepherd, from Old French bergier (Late Latin berbicarius, from berbex ‘ram’).

English (southwest): occupational name for a roofer (tiler or thatcher), from an agent derivative of Middle English hele(n) ‘to cover’ (Old English helian). French: from the personal name Hillier (see Hillary).

English, Scottish, Dutch, and North German: status name for a champion, Middle English and Middle Low German kempe. In the Middle Ages a champion was a professional fighter on behalf of others; for example the King’s Champion, at the coronation, had the duty of issuing a general challenge to battle to anyone who denied the king’s right to the throne. The Middle English word corresponds to Old English cempa and Old Norse kempa ‘warrior’; both these go back to Germanic campo ‘warrior’, which is the source of the Dutch and North German name, corresponding to High German Kampf. Dutch: metonymic occupational name for someone who grew or processed hemp, from Middle Dutch canep ‘hemp’.

English: habitational name from either of two places, one in South Yorkshire (formerly in Derbyshire) and the other near Hereford. The former gets its name from Old English dor ‘door’, used of a pass between hills; the latter from a Celtic river name of the same origin as Dover 1. In some cases, the name may be topographic, from Middle English dore ‘gate’. Irish: in County Limerick a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Doghair ‘descendant of Doghar’, a byname meaning ‘sadness’; alternatively, according to MacLysaght, it could be from De Hóir, a name of Norman origin. Outside Limerick it may be from French Doré (see below). French (Doré): nickname from Old French doré ‘golden’, past participle of dorer ‘to gild’ (Late Latin deaurare, from aurum ‘gold’), denoting either a goldsmith or someone with bright golden hair. Hungarian (Dore): nickname from dore ‘stupid’, ‘useless’ ‘mad’.

English (chiefly West Country): topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, Old English lacu, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, for example in Wiltshire and Devon. Modern English lake (Middle English lake) is only distantly related, if at all; it comes via Old French from Latin lacus. This meaning, which ousted the native sense, came too late to be found as a place name element, but may lie behind some examples of the surname. Part translation of French Beaulac.

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.

English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the places so called. In over thirty instances from many different areas, the name is from Old English midel ‘middle’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. However, Middleton on the Hill near Leominster in Herefordshire appears in Domesday Book as Miceltune, the first element clearly being Old English micel ‘large’, ‘great’. Middleton Baggot and Middleton Priors in Shropshire have early spellings that suggest gem¯ðhyll (from gem¯ð ‘confluence’ + hyll ‘hill’) + tun as the origin.

English: habitational name from any of various places so named. Gratton in Derbyshire is from Old English great ‘great’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. Gratton in High Bray, Devon, is probably ‘great hill’, from Old English great + dun. A number of minor places in Devon are named from the dialect word gratton, gratten ‘stubble-field’.

English and Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Dobbe. This is also established in Ireland, notably County Leitrim.

English: nickname from Middle English ca ‘jackdaw’, from an unattested Old Norse ká. See also Daw. English: nickname from Middle English cai, kay, kei ‘left-handed’, ‘clumsy’. English: metonymic occupational name for a locksmith, from Middle English keye, kaye ‘key’. Compare Care, Kear. English: topographic name for someone living on or near a quay, Middle English kay(e), Old French cay. English: from a Middle English personal name which figures in Arthurian legend. It is found in Old Welsh as Cai, Middle Welsh Kei, and is ultimately from the Latin personal name Gaius. Scottish and Irish: reduced form of McKay. French: variant of Quay, cognate with 2. Much shortened form of any of various names, mostly Eastern European, beginning with the letter K-. Variant of Danish and Frisian Kai.

English and French: from a medieval personal name of which the original form was Latin Aegidius (from Greek aigidion ‘kid’, ‘young goat’). This was the name of a 7th-century Provençal hermit, whose cult popularized the name in a variety of more or less mutilated forms: Gidi and Gidy in southern France, Gil(l)i in the area of the Alpes-Maritimes, and Gil(l)e elsewhere. This last form was taken over to England by the Normans, but by the 12th century it was being confused with the Germanic names Gisel, a short form of Gilbert, and Gilo, which is from Gail (as in Gaillard). Irish: adopted as an Anglicized equivalent of Gaelic Ó Glaisne, a County Louth name, based on glas ‘green’, ‘blue’, ‘gray’.

North German (Töws): variant of Tews.

German: from Middle High German kellaere ‘cellarman’, ‘cellar master’ (Latin cellarius, denoting the keeper of the cella ‘store chamber’, ‘pantry’). Hence an occupational name for the overseer of the stores, accounts, or household in general in, for example, a monastery or castle. Kellers were important as trusted stewards in a great household, and in some cases were promoted to ministerial rank. The surname is widespread throughout central Europe. English: either an occupational name for a maker of caps or cauls, from Middle English kellere, or an occupational name for an executioner, from Old English cwellere. Irish: reduced form of Kelleher. Scottish: variant of Keillor.

French: from the Latin phrase pater noster, ‘our father’, an metonymic occupational name for a maker of rosary beads. Compare Paternoster.

French and English: from Old French hache ‘axe’, ‘battleaxe’, hence a metonymic occupational name for someone who made or used axes or battleaxes. German: variant of Hach 1.

French: variant of Valliere.

Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cionaodha or Mac Cionaoith ‘son of Cionaodh’ (see McKinney 1).