1000 Most Common Last Names in Guyana

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

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

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

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.

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, 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.

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: 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.

Muslim: variant of Muhammad. See also Mohammed.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Bennet,' i.e. Benedict, from the nick. Benn; it has nothing to do with Benjamin. Benn is a familiar surname wherever the Benedictine monks had a convent. Furness Abbey, founded in the 12th century, has made Benn and Benson (which see) a common surname in Furness and south Cumberland.

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.

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.)

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.

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: variant of Backus. The form of the name appears to have been assimilated by folk etymology to the name of Bacchus, the Greek god of wine. Variant of German Backhaus. Muslim: probably a variant of Bacho.

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 (also common in Wales): patronymic from Edward.

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, 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 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).

Welsh: from the Old Welsh personal name Gruffudd, Old Welsh Grip(p)iud, composed of the elements grip, of uncertain significance, + iud ‘chief’, ‘lord’.

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: from the Indian personal name Ramprasad, from Sanskrit rama ‘pleasing’, name of an incarnation of the god Vishnu, + prasada ‘favor’, ‘grace’, ‘gift’, ‘offering of food’.

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.

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

English 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.

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

Indian: variant spelling of Lal.

Name of unknown etymology found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad.

Muslim: variant spelling of Ali. English and French: variant spelling of Alley.

English: variant spelling of Clark.

English: patronymic from Frederick.

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

Jewish (Ashkenazic), Dutch, English, and German: patronymic from a reduced form of the personal name Abraham.

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.

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: 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.

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.

Muslim: variant spelling of Ali.

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: from a variant of the Indian personal name Ramnarayan, from Sanskrit rama ‘pleasing’, name of an incarnation of the god Vishnu + naraya?na (see Narayan).

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: variant of Mahabir.

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.

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

English and Jewish: patronymic from Samuel.

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.

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.

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

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

Irish and English variant of Brown.

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.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mocháin ‘descendant of Mochán’, a personal name from a diminutive of moch ‘early’, ‘timely’. In Connacht this name was changed to Mahon; it is also found translated into English as Early. It has been used to represent the Norman habitational surname de Mohun. Indian (Panjab and southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit mohana ‘fascinating’, ‘infatuating’, an epithet of the god Krishna. In the Panjab, it is a Brahman name based on the name of a clan in the Mohyal subgroup of Saraswat Brahmans; it probably evolved from an ancestral personal name. In the southern states this is only found as a male given name; it has also come to be used as a family name in the U.S. among familes from South India.

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: from a variant of the Indian personal name Mahadev, from Sanskrit mahadeva ‘the great god’ (from maha ‘great’ + deva ‘god’), an epithet of the god Shiva.

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 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.

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.

Muslim: variant spelling of Husain.

Mainly Jewish, but also English and Welsh: patronymic from Isaac.

English (mainly South Wales and southwestern England): from the medieval personal name Harry, which was the usual vernacular form of Henry, with assimilation of the consonantal cluster and regular Middle English change of -er- to -ar-. French: from the Germanic personal name Hariric, composed of the elements hari, heri ‘army’ + ric ‘power(ful)’.

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.

Scottish and northern Irish: nickname from Middle English, Old French simple ‘simple’, ‘straightforward’, ‘humble’ (Latin simplus).

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).

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

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.

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

Indian (northern states): Hindu (Bania) and Jain name from Sanskrit mangala ‘auspicious’. The Agarwal Banias have a clan called Mangal. Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: from the Indian personal name Mangal, also from Sanskrit mangala ‘auspicious’.

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

Variant spelling of Portuguese Gonçalves (see Goncalves). This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

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’.

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

from the Old English personal name Garwig ‘spear war’ habitational name for someone from Garway in Herefordshire. The place name, recorded in 1189 as Langarewi, is probably from Welsh llan ‘church’ + the personal name Guoruoe.

English and Dutch: patronymic from Mark 1. English: variant of Mark 2. German and Jewish (western Ashkenazic): reduced form of Markus, German spelling of Marcus (see Mark 1).

English: old spelling of Allen, already well established as a surname in England in Tudor times.

English and Irish: variant spelling of Ford 1 and 2. This is a very common spelling in Ireland. Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads named Førde (there are eleven on the west coast), from Old Norse fyrði, dative of fjórðr ‘fjord’.

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.

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

English: patronymic from Hind. Irish: variant of Heyne.

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.

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.

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’.

Scottish (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of the various places in Normandy called Malleville, from Latin mala ‘bad’ + ville ‘settlement’. Irish (mainly Ulster): English surname adopted by bearers of Gaelic Ó Maoilmhichíl ‘descendant of Maoilmhichil’, a personal name meaning ‘devotee of (Saint) Michael’.

German: topographic name for someone who lived by an elder tree, Middle High German holder, or from a house named for its sign of an elder tree. In same areas, for example Alsace, the elder tree was believed to be the protector of a house. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Holder ‘elder tree’. English (chiefly western counties): occupational name for a tender of animals, from an agent derivative of Middle English hold(en) ‘to guard or keep’ (Old English h(e)aldan). It is possible that this word was also used in the wider sense of a holder of land within the feudal system. Compare Helder.

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.)

French: ethnic name for an inhabitant of France (i.e., of what is now the northern part of the country, where langue d’oïl was spoken). See also Lafrance. Czech (France): see Franc 4. Slovenian: from the personal name France, a vernacular form of Francišek, Latin Franciscus (see Francis). Possibly also an Americanized spelling of German Franz.

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.

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).

Scottish: local name from the city on the Clyde (first recorded in 1116 as Glasgu), or from either of two minor places with the same name in Aberdeenshire. The etymology of the place name is disputed; it is probably from Welsh glas ‘gray’, ‘green’, ‘blue’ + cau ‘hollows’. Scottish and Irish: altered form of Closkey, reduced and Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Bhloscaidhe ‘son of Bloscadh’ (see McCloskey). Irish: variant of the English family name Glasscock, which was once common in County Kildare.

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.

English (Shropshire): from the Welsh personal name Einws, a diminutive of Einion (of uncertain origin, popularly associated with einion ‘anvil’). English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Hain 2. English: habitational name from Haynes in Bedfordshire. This name first appears in Domesday Book as Hagenes, which Mills derives from the plural of Old English hægen, hagen ‘enclosure’. Irish: variant of Hines.

Indian: variant of Prasad. variant of Persaud in Guyana and Trinidad.

French: from a pet form of Gobert. Guyanese and Trinidadian name found among people of Indian origin: from the Hindu personal name Govind, from Sanskrit govinda ‘lord of herdsmen’, an epithet of the god Krishna.

Scottish and English: from the personal name Stephen, variant spelling of Steven.

Southern English: patronymic from David.

English: habitational name from a minor place in Somerset, an area of land in the marshes near Markham. This is first recorded in the form Rodenye; it derives from the genitive case of the Old English personal name Hroda (a short form of the various compound names with the first element hroð ‘renown’) + Old English eg ‘island’, ‘dry land (in a fen)’.

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.

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.

'What craftsman art thou?' said the king.

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.

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

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: variant of Indian Ramakrishnan.

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

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.

English, Scottish, and Irish: variant of Norris 3.

English: from the Middle English personal name Alvred, Old English Ælfr?d ‘elf counsel’. This owed its popularity as a personal name in England chiefly to the fame of the West Saxon king Alfred the Great (849–899), who defeated the Danes, keeping them out of Wessex, and whose court was a great center of learning and culture.

English: from Old French arch(i)er, Middle English archere, hence an occupational name for an archer. This Norman French word partially replaced the native English word bowman in the 14th century. In North America this surname may have absorbed some cases of European cognates such as French Archier.

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.

English: from the personal name Anthony, Latin Antonius. See also Anton. This, with its variants, cognates, and derivatives, is one of the commonest European personal names. Many of the European forms have been absorbed into this spelling as American family names; for the forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988. Spellings with -h-, which first appear in English in the 16th century and in French (as Anthoine) at about the same time, are due to the erroneous belief that the name derives from Greek anthos ‘flower’. The popularity of the personal name in Christendom is largely due to the cult of the Egyptian hermit St. Anthony (ad 251–356), who in his old age gathered a community of hermits around him, and for that reason is regarded by some as the founder of monasticism. It was further increased by the fame of St. Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), who long enjoyed a great popular cult and who is believed to help people find lost things. South Indian: this is only a given name in India, but has come to be used as a family name among Christians from South India in the U.S.

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

English 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).

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.

Scottish: habitational name from a place the location of which is disputed. Black gives two Scottish options, the first with no explanation, the second being Halley in Deerness, Orkney. Modern Scottish bearers may well get it from the Irish names (see 3 and 4 below). English: in part possibly a habitational name from Hawley in Hampshire, named from Old English heall ‘hall’, ‘large house’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’. Irish (Counties Waterford and Tipperary): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAilche ‘descendant of Ailche’, possibly from the byname Ailchú meaning ‘gentle hound’. In some cases Halley has been used to replace Mulhall. Irish (County Clare): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÁille ‘descendant of Áille’, apparently from áille ‘beauty’, but possibly a variant of Ó hÁinle (see Hanley).

English: from a Norman personal name that appears in Middle English as Geffrey and in Old French as Je(u)froi. Some authorities regard this as no more than a palatalized form of Godfrey, but early forms such as Galfridus and Gaufridus point to a first element from Germanic gala ‘to sing’ or gawi ‘region’, ‘territory’. It is possible that several originally distinct names have fallen together in the same form.

English: from a pet form of the personal name Samson (see Samson). Dutch (van Sam): variant of Van den Sand (see Sand 2). Nigerian and Ghanaian: unexplained. Chinese : variant of Shen. Chinese : variant of Shum. Other Southeast Asian: unexplained.

From the Latin family name of the first Roman emperor, Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 bc), which gave rise to vocabulary words meaning ‘emperor’ or ‘ruler’ in German (Kaiser), Russian (tsar), Arabic (qay?sar), and other languages. As a modern family name it is probably most often a humanistic re-translation into Latin of German Kaiser, but it is also found as an Americanized form of Italian Cesare and French César and Césaire. It is also found as an English surname, derived either from a medieval personal name taken from the Latin or a nickname for someone who had played the part of the emperor Julius Caesar in a pageant.

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.

Northern English: habitational name from any of the places in Cumbria and Yorkshire named Braithwaite, from Old Norse breiðr ‘broad’ + þveit ‘clearing’.

Indian: variant of Narayan. variant of Narine in Guyana and Trinidad.

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.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robin.

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.

Scottish and English: topographic name for someone who lived in a small, enclosed valley, Middle English hop(e), or a habitational name from a place named with this word, of which there are examples in North Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Clwyd, Devon, Herefordshire, Kent, Sussex, and elsewhere. The surname is most common in Scotland and northern England, and it is also established in Ireland. Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads, notably in Hordaland, so named from Old Norse hóp ‘narrow bay’.

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’).

English and Scottish: variant of Trotter 1. Altered spelling of German Trotmann, a variant of Trotter 2.

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).

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

English: variant spelling of Lane.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Atkin.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named, in northern France as well as in England. These are named with the Old French elements riche ‘rich’, ‘splendid’ + mont ‘hill’. Richmond in North Yorkshire was named after a Richmont in France immediately after the Norman Conquest, and in many if not most cases the English surname can de derived from this place. Richmond in southwest London received this name only in the reign of Henry VII, in honor of the king, who had been Earl of Richmond until he came to the throne, and is unlikely to be the source of this surname.

Scottish and French: from a short form of Thomas.

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, 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).

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

Scottish and English: patronymic from Gibb.

Muslim: variant of Rahman.

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: from the Hindu personal name Ramrup ‘manifestation of Rama’, from Sanskrit rama ‘pleasing’, name of an incarnation of the god Vishnu, + rupa ‘form’, ‘manifestation’.

Portuguese (Mendonça): habitational name from Mendonça, in Portugal.

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.

Dutch, Danish, and German: from a personal name borne by a 3rd-century Christian saint and pope, Latin Cornelius, an old Roman family name, probably derived from cornu ‘horn’. Compare Corne.

Indian (southern states): Hindu name from Sanskrit ga?ne?sa ‘lord of the army’ (from ga?na ‘army’ + iša), an epithet of the elephant-headed god who is the son of Shiva. Among Tamil and Malayalam speakers who have migrated from their home states it is a variant of Ganesan. It is found only as a male given name in India, but used as a family name in the U.S. among South Indians.

Origin unidentified.

English: patronymic from the personal name Roger.

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

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.

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

English (Kent): variant of Parrish. French: variant of Paris 1.

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.

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, Irish, Welsh, English, and French: from the ancient Celtic personal name Arthur. In many cases it is a shortened form of Scottish or Irish McArthur, the patronymic Mac- often being dropped in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries under English influence. The personal name is most probably from an old Celtic word meaning ‘bear’. Compare Gaelic art, Welsh arth, both of which mean ‘bear’. It has been in regular use as a personal name in Britain since the early Middle Ages, owing its popularity in large part to the legendary exploits of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which gave rise to a prolific literature in Welsh, French, English, German, and other European languages.

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.

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

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

Dutch, German, and English: patronymic from the personal name Hendrick.

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

English: habitational name from places in Devon and Warwickshire called Welcombe, from Old English well(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’ + cumb ‘broad, straight valley’. English: nickname for a well-liked person or one noted for his hospitality, from Middle English welcume, a calque of Old French bienvenu or Old Norse velkominn. Translated form of Canadian French Bienvenue, found in New England.

English and Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone who came from London or a nickname for someone who had made a trip to London or had some other connection with the city. In some cases, however, the Jewish name was purely ornamental. The place name, recorded by the Roman historian Tacitus in the Latinized form Londinium, is obscure in origin and meaning, but may be derived from pre-Celtic (Old European) roots with a meaning something like ‘place at the navigable or unfordable river’.

habitational name from a place in Bedfordshire, so named from Old English sand ‘sand’ + eg ‘island’, ‘dry land in a fen or marsh’. from the Old Norse personal name Sand(i), a short form of the various compound names with the first element sandr ‘sand’.

Catalan: from cort ‘court’ (Latin cohors, genitive cohortis, ‘yard’, ‘enclosure’), an occupational name for someone who worked in a manorial court or a topographic name for someone who lived in or by one. Variant spelling of German and Jewish Kort.

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.

Scottish: variant of Innes.

Scottish: occupational name for a physician (see Leach 1).

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.

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.

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.

English: habitational name from any of several places called Walcott, Walcot, or Walcote, for example in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, and Wiltshire, all named in Old English with w(e)alh ‘foreigner’, ‘Briton’, ‘Welsh’, genitive plural wala (see Wallace) + cot ‘cottage’, ‘shelter’, i.e. ‘the cottage where the (Welsh-speaking) Britons lived’.

Mainly Jewish: from the Biblical Hebrew personal name Aharon, which was borne by the first high priest of the Israelites, the brother of Moses (Exodus 4:14). Like Moses, it is probably of Egyptian origin, with a meaning no longer recoverable. In some countries Aaron was also a gentile personal name; not all occurrences of the surname are Jewish.

Variant spelling of English Hunt.

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: variant of Bristow, respelled to conform to the spelling of the modern place name.

Spanish: from a personal name (Latin Dominicus meaning ‘of the Lord’, from dominus ‘lord’, ‘master’). This was borne by a Spanish saint (1170–1221) who founded the Dominican order of friars and whose fame added greatly to the popularity of the name, already well established because of its symbolic value.

Scottish: habitational name from Fordyce, a place near Banff.

English: topographic name for someone who lived beside a stream, Old English burna, burne ‘spring’, ‘stream’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, for example Bourn in Cambridgeshire or Bourne in Lincolnshire. This word was replaced as the general word for a stream in southern dialects by Old English broc (see Brook) and came to be restricted in meaning to a stream flowing only intermittently, especially in winter.

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

Scottish and English: descriptive nickname from Old French burnete, a diminutive of brun ‘brown’ (see Brown).

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

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

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.

From the Hebrew personal name Avraham, borne by a Biblical patriarch revered by Jews as the founding father of the Jewish people (Genesis 11–25), and by Muslims as founder of all the Semitic peoples, both Hebrew and Arab (compare Ibrahim). The name is explained in Genesis 17:5 as being derived from Hebrew av hamon goyim ‘father of a multitude of nations’. It was widely used as a personal name among Christians as well as Jews in the Middle Ages in diverse cultures from northern Europe to southern India. It is also found as a given name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a family name among families from Kerala. Irish: English name adopted as an equivalent of Gaelic Mac an Bhreitheamhan ‘son of the judge’. See McBroom.

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.

English (chiefly Yorkshire): patronymic from Hopkin.

English and Scottish: from a personal name of Greek origin, which was in use in Cornwall and elsewhere till the 19th century. Hercules is the Latin form of Greek Herakles, meaning ‘glory of Hera’ (the queen of the gods). It was the name of a demigod in classical mythology, who was the son of Zeus, king of the gods, by a human woman. His outstanding quality was his superhuman strength. Scottish (Shetland): from a personal name adopted as an Americanized form of Old Norse Hákon (see Haagensen).

English, Scottish, and Irish: descriptive nickname for someone of swarthy complexion or hair, or else someone with a pale complexion or hair (see Black).

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’.

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.

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).

English: habitational name from the city of this name.

From the Hebrew personal name Imanuel ‘God is with us’, found as a personal name in many European languages.

English (mainly Lincolnshire): patronymic from the medieval personal name Hudde (see Hutt 1).

Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name from the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

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’.

Variant of Welsh Gittings.

Spanish and Italian: from a short form of the personal name Domingo, Italian Domenico.

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).

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 usual vernacular English form (recorded from the 13th century onward) of the New Testament Greek personal name Andreas.

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.

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: 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.

Italian and Spanish: from the personal name Primo, meaning ‘first’ (Latin Primus), given to the eldest son in a family, or, in the case of the Italian name, a habitational name from a place named with this word. Portuguese and Spanish: relationship name, from primo ‘cousin’. Greek (Primos): nickname for a sailor, from Greek primos in the sense ‘favorable wind’, a derivative of Italian primo ‘first’.

English: variant spelling of Seeley.

English, of Welsh origin: Anglicized form of Welsh ap Owain ‘son of Owain’ (see Owen). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Buadhacháin ‘descendant of Buadhachán’, a diminutive of Buadhach ‘victorious’ (see Bohan).

nickname for a person with a large or unusually shaped head, from Middle English poll ‘head’ (Middle Low German polle ‘(top of the) head’) + the pejorative suffix -ard. The term pollard in the sense denoting an animal that has had its horns lopped is not recorded before the 16th century, and as applied to a tree the word is not recorded until the 17th century; so both these senses are almost certainly too late to have contributed to the surname. pejorative derivative of the personal name Paul. The surname has been established in Ireland since the 14th century.

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

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

English: patronymic from Reynold.

Indian: variant of Das.

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.

Scottish, Irish, and English: variant spelling of White.

English and Irish: from Middle English duk(e) ‘duke’ (from Old French duc, from Latin dux, genitive ducis ‘leader’), applied as an occupational name for someone who worked in the household of a duke, or as a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces. English and Irish: possibly also from the personal name Duke, a short form of Marmaduke, a personal name said to be from Irish mael Maedoc ‘devotee (mael, maol ‘bald’, ‘tonsured one’) of Maedoc’, a personal name (M’Aodhóg) meaning ‘my little Aodh’, borne by various early Irish saints, in particular a 6th-century abbot of Clonmore and a 7th-century bishop of Ferns. Scottish: compare the old Danish personal name Duk (Old Norse Dukr). In some cases, possibly an Americanized form of French Leduc or Spanish Duque. Possibly an Americanized spelling of Polish Duk, a nickname from dukac ‘to stammer or falter’.

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

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

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.

from Old French Guarinot, Warinot, a pet form of the personal name Guarin, Warin, from Germanic wari(n)- ‘protection’, ‘shelter’. possibly a metonymic occupational name for a maker or fitter of garnets, a type of hinge, Middle English garnette, or for a jeweler, from Middle English garnette, gernet ‘garnet’. from a diminutive of Garner 1.

from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements walh ‘foreigner’ + hrafn ‘raven’. habitational name from a place in Sussex named Waldron, from Old English w(e)ald ‘forest’ + ærn ‘house’, ‘dwelling’. The surname is now also common in Ireland, especially in Connacht.

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

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

English: from the Middle English personal name Edwine, Old English Eadwine, composed of the elements ead ‘prosperity’, ‘fortune’ + wine ‘friend’. Indian (southern states): name in the Christian community. It is only found as a given name in India (from the English personal name), but has come to be used as a family name among South Indian Christians in the U.S.

(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).

Scottish: habitational name from Carmichael in Lanarkshire, from British caer ‘fort’ + the personal name Michael.

English: habitational name from a place in Norfolk named Beccles, from Old English bec(e), bæce ‘stream’ + l?s ‘meadow’.

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

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.

English: patronymic from Will. German: patronymic from any of the Germanic personal names beginning with wil ‘will’, ‘desire’.

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.

Northern English and Scottish: patronymic from Nichol.

English: habitational name from any of various places named Thornhill, for example in Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, Dorset, and Wiltshire, from Old English þorn ‘thorn bush’ + hyll ‘hill’.

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.

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

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Morris.

habitational name from any of various places, for example in Hampshire, Surrey, Worcestershire, and West Yorkshire, so called from Old English h?ð ‘heathland’, ‘heather’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. variant spelling of Hedley.

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.

Scottish and northern Irish (Counties Leitrim and Fermanagh): habitational name from Dundas, a place near Edinburgh, Scotland, which is named from Gaelic dùn ‘hill’ (compare Down 1) + deas ‘south’.

English: unexplained. Apparently a metronymic from the female personal name Bess, pet form of Elizabeth. German: short form of Betz. In some cases it is probably an altered spelling of French Besse.

English: of uncertain origin; possibly an altered form of Irish Doyle. Compare Dial. Indian: variant spelling of Dayal.

English: habitational name from Chester, the county seat of Cheshire, or from any of various smaller places named with this word (as for example Little Chester in Derbyshire or Chester le Street in County Durham), which is from Old English ceaster ‘Roman fort or walled city’ (Latin castra ‘legionary camp’).

Scottish, northern Irish, and English: topographic name for someone who lived by a wood, from Old French bois ‘wood’. English: patronymic from the Middle English nickname boy ‘lad’, ‘servant’, or possibly from an Old English personal name Boia, of uncertain origin. Examples such as Aluuinus Boi (Domesday Book) and Ivo le Boye (Lincolnshire 1232) support the view that it was a byname or even an occupational name; examples such as Stephanus filius Boie (Northumbria 1202) suggest that it was in use as a personal name in the Middle English period. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Buadhaigh (see Bogue). Anglicized spelling of French Bois, cognate with 1.

English: metonymic occupational name for a huntsman, or rather a nickname for an exceptionally skilled huntsman, from Middle English chase ‘hunt’ (Old French chasse, from chasser ‘to hunt’, Latin captare). Southern French: topographic name for someone who lived in or by a house, probably the occupier of the most distinguished house in the village, from a southern derivative of Latin casa ‘hut’, ‘cottage’, ‘cabin’.

English: apparently a nickname for a well-turned-out person, from the adjective trim ‘well-equipped’, ‘neatly made’. The word is first attested in the early 16th century, but may well have been in colloquial use much earlier. English: from an Old English personal name, Trymma. Irish: habitational name, originally de Truim, from a place in County Meath named Trim.

English: ethnic name for someone of Welsh origin. This is the usual form of the surname in England; the usual form in Ireland is Walsh and in Scotland Welsh. German: variant of Welk. Perhaps an Americanized spelling of German Welsch.

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.

Variant of Spanish Alfonso, in a Classicized spelling.

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.

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

English: habitational name for someone from Comberbach in northern Cheshire, named with the Old English personal name Cumbra (originally a byname meaning ‘Cumbrian’) or the genitive plural of Cumbre ‘Britons’ + Old English bæce ‘stream in a valley’.

English: habitational name from Kendal in Cumbria, recorded in 1095 as Kircabikendala ‘village with a church in the valley of the Kent river’. From an Anglicized form of the Welsh personal name Cynddelw, which was borne by a famous 12th-century Welsh poet. It probably derives from a Celtic word meaning ‘exalted’, ‘high’ + delw ‘image’, ‘effigy’.

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.

Danish and Norwegian: habitational name from Ågård ‘farm by the stream’. French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements agi(n) ‘edge (of a sword)’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘bold’. Respelling of Hungarian Agárdi, a habitational name for someone from any of various places called Agárd, from the vocabulary word agár ‘hound’. English: possibly a variant of Agar.

English: habitational name from any of the many places so called, from Old English norð ‘north’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. In some cases, it is a variant of Norrington. Irish: altered form of Naughton, assimilated to the English name. Jewish (American): adoption of the English name in place of some like-sounding Ashkenazic name.

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

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.

French and English: from a medieval personal name, derived from the distinguishing epithet of St. John the Baptist, who baptized people, including Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan (Mark 1:9), and was later beheaded by Herod. The name is from Latin Baptista (Greek baptistes, a derivative of the verb baptizein ‘to dip in liquid’, ‘to baptize’).

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.

Portuguese: habitational name from any of various places so called, in particular one in the province of Beira Baixa. The place name is first recorded in the Latin forms Gaudela and Goudela; it is of obscure origin.

Scottish and English: from a Middle English personal name, Jakke, from Old French Jacques, the usual French form of Latin Jacobus, which is the source of both Jacob and James. As a family name in Britain, this is almost exclusively Scottish. English and Welsh: from the same personal name as 1, taken as a pet form of John. German (also Jäck): from a short form of the personal name Jacob. Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.

English: habitational name from either of the places called Washington, in Tyne and Wear and West Sussex. The latter is from Old English Wassingatun ‘settlement (Old English tun) of the people of Wassa’, a personal name that is probably a short form of some compound name such as Waðsige, composed of the elements wað ‘hunt’ + sige ‘victory’. Washington in Tyne and Wear is from Old English Wassingtun ‘settlement associated with Wassa’.

English: from a derivative of Lucas. This was (and is) the common vernacular form of the name, being the one by which the author of the fourth Gospel is known in English. English: habitational name for someone from Liège in Belgium (Dutch Luik). North German (Lüke): from a short form of Lüdeke; Luedecke.

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.

Welsh and Irish (of Welsh origin): from a traditional Welsh personal name, Cadwgan, probably from cad ‘battle’ + gwgan ‘scowler’. See also Wogan.

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

English: habitational name from either of two places called Boscombe (in Dorset and Wiltshire), both named with Old English bors ‘spiky plant’ + cumb ‘valley’.

Portuguese: unexplained; possibly a variant of Pereira.

Irish (Kerry): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Saoghair, which in turn may be a patronymic from a Gaelicized form of the Old English personal name Saeger (see 2 below). English: patronymic from a Middle English personal name Saher or Seir (see Sayer 1). Americanized form of French Cyr.

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.

Italian (Bellé): from a reduced derivative of Bello, for example Belletto. French: from Belle meaning ‘beautiful’. In medieval times this epithet was often combined with a baptismal name, e.g. Bellemarie. German: habitational name from a place so named in the Lippe district. German spelling of Slovenian Bele, nickname denoting a fair-haired or pale-skinned person, a derivative of bel ‘white’, ‘light’, ‘fair’, formed with the suffix -e, typically denoting a young person.

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: habitational name from any of the numerous places throughout England called Kingston or Kingstone. Almost all of them, regardless of the distinction in spelling, were originally named in Old English as cyningestun ‘the king’s settlement’, i.e. royal manor. However, Kingston upon Soar in Nottinghamshire is named as ‘royal stone’, while Kingstone in Somerset is ‘king’s stone’; both probably being named for some local monument.

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

English: habitational name from a group of villages near Huntingdon, called Great, Little, and Steeple Gidding, named from Old English Gyddingas ‘people of Gydda’, a personal name of uncertain origin.

English: topographic name from Old English gr?fe ‘brushwood’, ‘thicket’, or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word, for example in Cumbria, Lancashire, and Staffordshire.

English: occupational name for a person who finished freshly woven cloth by passing it between heavy rollers to compress the weave. The English term for such a worker, calender, is from Old French calandrier, calandreur, from the verb calandrer. Scottish: variant spelling of Callander. Variant spelling of German Kalander (see Kolander).

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

English, German, and French: from the personal name Christian, a vernacular form of Latin Christianus ‘follower of Christ’ (see Christ). This personal name was introduced into England following the Norman conquest, especially by Breton settlers. It was also used in the same form as a female name.

English (Newcastle and Durham): variant of Sober.

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

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

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: habitational name from any of the numerous places in northern and eastern England called Ashby, from Old Norse askr ‘ash’ or the Old Norse personal name Aski + býr ‘farm’.

Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: from a variant of the Indian personal name Mahavir, from Sanskrit mahavira ‘great hero’, from maha ‘great’ + vira ‘hero’. The name of the founder of Jainism (6th century bc) was mahavira.

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.

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.

English: from a pet form of Bagge 2.

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’.

English: variant of Yarwood.

Dutch: from the personal name Andries, a vernacular form of Andreas.

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.

Welsh: variant spelling of Reese.

Chiefly Irish variant spelling of English Young.

from the medieval personal name Hodge, a short form of Roger. (For the change of initial, compare Hick.) nickname from Middle English hodge ‘hog’, which occurs as a dialect variant of hogge, for example in Cheshire place names.

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.

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.

English: nickname from Anglo-Norman French lo(u)ve ‘female wolf’ (feminine form of lou, from Latin lupus) + the diminutive suffix -el.

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

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.)

English, German, French, Jewish (Ashkenazic), Lithuanian, Czech and Slovak (Jonáš), and Hungarian (Jónás): from a medieval personal name, which comes from the Hebrew male personal name Yona, meaning ‘dove’. In the book of the Bible which bears his name, Jonah was appointed by God to preach repentance to the city of Nineveh, but tried to flee instead to Tarshish. On the voyage to Tarshish, a great storm blew up, and Jonah was thrown overboard by his shipmates to appease God’s wrath, swallowed by a great fish, and delivered by it on the shores of Nineveh. This story exercised a powerful hold on the popular imagination in medieval Europe, and the personal name was a relatively common choice. The Hebrew name and its reflexes in other languages (for example Yiddish Yoyne) have been popular Jewish personal names for generations. There are also saints, martyrs, and bishops called Jonas venerated in the Orthodox Church. Ionas is found as a Greek family name. Jewish (Ashkenazic): respelling of Yonis, with Yiddish possessive -s.

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.

English (Oxfordshire, Warwickshire): patronymic from a pet form of the personal name Gill.

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.

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

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

English: from the Middle English personal name Edward, Old English Eadward, composed of the elements ead ‘prosperity’, ‘fortune’ + w(e)ard ‘guard’. The English personal name also became popular on the Continent as a result of the fame of the two canonized kings of England, Edward the Martyr (962–79) and Edward the Confessor (1004–66). They certainly contributed largely to its great popularity in England.

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

German (Kellmann): elaborated variant of Kell, with the addition of man ‘man’. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Kalman.

German, Dutch, French, Swedish, Danish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Latin personal name Marcus (see Mark 1).

Scottish: variant of Stewart.

Southern English: topographic name for someone who lived in an area of downland (the rolling chalk hills of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent), from Old English dun ‘down’, ‘low hill’ (of Celtic origin) + the suffix -er, denoting an inhabitant. Dun is a common element of English place names. Irish: variant of Dooner 2.

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

English: from the medieval personal name Ton(e)y, a reduced form of Anthony.

English: variant of Drake. In some cases, perhaps an Americanized form of a like-sounding cognate in some other language.

Scottish and northern Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Bheathain ‘son of Beathan’ (see Bean).

English: habitational name from the port of Dover in Kent, named from the river on which it stands, a Celtic name meaning ‘the waters’ (from the word which became modern Welsh dwfr ‘water’). North German: habitational name from Doveren in the Rhineland, of uncertain etymology; the origin is possibly Celtic and so related ultimately to 1, or a variant of Dove 4.

Portuguese: the usual Portuguese form of Alvares.

topographic name, a variant of East. variant of Eastmond.

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

English and German: patronymic from Walter.

English: from the English form of the medieval personal name, Latin Ambrosius, from Greek ambrosios ‘immortal’, which was popular throughout Christendom in medieval Europe. Its popularity was due in part to the fame of St. Ambrose (c.340–397), one of the four Latin Fathers of the Church, the teacher of St. Augustine. In North America this surname has absorbed Dutch Ambroos and probably other cognates from other European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

English: occupational name for the servant of someone who bore the personal name Jack. English: Americanized form of French Jacquème (see James). Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. Americanized spelling of German Jachmann or Jackmann, from a Czech pet form of a name ultimately from the Biblical name Yochanam (see John) + Middle High German man ‘man’.

English: habitational name from the city of Chichester in Sussex, probably named with the Old English personal name Cissa + Old English ceaster ‘Roman fort’. (Cissa is attested as the name of a historical person; it is of uncertain etymology.) Alternatively, the first element may be an Old English word cisse ‘gravelly feature’. The name is also established in Ireland.

Scottish and northern Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Alasdair ‘son of Alasdair’, the Gaelic form of the personal name Alexander.

English: from the genitive singular of Knight, hence a name for a son or a retainer of a knight.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?samad ‘everlasting’. As-Samad ‘the Everlasting’ is an epithet of Allah (Qur’an 112: 2). As a personal name, this is normally found in the combination ?Abd al-?Samad (Abdus-?Samad) ‘servant of the Lord’.

Italian: from castello ‘castle’, ‘fortified building’ (from Late Latin castellum), applied as a topographic name, a habitational name from any of numerous places so named or named with this word, or a metonymic occupational name for a servant who lived and worked in such a place. Catalan (Castelló): habitational name from any of the places named Castelló or with that word, as for example Castelló de la Plana, one of the main towns in Valencia, or Castelló d’Empúries, a town in the Catalan district of L’Empordà.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Marco, from Latin Marcus (see Mark 1). Catalan (Marcó): from the personal name Marc, Latin Marcus (see Marc).

Americanized form of Italian Pompei.

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic hanif ‘upright’, ‘true believer’. The Qur’an (3: 67) mentions the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) as hanif: ‘Ibrahim was not a Jew nor yet a Christian but he was an upright man who had surrendered to Allah accepting Islam.’

English: variant of Laycock.

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

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.

= Daley, q.v.

English and Irish: variant of Dean. Dutch: ethnic name for a Dane, Middle Dutch Deen.

Americanized form of any of various European surnames from personal names derived from Latin Augustinus (see Austin).

Chinese : Cantonese variant of Zhang 1. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Zhang 2. Korean: variant of Ch{ou}ng (see Chong).

English: habitational name from a place in Greater Manchester (formerly in Cheshire) called Carrington, probably named with an unattested Old English personal name Cara + -ing- denoting association + tun ‘settlement’. Scottish: habitational name from a place in Midlothian named Carrington, probably from Old English Ceriheringa-tun ‘settlement of Cerihere’s people’.

English (Oxfordshire): occupational name from Old French cousere ‘tailor’. This name is now well established in Barbados.

English: patronymic from Mayer 1. German: patronymic from Mayer 2. Dutch: variant of Meyer 1 and 3.

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

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

Irish: reduced form of McCambridge. English: habitational name for someone from either of two places called Cambridge: one in Gloucestershire, the other in Cambridgeshire (the university city). Until the late 14th century the latter was known as Cantebrigie ‘bridge on the (river) Granta’, from a Celtic river name meaning ‘marshy river’. Under Norman influence Granta- became Cam-. It seems likely, therefore, that the surname derives mainly from the much smaller place in Gloucestershire, recorded as Cambrigga (1200–10), and named for the Cam, a Celtic river name meaning ‘crooked’, ‘winding’.

English and French: nickname for a gambler or for someone considered fortunate or well favored, from Middle English, Old French fortune ‘chance’, ‘luck’. In some cases it may derive from the rare medieval personal name Fortune (Latin Fortunius). French (Fortuné): from the personal name Fortuné, a vernacular form of the Late Latin personal name Fortunatus meaning ‘prosperous’, ‘happy’. Scottish: habitational name from a place in Lothian, probably so named from Old English for ‘hog’, ‘pig’ + tun ‘settlement’, ‘enclosure’; John de Fortun was servant to the abbot of Kelso c. 1200.

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

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: 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.

English: variant of Marsh. French: habitational name from places so named in Ardèche, Ardennes, Gard, Loire, Nièvre, and Meurthe-et-Moselle, from the Latin personal name Marcius, used adjectivally. French: from the personal name Meard, Mard, Mart, vernacular forms of the saint’s name Médard. Morlet notes that there are a number of places called Saint-Mars, formerly recorded in Latin as Sanctus Medardus. French: from the name of the month, mars ‘ March’, denoting seed sown in March, and hence a metonymic name for an arable grower. French (De Mars): habitational name from Mars in the Ardennes. Dutch: from a short form of the personal name Marsilius.

English: variant of Wolford.

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.

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

Irish (Connacht and Ulster): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dubhruis (earlier Ó Dubhrosa), ‘descendant of Dubhros’, a personal name composed of the elements dubh ‘black’ + ros ‘wood’. French: habitational name, with the preposition de ‘from’, denoting someone from Oris-en-Rattier, Isère.

Chinese and Korean: variant of Cho. English: from a short form of Joseph.

English and Dutch: from the personal name (Greek Nikolaos, from nikan ‘to conquer’ + laos ‘people’). Forms with -ch- are due to hypercorrection (compare Anthony). The name in various vernacular forms was popular among Christians throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, largely as a result of the fame of a 4th-century Lycian bishop, about whom a large number of legends grew up, and who was venerated in the Orthodox Church as well as the Catholic. In English-speaking countries, this surname is also found as an Americanized form of various Greek surnames such as Papanikolaou ‘(son of) Nicholas the priest’ and patronymics such as Nikolopoulos.

English: habitational name from any of various places so called, for example in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire. It has been established that wicham was an Old English term for a settlement (Old English ham) associated with a Romano-British town, wic in this case being an adaptation of Latin vicus. Childswickham in Gloucestershire bears a British name with a different etymology. The surname is now also common in Ireland, where it was taken in the 17th century.

Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived in a valley, Gaelic gleann, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, such as Glen near Peebles. English: habitational name from a place in Leicestershire, so named from an Old English word glean ‘glen’, ‘valley’ (from Celtic glinn). Jewish (Ashkenazic): presumably an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish names.

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.

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: variant of Braithwaite.

English: variant of Jardin.

Spanish: from the personal name Pablo, Spanish equivalent of Paul.

English: from Middle English pytte, pitte ‘pit’, ‘hollow’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived by a pit or hollow, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example Pitt in Hampshire.

Muslim: variant spelling of Husain.

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.

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

English: perhaps a patronymic from the medieval personal name Nel or Neal (see Nelson). Possibly a variant of German Neils, a derivative of the personal name Cornelius.

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).

French and English (Norman): from the Latin omen name Durandus, meaning ‘enduring’, which was in common use especially in the Jewish communities of southern France and from there spread out across France, into England, Italy, and the Iberian peninsula.

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.

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.

Irish: perhaps a reduced and altered Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eochadha (see McGaffey, McGeough). English: probably a variant of Yeo. Chinese : Cantonese variant of Qiu 1. Chinese: see You.

English, southern French, and German: from a vernacular form of the Latin personal name (H)adrianus, originally an ethnic name denoting someone from the coast of the Adriatic (Latin Adria). It was adopted as a cognomen by the emperor who ruled ad 117–138. It was also borne by several minor saints, in particular an early martyr at Nicomedia (died c.304), the patron saint of soldiers and butchers. There was an English St. Adrian (died 710), born in North Africa; he was abbot of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, and his cult enjoyed a brief vogue after the discovery of his supposed remains in 1091. Later, the name was adopted by several popes, including the only pope of English birth, Nicholas Breakspear, who reigned as Adrian IV (1154–59).

English: habitational name from any of various places called Wharton. Examples in Cheshire and Herefordshire are from an Old English river name Wæfer (derived from wæfre ‘wandering’, ‘winding’) + Old English tun ‘settlement’; another in Lincolnshire has as its first element Old English wearde ‘beacon’ or waroð ‘shore’, ‘bank’; one in the former county of Westmorland (now part of Cumbria) is from Old English hwearf ‘wharf’, ‘embankment’ + tun.

English: status name from Middle English frankelin ‘franklin’, a technical term of the feudal system, from Anglo-Norman French franc ‘free’ (see Frank 2) + the Germanic suffix -ling. The status of the franklin varied somewhat according to time and place in medieval England; in general, he was a free man and a holder of fairly extensive areas of land, a gentleman ranked above the main body of minor freeholders but below a knight or a member of the nobility. The surname is also borne by Jews, in which case it represents an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. In modern times, this has been used to Americanize François, the French form of Francis.

Muslim: see Ismail.

English: habitational name from a place so called; there is one in Cambridgeshire and another in Northamptonshire, both named with Old English beorn ‘warrior’ (genitive plural beorna) or the Old English personal name Beorna + well(a) ‘stream’.

Apparently a habitational name referring to Dublin, the capital of Ireland, but if so it would have been adopted outside Ireland, since place names were not normally used as surnames in Ireland.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Dutch: variant of Antoon.

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

Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name lakhman, a variant of Nachman. Dutch: of uncertain origin. Compare German Lachmann. Guyanese and Trinidadian name found among people of Indian origin: from the Hindu personal name Lakshman, from Sanskrit lak?sma?na ‘one who has auspicious marks’. See Lakhani.

English (East Anglia) and German: from Middle English pilegrim, pelgrim, Middle High German bilgerin, pilgerin ‘pilgrim’ (Latin peregrinus, pelegrinus ‘traveler’), a nickname for a person who had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land or to some seat of devotion nearer home, such as Santiago de Compostella, Rome, or Canterbury. Such pilgrimages were often imposed as penances, graver sins requiring more arduous journeys. In both England and Germany Pilgrim was occasionally used as a personal name, from which the surname could also have arisen.

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.

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.

English: habitational name from any of various places named Farley, of which there are examples in Berkshire, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Kent, Somerset, and Staffordshire, from Old English as fearn ‘fern’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’. See also Farleigh, Fairley, Fairlie. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fearghaile (see Farrelly).

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.

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.

Common European surname: from the personal name Abel, which is of Biblical origin and was used as a Christian name in many countries of Europe. In the Book of Genesis Abel is a son of Adam, murdered by his brother Cain (Genesis 4:1–8). In Christian tradition he is regarded as representative of suffering innocence. The Hebrew form of the name is Hevel, from a vocabulary word meaning ‘breath’. German: from the personal name Abel, a pet form of Albrecht (see Albert).

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’.

English: habitational name from Lashley Hall in Lindsell, Essex, or from Latchley in Cornwall, both named from Old English læcc ‘boggy stream’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.

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.

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.

English (chiefly Leicestershire): variant of Hubert.

English: from the Middle English personal name Wade, Old English Wada, from wadan ‘to go’. (Wada was the name of a legendary sea-giant.) English: topographic name for someone who lived near a ford, Old English (ge)wæd (of cognate origin to 1), or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example Wade in Suffolk. Dutch and North German: occupational name or nickname from Middle Dutch, Middle Low German wade ‘garment’, ‘large net’.

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.

North German: from the personal name Klass, a Low German reduced form of Nikolaus (see Nicholas). Compare Dutch Claes. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Klas 4.

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

English and Irish: habitational name from places in Cheshire and Lancashire called Hollingworth, from Old English hole(g)n ‘holly’ + worð ‘enclosure’. The surname was taken to Ireland in the 17th century. Jewish (American): presumably an Americanized form of some like-sounding Jewish name.

English: from the Old French personal name Humfrey, introduced to Britain by the Normans. This is composed of the Germanic elements hun ‘bear cub’ + frid, fred ‘peace’. It was borne by a 9th-century saint, bishop of Therouanne, who had a certain following in England among Norman settlers.

English: variant spelling of Weeks or Wicks.

English: patronymic form of Dodd.

Scottish: from a Scottish personal name, Archibald, of Anglo-Norman French and (ultimately) Continental Germanic origin (see Archambault). In the Highlands of Scotland it was taken as an Anglicized equivalent of the Gaelic personal name Gille Easbaig ‘servant of the bishop’ (see Gillespie), probably because of the approximate phonetic similarity between Arch(i)bald and easbaig. Both Archibald and Gillespie are personal names much favored among Clan Campbell.

English: variant spelling of Charley.

Americanized spelling of German Eiffel (see Eifler). English: unexplained.

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

Origin unidentified. It is a well-established name in Barbados, and may be of Irish origin.

Of Spanish origin: variant of Maddrey.

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.

Scottish: variant of Halkett, which is probably a habitational name from the lands of Halkhead in Renfrewshire, named with Middle English hauk, halk ‘hawk’ + wude ‘wood’. English (mainly central England): from a pet form of the medieval personal name Hack, Hake (see Hake). English: from Middle English haket, a kind of fish, hence perhaps a nickname for someone supposed to resemble such a fish, or a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman or fish seller. Irish: when it is not the English name, this may also be an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eachaidh (see Caughey, McGaffey).

English and French: variant spelling of Alley.

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Fergus.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille Fhinneain, a patronymic from a personal name meaning ‘servant of (Saint) Fionnán’, a personal name representng a diminutive of fionn ‘white’. There were several early Irish saints of this name, most notably a 7th-century bishop who governed the Church established in Northumbria and evangelized parts of southern England.

English: occupational name for someone who fitted wooden or metal hoops on wooden casks and barrels, from an agent derivative of Middle English hoop ‘hoop’, ‘band’.

Muslim: variant of Rashid.

English: occupational name for a summoner, an official who was responsible for ensuring the appearance of witnesses in court, Middle English sumner, sumnor.

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’.

English: from Old French chea(u)nce ‘(good) fortune’ (a derivative of cheoir ‘to fall (out)’, Latin cadere), a nickname for an inveterate gambler, for someone considered fortunate or well favored, or perhaps for someone who had survived an accident by a remarkable piece of luck. Americanized form of German Tschantz or Schantz.

North German: occupational name for a peddler (see Haack 1). North German: topographic name for someone who lived by a hedge (see Heck 2). North German: perhaps also a topographic name from hach, hack ‘dirty, boggy water’. Frisian, Dutch, and North German: from a Frisian personal name, Hake. Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name from Yiddish hak ‘axe’. English: variant of Hake 1.

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.

English (chiefly Lancashire): habitational name from a place near Manchester, so named from Old English heah ‘high’ + wudu ‘wood’. There is also a place in Wiltshire so called, from Old English (ge)hæg ‘enclosure’ + wudu. Compare Haywood, although this is probably not the source of the surname.

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

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: habitational name from any of the many places, large and small, called Bradford; in particular the city in West Yorkshire, which originally rose to prosperity as a wool town. There are others in Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Greater Manchester, Norfolk, Somerset, and elsewhere. They are all named with Old English brad ‘broad’ + ford ‘ford’.

English: variant spelling of Burrows.

Irish: Anglicized form of various Gaelic names, such as Mac Conmidhe (see McNamee); Ó Connmhaigh or Mac Connmhaigh (‘descendant (or son) of Connmhach’, a personal name derived from connmach ‘head-smashing’), also Anglicized as Conoo; and Ó Conbhuide (‘descendant of Cú Bhuidhe’, a personal name composed of the elements cú ‘hound’ + buidhe ‘yellow’). Welsh: habitational name from Conwy formerly Conway, a fortified town on the coast of North Wales, itself named for the river on which it stands. Scottish: habitational name from Conway in the parish of Beauly, recorded c.1215 as Coneway and in 1291 as Convathe. It probably gets its name from Gaelic coinmheadh ‘billet’, ‘free quarters’, being so named as the district in which the local lord’s household troops were billeted.

English: habitational name from Critchlow in Lancashire, named from Celtic cr{u: _}g ‘hill’ + Old English hlaw ‘mound’.

Scottish: Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Eachann (earlier Eachdonn, already confused with Norse Haakon), composed of the elements each ‘horse’ + donn ‘brown’. English: found in Yorkshire and Scotland, where it may derive directly from the medieval personal name. According to medieval legend, Britain derived its name from being founded by Brutus, a Trojan exile, and Hector was occasionally chosen as a personal name, as it was the name of the Trojan king’s eldest son. The classical Greek name, Hektor, is probably an agent derivative of Greek ekhein ‘to hold back’, ‘hold in check’, hence ‘protector of the city’. German, French, and Dutch: from the personal name (see 2 above). In medieval Germany, this was a fairly popular personal name among the nobility, derived from classical literature. It is a comparatively rare surname in France.

Muslim: see Youssef.

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a hazelnut tree or grove, Middle English hasel, hesel, or perhaps a habitational name from a minor place named with this word such as Heazille Barton or Heazle Farm in Devon, or from Hessle in East Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, both named from Old English hæsel ‘hazel’ (influenced by Old Norse hesli). French: possibly a topographic name a diminutive of Old French hase, haise ‘hedge’.

Scottish and northern English: habitational name from a place innthe Scottish Borders near Roxburgh, probably named with an earlynBritish river name of unknown etymology + Old English fordn‘ford’. There is another place of the same name in North Yorkshire,nnamed with hryðer ‘cattle’ + Old English ford ‘ford’,nbut this does not seem to have contributed to the surname. pwh,nWN

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

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: variant of Calisto, from the Latin personal name Callistus (see Calixto).

English: patronymic from Gibbon.

Variant of Scottish Catto. Spanish and Catalan (Cató): possibly from a personal name taken with reference to the Roman republican statesman Cato. Swedish: perhaps a soldier’s name, likewise bestowed with reference to Cato, the Roman statesman.

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.

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 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.

English: occupational name for a maker of beds or bedding, from Middle English couche ‘bed’ (see Couch) + man.

English: from either of two Germanic personal names introduced to Britain by the Normans: Gerard, composed of the elements gar, ger ‘spear’, ‘lance’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’; and Gerald, composed of the elements gar, ger ‘spear’, ‘lance’ + wald ‘rule’.

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a rocky crag or outcrop, from Old French roche (later replaced in England by rock, from the Norman byform rocque), or a habitational name from any of the places named with this word, such as Roach in Devon, or Roche in Cornwall and South Yorkshire. English and Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in Normandy, as for example Les Roches in Seine-Maritime, named with Old French roche, or from Roche Castle in Wales.

English: patronymic from Wilkin.

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

English, Dutch, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Albert.

Scottish and English: from a pet form of Dennis. English: habitational name from a place in Cambridgeshire, most probably named with Old English Dene ‘Dane’ + eg ‘island’. Scottish: habitational name from Denny in Stirlingshire. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duibhne (see Deeney). Irish (Cork): less frequently, a reduced Anglicization of Gaelic Ó Duineachdha (see Dennehy).

Scottish and Irish (County Antrim): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Mhuircheartaigh, a patronymic from Muircheartach, a personal name composed of the elements muir ‘sea’ + ceartach ‘ruler’, hence ‘skilled seaman’. Compare Moriarty.

English (chiefly Devon): probably from a Middle English nickname, bab(e) ‘baby’, but possibly from the female personal name Babb(e), a pet form of Barbara (see Barbary), or the Old English personal name Babba, found in several place names, including Babbacombe in Devon and Babington in Somerset. Variant of German Bobb (see Bob).

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

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.

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).

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

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.

Humanistic re-creation of the Latin personal name Augustus on the basis of its medieval vernacular derivatives, principally August. The Latin name is from an adjective meaning ‘venerable’, from augere ‘to increase’. Examples include German, Dutch, and Scandinavian August (though the family name does not exist in Scandinavia), French Auguste, Italian Agosto, and Portuguese Augusto. The month of August was named in honor of the Emperor Augustus (63 bc–ad 14), after whom it became conventional for Roman emperors to adopt Augustus as a title on their accession. The personal name became popular among early Christians, who read into it the implication that the bearer had become greater by being baptized.

English: topographic name from Middle English feldes, plural or possessive of feld ‘open country’. This name is also found as a translation of equivalent names in other languages, in particular French Deschamps, Duchamp.

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).

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).

Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Phádraig ‘son of Patrick’, a personal name derived from Latin Patricius ‘son of a noble father’, ‘member of the patrician class’. This was the name of a 5th-century Romano-Briton who became the apostle and patron saint of Ireland, and it was largely as a result of his fame that the personal name was so popular from the Middle Ages onward. In Ireland the surname is usually Scottish in origin, but it is also found as a shortened form of Mulpatrick and Fitzpatrick.

French: from a diminutive of corne ‘horn’ (see Corne).

English: patronymic from Daw 1.

Dutch and German: humanistic Latinate form of Jakob.

English: nickname, sometimes ironic, from Middle English, Old French gentil ‘well born’, ‘noble’, ‘courteous’ (Latin gentilis, from gens ‘family’, ‘tribe’, itself from the root gen- ‘to be born’).

Dutch: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements hard ‘hardy’, ‘strong’ + man ‘man’. Respelling of German Hartmann. This name is also found in Slovenia and elsewhere in central Europe. Jewish (Ashkenazic): elaborated form of Hart.

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.

Scottish and northern Irish: variant of McCalmont.

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).

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: variant of Goodrich. Americanized spelling of German Güttrich (see Goodrich).

English: variant spelling of Kite.

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.

Irish: in County Donegal this is an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Deagánaigh ‘son of the deacon’ (see Deacon); in County Tipperary it can be from Gaelic Ó Déaghain ‘descendant of the deacon’. In other cases the surname is of English origin (see Dean 1). English: variant of Dean 1.

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

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

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Tóibín, which is itself a reduced Gaelicized version of a Norman habitational name from Saint-Aubin in Brittany (so called from the dedication of its church to St. Albin). English: from a pet form of the personal name Tobias or Toby. Dutch: patronymic from Tobias.

English: variant spelling of Tindall.

Jewish, English, Welsh, French, etc.: from the Biblical Hebrew personal name yishaq ‘he laughs’. This was the name of the son of Abraham (Genesis 21:3) by his wife Sarah. The traditional explanation of the name is that Abraham and Sarah laughed with joy at the birth of a son to them in their old age, but a more plausible explanation is that the name originally meant ‘may God laugh’, i.e. ‘smile on him’. Like Abraham, this name has always been immensely popular among Jews, but was also widely used in medieval Europe among Christians. Hence it is the surname of many gentile families as well as Jews. In England and Wales it was one of the Old Testament names that were particularly popular among Nonconformists in the 17th–19th centuries, which accounts for its frequency as a Welsh surname. (Welsh surnames were generally formed much later than English ones.) In eastern Europe the personal name in its various vernacular forms was popular in Orthodox (Russian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian), Catholic (Polish), and Protestant (Czech) Churches. It was borne by a 5th-century father of the Armenian Church and by a Spanish saint martyred by the Moorish rulers of Cordoba in ad 851 on account of his polemics against Islam. In this spelling, the American family name has also absorbed cognates from other European languages, e.g. German Isaak, Dutch Izaac, etc. (for the forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988). 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: 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: occupational or topographic name, from a derivative of Forrest.

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

Mainly Irish variant spelling of English Ward.

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Bryan.' The 'i' in Briant and Bryant is of course excrescent. Bryan was not an importation from Ireland, though its popularity as an English fontname is gone. It lingered in North Yorkshire, Westmoreland, and Furness till the close of the last century.

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.

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

English and Scottish: variant spelling of Willey or Wylie. Probably also a variant spelling of German Willi.

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.

French and English: nickname meaning ‘little crow’, ‘raven’, from Old French, Middle English corbin, a diminutive of corb. Compare Corbett. English: possibly also a Norman habitational name from places in Calvados and Orne, France, named Corbon.

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

English: habitational name from places in Cheshire and East Yorkshire, so named from Old English mylen ‘mill’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

English: variant spelling of Hoyt.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): ornamental name from German Jupiter ‘Jupiter’.

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’.

English (Midlands): habitational name from any of various places, for example in Herefordshire. Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire, so called from Old English (ge)hæg ‘enclosure’ + wudu ‘wood’. It was a common practice in the Middle Ages for areas of woodland to be fenced off as hunting grounds for the nobility. This name may have been confused in some cases with Hayward and perhaps also with the name Hogwood (of uncertain origin, possibly a habitational name from a minor place).

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

From a Latinized form of the Slavic personal name Stanislav (see Stanislaw).

Indian (northern states): altered form of Tripathi.

Chinese: see Fu.

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.

Classicized spelling of Adolf.

English: nickname for a greedy person, from Old French goulafre ‘glutton’.

English: habitational name from a place in Lancashire named Hamer, from Old English hamor ‘rock’, ‘crag’. English: possibly a metonymic occupational name for a smith or for a maker or seller of hammers, Middle English hamer (Old English hamor), or a habitational name for someone living at an inn or shop distinguished by the sign of a hammer. Dutch: from hamer ‘hammer’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of hammers or a user of a hammer, for example a blacksmith. Jewish (Ashkenazic) and German: variant spelling of Hammer. Slovenian: variant spelling of German Hammer.

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.

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

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic wahhab ‘giver’. Al-Wahhab ‘the All-Giver’ is one of the names of Allah (Qur’an 38:35). As a personal name, this is usually found in compounds such as ?Abd al-Wahhab ‘servant of the All-Giver’. Mu?hammad ibn ?Abd al-Wahhab (1703–87) was the founder of the Wahhabi movement for the purification of Islam.

Muslim: variant of Majid.

Jewish (American): Americanized variant of Heiman. English: variant of Hayman. Americanized spelling of Heimann.

Irish: reduced form of McNaughton. English: habitational name from a place in Suffolk, named in Old English with nafola ‘navel’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’, i.e. ‘settlement in the navel or depression’.

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, French, Dutch, Slovenian, Croatian, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements heri, hari ‘army’ + man ‘man’. As a Jewish surname this is no doubt an adoption of the German surname Hermann. Respelling of the German cognate Hermann.

English: from a medieval personal name which ostensibly means ‘bearer of Christ’, Latin Christopherus, Greek Khristophoros, from Khristos ‘Christ’. Compare Christian + -pher-, -phor- ‘carry’. This was borne by a rather obscure 3rd-century martyred saint. His name was relatively common among early Christians, who desired to bear Christ metaphorically with them in their daily lives. Subsequently, the name was explained by a folk etymology according to which the saint carried the infant Christ across a ford and so became the patron saint of travelers. In this guise he was enormously popular in the Middle Ages, and many inns were named with the sign of St. Christopher. In some instances the surname may have derived originally from residence at or association with such an inn. As an American family name, Christopher has absorbed cognates from other continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

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

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.

Italian: nickname from nero ‘black’ (Latin niger).

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic majid ‘glorious’, ‘noble’. Al-Majid ‘the Glorious’ is an attribute of Allah, and this name is found in combinations such as ?Abd-ul Majid ‘servant of the All-Glorious’.

Scottish and English: variant spelling of Proffitt.

French: from a medieval personal name (Latin Victor meaning ‘conqueror’, an agent derivative of vincere ‘to win’). Early Christians often bore this name in reference to Christ’s victory over sin and death, and there are a large number of saints so called. Some of the principal ones, who contributed to the popularity of the personal name in the Middle Ages, are a 2nd-century pope, a 3rd-century Mauritanian martyr, and a 5th-century bishop of Cologne.

From the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian personal name August (vernacular form of the classical and medieval Latin personal name Augustus) or Americanized form of French Auguste or some other European cognate. Translation of a European surname acquired with reference to the month of August, which was named after the Roman Emperor Augustus (63 bc–ad 14). There were various connections between the month and the surname: for example, derivation from a baptismal name given to a child or a convert who was baptized in August. August is not found as a personal name or a native surname in Britain.

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.

Scottish: habitational name from any of the various places called Calder, Caldor, or Cawdor. Calder in Thurso is recorded in the early 13th century in the form Kalfadal and was named with Old Norse kalfr ‘calf’ + dalr ‘valley’. The others are probably the same as in 2 below. English: habitational name from Calder in Cumbria, named from the river on which it stands. This is probably a British name, from Welsh caled ‘hard’, ‘violent’ + dwfr ‘water’, ‘stream’.

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

Portuguese: from the personal name, Portuguese form of Benedict.

English: variant of Kiss. Americanized spelling of German and Jewish Kusch.

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: habitational name from a place named with Old Norse vað ‘ford’, such as Waithe in Lincolnshire, or Wath in North and West Yorkshire. Compare Wade.

English: variant of Fredericks. Variant of Dutch Fredriks, a patronymic from the personal name Fredrick.

Northern English and Scottish: fanciful alteration of Fenwick, under the influence of classical mythology. Canadian French: variant of Phénix (see Phenix).

English (chiefly Lancashire): habitational name from Rigby in Lancashire, named with Old Norse hryggr ‘ridge’ + býr ‘farm’, ‘settlement’.

English: variant spelling of Bailey.

English: occupational name for someone concerned with books, generally a scribe or binder, from Middle English boker, Old English bocere, an agent derivative of boc ‘book’. English: variant of Bowker. Americanized form of German Bucher.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Clement or possibly an Americanized form of a Scandinavian cognate.

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).

English: variant of Gascon.

Variant spelling of German Heiliger.

English: from Middle English pile ‘stake’, ‘post’ (via Old English from Latin pilum ‘spike’, ‘javelin’), hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a stake or post serving as a landmark or a metonymic occupational name for a stake maker or a nickname for a tall strong man. Dutch: metonymic occupational name for a marksman or an arrowsmith, from pijl ‘arrow’.

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’.

German: variant of Alt.

English, northern Irish, and French: topographic name for someone who lived by or in an oak wood, from Old French chesnai ‘oak grove’.

Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese: from the popular Christian personal name Salvador, meaning ‘Savior’ (Latin Salvator, a derivative of salvare ‘to save’), bestowed in honor of Christ. In some cases, possibly a Spanish, Asturian-Leonese, or Galician habitational name from any of the places called Salvador, in Valladolid, Lugo, and Asturies.

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.

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: 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 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.

Irish (Munster): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Adhastair, formerly Mac Girr an Adhastair, a patronymic from a byname meaning ‘short man of the halter’. Humanistic Dutch and German name from a classical Greek personal name, borne by a king of Pylos who was one of the Greek leaders in the Trojan war, noted for his age and wisdom. In Homer’s Odyssey, the aged Nestor gives wise advice to Odysseus’ son Telemachos. According to Debrabandere, in Dutch this was a nickname sometimes given to the oldest person in a group.

English: habitational name from a place in the parish of Alstonfield, Staffordshire named Beresford, from Old English beofor ‘beaver’ (or possibly from a byname from this word) + Old English ford ‘ford’. This name also became established in Ireland.

English: habitational name from Canterbury in Kent, named in Old English as Cantwaraburg ‘fortified town (burgh) of the people (wara) of Kent’.

Shortened form of Scottish or Irish McMickle. Scottish and northern English: nickname for a big man, from Older Scots and northern Middle English meikle, mekill ‘great’, ‘large’ (Old Norse mikill). Altered spelling of German Mickel.

German, Spanish (Sebastián), and southern French (Sébastian): from the personal name Sebastian, Latin Sebastianus. This was originally an ethnic name meaning ‘man from Sebastia’, a city in Pontus named from Greek sebastos ‘revered’ (the Greek equivalent of Augustus). This surname is also sometimes born by Jews, presumably as an adoption of the German surname.

English: from a medieval personal name, Latin Bart(h)olomaeus, from the Aramaic patronymic bar-Talmay ‘son of Talmay’, meaning ‘having many furrows’, i.e. rich in land. This was an extremely popular personal name in Christian Europe, with innumerable vernacular derivatives. It derived its popularity from the apostle St. Bartholomew (Matthew 10:3), the patron saint of tanners, vintners, and butlers. As an Irish name, it has been used as an Americanized form of Mac Pharthaláin (see McFarlane).

English and Scottish: variant spelling of Edmond.

Portuguese or Galician: patronymic from the personal name Nuno.

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

English: habitational name from Worrall in South Yorkshire, named with Old English wir ‘bog myrtle’ + halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’. The Wirral peninsula in Cheshire has the same origin and may well be the source of the surname in some cases.

English: see Norvell.

Irish and English: variant spelling of Hart. Dutch: variant of Hart 6.

English: from a Middle English personal name composed of Germanic rad ‘counsel’, ‘advice’ + wolf ‘wolf’. This was first introduced into England by Scandinavian settlers in the Old Norse form Ráðulfr, and was reinforced after the Conquest by the Norman form Ra(d)ulf. Compare German Rudolf.

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

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).

English: patronymic from Rawling.

English: patronymic from the personal name Will.

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

Italian and Spanish: from the personal name Marcello, Latin Marcellus, a diminutive of Marcus (see Mark 1). This was borne by a large number of minor early saints, and consequently became popular as a personal name during the Middle Ages.

English: occupational name for someone who bred and trained hawks, Middle English haueker (an agent derivative of haueke ‘hawk’). Hawking was a major medieval sport, and the provision and training of hawks for a feudal lord was a not uncommon obligation in lieu of rent. The right of any free man to keep hawks for his own use was conceded in Magna Carta (though social status determined what kind of bird someone could keep, the kestrel being the lowest grade).

Spanish (Joaquín): from the personal name, Spanish equivalent of Joachim.

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

Scottish, English, and northern Irish: habitational name from a place in Northumbria, named with the Old English personal name Ocga + Old English hyll ‘hill’.

English or Irish: unexplained. It is probably, but not certainly, from the familiar Irish pet form of Patrick.

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.

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’.

English and French: variant spelling of Jordan.

Spanish: from a Latinized form of the personal name Íñigo, which is of pre-Roman origin (recorded in classical times as Enneco). As a personal name it was not common in the Middle Ages; its comparative popularity in Catholic countries today is due to the fame of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Iñigo Yáñez de Oñaz y Loyola, 1491–1556), founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

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’.

Indian (southern states): Hindu name, from Sanskrit rameša ‘lord (or husband) of Rama’, an epithet of the god Vishnu. Rama is Vishnu’s wife. This is only a given name in India, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S.

English: patronymic from Butter 1. English: occupational name for a servant working in a wine cellar, Norman French boterie (see Buttery), with the Middle English genitive -s. German: variant of Butter 2.

Scottish and English: variant spelling of Elliott. This spelling is mainly Scottish. Compare Eliot.

English: habitational name for someone from Greenhedge Farm in Aslockton, Nottinghamshire, so named from Old English grene ‘green’ + hecg ‘hedge’.

Northern English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Staffordshire, named with Old English cirice or Old Norse kirkja ‘church’ + Old English tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

Scottish: patronymic from a short form of Matthew.

French, German, English, and Scottish: from a Germanic personal name composed hrod ‘renown’ + -nand ‘bold’, assimilated to -lant ‘land’. Compare Rowland. Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Ruadháin (see Ruane, Rowan).

English: from the Norman form of an Old French personal name composed of the Germanic elements wil ‘will’, ‘desire’ + helm ‘helmet’, ‘protection’. This was introduced into England at the time of the Conquest, and within a very short period it became the most popular personal name in England, mainly no doubt in honor of the Conqueror himself.

Son of Patrick: v. Patrick.

English: habitational name from any of the places so called, in southwestern Lancashire (now Merseyside), Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, and Devon, all of which are named from Old English preost ‘priest’ + cot ‘cottage’, ‘dwelling’. The surname is most common in Lancashire, and so it seems likely that the first of these places is the most frequent source. It is also present in Ireland, being recorded there first in the 15th century.

English: variant spelling of Yard.

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.

from the personal name Perceval, first found as the name of the hero of an epic poem by the 12th-century French poet Crestien de Troyes, describing the quest for the holy grail. The origin of the name is uncertain; it may be associated with the Gaulish personal name Pritorix or it may be an alteration of the Celtic name Peredur (see Priddy). It seems to have been altered as the result of folk etymological association with Old French perce(r) ‘to pierce or breach’ + val ‘valley’. Norman habitational name from either of the two places in Calvados named Perceval.

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

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

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

English: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements frid, fred ‘peace’ + ric ‘power’, introduced into England from France by the Normans. See also Friedrich.

English: patronymic from Grime.

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.

English: patronymic from Seal 4.

Scottish and northern Irish: variant of McCalmont.

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

English: from the Old English personal name Hereweald, its Old Norse equivalent Haraldr, or the Continental form Herold introduced to Britain by the Normans. These all go back to a Germanic personal name composed of the elements heri, hari ‘army’ + wald ‘rule’, which is attested in Europe from an early date; the Roman historian Tacitus records a certain Cariovalda, chief of the Germanic tribe of the Batavi, as early as the 1st century ad. English: occupational name for a herald, Middle English herau(l)d (Old French herau(l)t, from a Germanic compound of the same elements as above, used as a common noun). German: from a personal name equivalent to 1. Irish: this name is of direct Norse origin (see 1), but is also occasionally a variant of Harrell and Hurrell.

English and Irish: variant spelling of Tyrrell.

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

English: habitational name from any of various minor places in northern England named Wray, Wrea, or Wreay, from Old Norse vrá ‘nook’, ‘corner’, ‘recess’.

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.

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

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: variant of Jarvis.

English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the numerous and widespread places so called. The majority of these are named with Old English middel ‘middle’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; a smaller group, with examples in Cumbria, Kent, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, Nottinghamshire, and Staffordshire, have as their first element Old English mylen ‘mill’.

English: patronymic from Husband.

English: variant of Patmore. This name is common in Barbados.

English: variant of Points 1. The surname now occurs chiefly in Ireland, having been taken there in the late 13th century.

English and Scottish: habitational name from Hastings, a place in Sussex, on the south coast of England, near which the English army was defeated by the Normans in 1066. It is named from Old English H?stingas ‘people of H?sta’. The surname was taken to Scotland under William the Lion in the latter part of the 12th century. It also assimilated some instances of the native Scottish surname Harestane (see Hairston). English: variant of Hasting. Irish (Connacht): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hOistín ‘descendant of Oistín’, the Gaelic form of Augustine (see Austin).

English: from Middle English angel ‘angel’ (from Latin angelus), probably applied as a nickname for someone of angelic temperament or appearance or for someone who played the part of an angel in a pageant. As a North American surname it may also be an Americanized form of a cognate European surname, as for example Italian Angelo, Rumanian Anghel, Czech Andel, or Hungarian Angyal. German: ethnic name for a member of a Germanic people on the Jutland peninsula; members of this tribe invaded eastern and northern Britain in the 5th–6th centuries and gave their name to England. See Engel. Slovenian (eastern Slovenia): from the Latin personal name Angelus.

English: variant of Jefferson.

English (of Norman origin) and French: from the Continental Germanic personal name Mainard, composed of the elements magin ‘strength’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.

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

Dutch and English: occupational name for a carpenter or timber merchant, from Middle English timber, tymber, Middle Dutch timmer, Low German Timmer ‘timber’ + Middle English, Middle Dutch man, Low German Mann ‘man’. Variant spelling of German Timmermann.