1000 Most Common Last Names in Honduras

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish: from the plural of flor ‘flower’.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places in Badajoz province, probably so called from Latin villa Aureliana ‘estate of Aurelius’ (see Orell).

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Murillo, notably in Navarre, Logroño, and Zaragoza provinces, so named from a diminutive of muro ‘wall’.

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

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

Basque: variant spelling of Zelaia, a habitational name in Biscay province, Basque Country, from Basque zelai ‘field’, ‘meadow’ + the definite article -a.

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

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

Spanish and Portuguese: from the Marian epithet paz ‘peace’ (Latin pax, genitive pacis): María de la Paz (Spanish), Maria da Paz (Portuguese). The name was often assumed, as an approximate translation of the Hebrew personal name Shelomo, by Jews converted to Christianity.

Variant of Spanish González (see Gonzalez).

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

Spanish: habitational name from Bonilla in Cuenca province or Bonilla de la Sierra in Ávila province.

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

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

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.

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

Spanish: habitational name, from the name of a mountain and an ancient city in the province of Burgos, probably derived from Basque amai ‘end’ + the article suffix -a. Japanese: usually written with characters meaning ‘heavenly valley’. It is pronounced Amaya or Amagai in eastern Japan and Amatani in western Japan.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Portillo, from the diminutive of puerto ‘mountain pass’, notably those in Valladolid, Soria, and Toledo.

Spanish: from a characteristic (but rare) hybridization, in this case of Semitic (i)ben ‘son’ + Egas, a personal name of Visigothic origin. More widespread is the Portuguese equivalent, Viegas.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan: from a medieval personal name, Latin Amator ‘lover (i.e. of God)’, from amare ‘to love’. As a personal name it was particularly popular in the 16th century, having been borne by various saints.

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

Spanish (chiefly Central America): unexplained.

Basque (Zuñiga): habitational name from a place in Navarre province named Zuñiga, from Basque zuin ‘cultivated field’ + iga ‘incline’, ‘slope’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province.

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

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

Spanish (Tenerife): apparently a derivative of the local place name La Perdoma, the seat of the town council of La Orotava, Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canaries).

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Castellanos, denoting a ‘place founded or inhabited by Castilians’. Greek (Kastellanos): topographic name from an adjectival derivative of kastello ‘castle’ (from Late Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum ‘fort’, ‘Roman walled city’).

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from Matute, towns in La Rioja and Soria provinces.

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

Spanish (Cáceres): habitational name from the city of Cáceres in Estremadura, named with the plural of Arabic al-qa?sr ‘the citadel’.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Canales, from canales, plural of canal ‘canal’, ‘water channel’, from Latin canalis.

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

Spanish (Benítez): patronymic from Benito.

Galician and Portuguese: nickname for a witty person, from salgado ‘salty’, figuratively ‘witty’, ‘piquant’ (from Late Latin salicatus, past participle of salicare ‘to give salt to’).

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

Spanish (Chávez): variant spelling of Chaves.

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

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Varela, from a diminutive of vara ‘rod’, ‘stick’. Greek (Varelas): from Greek varela ‘barrel’, from Italian barella ‘barrel’. Accented on the final syllable, varelás is a metonymic occupational name for a cooper; with the accent on the middle syllable, varélas is a nickname for a large fat man.

Galician: Castilianized spelling of Valadares, a habitational name from various places in Galicia, so named from a derivative of valado ‘boundary wall’, ‘ditch’ (from Latin vallus, vallum ‘fence’, ‘barrier’, ‘bastion’).

possibly Basque: unexplained.

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

Spanish: from any of numerous fields named Espinal or Espinar, from a collective of espina ‘thorn’.

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

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

Basque: topographic name from Basque argi ‘light’ + -eta ‘place or abundance of’, and so probably denoting a clearing.

Castilianized form of Basque Zuhatzu, habitational name from places in Araba and Navarre named Zuhatzu, from Basque zu(h)aitz ‘tree’ + the collective suffix -zu, tsu.

Spanish: habitational name from what is now Spain’s principal city. Throughout the Middle Ages it was of only modest size and importance, and did not become the capital of Spain until 1561. Its name is of uncertain origin, most probably a derivative of Late Latin matrix, genitive matricis ‘riverbed’, much changed by Arabic mediation. Compare Madrigal. There are other, smaller places of the same name in the provinces of Burgos and Santander, and these may also be sources of the surname.

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

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

Spanish (Cárcamo): from cárcavo ‘cooking pot’ (from Latin carcabus), hence probably a metonymic occupational name for a maker of such pots or for a cook.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Castile named Andino.

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

Spanish, Galician, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Lagos, especially in Galicia. Greek: nickname for a timid person or a fast runner, from Greek lagos ‘hare’, or a reduced form of a patronymic based on such a nickname, such as Lagoudakis.

Catalan and Portuguese (Càlix): unexplained; it seems to refer to Portuguese cálice, Catalan càliç ‘communion cup’; or in Catalan it could perhaps be from calitx denoting a throwing game, with the same etymology.

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

Castilianized form of Basque Karrantza, a habitational name from Karrantza in Biscay province, Basque Country.

Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and southern Italian: habitational name from any of various places named or named with Palma, from Latin palma ‘palm’. Portuguese: habitational name for someone from Parma in Italy.

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

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

Hispanic: unexplained. This is predominantly a Latin American surname, occurring in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.

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

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

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

French: patronymic from the epithet Le Bon ‘the good’ (see Bon).

Spanish (Laínez or Líinez): patronymic from the personal name Laín.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places named Sierra or La Sierra, from sierra ‘ridge or chain of hills’ (from Latin serra ‘saw’).

Basque Izagirre, a variant of Aizagirre, a topographic name for someone who lived in a place exposed to the wind, from Basque aize ‘wind’ + ager, agir ‘visible’, ‘exposed.’

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province, named Aguilera from aguilera ‘eagle’s nest’ (from Latin aquilaria ‘place of eagles’).

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

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

Catalan: habitational name for someone from a place in Barcelona province named Cardona. Its name dates from the pre-Roman period but the meaning is unknown.

Basque: habitational name from Urbina in Araba province, Basque Country, or a topographic name probably for someone who lived near a confluence, from Basque ur- ‘water’ + bi ‘two’.

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

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by a field of lucerne, Spanish melgar (a collective derivative of mielga ‘lucerne’, Late Latin melica, for classical Latin Medica (herba) ‘plant’ from Media). There are several places in Spain named with this word, and the surname may be a habitational name from any one of them. Dutch: variant of Melchior.

Spanish (also Serrato): regional name from Cerrato, an area of central Spain (in Valladolid, Palencia, and Burgos provinces).

Spanish (of Basque origin; Munguía): Castilianized form of the Basque habitational name Mungia, from a place in Biscay province.

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

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

French: variant of Géron (see Geron). Spanish (Girón): from a medieval nickname Girón, from Galician girón (xirón) ‘hem’, ‘remnant’.

Basque: habitational name from Funes, a place in Navarre province, Basque Country.

Basque: variant of Zabala 1.

Spanish and Italian: habitational name from any of the many places named with valle ‘valley’, or topographic name for someone who lived in a valley (Latin vallis). Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads so named, from Old Norse vollr ‘field’, ‘meadow’.

Portuguese: habitational name from a place so named in Alveiro, which probably takes its name from the personal name Álvaro (see ALvaro).

Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese: habitational name from Oliva in Valencia, Santa Oliva in Girona, or possibly from any of the places in Extremadura named La Oliva, from Latin oliva ‘olive’. Italian (mainly southern and Ligurian): from Latin oliva ‘olive’; a topographic name for someone who lived by an olive tree or grove, or a metonymic occupational name for a gatherer or seller of olives or an extractor or seller of olive oil, or perhaps in some cases a nickname for someone with a sallow complexion. German: habitational name from Oliva, a place now in Gdansk voivodeship, Poland.

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

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

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

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

Catalan: variant of Montcada, a habitational name from any of the places so named in Valencia and Catalonia.

Spanish: variant spelling of Cepeda.

Variant spelling of Basque Eraso, a habitational name from any of the places in Navarre, Basque Country, so named, from Basque ira, era ‘fern’, ‘bracken’ + the suffix -so indicating abundance.

Galician: habitational name from either of two places in Galicia named Ulloa (in A Coruña and Lugo provinces).

Spanish (Guillén): from the personal name Guillén, Spanish equivalent of William.

Spanish: habitational name from Colindres in Santander province.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name a place called Leiva, chiefly the one in La Rioja province and to a lesser extent the one in Murcia.

Galician: probably a variant spelling of Lemos.

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

Spanish: nickname from corea ‘chorea’. Spanish: variant of Correa. Southern Italian: possibly a habitational name from Corea, a place in Calabria.

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

From the latin "sarmentum" - vine shoots. The landmark of the area where the inhabitants were given this name. Place name in Argentina.Galician name descended from knight Salvador González, Count of Bureba.

Spanish (Antúnez): patronymic from a dialect form of the personal name Antonio.

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

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

ethnic name for a German, alemán. from the old personal name Alemannus, with the same meaning.

Galician: habitational name from Godoy, a place in Galicia. The origin of the place name is uncertain, but a connection has been suggested with the Gothic elements gu{dh}s ‘god’ + wihs ‘saint’.

Japanese: written with characters meaning ‘has’ or ‘owns’ and ‘rice paddy’, the actual meaning could be ‘rice paddy of ants’. It is a habitational name most common west-central Japan.

Spanish (Henríquez): variant of Enríquez (see Enriquez).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called Quintanilla, from a diminutive of quintana ‘country house’ (see Quintana).

Catalan: variant of Rodes 2. Galician and Portuguese: habitational name from any of three places in Galicia (in Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra), named Rodas, from the plural of roda ‘wheel’. metonymic occupational name for a wheelwright, from roda ‘wheel’, cognate with 1.

Spanish (Meléndez): variant of Menéndez (see Menendez).

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

Spanish: topographic name from Spanish Vallecillo, a diminutive of valle ‘valley’.

Spanish: variant of Vaca. Croatian, Czech and Slovak (Baca); Polish; Hungarian (Bacsa); Romanian: occupational name from Romanian baciu ‘shepherd’. Many Romanians were shepherds. In the mountains of Croatia baca denotes a senior shepherd. Croatian (Baca): from baca, a pet name meaning ‘brother’. Hungarian: nickname from baca ‘simple-minded’ or ‘obstinate’.

Spanish (Pavón): nickname for a proud, vain, or showy man, from pavón ‘peacock’. Italian: northern variant of Pavone.

Spanish (Chavarría): variant of Echevarria.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Bustillo, from a diminutive of busto (see Bustos).

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

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

Spanish: from Matamoros meaning ‘killer of Moors’, a title given to Spain’s patron saint, St. James, in the Middle Ages (from matar ‘to kill’ + moros ‘Moors’). According to legend, the saint appeared to a 9th-century Spanish king during a battle, and enabled him to massacre 60,000 Saracens.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of this name, the capital of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain. The city is extremely ancient, having reputedly been founded by the Phoenicians. The origin of the name is obscure, presumably Phoenician. It is first recorded in the Latin form Hispalis, which was adopted in Arabic as Isbilia, and thence into early Spanish as Sibilia, now Sevilla.

Spanish: unexplained. This name is commonly found in Mexico.

Spanish (Gámez): patronymic from Gamo, a personal name of unexplained origin.

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

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

Spanish: ethnic name from escoto, originally denoting a Gaelic speaker from Ireland or Scotland; later, a Scot, someone from Scotland. See Scott.

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

Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): from a medieval personal name, a short form of Bonaventura or Buenaventura, meaning ‘good fortune’, or, in the case of the Italian name, a nickname from ventura ‘fortune’, ‘luck’. The name Bonaventura was borne in honor of a saint (1221–74) who was given this nickname by St. Francis of Assisi when he cured him miraculously as a child.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Cirino.

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

Spanish (Chacón): nickname from chacón ‘gecko’.

Italian: from a dialect or old form of Lancia. Italian: from a short form of a personal name formed with the suffix -lanza or -lancia, as for example Francalanza and Giallanza. Spanish: from lanza ‘lance’, either a nickname for a soldier (lancer) or occupational name for a lance maker.

Spanish: habtational name of any of the many places called (Los) Corrales, plural of Corral, plural of Corral.

Spanish (of Basque origin): habitational name from Basque Likoa, in Biscay province (Basque Country).

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Logroño province named Alfaro, apparently from Arabic al ‘the’ + Old Spanish faro ‘beacon’, ‘lighthouse’.

Galician: topographic name for someone who lived by a beech tree or in a beech wood, from Late Latin fagea (arbor) ‘beech (tree)’, a derivative of classical Latin fagus ‘beech’.

Spanish and Portuguese: topographic name, a plural form of Monte. Dutch: patronymic from a short form of a Germanic compound personal name formed with -mund ‘protection’ as the final element. Compare Raymond.

Portuguese and Spanish: from the personal name Nolasco, derived from the name of Petrus Nolascus (Saint Peter of Nolasco), who was born in Carcassone in 1189 and died in Barcelona in 1256, where he was co-founder and leader of the order of S. Maria della Mercede ‘Our Lady of Ransom’, known in English as the Mercedarians.

Portuguese and Spanish: from an adjectival derivative of guardar ‘to guard’.

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

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

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

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name for an inhabitant of Soria in Castile, from the adjective soriano ‘from Soria’. Southern Italian: habitational name from Soriano Calabro in Vibo Valentia province or Soriano nel Cimino in Viterbo, or of the same derivation as 1.

Portuguese and Spanish (Carías): unexplained; probably a topographic name from the plural of a shortened form of Portuguese alcaria (Spanish alquería) ‘little village’ or ‘shed’ or denoting a kind of violet, of Arabic origin.

Spanish: habitational name from Oseguera, a village in Burgos province.

Spanish (Durón): habitational name from Durón, a town in Guadalajara province. French: possibly a nickname from a derivative of dur ‘hard’. Czech (Duron): variant of Duran.

Catalan (Galó): from galó ‘braid’.

Basque: unexplained.

Hispanic (mainly El Salvador): habitational name from Ardón in León province, Spain. Dutch: probably from a variant of the personal name Hardewijn, French Ardouin, composed of the Germanic elements hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’ + win ‘friend’.

Italian (northwest and Liguria): variant of Ferrara. Italian: habitational name from various places named with this word: Ferrera Cenisio (now Moncenisio) in Piemonte; and Ferrera di Varese and Ferrera Erbognone, both in Lombardy. Spanish and Catalan: topographic name for someone who lived near a forge or ironworks, from Latin ferraria.

Spanish: from the medieval personal name Galindo, of predominantly Aragonese origin and distribution, but of unknown etymology.

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

Spanish: habitational name from places in Cáceres and Málaga named Sauceda, or a topographic name from salceda ‘willow grove’.

Spanish (Almendárez): variant of Armendariz.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santoña in Santander province, whose name derives from escala ‘ladder’ (Latin scala), referring to a terraced slope.

Galician: from coello ‘rabbit’ (Latin cuniculus), a nickname for someone thought to resemble a rabbit in some way.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from Spanish and Portuguese lobo ‘wolf’ (Latin lupus). This name is also found in western India, where it was taken by Portuguese colonists.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from a place Cádiz named Trejo. Asturian-Leonese: Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Trexo, a habitational name from a place in Asturies.

Spanish: topographic name from carrasco, carrasca ‘holm oak’ (from Latin cerrus, from a pre-Roman Celtiberian word), or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word, as for example Carrasco in Salamanca province or Casas Carrasco in Jaén province, Spain.

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

Galician: probably a habitational name for someone from a place in A Coruña province called Ras, possibly from a plural of Galician ra ‘frog’.

Spanish: habitational name from Chinchilla de Monte Aragón in Albacete province.

Galician: habitational name from Lazo in A Coruña province. Spanish: nickname from Spanish lazo ‘hair ribbon’, ‘shoe lace’.

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

Spanish (Solórzano): habitational name from Solórzano in Santander province.

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

Spanish: variant (plural) of Palacio.

Spanish: variant of Cortés (see Cortes).

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Carabajal, from a collective noun derived from carbajo ‘oak tree’.

Basque: Castilianized form of Garai, a habitational name from Garai, in Biscay, Basque Country, or from one of the five other, smaller places of the same name, also in Biscay, all named from Basque garai ‘high’, a derivative of gara ‘height’, ‘peak’. Hungarian: habitational name for someone from a place called Gara.

Spanish (Gálvez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Galve (Arabic Ghalib ‘triumphant’), which was borne by various Moorish chieftains in Spanish history and legend, notably the father-in-law of Al-Mansur, the 10th-century vizier of Córdoba.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Lorenzo, derived from the Latin personal name Laurentius (see Lawrence).

Spanish (mainly Mexico): variant of Quiros.

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

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

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

This is a Leonese name from Astorga. Found throughout the Peninsula and also Colombia.

Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese: unexplained.

Spanish: habitational name from posadas, plural of Posada.

Spanish: habitational name for someone ‘from Zamora’, from an adjectival form of the place name. Spanish: possibly also habitational name for someone from Zanbrana, a town in Araba province, Basque Country. Italian: of uncertain derivation; it is thought by some authorities, on the basis of the form Zammarano to be a habitational name for someone from Zammaro, part of San Gregorio d’Ippona in Vibe Valentia province, hypercorrection of -mm- to -mb- being a characteristic of southern dialect.

Spanish: habitational name from the city so named.

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

Spanish: from the personal name Mateo (see Matthew).

Basque: Castilianized variant of Basque Zaldibar, a habitational name from a place so named in Biscay province. The place name is of uncertain derivation: it may be from zaldu ‘wood’, ‘copse’ or from zaldi ‘horse’ + ibar ‘water meadow’, ‘fertile plain’.

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

Spanish: habitational name from the eastern seaport of Cartagena (earlier Carthago Nova) in Murcia province.

Spanish: possibly topographic name from the plural of Spanish claro ‘clearing (in a forest)’, or variant of Claro.

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places, in Ávila and Burgos provinces, named Villatoro, from villa ‘(outlying) farm’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + toro ‘bull’.

Spanish: variant of Alonso.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from a place named Tejada, most likely the one in Burgos province but possibly the one in Huelva province, so named from a derivative of teja ‘(roof) tile’.

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

Spanish: variant of Ortiz or of Catalan Ortes, plural form of Orta.

Catalan (Millà): from a reduced form of a personal name from Latin Aemilianus (see Milian).

Spanish (and Portuguese): from casco ‘helmet’, ‘shell’.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Móráin ‘descendant of Mórán’, a personal name meaning ‘great’, ‘large’; the stress is normally on the first syllable. English: variant of Morant, normally pronounced with the stress on the second syllable. Spanish (Morán): habitational name from places called Morán in Asturies, Galicia (Pontevedra) and Aragon (Zaragoza).

Spanish: from centeno ‘rye’ (Late Latin centenum, a derivative of centum ‘hundred’, so called as the plant was supposed to be capable of producing a hundred grains on each stalk). The a surname may have arisen as a metonymic occupational name for someone who grew or sold rye, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a field given over to the cultivation of this crop.

Spanish: habitational name from Oviedo, Spanish form of Asturian-Leonese Uviéu, name of the regional capital of Asturies, found in early records in the Latin form Ovetum.

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

Spanish (Córdova): variant of Cordoba.

Spanish: habitational name from Villalobos in Zamora province, named from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + lobos, plural of lobo ‘wolf’.

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

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

Spanish: nickname from rubio ‘red’ (Latin rubeus), probably denoting someone with red hair or a red beard. Catalan (Rubió): habitational name from any of the places named Rubió in Catalonia.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: from the personal name Alberto, Spanish and Italian equivalent of Albert.

nickname for an old man or someone with prematurely white hair, from cano ‘white or gray haired’, ‘old’, ‘worthy’ (Latin canus). habitational name from a place in Spain called Caño or Cano in Portugal, both named with a derivative of Latin canna ‘reed’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Puerto, in most cases from puerto ‘harbor’ (from Latin portus ‘harbor’, ‘haven’).

Spanish (Castellón): Castilianized form of Catalan Castelló, a habitational name from any of the places so named. This Castilianized form is notably applied to Castelló de la Plana, a town in Valencia, where the Castilianization process of Catalan is remarkable (see Castelló).

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

Spanish: variant of Yáñez (see Yanez).

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.

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

Spanish: habitational name from the city of Manzanares in Ciudad Real province.

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

Spanish: probably variant of Almanzor, a habitational name for somebody who lived by the area of Almanzor, a remarkable mountain in Sierra de Gredos, in Ávila province. The name Almanzor possibly originates from the personal name of Almanzor (arabic al-Mansur), the fearsome vizier and actual ruler of Muslim Spain from 978 to 1002. The variant Umanzor is mainly found in Chile, El Salvador, and Honduras.

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

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

Basque: habitational name from any of several places in the province of Biscay named with arte ‘holm oak’ + the locative suffix -aga ‘place or group of’.

Spanish variant of Asturian-Leonese Avilés (see Aviles), with the ending interpreted as the patronymic suffix -ez.

Spanish: topographic name from the plural of granado ‘pomegranate tree’ (see Granado 2).

Spanish and Galician: habitational name from any of various places named Coto, for example in Ciudad Real and Pontevedra provinces.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Valeriano, Latin Valerianus, a derivative of Valerius (see Valerio). The name was borne by various minor Christian saints, most notably 4th-century bishops of Aquileia and Auxerre.

Masculine adjective referring to someone from Béjar, a city in the Salamanca province of western Spain.Of Portuguese origin but established in Estremadura in 13th century.

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

Spanish: variant spelling of Valdés (see Valdes).

Spanish: habitational name from a place so called in Guadalajara province.

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

Basque: habitational name from a town named Arriaga in Araba province, Basque Country, or topographic name from Basque arri ‘stone’ + -aga ‘place or group of’.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Chica.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician: either a habitational name from any of the numerous places in Portugal and Galicia named Redondo, or a nickname for a plump person, also from redondo ‘round’ (Latin rotundus).

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

Spanish (Mondragón): habitational name from Basque Mondragoe (‘dragon mountain’), a place in Gipuzkoa province. French: habitational name from Montdragon in Tarn.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Burgos province named Villalta, from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + alto ‘high(lying)’.

Spanish (Yáñez): patronymic from a variant of the personal name Juan, Spanish equivalent of John. Compare Ibanez. Americanized spelling of Slovenian Janež, a derivative of the personal name Janez, Latin Iohannes (see John).

Spanish: unexplained. Perhaps a variant of Pedraza.

Variant of Spanish Barrios.

Italian and Spanish: nickname from Italian and medieval Spanish merlo ‘blackbird’ (Latin merula). In the Middle Ages this bird seems to have been regarded at times as foolish and gullible, and at other times as cunning and wily. In some cases the surname may have arisen as a metonymic occupational name for a bird catcher.

Spanish: habitational name from Burgos, the capital of old Castile.

Spanish: habitational name from Larios in the province of Cádiz or Larios y San Gil in Cáceres province.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called Linares, as for example in the provinces of Jaén, Seville, Salamanca, Cantabria, Burgos, and Soria, from the plural of linar ‘flax field’ (Latin linare, a derivative of linum ‘flax’). Asturian-Leonese and Aragonese: Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Llinares (also L.linares), or Aragonese Linars, habitational names from the towns in Aragon named with the word linars ‘flax fields’. Spanish (Liñares): occupational name for a linen merchant, Latin linarius.

Spanish (and Portuguese): habitational name from any of the places in the provinces of Cuenca, Madrid, and Santander, or in Portugal, named Cubas, from the plural of cuba ‘barrel’.

Spanish (Tórrez): variant of Torres.

Portuguese and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places in Portugal and Spain named Mata, from mata ‘wood’, ‘forest’. Catalan: topographic name from mata ‘scrub’. Hungarian: from a pet form of the personal name Máté (see Matthew).

Spanish (Nájera): habitational name from Najera, a city in Logroño province.

Spanish: variant of Asturian-Leonese Merás, a habitational name from Merás in Asturies.

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

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

Galician: topographic name meaning ‘the field’, from the Galician definite article o (masculine singular) + campo ‘field’ (Latin campus), or habitational name from a town of this name in Lugo province, Galicia.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province.

Spanish: habitational name from Mayorga in Valladolid province (Latin Maiorica).

Spanish (Arévalo): habitational name from places called Arévalo, in the provinces of Ávila and Soria, or from various places named with this word.

Spanish: habitational name from Puebla de Sanabria in Zamora province.

Spanish: topographic name for someone living by a hawthorn or in an area characterized by hawthorns, espino.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places (in Cáceres, Gran Canaria, and Toledo) named Tejeda, from a collective form of tejo ‘yew tree’ (Latin taxus).

Spanish: habitational name from one of the places in A Coruña or Gran Canaria called Roque or from El Roque in Tenerife. Catalan (Roqué): from a variant of Roquer, habitational name from any of the places in Catalonia named Roquer or El Roquer, from a derivative of Catalan roca ‘rock’. Possibly an altered spelling of French Rocque, a Picard and southern form of Roche.

Portuguese: variant of Cardosa.

Spanish: habitational name from Moya, in Cuenca, or from places so named Valencia, Lugo, and the Canaries. Catalan (Moyà): variant spelling of the habitational name from Moià in Barcelona province, named in Late Latin as Modianus ‘(estate) of Modius’ (a personal name derived from Latin modus ‘measure’).

Spanish: nickname for someone descended from a prominent elder in a community or one whose memory was respected, from Spanish nieto ‘grandson’ (Latin nepos, genitive nep(o)tis, ‘grandson’, ‘nephew’).

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from Mena, in Castile and León provinces. Greek (Menas): see Minas.

Spanish: from tercero ‘third’ (Latin tertiarius ‘third part’).

Asturian-Leonese (Avilés): habitational name from Avilés, a place in Asturies on the coast west of Xixón (Gijón in Spanish). The place name is derived either from a pre-Roman cognomen, Abilus, or from the Latin name Abilius, from the place name formed with (Villa) Abilius + the suffix -ensis. Spanish: possibly also habitational name for someone from Ávila (see Avila).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places in Burgos, Lleón, and Santander named Vallejo, from a diminutive of valle ‘valley’.

Santa Maria: meaning "Holy Mary" in Spanish and Italian. Name adopted by converted Jews forced to believe in Christianity, changing their last names to religious names given by the Spanish kingdom.(other)Coming from the Spanish region of Andalusia, El Puerto de Santa María was home to other bearers of the last name.

Spanish (Montalván): habitational name from Montalbán in Lugo province, from an old spelling of the place name, or from various other places in Spain called Montalbán, in particular in Teruel.

Catalan (Rubí): habitational name from Rubí in El Vallès, Catalonia, named with Latin rubeus ‘red’. Spanish (Rubí): habitational name from Rubí de Bracamonte in Valladolid province. Spanish (Rubí): in some cases possibly from rubi ‘ruby’. German: variant of Rubin 2.

Spanish form (Echeverría) of Basque Etxeberria (see Echevarria).

Spanish (Véliz): variant of Vélez (see Velez).

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.

Spanish: habitational name from Cedillo in Cáceres province, Cedillo del Condado in Toledo province, or Cedillo de la Torre in Segovia province.

Spanish and Galician: nickname for a tough, hard-headed individual, from cerna ‘heartwood’. Hungarian (Cérna): from the cérna ‘thread’, hence an metonymic occupational name for a tailor. Czech and Slovak (Cerna): nickname from the feminine form of Czech cerný , Slovak cierny ‘black’, ‘dark’.

Spanish or Portuguese: unexplained.

Spanish (D’Ávila): habitational name for someone from Ávila (see Avila). Galician and Portuguese (da Vila): topographic name for someone ‘from the village (vila)’.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: plural form of Spanish and Asturian-Leonese Nava (see also Naves). In some cases possibly Catalan (Navàs): variant spelling of Navars, habitational name from a place so called in Barcelona province, from a regional name denoting someone from Navarre (see Navarra) In some cases possibly French: variant (old form) of Naves.

Spanish and Portuguese (common in Brazil): of uncertain origin; possibly a nickname meaning ‘sensible’, ‘reasonable’, from tino ‘reason’, ‘sense’, ‘intellect’.

Spanish: habitational name from one of various places called Villafranca, from Late Latin villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + franca ‘free’ (see Frank 2). The settlements were so named because they were exempt from certain feudal taxes or obligations, normally as a reward for some special service.

Spanish: habitational name from Mazariegos, a town in Palencia province.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Arguijo, in Zamora province.

Spanish (Cuéllar): habitational name from a place called Cuéllar in Segovia province, or from minor places so named in the provinces of Soria and Salamanca.

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.

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

habitational name from Salguero in Burgos province, or a Castilianized form of the Galician habitational name Salgueiro, from any of numerous places so named from salguero meaning either ‘willow tree’ or ‘place in which animals are given salt’ (from salgar ‘to salt’). possibly from a homonymous archaic term denoting a spot where salt was given to cattle (Late Latin salicarium, a derivative of salicare ‘to give salt to’, from sal ‘salt’).

Spanish: topographic name from landa ‘meadow’ + verde ‘green’.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Valerio (Latin Valerius, a Roman family name ultimately derived from Latin valere ‘to flourish’, ‘to be strong and healthy’). The name was borne by several minor Christian saints, among them 4th-century bishops of Trier and Zaragoza and 5th-century bishops of Sorrento and of Antibes.

Spanish (Alcántara): habitational name from any of various places, for example in the provinces of Cáceres, Cádiz, or Castilianized form of Catalan Alcàntera, habitational name from a town in Valencia, all of them named from Arabic al ‘the’ + qan?tara ‘bridge’.

Galician and Spanish: possibly a variant spelling of Vieira. In Spain the surname is found mainly in the island of Tenerife.

Spanish: habitational name from Polanco in Santander province.

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

Hispanic: unexplained.

Basque: habitational name from any of the places named Arriola, from Basque arri ‘stone(s)’ + -ola ‘place of’, for example in the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Araba.

Spanish (also Ábrego): from ábrego, which originally meant ‘African’, from Latin africus. The vocabulary word in modern Spanish has lost this general sense and now means only ‘south wind’, literally, ‘African (wind)’.

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

Spanish: habitational name from Obando in Extremadura province.

Italian and Spanish: presumably from the female personal name Marcia, Latin feminine form of Marcius, derivative of Marcus (see Mark). Marcia was the name of several early saints and martyrs.

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

Spanish: habitational name for someone from any of several place called Altamira, for example the one in the province of Ávila which is famous for its spectacular cave paintings.

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

Gallardo is a word originally used after a name to distinguish between others of the same name which eventually developed into a surname. It means "elegant, graceful."Refers to someone who is full of life and valiant and probably comes from the latin "galleus" which has a similar meaning.

Spanish: habitational name from Luque in Córdoba.

Portuguese and Spanish (Marroquín): ethnic name for someone from Morocco.

habitational name from El Soler, a town in El Rosselló district, northern Catalonia, or form any other place named El Soler or with Soler, from soler ‘ground’, ‘floor’ (Late Latin solarium, a derivative of solum ‘bottom’, ‘ground’). occupational name from Catalan soler, the person who makes or sells soles (of canvas sandals or shoes). This is a very common Catalan name.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived near an oak grove, from a collective noun derivative of carvallo ‘oak’, or a habitational name from a place so named, for example in Málaga province. Compare Carbajal.

Spanish: habitational name from Toro in Zamora province, called Campos Gotorum in the Middle Ages. Spanish: nickname from toro ‘bull’ (usually in the form Del Toro). Italian: nickname for a lusty person or a metonymic occupational name for a tender of bulls, from Italian toro ‘bull’ (Latin taurus). Italian: from a short form of the personal name Ristoro. Estonian or Finnish: unexplained.

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.

Portuguese and Spanish: from Portuguese monge, Spanish monje ‘monk’ (a loanword from Old Occitan, from Latin monachus). French: from a short form of Demonge, a pet form of the personal name Dominique (see Domingo). Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead in Romsdal named Monge.

Spanish (Canary Islands) and Portuguese: from Béthencourt (see Bettencourt), the name (with many variants) of the first conqueror of the Canary Islands (1417), a knight of Norman-French origin. This name is also common and widespread in Latin America.

Portuguese, Spanish, and Galician: nickname from regalado ‘gifted’, ‘pleasant’, ‘capable’.

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

Portuguese: topographic name from avelar ‘hazel grove’, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.

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

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

Spanish (Macías) and Portuguese: from a variant of the personal name Matías (see Matthew).

Spanish (Bernárdez): patronymic from the personal name Bernardo (see Bernhard).

French: diminutive of Fort.

Southern Spanish: unexplained.

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

Spanish, Aragonese, Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from any of the places named Solano (Burgos and Málaga provinces) or El Solano (Asturies, and Uesca, Aragon), named with solano ‘place exposed to the sun’ (Late Latin solanum, a derivative of sol ‘sun’). Spanish and Portuguese: from a personal name adopted in honor of Francisco Solano, a 17th-century missionary to South America. Italian: possibly also from the personal name adopted in honor of Francisco Solano.

This family had, for a very long time, houses in the town of Espinosa de los Monteros; in the province of Burgos, as well as in Salamanca, Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) and Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz).

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).

Variant (Chévez) of Chavez.

Norwegian: variant of Bo. Chinese : this character means ‘to divine’ or ‘to predict’. In ancient China there existed government officials for fortune-telling. In honor of their forebears, the descendants of several such officials adopted Bu as their surname. Chinese : from the town of Bu in the state of Jin (in present-day Shaanxi province) during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). Descendants of a man who was enfeoffed with this area subsequently adopted the place name as their surname. This character also means ‘a (walking) step’.

The double suffix added to "boba" means a small but at the same time great foolishness, or suggests an individual who is large physically but has few brains. It could be the name given for a misunderstanding between two families that was caused by an annoyance but had lasting consequences.

Spanish and Portuguese (Tomé): from a personal name equivalent to Thomas. Northern Italian (Tomè): from a derivative of the personal name Tommaso, Italian equivalent of Thomas. Slovenian: from a short form of the personal name Tomaž (see Thomas), + the suffix -e, usually used of young people.

Basque: habitational name from a town called Aldana in Biscay province, Basque Country, or topographic name from Basque alde ‘side’, ‘slope’. The ending -ana is common in Basque place names; its meaning is vague: apparently no more than ‘place’.

Spanish (Bermúdez): patronymic from Bermudo, a Germanic (Visigothic) personal name of uncertain etymology.

Spanish and Aragonese (of Basque origin): habitational name from any of the places in La Rioja, Aragon, and Basque Country named Navarrete, from Basque (spoken in all those areas in pre-Roman times) Nafarrete ‘plateau between two small valleys’, a derivative of naba (see Nava, Navarra).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places, for example Aranda de Duero in Burgos province, which bears a name of pre-Roman, probably Celtic, origin.

patronymic from the old personal name Ramiro, of Visigothic origin. in some cases, possibly a respelling of the Spanish cognate Ramirez.

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places named Talavera, especially Talavera de la Reina in Toledo province.

Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish: topographic name from olivera ‘olive tree’. In some cases a Castilianized spelling of Galician Oliveira.

French, English, and Scottish: from a personal name of Celtic origin (Latinized as Bri(c)tius, Bric(c)ius, or Brixius), which was borne by a 5th-century saint who succeeded St. Martin as bishop of Tours. Consequently, it became a popular given name in France and Germany in the early Middle Ages. It was imported to England and Scotland by the Normans. Welsh: Anglicized form of the patronymic ap Rhys ‘son of Rhys’ (see Reese).

Spanish: patronymic from the common medieval personal name Ben Avid, of Arabic origin, from ibn ?Abd ‘son of the servant (of God)’ see Benavidez.

North German (Düe): from the Germanic personal name Dudo, which is of uncertain derivation. In some cases it is said to be a pet form of the compound name Liudolf (composed of Old Saxon liud ‘people’, ‘tribe’ + wolf ‘wolf’); in other cases it may be a derivative of Germanic theud ‘people’, ‘race’. Danish: from due ‘pigeon’, ‘dove’, applied as a metonymic occupational name for a dove keeper or as a nickname. In some cases, perhaps an altered form of French Ledoux. Possibly a variant of Welsh Dewey.

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

Hispanic: unexplained.

Spanish (Salmerón): habitational name from Salmerón in Guadalajara province, possibly also the one in Murcia.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from Spanish, Portuguese garrido ‘elegant’, ‘handsome’, ‘comely’.

Spanish: probably a variant of Quesada.

French, Occitan, Catalan, and English: from the medieval personal name Morel, a diminutive vernacular form of Latin Maurus (see Moore 3), with the hypocoristic suffix -el. Compare Morrell. German: from the personal name and saint’s name Maurelius.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from the city in central Spain, which was the capital of the Visigothic state between the 6th and 8th centuries. Its role declined for three centuries after the Muslim invasion of Spain, until it was taken as the capital of the kingdom of Castile between the 11th and 16th centuries. It was a major cultural and political center throughout the Middle Ages, and was also the home of an important Jewish community. The place name, first recorded in Latin as Toletum, is of obscure etymology, possibly connected with Toleto in Piedmont; Jewish tradition connects it with Hebrew toledot ‘generations’, but this is no more than folk etymology.

French: from a diminutive of Bland.

Spanish: from the personal name Pascual, Latin Paschalis, from pascha ‘Easter’. Compare Italian Pasquale.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Jacinto, (Latin Hyacinthus, Greek Hyakinthos). This was the name of a 3rd-century saint who was martyred together with his brother Protus. He enjoyed a certain cult in Portugal. His name, which is almost certainly of pre-Greek origin, in classical times denoted a flower (not the modern hyacinth, but perhaps the martagon lily), and it was borne by a mythological character from whose blood the flower was supposed to have sprung up.

Spanish and Galician: from carballo ‘oak’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous oak tree or in an oak wood, or a habitational name from any of several villages so named in Galicia. Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Carbachu, a habitational name from and old form of Asturian-Leonese carbayu ‘oak’, of pre-Latin origin.

Catalan: Castilianized form of Catalan Jovell, a metonymic occupational name for a maker of yokes or possibly for a plowman, from a diminutive of Catalan jou ‘yoke’.

Portuguese and Spanish: from a personal name, bestowed especially on children born on or around the Feast of the Epiphany (6 January), Spanish Aparición, which celebrates the appearance of Christ to the Magi. The Spanish vocabulary word aparición means ‘appearance’ or ‘manifestation’. In Portugal and Spain, however, this is found as a forenames only, not a surname.

Basque: topographic name, probably from Basque arri ‘stone’ + the suffix -zu ‘abundance of’.

Spanish (Beltrán), Catalan, and southern French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’ + hrabn ‘raven’. See also Bertram.

Hispanic: unexplained.

Spanish: variant of Esquibel.

Catalan (Alàs): habitational name from a place in Catalonia named Alàs.

Spanish: topographic name from majano ‘pile of stones’, ‘cairn’ (used as a boundary mark), or a habitational name from Majano in Toledo province.

Basque: habitational name from Lezama in Araba province, Basque Country. It is well established in Peru and Venezuela.

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

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.

Italian: unexplained.

Spanish: habitational name from the city so named in Cáceres province, called in Latin Turgalium, which is probably of Arabic origin. This place was the home of various conquistadors, hence its great frequency in the Americas.

Aragonese and Spanish (of Basque origin): habitational name from Urrea de Gaén in Teruel province, or Urrea de Jalón in Zaragoza, of certain Basque influence.

Basque: habitational name from either of two places in Biscay province called Urrutia, named with Basque urruti ‘distant’ + the definite article -a.

Spanish: habitational name from Bustamante in Santander province, so named with Late Latin bustum Amantii ‘pasture (see Busto) of Amantius’, a personal name derived from Late Latin Amans, genitive Amantis, meaning ‘loving’.

Spanish (Castilian and Galician): topographic name from Old Spanish acebedo, azevedo ‘holly grove’ (from azevo ‘holly’ + -edo ‘plantation’). This name is common in Tenerife.

Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Vixil, a habitational name from a place named Vixil in the district of Consejo de Siero, Asturies.

Spanish: variant (plural) of Calleja.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by a dogwood tree, Spanish cornejo (Latin corniculus), or a habitational name from any of the various minor places named Cornejo, for example in the provinces of Almería, Burgos, and Ciudad Real.

Spanish and Portuguese (common in Mexico): probably from a reduced and altered form of the personal name Elisardo.

Spanish (Nicolás), French, Dutch, Greek, etc: from the personal name Nicolas, the usual spelling of Greek Nikolaos in many languages (see Nicholas). English (common in Wales): variant spelling of Nicholas.

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

English: variant spelling of Canter. German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant spelling of Kantor. French (Picardy): learned form of chantre ‘singer’. Compare Canter 1.

Spanish: habitational name from Rueda in Valladolid, Rueda denJalón in Zamora, Rueda de la Sierra in Guadalajara, or any of thenplaces called La Rueda, from Castilian rueda ‘wheel’, Latinnrota. Compare Catalan Roda. DK, kh

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

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Sancho (see Sancho). Spanish: variant of Sanchez.

"Gallus," the latin word signifies "rooster."Ancient surname from Galicia, but also found in Asturias, Castile, Burgos, Andalusia and Valencia. Derived from latin "galleus" - a cock, rooster, or male fowl.In addition to meaning rooster, this word also means a strong type of pasture.

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

Spanish: variant of Solís (see Solis).

Galician: habitational name from any of the places in the Galician provinces of Ourense and Lugo named Saavedra, from saa ‘hall’ (from Gothic sals ‘main house’) + vedro ‘old’ (Latin vetus).

Spanish: habitational name from the city or region of Palencia in northern Spain.

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

Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese: from Spanish verde ‘green’ (Latin viridis), presumably a nickname for someone who habitually dressed in this color or had green eyes, etc. This is also a common element of place names. Italian: from the medieval personal name Verde (see 1 above).

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Gallegos, originally denoting a place settled by ‘people from Galicia’.

Spanish (Aragón) and French: regional name from Aragon, an independent kingdom from 1035 to 1479, which took its name from the river Aragón that arises in its northwestern corner. The river name is of obscure origin; it may be related to Basque (h)ara(n) ‘valley’. In Basque, Aragon is called Aragoa or Aragoi, which may mean ‘high valley’. See also Dragon, Deragon.

Spanish (Sáenz): patronymic from an unidentified personal name.

Spanish and Portuguese: variant of Hernandez.

Spanish: variant spelling of Gutiérrez (see Gutierrez).

Basque: variant of Iraeta, a Basque topographic name with ira ‘fern’ + the collective suffix -eta.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various minor places named Manzano, or a topographic name for someone who lived by an apple tree or orchard, from Spanish manzano ‘apple tree’, Old Spanish maçano, from maçana ‘apple’, Late Latin (mala) Mattiana, a type of apple named in honor of the 1st century bc horticultural writer Gaius Matius.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Pedro (see Peter). Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): variant of Perez 2. English: variant of Pierce. Possibly also Hungarian: occupational name from peres ‘procurator’, ‘advocate’ (from per ‘trial’).

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

Variant of Portuguese Esteves.

Galician, Asturian-Leonese, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of numerous places called Parada, predominantly in Galicia, but also in Asturies, Lleón, and northern Portugal.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Reina. Spanish and Portuguese: most likely from the female personal name Reina (from Latin Regina), otherwise a nickname from reina ‘queen’. Italian: from a Sicilian variant of regina ‘queen’ (see Regina).

Portuguese and Spanish: variant of Martinez.

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

Spanish: from the plural of Spanish vid ‘grapevine’, topographic name for somebody who lived by a vineyard, or occupational name for somebody who worked on it.

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

Spanish: habitational name from Monroy (‘red mountain’), a place in Cáceres province.

Spanish (Godínez): patronymic from the personal name Godino.

French, northeastern Italian, Spanish (Valentín), German, Swedish, Danish, and Jewish (western Ashkenazic): from the Latin personal name Valentinus (see Valentine). The Jewish surname is an adoption of the Christian personal name.

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

Spanish: of uncertain derivation; probably a habitational name from one of the places in Galicia called Lira, in A Coruña and Pontevedra provinces.

Spanish (Liño): perhaps a metonymic occupational name for a linen weaver, from liño ‘linen’.Spanish and Portuguese: from the medieval personal name Lino (Latin Linus), or from a short form of a personal name ending with -lino.

habitational name from places in Huelva and Valladolid named Trigueros, from a derivative of trigo ‘wheat’, or possibly triguero ‘corn merchant’. nickname from triguero ‘dark blond’, ‘corn colored’.

Spanish: metonymic occupational name for a burner or seller of lime, from calero ‘lime’. Lime (calcium carbonate) is a product of some historical importance, obtained from limestone by heating or ‘burning’. It has various agricultural, domestic, and industrial applications, including fertilizing soil, treating furniture, bleaching, and making mortar.

Spanish: from a reduced form of the personal name Isidoro, Greek Isidoros, meaning ‘gift of Isis’. (Isis was an Egyptian goddess, mother of Horus.) This name was borne by various Christian saints, including the great encyclopedist St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636).

Spanish (Vílchez): variant of Vilches.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Antonio (see Anthony).

Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads named Handal, probably from Old Norse horn ‘horn’ (denoting a sharp bend or angle in the landscape) + dal ‘valley’. Arabic: from a descriptive epithet meaning ‘dwarf’.

Basque: topographic name for someone who lived between two or more settlements, from Basque iri ‘settlement’ , ‘village’ + arte ‘between’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Iglesias (from the plural of iglesia ‘church’), in particular the one in Burgos province.

Spanish (Piñel): habitational name from Piñel in Valladolid province.

Spanish (Jirón): variant of the habitational name Girón (see Giron).

Basque: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Mendieta, from mendi ‘mountain’ + the plural suffix -eta.

Portuguese and Spanish: habitational name, an old spelling of Vilela, from any of several places in Portugal and Spain so named, from a diminutive of vila ‘(outlying) farm’, ‘(dependent) settlement’.

English: from Middle English salwes ‘sallows’, a topographic name for someone who lived by a group of sallow trees (see Sale 2). Catalan and Asturian-Leonese: a habitational name from any of the places called Sales, like Sales de Llierca (Catalonia) or Sales (Asturies), from the plural of Sala 1. This name is specially common in Catalonia. Portuguese: habitational name from a place that is probably so called from a Germanic personal name of uncertain form and derivation. Portuguese: religious byname adopted since the 17th century in honor of St. Francis of Sales (1567–1622), who was born at the Château de Sales in Savoy. French (Salès): habitational name from places named Salès in Cantal and Tarn.

Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Villamil, a place in Asturies.

Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Noriega in Asturies.

Spanish: from hidalgo ‘nobleman’ (attested in this form since the 12th century), a contraction of the phrase hijo de algo ‘son of something’. The expression hijo de (Latin filius ‘son’ + de ‘of’) is used to indicate the abundant possession of a quality, probably influenced by similar Arabic phrases with ibn; algo (Latin aliquid ‘something’) is used in an elliptical manner to refer to riches or importance. As in the case of other surnames denoting high rank, the name does not normally refer to the nobleman himself, but is usually an occupational name for his servant or a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces.

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

Castilianized form (alongside Araoz) of Basque Araotz, a habitational name from a town called Araotz in Gipuzkoa province, Basque Country; or possibly also a topographic name from Basque ara(n) ‘valley’ + an unidentified suffix, or alternatively a reduced form of Aranotz, from aran ‘valley’ + otz ‘cold’.

Spanish: possibly a nickname for a person with a prominent jaw, from quijada ‘jaw’, ‘jawbone’.

Spanish: from palomo ‘pigeon’, ‘dove’. Compare Palombo.

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

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.)

Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads in southwestern Norway, so named from the plural of land (see Land 1). Czech: from a short form of the personal name Mikulanda, a derivative of Mikuláš, Czech form of Greek Nikolaos (see Nicholas). Polish: nickname for a persistent and irritating person, from a derivative of the dialect verb landzic ‘to ask insistently’, ‘badger someone’. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Landau. Spanish and Basque: topographic name from the Basque landa ‘meadow’. There is a place of this name in Álava province, Basque Country, and the surname may in fact be a habitational name from this place.

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.

Spanish (from Basque): Spanish form of a habitational name from any of several Basque towns called Markina, in Araba and Biscay provinces.

Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of various places called Segura, named with segura ‘safe’, ‘secure’.

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Santander and Navarra called Arce. Their name is a Castilianized spelling of Basque artze ‘stony place’ (from arri ‘stone’ + the suffix of abundance -tz(e)).

German: habitational name from a place so named in the Rhineland. The place name is related to Maifeld, the name of the area of which it is the main settlement, which is derived from the Celtic word magos ‘field’, ‘plain’. French: from a diminutive of mai, which in the dialect of Savoy denoted pasture where cattle were allowed to graze in the spring and fall, and, by extension, a hut built for the cowherd nearby. This name is also established in Mexico.

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).

Spanish, Italian, and Romanian: habitational name from any of the places named in any of these languages with this element. Its meaning is various and disputed; the coincidence in form with Latin alba (feminine) ‘white’ is suggestive, but in many cases the name is pre-Roman and denotes a site on a hill or mountain.

Spanish: habitational name from a place so named in Segovia province or from Coca de Alba in Salamanca. Italian: probably an altered spelling of Cocca, or possibly a variant of Coco.

Spanish (also Portuguese): nickname from rico ‘rich’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the many places named with cueva ‘cave’.

English: variant of Rye 1 and 2. reduced form of Scottish McRea.

Spanish and Aragonese (Agüero): habitational name from places in the provinces of Uesca (Aragon) and Santander named Agüero or from Puente Agüero in Santander province. They are probably named from Late Latin (vicus) aquarius ‘well-watered (settlement)’.

French, English, and Spanish (Cordón): from Old French cordon ‘cord’, ‘ribbon’, a diminutive of corde ‘string’, ‘cord’; Spanish cordón, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of cord or ribbon. English: metonymic occupational name for a worker in fine Spanish kid leather, from Old French cordoan (so named with being originally produced at Córdoba).

Catalan: Castilianized form of Vives.

Spanish (Gusmán): variant of Spanish Guzmán (see Guzman). Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a metalworker, from Yiddish gus ‘casting’ + man ‘man’. Perhaps an altered spelling of German Güssmann (see Gussman).

Spanish and Portuguese (Jácome): from a variant of the personal name Iacobus (see Jacob).

English and French: variant of Bertram.

Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese: variant (plural) of Cadena. In Catalan, this form is a respelling of Cadenes.

English (Cambridgeshire and Suffolk): possibly from an Old English personal name, Hægluc, a pet form of an unrecorded Hægel, found in various place names.

Spanish: variant of Tobar.

English, Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan, and French: occupational name for a shepherd, Anglo-Norman French pastre (oblique case pastour), Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan, pastor ‘shepherd’, from Latin pastor, an agent derivative of pascere ‘to graze’. The religious sense of a spiritual leader was rare in the Middle Ages, and insofar as it occurs at all it seems always to be a conscious metaphor; it is unlikely, therefore, that this sense lies behind any examples of the surname. German and Dutch: humanistic name, a Latinized form of various vernacular names meaning ‘shepherd’, for example Hirt or Schäfer (see Schafer). Americanized spelling of Hungarian Pásztor, an occupational name from pásztor ‘shepherd’.

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

English, 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.

Spanish: topographical name from cueva ‘cave’, plural cuevas, or a habitational name from any of numerous places named with this word, for example in the provinces of Burgos and Málaga.

Portuguese and Spanish: nickname from cacho ‘thick neck’.

Spanish (Menéndez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Mendendo, a hypercorrected form of the Visigothic personal name Hermenegild, composed of the elements ermen, irmen ‘whole’, ‘entire’ + gild ‘tribute’. This personal name was borne by a 6th-century member of the Visigothic royal house, who was converted from Arianism to the Catholic faith and became an enormously popular saint, as a result of which the personal name was very common in Spain in the Middle Ages.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: habitational name from any of various places in Spain, Portugal, and Italy called Montenegro (‘black mountain’).

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Adriano, from Latin (H)adrianus (see Adrian).

Galician: habitational name from Macedo, a village in Lugo province, Galicia. Portuguese: topographic name from macedo ‘apple grove’, a derivative of maça ‘apple’.

Spanish (Alegría) and Portuguese: nickname from Spanish alegría or Portuguese alegria ‘joy’, ‘happiness’. Castilianized form of Basque Alegia, a habitational name from any of the towns named Alegia in the Basque Country.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from Calles in Valencia province.

Spanish: occupational name for a beater or other assistant at a hunt, from an agent derivative of monte, which, as well as meaning ‘mountain’, ‘hill’, could be used in the transferred sense of a game forest on wooded upland. The occupational term was itself also used as a title for any of various palace functionaries, and some cases of the surname may derive from this.

Spanish (Colón): from the Latin Colombus, Colomba meaning ‘dove’, a personal name favored by early Christians because the dove was considered to be the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Spanish: from garza ‘heron’, probably applied as a nickname for someone with long legs.

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.

Spanish (Cañizales): topographic name for someone who lived by a reedbed, from the plural of cañizal ‘where there is an abundance of reeds’ (from Latin canna).

English (Midlands): probably a variant of Eubanks.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from sabio ‘clever’, ‘learned’. It was an epithet of the 13th-century King Alfonso X (‘el Sabio’).

Basque: topographic name for someone who lived on a stony area of land, from Basque arri ‘crag’, ‘rock’, ‘stone’ + the locative suffix -a(t)z ‘abundance of’.

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.

Spanish: habitational name from Morga in Biscay province. Italian: from the Salento dialect word morga ‘marc (of olives)’, ‘dregs’, possibly applied as a derogatory nickname. Polish: from morga, a term denoting a unit of land measuring 5,600 square meters, hence a nickname for a wealthy landowner.

Catalan: possibly a variant of Hoyos.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Tobar, named with a collective noun derived from toba ‘tufa’ (a kind of light, porous volcanic rock).

Spanish (Blandón): Andalusian (Huelva, Sevilla), from blandón ‘wax torch’.

Galician: habitational name from a place in Lugo province named Cervantes.

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.

Spanish (Jarquín): ethnic name for someone from the east, from jarqui, from Arabic sharqi ‘eastern’. This name is common in Mexico.

Spanish: ethnic name for someone from Castile. Italian: status names from castellano (Latin castellanus), denoting the governor or constable of a castle, the lord of the manor, or the warder of a prison.

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

Spanish (Urías): from the Biblical name meaning ‘God is light’ (English Uriah).

Spanish (Enríquez): patronymic from Enrique.

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).

Spanish: occupational name from lacayo ‘foot soldier’ or ‘lackey’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Posada, from posada ‘halt’, ‘resting place’.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from lindo ‘lovely’.

English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish (Tobías), Hungarian (Tóbiás), and Jewish: from a Greek form of the Hebrew male personal name Tovyah ‘Jehovah is good’, which, together with various derivative forms, has been popular among Jews for generations.

Spanish: occupational or status name from Spanish merino, the title of a royal or seigneurial functionary who had wide legal and military jurisdiction over a district. The word is from Late Latin maiorinus, a derivative of maior. Compare Mayer and Mayoral.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Quevedo, such as Casa de Quevedo in Albacete province.

Spanish and Galician: topographic name for someone who lived by a well, pozo (Latin puteus ‘well’, ‘pit’), or habitational name from any of the many places named Pozo, in particular Pozo in Galicia or El Pozo in Asturies, named with pozo ‘well’ (from Latin puteus).

Spanish (Galván): from a medieval personal name. This is in origin the Latin name Galbanus (a derivative of the Roman family name Galba, of uncertain origin). However, it was used in a number of medieval romances as an equivalent of the Celtic name Gawain (see Gavin), and it is probably this association that was mainly responsible for its popularity in the Middle Ages.

Spanish, Galician and Portuguese: from the plural of portal ‘gate’ (see Portal), either as a topographic name or a habitational name from a place called Portales.

Spanish: habitational name from Cisneros, a place in the province of Palencia, named with a derivative of Spanish cisne ‘swan’ (via Old French and Latin from Greek kyknos).

Spanish: from monje ‘monk’ (a loanword from Old Occitan, from Latin monachus). Compare Monge.

Spanish (Zacarías) and Jewish: see Zacharias.

Variant of Basque Arteaga.

Spanish: variant spelling of Cirino.

Spanish (Vélez): patronymic from the personal name Vela. Spanish (Vélez): habitational name from any of various places in Andalusia called Vélez. Portuguese (Velez, Velêz): unexplained. It may be a habitational name from Vellés in Salamanca.

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

Spanish: from perla ‘pearl’, possibly applied as a metonymic occupational name for a trader in pearls, which in the Middle Ages were fashionable among the rich for the ornamentation of clothes. Italian: generally, from the female personal name Perla, meaning ‘pearl’(from Late Latin Pern(u)la (‘little pearl’), whence Italian perla ‘pearl’), but in some cases possibly a metonymic occupational name (see 1 above).

Spanish (Alarcón): habitational name, most probably from Alarcón in Cuenca province.

Spanish (Ávalos): habitational name from Ábalos, a place near Haro in Soria province, on the edge of the Basque country. A Basque origin of the place name has been suggested, involving the stem abar- ‘kermes oak’, but this is highly conjectural.

Spanish: possibly a metonymic occupational name for a carrier, from the plural of flete ‘freight’.

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.

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

Spanish: plural variant of Vallejo.

Spanish: habitational name from Quesada, a place in Jaén province. The place name is of uncertain derivation; there may be some connection with Old Spanish requexada ‘corner’, ‘tight spot’.

Portuguese: habitational name from a place so named (see Alba).

Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the numerous places in Spain (especially in Galicia) and Portugal named or named with Prado, from prado ‘meadow’ (from Latin pratum).

Portuguese: from the personal name Jeronimo, from Greek Hieronymos (see Hieronymus). Probably an Americanized spelling of Spanish Gerónimo or Italian Geronimo, equivalents of 1.

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

Possibly a variant spelling of Spanish Arcila.

Spanish: from a personal name or religious byname bestowed in honor of St. Francis Xavier (1506–52), Jesuit missionary to the Far East. He was a member of a noble family who took their name from the castle of Xabier in Navarre, where he was born. The place name Xabier is of Basque origin (see Echeverria).

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish (Valdés): habitational name from either of the two places called Valdés in Málaga and Asturies. Catalan (Valdès): nickname from Catalan valdès ‘Waldensian’, i.e. a member of a Puritan religious sect which was founded in the 12th century by Peter Valdes (died 1205) in southern France. The widespread distribution of the surname in present-day Spain, however, suggests that other sources may also have been involved.

Variant of Irish Cannan.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, northern Italian, French, and English: from the personal name, a derivative of the Latin personal name Vitalis (see Vitale).

Perhaps Spanish and Portuguese (Jacó) or southern Italian (Jacò): from the personal name (see Jacob). Possibly a respelling of French Jacot.

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).

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Dick.

Spanish: nickname for someone with a notably pink and white complexion, from Spanish rosado ‘pink’, Late Latin rosatus, a derivative of rosa (see Rose).

Spanish and Portuguese (Paniágua): status name for a servant who worked for his board (pan ‘bread’ and agua ‘water’) and lodging.

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.

most probably a habitational name from Najar, Alacant. alternatively, it may be an occupational name derived from Arabic najjar ‘carpenter’.

From the personal name Andres, a vernacular form of Andreas in various European languages, including Spanish Andrés, French (Breton) Andrès, German Andres, Czech Andrejs, etc.

habitational name from any of various places so called, from Spanish otero ‘height’, ‘hill’ (Late Latin altarium, a derivative of altus ‘high’). Castilianized form of the common Galician and Asturian-Leonese place names Outeiro and Uteru.

Spanish and Dutch: from a variant of the personal name Melchior.

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

Spanish: habitational name from places in the provinces of Palencia and Segovia called Cobos (see Cobo 2).

Spanish: habitational name from Montiel, a place in Ciudad Real province.

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

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.

topographic name from a diminutive of Monte 1. habitational name from any of places called Montejo (‘little mountain’), in particular those in the provinces of Salamanca, Segovia, and Soria.

Italian: from the personal name Guido, Italian equivalent of Guy.

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

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.

Spanish: from armas ‘arms’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of arms or a soldier.

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

Spanish and Portuguese (Lázaro): from the Biblical personal name Lazaro (see Lazar).

Basque: topographic name from aran ‘valley’ + the Basque definite article -a. The name in the U.S. may have absorbed some instances of Araña, from Spanish araña ‘spider’, a nickname for a weaver or for an industrious or opportunistic person.

from the religious personal name Trinidad ‘Trinity’, often bestowed on someone born on the feast of the Holy Trinity. habitational name for someone from any of the many places named La Trinidad.

Spanish (Saldívar; from Basque): Castilianized variant of Basque Zaldibar, a habitational name from a place so named in Biscay province. The place name is of uncertain derivation: it may be from zaldu ‘wood’, ‘copse’ or from zaldi ‘horse’ + ibar ‘water meadow’, ‘fertile plain’.

Altered spelling of German and Swiss Fehrmann.

habitational name from Luján in Huesca province.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Salcedo, so named from a collective form of salce ‘willow tree’. Compare Salce. Spanish: Castilianized variant of Basque Saratsu, a habitational name from a town so named, in Araba, Basque Country.

Spanish: habitational name from Batres in Madrid province. There are many bearers of this name in Guatamala and Mexico.

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

Spanish and Portuguese: variant of Vásquez (see Vasquez).

Spanish: plural of Quintero, probably from a place name.

Galician and Spanish: nickname, probably for a high-spirited person, from becerra ‘young cow’, ‘heifer’. It may also have been a metonymic occupational name for a cowherd.

Irish: reduced form of O’Connor, which is an Anglicization of Gaelic Ó Conchobhair ‘descendant of Conchobhar’.

Spanish: habitational name from Carpio in Valladolid province or any of various places in southern Spain named with this word (a regional term meaning ‘hill’), as for example Carpio-Bernardo or El Carpio. Italian (Naples): from the personal name Carpio, a short form of Eucarpio.

Variant spelling of Spanish Baeza, a habitational name from a place so named in the province of Jaén.

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

Apparently a plural form of Spanish Cedillo, also written Sedillos.

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.

Spanish (Benavídez): variant of Benavides.

Polish: from Middle High German mage ‘blood relative’ (literally ‘belly’). Possibly also a Polish nickname from a derivative of the dialect word magac ‘to wave’. Romanian (Maga): from Hungarian mag ‘seed’.

Spanish: from the personal name Rogel, Spanish form of French Roger. German: of uncertain origin; perhaps a nickname for a mischievous person, from Middle High German rogel ‘loose’. Slovenian: nickname or topographic name from rogelj ‘horn’, ‘point’, as a topographic name probably denoting someone who lived on a horn-shaped spur or ridge of a hill or on a pointed piece of land.

Spanish and Portuguese: from machucar, machacar ‘to squash’, ‘to crush’, probably applied as a nickname for someone who was obstinate.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places named Grijalba, in particular the one in Burgos province. The place name is from iglesia ‘church’ + Old Spanish alva ‘white’.

Italian, Portuguese (Bonifácio): from the personal name Bonifacio (Latin Bonifatius, from bonum ‘good’ + fatum ‘fate’, ‘destiny’). In Late Latin -ti- and -ci- came to be pronounced identically; the name was thus often respelled Bonifacius and assigned the meaning ‘doer of good deeds’, derived by folk etymology from Latin facere ‘to do’. Bonifatius was the name of the Roman military governor of North Africa in 422–32, who was a friend of St. Augustine. It was also borne by various early Christian saints and was adopted by nine popes. The personal name was always more popular in Italy (in its various cognate forms) than elsewhere; the original sense ‘well fated’ remained transparent in Italian, so the name was often bestowed there for the sake of the good omen.

English (mainly southwestern England): variant spelling of Hamm. French: habitational name from any of the various places in northern France (Ardennes, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Moselle) named with the Germanic word ham ‘meadow in the bend of a river’, ‘water meadow’, ‘flood plain’. Dutch: variant of Hamme. Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the Ham surname. Some sources report that there are sixty different Ham clans, but only the Kangnung Ham clan can be documented. Although some records have been lost and a few generations are unaccounted for, it is known that the founding ancestor of the Ham clan is Ham Kyu, a Koryo general who fought against the Mongol invaders in the thirteenth century. His ancestor, Ham Hyok, was a Tang Chinese general who stayed in Korea after Tang China helped Shilla unify the peninsula during the seventh century. Another of Ham Hyok’s ancestors, Ham Shin, accompanied Kim Chu-won, the founding ancestor of the Kangnung Kim family, to the Kangnung area, and hence the Ham clan became the Kangnung Ham clan. The first prominent ancestor from Kangnung whose genealogy can be verified is Ham Kyu, the Koryo general. Accordingly, he is regarded as the Kangnung Ham clan’s founding ancestor.

English: metonymic occupational name for a trapper, from a derivative of Middle English trapp ‘trap’. German: nickname for a stupid person, from Middle High German trappe ‘bustard’ (of Slavic origin). German: topographic name for someone living by a step-like feature in the terrain, from Middle Low German treppe, trappe ‘step’, or by a flight of steps, standard German Treppe.

Surname with a probable prothetic S, which in epigraphic ancient documents and inscriptions represented "sacerdote" or "priest" originally from Arabia. Name of village in Villagrán, Guanajuato in Mexico.It is a Castilian surname from Soria, which spread to Chile from the Order of Santiago starting in 1628.

Arabic: perhaps from qu?tn ‘cotton’, a metonymic occupational name for a cotton merchant. Jewish (Sephardic and Israeli): nickname from Hebrew katan ‘small’. As an Israeli name, in some cases it represents a translation of Ashkenazic Klein.

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

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name António, a vernacular form of Antonius (see Anthony).

Portuguese and Spanish: variant of Lima.

Spanish (Almazán): habitational name from Almazán in the province of Soria, named in Arabic as al-makhzan ‘the stronghold’, ‘the fortified place’.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Merlos (see Merlo).

Galician and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Pino, from pino ‘pine’, or topographic name for somebody who lived by a remarkable pine tree. Italian: habitational name from Pino d’Asti in Asti province, Pino Torinese in Torino, or Pino Solitario in Taranto, all named with pino ‘pine’. Italian: from the personal name Pino, a short form Giuseppino (from Giuseppe), Filippino (from Filippo), Jacopino (from Jacopo), or some other pet name formed with this suffix.

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: nickname for someone of large stature, in either a literal or figurative sense, from grande ‘tall’, ‘large’. German: habitational name from Grande in Holstein or Grand in Bavaria. Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads so named, from Old Norse grandi ‘sandbank’.

Spanish (Argüello): habitational name from any of various minor places called Arguello, from Old Spanish arboleo ‘well-wooded’.

Spanish: habitational name from Olvera in Cádiz province.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from a place in Lléon province named Villacorta, from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + corta ‘short’.

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a bushy area or thicket, from Middle English bush(e) ‘bush’ (probably from Old Norse buskr, or an unrecorded Old English busc); alternatively, it may derive from Old Norse Buski used as a personal name. Americanized spelling of German Busch.

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

Scottish: nickname from Gaelic bran ‘raven’. Galician: habitational name from either of two places in Lugo province called Bran. This is a common name in Mexico.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Ceballos, a district of Santander.

Spanish: variant of Moratalla, habitational name from a village in Murcia province.

Spanish: apparently a habitational name; however, no place of this name is now known in Spain, and the surname may be a Castilian rendering of Galician Bustelos, from places so named in Ourense and Pontevedra provinces, Galicia.

Asturian-Leonese: probably a habitational name from a place in Asturies called Cuadra.

Spanish (Flórez): probably a patronymic from the Visigothic personal name Froila, a derivative of fro ‘lord’, ‘master’. The name is also borne by Sephardic Jews.

Spanish (Mármol): from mármol ‘marble’; perhaps a topographic name for someone who lived in an area of marble, a habitational name from either of two places called El Mármol (in Cádiz and Jaén provinces), a metonymic occupational name for a stonemason or quarryman, or a nickname for a cold, unresponsive person. Polish: nickname from Polish dialect marmolic ‘to dawdle’; also meaning ‘to get dirty’.

Spanish (Agustín): from the Spanish personal name Agustín, a vernacular form of Latin Augustinus (see Austin).

Spanish: unexplained. This name is particularly common in Mexico, also well established in Peru.

Italian: from a short form of any of various personal names with the ending -fino (for example, Adolfino, Rodolfino, Serafino). This name is also well established in Mexico.

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

Spanish and Portuguese (Tomás), Catalan (Tomàs), Czech and Slovak (Tomáš), and Polish: from a personal name equivalent to Thomas.

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.

Spanish: from grajo ‘rook’, hence a topograpic name for someone who lived by a rookery or in a place frequented by rooks.

Spanish: variant spelling of Reina.

Spanish: patronymic from Arabic or Jewish ben ‘son’ + the medieval personal name Ega(s), probably of Visigothic origin. Compare Portuguese Viegas.

Catalan: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Riera or La Riera, from Catalan riera ‘stream’ (Late Latin rivaria). There are various places in northern Spain named with this word, for example in the province of Tarragona, and the surname may also be a habitational name from any of these.

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

formerly most common in the Basque country and in Aragon, this name is generally assumed to be from abarca ‘sandal’ (Basque abarka), which refers to the traditional Basque peasant sandal or moccasin made of uncured leather. In the past this word was also applied to footwear made from wooden materials, and is probably derived from Basque abar ‘branch’, ‘twig’. Some scholars, however, think that abarka is an old topographic term referring to a grove of holm oaks or kermes oaks. habitational name from the village of Abarca in the province of Palencia.

from the personal name Florentino (Latin Florentinus). in some cases possibly from florentino ‘Florentine’, a habitational name for someone from the city of Florence in Tuscany.

Spanish and Portuguese: from duque ‘duke’ (from Latin dux, genitive ducis ‘leader’), 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. French (also Duqué): nickname from duquet, a diminutive of French duc ‘duke’ (see Duchon).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places named Puentes, from the plural of puente ‘bridge’.

Spanish: generally an approving (or ironic) nickname, from Spanish bueno ‘good’.

Spanish (Cajetano): from the personal name Caietano, bestowed in honor of the Italian Saint Gaetano (1480–1547) (see Gaetano).

English (common in Devon and Cornwall), Spanish (Julián), and German: from a personal name, Latin Iulianus, a derivative of Iulius (see Julius), which was borne by a number of early saints. In Middle English the name was borne in the same form by women, whence the modern girl’s name Gillian.

Spanish (Narváez): habitational name from a place so called near Almagro, in Ciudad Real province.

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

English, French, and German: variant spelling of Martel. Catalan: metonymic occupational name for a smith, or nickname for a forceful person, from martell ‘hammer’ (Late Latin martellus).

Spanish (Giménez): variant of Jiménez (see Jimenez).

Spanish: from the personal name Alejandro, Spanish form of Alexander.

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).

A Portuguese toponymic, from the village near Braga.

Portuguese: habitational name from a place in the province of Tras-os-Montes named Chaves, from Latin (aquis) Flaviis, ‘(at the) waters of Flavius’. The place was the site of sulfurous springs with supposedly health-giving properties, around which a settlement was founded in the 1st century ad by the Emperor Vespasian. Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of numerous places called Chaves, generally from the plural of chave ‘key’, from Latin clavis. Variant of Irish and English Chivers. Compare Chavers.

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

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

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.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places in southern Spain (Alacant, Ciudad Real, Jaen, Badajoz, and Cadiz) named Perea.

Spanish: habitational name from places called Carmona, in the provinces of Santander and (more famously) Seville. The place name is of pre-Roman origin and uncertain meaning.

Spanish, Catalan, Asturian-Leonese, and Galician: habitational name from any of the numerous places, large and small, named Quintana, from quintana ‘country house’ (originally having a tax liability of one fifth of the annual produce). variant of French Quintaine, from an Old French term denoting a post for jousting practice, hence a nickname for one who was skilled at this.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of this name in central Spain. The place name is of uncertain origin (possibly based on a Celtic element sego ‘victory’).

Spanish: variant of Monterroso. This name is mainly found in Mexico and Central America.

Italian, French, Spanish (Florián), Polish, Czech and Slovak (Florián), Slovenian (Florjan, Florijan), German (Austrian), Hungarian (Flórián), and Romanian: from a medieval personal name (Latin Florianus, a further derivative of Florius); (see Fleury, borne by a 3rd-century saint who was drowned in Noricum during the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian and became the patron of Upper Austria, widely invoked as a protector from the danger of fires.

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: from the Germanic personal name Leonhard, formed from the elements leo ‘lion’ + hard, ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’; this was an early medieval saint’s name (see Leonard).

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.

Spanish: from the personal name Diego, which is of uncertain derivation. It was early taken to be a reduced form of Santiago, and is commonly taken by English speakers as being a form of James, but this is no more than folk etymology. It is found in the Middle Ages in the Latin forms Didacus and Didagus, which Meyer-Lübke derived from Greek didakhe ‘doctrine’, ‘teaching’, but in view of the fact that it is unknown outside the Iberian Peninsula it may possibly have a pre-Roman origin.

Spanish: habitational name from Lorenzana in Lugo province, Galicia, which was named in Latin as Laurentiana, after its original proprietor Laurentius.

Spanish: variant spelling of Ledesma.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname or topographic name from the adjective montano ‘from the mountains’. Italian: topographic name from Italian montano ‘mountain’, or a habitational name from a place called Montano, in particular Montano Antilia in Salerno province, or the district of Caianello in Caserta so named. Italian: from the personal name Montano, from Latin montanus ‘mountain dweller’.

Spanish (Bojórquez): variant of Bohorquez.

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

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.

Spanish: nickname from Spanish ruano, which denoted someone with reddish hair (compare Ruan), or alternatively a street dweller.

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).

Spanish: apparently from chica, feminine form of chico ‘small’, ‘young’ (see Chico), but a variant of the habitational name Checa, from a place so named in Jaén province is also a possibility.

Spanish: habitational name from Escamilla, a place in Guadalajara province.

Basque: variant spelling of Lezama.

Jewish, German, Dutch, Danish, French, Spanish (Salomón), and Polish: the usual spelling in these languages of Solomon and a variant in others.

Spanish: from the personal name, Justiniano, Latin Justinianus, a derivative of Justinius, from justus ‘just’, ‘fair’.

Spanish: from an old form of the personal name Olivero (see Oliver).

Portuguese (Maurício) and Spanish: from the personal name Mauricio (Portuguese), Mauricio (Spanish), derived from the Latin personal name Mauritius (see Morris).

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places in Spain, for example Ballesteros de Calatrava in the province of Ciudad Real, Los Ballesteros (Huelva), Ballesteros (Cuenca), and others no longer identifiable, which were probably so named because of their association with ballesteros ‘crossbowmen’, plural of ballestero, an agent derivative of ballesta ‘crossbow’ (see Ballester).

Portuguese (Montez, also Montês): topographic name for a mountain dweller, from montês ‘of the mountain’. Spanish: from a variant of the adjective montés, having the same meaning as 1.

Portuguese and Galician: topographic name from silvas, plural of silva ‘thicket’, ‘bramble’. See Silva. Hungarian (Szilvás): occupational name for a grower or seller of soft fruits, from szilva ‘plum’.

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.

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese (Castañeda): habitational name from any of various places in Santander, Asturies, and Salamanca, named with castañeda, a collective of castaña ‘chestnut’.

Spanish: variant of Obando.

Variant of Spanish Véliz (see Veliz). Greek: from Turkish veli ‘guardian’, a term used to denote various administrative officials in the Ottoman Empire.

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

Spanish and Portuguese: variant spelling of Godínez (see Godinez).

Spanish: nickname from lucero, a derivative of luz ‘light’, which has variety of meanings including ‘morning or evening star’, ‘star or blaze marking on a horse’.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from any of various places, mainly in southern Spain, named La Mesa, from Latin mensa ‘table’, with reference to a topographic feature.

Basque: topographic name composed of the elements gain ‘peak’, ‘summit’ + boa ‘rounded’.

Spanish (Páiz): variant of Portuguese and Galician Pais.

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.

Spanish: probably variant of Valdivielso, habitational name from Valdivielso, a region in Burgos province.

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.

Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish: from casa ‘house’ (Latin casa ‘hut’, ‘cottage’, ‘cabin’), perhaps originally denoting the occupier of the most distinguished house in a village. Italian: from a short form of the personal name Benincasa, an omen name meaning ‘welcome in (our) house’. Italian (Sicily; Casà): probably a metonymic occupational name for a maker of saddlecloths, from Greek kasas ‘saddlecloth’.

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

English: patronymic from the personal name May (see May).

Spanish (Esteban): from the personal name Esteban, Spanish vernacular form of Latin Stephanus (see Steven).

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

English: unexplained. It occurs chiefly in Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is also established in Ireland, where it may be an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Eóin (see McLean).

Portuguese and Spanish: from the personal name Marcelo (see Marcello).

Galician: variant of Menéndez (see Menendez).

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.

Spanish (Crisostomo): from the personal name, a derivative of Greek Khrysostomos, literally ‘mouth of gold’. This was the nickname of St. John Chrysostom (4th century ad), a prominent theologian, and one of the four Fathers of the Eastern Church.

Scottish and northern Irish: variant spelling of McNabb.

Catalan: respelling of Bordes, the plural of Borda. Hungarian (Bordás): from takácsborda, denoting part of a loom, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of looms or a weaver.

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

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

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Comhraidhe, ‘descendant of Comhraidhe’, a personal name of uncertain meaning. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Corra (see Corr). Scottish and northern English: variant of Currie.

Basque: habitational name from any of various places in Biscay and Araba named Zabala, from Basque zabal ‘large’, ‘broad’ + the definite article -a. In some cases the surname may have arisen as a nickname from the same word.

Spanish (Ábila): habitational name from Ávila (see Avila), the spelling reflecting confusion in the pronunciation of Spanish between v and b.

Dutch: variant of Leeman 1. English: variant of Leaman. Polish spelling of German Lehmann.

Welsh: nickname for a red-haired person (see Gough). English (of Cornish and Breton origin): occupational name from Cornish and Breton goff ‘smith’ (cognate with Gaelic gobha). The surname is common in East Anglia, where it is of Breton origin, introduced by followers of William the Conqueror. Irish: reduced form of McGoff.

Basque: Latin American variant of Zamalloa, Zamayoa, a topographic name for someone who lived by a gorge or pass, from Basque sama, zama ‘defile’, ‘pass’, ‘narrow ravine’ + the locative suffix -ola.

Spanish: habitational name from a Pantoja in Toledo.

English: topographic name for someone living on (and farming) a hide of land, Old English hi(gi)d. This was a variable measure of land, differing from place to place and time to time, and seems from the etymology to have been originally fixed as the amount necessary to support one (extended) family (Old English higan, hiwan ‘household’). In some cases the surname is habitational, from any of the many minor places named with this word, as for example Hyde in Greater Manchester, Bedfordshire, and Hampshire. The surname has long been established in Ireland. English: variant of Ide, with inorganic initial H-. Compare Herrick. Jewish (American): Americanized spelling of Haid.

Variant of Spanish Fuentes.

Spanish: habitational name from Villegas, a place in Burgos province.

Spanish: variant of Ortiz.

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

Andrade: It means "the Galician realm of topônimo" or "reference to the new Jews."Andrade is a surname that appeared in the region of Galicia, this onomástica in the Portuguese language as a name of toponymic origin, ie, based on a region or locality.

nickname from Spanish granado ‘mature’, ‘experienced’, ‘distinguished’. topographic name or metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of pomegranates, from granado ‘pomegranate tree’, Latin (pomum) granatum (see Garnett 1).

Spanish, Portuguese, and northern Italian: nickname for a man with curly hair, from Latin crispus ‘curly-haired’.

Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads in southwestern Norway, named with Old Norse lón ‘calm, deep pool (in a river)’. English: variant of Lane. Muslim: unexplained.