1000 Most Common Last Names in Jamaica

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

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

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).

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

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

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

English: variant spelling of Clark.

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

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

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

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

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robin.

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

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

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

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

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

Southern English: patronymic from David.

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

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

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.

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

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

English: 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

English 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).

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).

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

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

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

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

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

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

English: variant spelling of Gale.

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

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

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

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

English and Jewish: patronymic from Samuel.

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

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Dick.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

English and German: patronymic from Walter.

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

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

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

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

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

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Morris.

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

English: habitational name from a place now in Worcestershire (formerly in Gloucestershire) named Beckford, from the Old English byname Becca (see Beck 4) + Old English ford ‘ford’.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

English and French: from the Middle English, Old French personal name Salmon, Saumon, a reduced form of Salomon (see Solomon). Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish male personal name Zalmen, derived via a German form from Hebrew Shelomo (see Solomon). Irish: part translation of Gaelic Ó Bradáin ‘descendant of Bradán’, a personal name, probably from bradach ‘spirited’, but written the same as a word meaning ‘salmon’; this name is also sometimes translated Fisher. The English surname is also present in Ireland (chiefly in counties Leix and Kilkenny).

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

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

English (chiefly West Midlands): patronymic from Rickett.

Scottish: from the Gaelic personal name Maol-Choluim ‘devotee of (Saint) Columba’ (see Colomb). Irish (Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Maolcholuim ‘descendant of the devotee of St. Columba’ (Irish Colum Cille, literally ‘dove of the church’). In Ireland the personal name is often spelled Colm; in Scotland it has become Calum.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Northern English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Harry.

English: variant of Mullins.

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

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

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

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

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Fergus.

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

English: patronymic from a pet form of Daw 1.

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

English: variant spelling of Hilton.

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

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

English: nickname from Middle English pinnock ‘hedge sparrow’.

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

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

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

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

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

Scottish and English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Dumfries, Strathclyde, and Yorkshire, named Blackwood, from Old English blæc ‘black’, ‘dark’ + wudu ‘wood’.

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

English: patronymic from Reynold.

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

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

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

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

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

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

perhaps a habitational name from Pert on the North Esk near Montrose, named with a Pictish term for a wood or copse. MacLysaght records this as a surname in Ireland, noting that the chief branch originated in Newark on Trent (Nottinghamshire) in the 18th century, though there are earlier instances of the name. variant spelling of Pert.

Jewish (Ashkenazic and Sephardic): from the Biblical personal name Levi, from a Hebrew word meaning ‘joining’. This was borne by a son of Jacob and Leah (Genesis 29: 34). Bearers of this name are Levites, members of the tribe of Levi, who form a hereditary caste who assist the kohanim (see Cohen) in their priestly duties.

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

English: patronymic from the personal name Tomlin.

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

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

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

habitational name from various places, for example Chipping (High) Barnet, East Barnet, and Friern Barnet in Greater London, named with Old English bærnet ‘place cleared by burning’ (a derivative of bærnan ‘to burn’, ‘to set light to’). from a medieval personal name, a variant of Bernard.

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

Scottish: variant spelling of Stirling. English: perhaps a variant of Starling. German: from Middle High German sterlinc, the name of a coin, hence probably a nickname for someone who paid that amount in rent.

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

English: variant of Hilbert.

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

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

English: of uncertain derivation, possibly a habitational name from Dinckley in Lancashire, recorded in 1246 as Dunkythele and Dinkedelay, and probably named with an old British name, composed of elements meaning ‘fort’ + ‘wood’, with the addition of Old English leah ‘woodland clearing’. In the British Isles the surname is now most common in Northamptonshire.

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

English: variant of Garrett.

Welsh: patronymic from Griffith.

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

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

Welsh and English: variant spelling of Price. Americanized spelling of Jewish Preuss or Preis.

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

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

English: habitational name from any of various places called Houghton. Nearly all, including those in Cheshire, County Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Shropshire, and Staffordshire, are named from Old English halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; however, in the case of one in Nottinghamshire, the first element is Old English hoh ‘spur of a hill’ (literally ‘heel’). Irish: in many cases of English origin, but in some a shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEacháin (see Haughn) or (in County Tipperary) of Ó hEachtair ‘descendant of Eachtair’, probably a Gaelic form of the personal name Hector.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from lindo ‘lovely’.

English: topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of land on which grew bent grass, rushes, or reeds (Middle English bent).

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

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

habitational name, probably from a lost place, Holmherst in Smarden, Kent; Holnest in Dorset is another possibility. Both are named from Old English holegn ‘holly’ + Old English hyrst ‘wooded hill’. reduced form of Holderness.

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

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

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

English: possibly a nickname from Middle English gode ‘good’ + hine ‘servant’. Compare Goodhue.

English: variant spelling of Winter.

English (of Norman origin): occupational name for a blacksmith or worker in iron, from Old French ferron ‘blacksmith’, Latin ferro, genitive ferronis, a derivative of ferrum ‘iron’. Compare Ferro.

English: patronymic from Sim.

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

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

Scottish: patronymic from Farquhar.

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

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

English: habitational name from Bartley in Hampshire, or from Bartley Green in the West Midlands, both of which are named with Old English be(o)rc ‘birch’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’; compare Barclay. Americanized spelling of German (Swabian) Bartle and the Swiss cognate Bartli.

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

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

from the Germanic personal name Nan(d)hart, composed with nand ‘daring’ + hard ‘hard’, ‘strong’. nickname for a greedy or grasping person, from Middle High German nemen ‘to take’ + hard ‘hard’.

English (Midlands): probably a variant of Eubanks.

English (West Midlands): unexplained. German: variant of Roden.

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

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

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

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

occupational name for a worker in lead, especially a maker of lead pipes and conduits, from Anglo-Norman French plom(m)er, plum(m)er ‘plumber’, from plom(b), plum(b) ‘lead’ (Latin plumbum). variant of Plumer 1, 3. occasionally, a habitational name from a minor place name, such as Plummers in Kimpton, Hertfordshire, which was named with Old English plum ‘plum(tree)’ + mere ‘pool’. The name is also established in Ireland, taken there from England in the 17th century.

English (southwestern, also found in South Wales): variant of Veazey. Americanized spelling of German Fehse, Vehse, variants of Feese. Americanized spelling of Swiss German Fäsi, from a pet form of the personal name Gervasius (see Gervais).

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

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

English: status name for a servant or nobleman who was under the protection of a king or powerful lord, Middle English, Old French vassal (Late Latin vazallus). In the U.S. this is a mainly southern name.

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

Scottish: habitational name from a place near Dingwall on the Firth of Cromarty, named with Gaelic tulach ‘hillock’, ‘mound’, or from any of various other minor places named with this element.

English: occupational name for a dyer of cloth, Middle English dyer (from Old English deag ‘dye’; the verb is a back-formation from the agent noun). This surname also occurs in Scotland, but Lister is a more common equivalent there. Irish (Counties Sligo and Roscommon): usually a short form of MacDyer, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Duibhir ‘son of Duibhir’, a short form of a personal name composed of the elements dubh ‘dark’, ‘black’ + odhar ‘sallow’, ‘tawny’.

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

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

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

English, Scottish, and northern Irish: probably a metonymic occupational name for someone who made or sold coarse woolen cloth, Middle English burel or borel (from Old French burel, a diminutive of b(o)ure); the same word was used adjectively in the sense ‘reddish brown’ and may have been applied as a nickname referring to dress or complexion. Compare Borel.

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Atkin.

English: occupational or topographic name, from a derivative of Forrest.

English: variant spelling of Gray 1. German: dialect variant of Grau.

Scottish, northern Irish, and English: habitational name from any of the numerous places so called, found in the Scottish Borders and in various parts of England. The second element is in all cases Old English tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. In the case of Linton in Northumberland the first element is a British river name, Lyne (related to Welsh lliant ‘stream’), while Linton in Kent is ‘estate associated with a man called Lill or Lilla’. The other places of this name normally have as their first element Old English lind ‘lime tree’ or lin ‘flax’, but occasionally perhaps hlynn ‘torrent’ or hlinc ‘hillside’. (On the basis of geographical situation the meaning ‘torrent’ would be appropriate to Linton near Skipton in West Yorkshire).

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

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

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

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

Northern English and Scottish: variant spelling of Booth.

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

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEidhin ‘descendant of Eidhin’, a personal name or byname of uncertain origin. It may be a derivative of eidhean ‘ivy’, or it may represent an altered form of the place name Aidhne. The principal family of this name is descended from Guaire of Aidhne, King of Connacht. From the 7th century for over a thousand years they were chiefs of a territory in County Galway. English: patronymic from Hine. Americanized spelling of German Heins or Heinz.

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

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

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

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

English: metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of parchment (Old French parcheminier). This name is common in Jamaica.

English: habitational name from any of the three places named Wellington, in Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Somerset. All are most probably named with an unattested Old English personal name Weola + -ing- (implying association with) + tun ‘settlement’.

Scottish: habitational name from any of the various places, as for example Drymen near Stirling and Drummond (Castle) in Perthshire, that are named from Gaelic drumainn, a derivative of druim ‘ridge’.

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

ethnic name for a Wend, from Middle Dutch Wi(e)nt (see Wendt). possibly also a nickname for someone who rushed around a lot, from Middle Dutch wint ‘wind’. English: unexplained.

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

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

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

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

English: from the late Old English personal name Golding, in form a patronymic from Golda (see Gold 4). German: patronymic from a short form of a Germanic personal name formed with gold, guld ‘gold’, ‘bright’. Jewish (from Latvia and Lithuania): habitational name from Golding, the German and Yiddish name of the city of Kuldiga in Latvia.

Scottish and Irish: variant spelling of McCoy.

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

Scottish and Irish (Donegal): variant of McCauley. Irish (Armagh): variant of McCall 1.

English: patronymic from Crook 1.

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

Origin unidentified.

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

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

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

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

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

Northern English and Scottish: patronymic from Nichol.

English: habitational name of uncertain origin. There is a place so called in Strathclyde region and a Banton House in Lancashire; the present-day concentration of the surname in the Derbyshire area suggests the latter may be the more likely source. In some instances the name may have arisen from a place called Bampton, in particular, one in Cumbria, named with Old English beam ‘trunk’, ‘beam’ + tun ‘farmstead’, ‘settlement’.

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

English: variant of Herriott 1.

English: from the Middle English personal names Siwal(d) and Sewal(d), Old English Sigeweald and S?weald, composed of the elements sige ‘victory’ and s? ‘sea’ + weald ‘rule’. English: habitational name from Sewell in Bedfordshire, Showell in Oxfordshire, or Seawell or Sywell in Northamptonshire, all of which are named from Old English seofon ‘seven’ + wella ‘spring’.

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

Scottish: habitational name from the lands of Wedderburn in Berwickshire.

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

English: variant spelling of Osborne.

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

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

Jewish (Ashkenazic): German and Polish spelling of Levin. English, Dutch, and North German: from the Old English personal name Leofwine, composed of the elements leof ‘dear’, ‘beloved’ + wine ‘friend’. This was the name borne by an English missionary who became the patron saint of Ghent, and the personal name was consequently popular in the Low Countries during the Middle Ages. Irish and Manx: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Guillin ‘son of the servant of William’.

English, German, and Jewish: patronymic from Joseph.

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

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

English: variant of Cook. Americanized spelling of German Koke or Koch.

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a patch of open land, from Middle English by ‘by’, ‘beside’ + felde ‘open land, for pasture or cultivation’, or a habitational name with the same meaning, from a place named Byfield, from Old English bi + feld, for example in Northamptonshire.

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

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

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

Scottish spelling of Lang.

English: patronymic from Hemming.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places in England named with Old Norse þorp ‘hamlet’, ‘village’ or the Old English cognate þrop.

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

English (West Midlands): nickname for a swarthy person, from Old English colig ‘dark’, ‘black’ (a derivative of col ‘(char)coal’). English: possibly a habitational name from Coaley in Gloucestershire, named in Old English as ‘woodland clearing (leah) with a hut or shelter (cofa)’. Probably an Americanized form of Swiss German Kohli or Kohler.

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

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

Irish (Co. Cork): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAngluinn ‘descendant of Anglonn’, a personal name from anglonn ‘champion’.

German: from a Germanic personal name, composed of the elements widu ‘wood’ + hari ‘army’. North German: occupational name for a painter or plasterer, from Middle Low German witten ‘to make white’.

English: patronymic from the personal name Will.

Scottish and northern Irish: nickname for a person of frightening appearance, from older Scots bogill ‘hobgoblin’, ‘bogy’ (of uncertain origin, possibly Gaelic). South German (Bögle): metonymic occupational name for a bowman or bow maker, from a diminutive of Middle High German boge ‘bow’ (see Bogel), or from the pet form of a Germanic personal name formed with an element akin to Old High German bogo ‘bow’.

English: topographic name for someone who lived in or near a royal forest, or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper or worker in one. Middle English forest was not, as today, a near-synonym of wood, but referred specifically to a large area of woodland reserved by law for the purposes of hunting by the king and his nobles. The same applied to the European cognates, both Germanic and Romance. The English word is from Old French forest, Late Latin forestis (silva). This is generally taken to be a derivative of foris ‘outside’; the reference was probably to woods lying outside a habitation. On the other hand, Middle High German for(e)st has been held to be a derivative of Old High German foraha ‘fir’ (see Forster), with the addition of a collective suffix.

English and Scottish: patronymic from a Middle English male personal name: in most cases probably Allen, but other possibilities include a variant of Ellis or a short form of Alexander. In some instances, it may be from a female personal name, Alise or Alice (see Allis).

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

English and Irish: variant of Neville. English: variant of Noel. Irish (north County Kildare): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Tnúthghail ‘descendant of Tnúthgal’, a personal name composed of the elements tnúth ‘desire’, ‘envy’ + gal ‘valor’.

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

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

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

English: variant of Gentle.

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

English: topographic name for someone who lived by a pit or hollow (see Pitt) + -er, suffix denoting an inhabitant. German: variant of Peter. Jewish (from Ukraine): metonymic occupational nanme from Yiddish dialect piter ‘butter’. Compare Putterman.

Scottish and English: patronymic from Gibb.

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

English: topographic name for someone who lived at the extremity of a village, from Middle English toun ‘village’, ‘settlement’ + ende ‘end’.

English: habitational name from Pusey in Oxfordshire (formerly in Berkshire ), so called from Old English peose, piosu ‘pea(s)’ + eg ‘island’, ‘low-lying land’, or from Pewsey in Wiltshire, recorded in Domesday Book as Pevesie, apparently from the genitive case of an Old English personal name Pefe, not independently attested + Old English eg ‘island’. French: habitational name form Pusey in Haute-Saône, so named from a Gallo-Roman personal name, Pusius, + the locative suffix -acum.

Irish and Scottish: reduced form of McNeil or variant of Neill.

Altered spelling of French Minot, written thus to preserve the final -t, which is pronounced in Canadian French. English: variant of Minett.

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

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

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

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

English: habitational name from the city in Kent, which is recorded by Bede (c.730) under the names of both Dorubrevi and Hrofæcæstre. The former represents the original British name, composed of the elements duro- ‘fortress’ and briva ‘bridge’. The second represents a contracted form of this (possibly affected by folk etymological connection with Old English hrof ‘roof’) combined with an explanatory Old English cæster ‘Roman fort’ (from Latin castra ‘military camp’). There is a much smaller place in Northumbria also called Rochester, which seems to have been named in imitation of the more important one, but which is a more than occasional source of the surname. In other cases there may also have been confusion with Wroxeter in Shropshire, recorded in Domesday Book as Rochecestre.

Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAonghuis ‘descendant of Angus’, a variant of Ó hAonghusa (see Hennessy). variant of Scottish and Manx Innes.

English: patronymic from Gibb.

English and Irish (of Norman origin), and northern French: habitational name from any of several places in northern France, such as Nogent-sur-Oise, named with Latin Novientum, apparently an altered form of a Gaulish name meaning ‘new settlement’.

Scottish and English: variant of Lynn. Dutch: probably an altered form of Dutch van der Li(j)n (see Vanderlinden 3). Southeast Asian: unexplained.

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

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.

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

Dutch and Frisian: from a personal name, Frisian Hajo, Germanic Haio; or from a short form of the feminine name Hadewig, composed of the elements hadu ‘battle’, ‘strife’ + wig ‘war’. German: variant of Hey 4, 5. French: topographic name from Old French haye ‘hedge’. Scottish and English: variant spelling of Hay 1–3.

English and French (Héron): nickname for a tall, thin person resembling a heron, Middle English heiroun, heyron (Old French hairon, of Germanic origin). English: habitational name from Harome in North Yorkshire, named with Old English harum, dative plural of hær ‘rock’, ‘stone’. This surname has evidently become confused with 1. Irish: reduced form of O’Heron, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUidhrín ‘descendant of Uidhrín’, a personal name from a diminutive of odhar ‘dun’, ‘swarthy’. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEaráin (see Haren). Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Chiaráin ‘son of the servant of (Saint) Ciarán’ (see Kieran).

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

Dutch and French: from a variant of the personal name Mathias (see Matthew). English: patronymic from a pet form of Matthew.

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

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

English, etc.: variant spelling of Cook.

Gaelicized version of a surname of Norman origin, from the personal name Pagan meaning ‘rustic’. in some cases it is a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fágáin or Ó Faodhagáin, which are probably dialect forms of Ó hÓgáin (see Hogan, Hagan) and Ó hAodhagáin (see Hagan). Irish lenited f (spelled fh) is soundless, and a number of words beginning with vowels have gained an initial f in some dialects; such seems to be the case here. occasionally an Anglicized form of Mac Phaidín (see McFadden) or Ó Fiacháin (see Feehan).

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

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places, in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, and elsewhere, named Clayton, from Old English cl?g ‘clay’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

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

Scottish and northern English: of disputed origin. It is most likely from Old English (Anglian) walh ‘foreign’ (see Wallace), perhaps applied originally to the Welsh-speaking Strathclyde Britons, who survived as a separate group in Scotland well into the Middle Ages.

English and Scottish: patronymic from Daw 1. German (Däwes): either a patronymic from a personal name Davo, or a variant spelling of Tewes.

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

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

French: variant of Brissette.

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Vernon in Eure, France, named from the Gaulish element ver(n) ‘alder’ + the Gallo-Roman locative suffix -o (genitive -onis). French: habitational name from the same place as in 1 or from any of numerous other places in France with the same name and etymology.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dubhuidhir, a variant of Ó Duibhidhir (see Diver) ‘descendant of Duibhuidhir’, a personal name composed of the elements dubh ‘dark’, ‘black’ + odhar ‘sallow’, ‘tawny’.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places in southern and central England named Ashley, from Old English æsc ‘ash’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.

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

English: nickname for a wise or learned person, from Middle English wisdom ‘wisdom’.

English and Irish: variant spelling of Hales.

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

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

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

English and Scottish: occupational name for a maker or seller of pottage, from Middle English, Old French potagier (an agent noun from potage ‘stew’, ‘thick soup’), with an intrusive -n-. English and Scottish: occupational name from Old French potecaire ‘apothecary’. German: possibly a habitational name from a place called Potting in Bavaria.

English (mainly northern): patronymic from Parkin. This surname has been established in Ireland since the 17th century.

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

English: patronymic from the nickname Cousin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scottish: habitational name from Irving in Dumfries and Galloway region, which has the same origin as Irvine, with which it has become inextricably confused.

Irish: reduced form of McCreary.

Scottish: habitational name from a place near Forfar, named in Gaelic with gaothair ‘windy place’ (a derivative of gaoth ‘wind’) + the locative suffix -ach. Possibly an Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mag Uchtre ‘son of Uchtre’, a personal name of uncertain origin, perhaps akin to uchtlach ‘child’. Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Fhlaithimh ‘descendant of Flaitheamh’, a byname meaning ‘prince’. This is the result of an erroneous association of the Gaelic name in the form Ó Fhlaithimh (Fh being silent), with the Gaelic word laithigh ‘mud’, and of mud with gutters, and an equally erroneous association of the Scottish surname Guthrie with the word ‘gutter’. Compare Laffey.

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

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

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

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

English: habitational name from any of various places named with a plural or possessive derivative of Old English cumb (see Coombe).

English: patronymic from Daw 1.

English: occupational name for a watchman, Anglo-Norman French waite (of Germanic origin; compare Wachter), or from the same word in its original abstract/collective sense, ‘the watch’. There may also have been some late confusion with White.

Scottish spelling of Moody.

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

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

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

English and Irish: from the personal name Davy, a medieval French vernacular form of the Biblical name David which became common in England in the Middle Ages. Scottish: variant spelling of Davie 1. French: variant of David.

Scottish and northern Irish: reduced and altered form of McShane, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Seáin ‘son of Seán’.

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

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

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

English: from a pet form of Peter.

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

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

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

from a medieval female personal name, Mohaut, a variant of Mau(l)d (see Mould). occupational name for an official in charge of communal pasture land, Middle English moward, maward, from Old English mawe ‘meadow’ + weard ‘guardian’ (see Ward 1). habitational name from any of various places in northern France called Mon(t)haut, from Old French mont ‘hill’ (see Mont 1) + haut ‘high’ (Latin altus).

English: from Anglo-Norman French gardinier ‘gardener’. In medieval times this normally denoted a cultivator of edible produce in an orchard or kitchen garden, rather than one who tended ornamental lawns and flower beds. Americanized form of French Desjardins or German Gärtner (see Gartner).

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

English (mainly Cambridgeshire): habitational name from a place in Lincolnshire called Panton, from Old English pamp ‘hill’, ‘ridge’ or panne ‘pan’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

English (mainly London and Surrey): possibly a topographic name from Middle English hegh, hie ‘high’ + yate ‘gate’. Jewish (American): Americanized spelling of Chait.

English: from Middle English dufhus ‘dovecote’, applied as a topographic name or as a metonymic occupational name for a dove keeper. Scottish: habitational name from a place in Moray called Duffus.

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

English: occupational name for a maker or seller of rope, from an agent derivative of Old English rap ‘rope’. See also Roop. Variant of French Robert. North German (Röper): occupational name for a town crier, from an agent derivative of Middle Low German ropen ‘to call’.

English: variant spelling of Whitaker.

English: reduced form of Challender.

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

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

variant of Park 1. patronymic from Park 2.

Scottish: habitational name from Dunbar, a place on the North Sea coast near Edinburgh, named with Gaelic dùn ‘fort’ + barr ‘top’, ‘summit’.

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.

Irish: reduced form of O’Hayden, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÉideáin and Ó hÉidín ‘descendant of Éideán’ or ‘descendant of Éidín’, personal names apparently from a diminutive of éideadh ‘clothes’, ‘armor’. There was also a Norman family bearing the English name (see 2 below), living in County Wexford. English: habitational name from any of various places called Hayden or Haydon. The three examples of Haydon in Northumberland are named from Old English heg ‘hay’ + denu ‘valley’. Others, for example in Dorset, Hertfordshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire, get the name from Old English heg ‘hay’ (or perhaps hege ‘hedge’ or (ge)hæg ‘enclosure’) + dun ‘hill’. Jewish: see Heiden.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Cárthaigh ‘descendant of Cárthach’, a byname meaning ‘loving’. See also McCarthy.

English: patronymic from the personal name Wilk.

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

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

Northern Irish: variant of Scottish Murdoch.

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

Scottish and northern Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Labhrainn ‘son of Labhrann’, Gaelic form of the personal name Lawrence.

English, Scottish, and Irish: nickname from Middle English boner(e), bonour ‘gentle’, ‘courteous’, ‘handsome’ (Old French bonnaire, from the phrase de bon(ne) aire ‘of good bearing or appearance’, from which also comes modern English debonair). Welsh: Anglicized form of Welsh ap Ynyr ‘son of Ynyr’, a common medieval personal name derived from Latin Honorius. Swedish: unexplained.

(of Norman origin) variant of Tracy. variant of Treacy.

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

English: habitational name, apparently from a lost or unidentified places called Bramwell (named in Old English brom ‘broom’, ‘gorse’ + well(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’). However, it may well be a variant of Bramhall.

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

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

Scottish: reduced form of McCowen.

English: nickname for someone resembling a robin, Middle Englishnruddock (Old English ruddoc, rudduc, a diminutivenof rud(ig) ‘red’).

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

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

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

Jewish (American): Americanized form of Blumfeld, an ornamental compound of Yiddish blum ‘flower’ + feld ‘field’. English: variant of the Norman habitational name Blundeville, from Blonville-sur-Mer in Calvados, France. The first element is probably an Old Norse personal name; the second is Old French ville ‘settlement’. In the 16th and 17th centuries in England, the endings -field and -ville were often used interchangeably; one branch of the Blundeville family continued using the -ville spelling while another chose Blom(e)field or Bloomfield.

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

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

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

Anglicized form of Welsh Bach. Americanized form of German Bach.

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

Irish: of Welsh origin and uncertain etymology. It is said by its bearers to have been the name of Flemish settlers in Normandy, who took their name from a lost place, Brontegeest, near Ghent in Flanders.

English and Scottish: said to be a habitational name from Granson on Lake Neuchâtel. The first known bearer of the surname is Rigaldus de Grancione (fl. 1040). The name was taken to Britain by Otes de Grandison (died 1328) and his brother. They were among a group of Savoyards who settled in England when Henry III married a granddaughter of the Count of Savoy.

Scottish and English (Northumbria): habitational name from a place near Stow Roxburghshire, formerly called Hop(p)ringle, from Middle English hop ‘enclosed valley’ + a name of Old Norse origin composed of the byname Prjónn ‘pin’, ‘peg’ + an unidentified second element.

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

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

Scottish: variant spelling of Finley.

Northern English: habitational name from any of various places so named. Briscoe in Cumberland is named with Old Norse Bretaskógr ‘wood of the Britons’ (see Brett). Brisco in Cumberland and Briscoe in North Yorkshire are named with Old Norse birki ‘birch’ + skógr ‘wood’.

Scottish and northern Irish: variant of Rankin.

English: variant of Foulks.

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

Scottish: occupational name for someone who kept and trained falcons (see Faulkner).

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

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

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

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

English: habitational name from any of the various places with this name, as for example in Cheshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Suffolk, and North Yorkshire. For the most part these were named in Old English as ‘Mula’s settlement’, from the Old English personal name or byname Mula ‘mule’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’, but in some cases they may have been originally farms where mules were reared or kept. In the case of the Norfolk place name the first element was probably a personal name Moda, a short form of the various compound names with a first element mod ‘spirit’, ‘mind’, ‘courage’.

English: habitational name from a place in Lancashire, so named from an Old English personal name Regna or Old Scandinavian rein ‘boundary’ + Old English ford.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Brádaigh ‘descendant of Brádach’, a byname the meaning of which is not clear. It is unlikely to be connected with Gaelic bradach ‘thieving’, ‘dishonest’, which has a short first vowel.

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

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

English: habitational name from any of the many places so named, most of which are from Old English bucc ‘buck’, ‘male deer’ or bucca ‘he-goat’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’. Places called Buckley and Buckleigh, in Devon, are named with Old English boga ‘bow’ + clif ‘cliff’. English: possibly a variant of Bulkley, from the local pronunciation. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Buachalla ‘descendant of Buachaill’, a byname meaning ‘cowherd’, ‘servant’, ‘boy’. Altered spelling of German Büchler (see Buechler), or of Büchle, a variant of Buechel.

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

Variant spelling of Roy.

Perhaps an altered form of the Dutch and North German name Loo, which is also established in northern France.

English: of uncertain origin. The surname coincides in form with Latin virgo, genitive virginis ‘maiden’, from which is derived (via Old French) modern English virgin. It is possible that the surname was originally a nickname for someone who had played the part of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a mystery play. Alternatively, it may have been a nickname for a shy or girlish young man, or possibly ironically for a lecher.

English and French: from the Germanic personal name Dillo (of uncertain origin, perhaps a byname from the root dil ‘destroy’), introduced to Britain from France by the Normans. English: habitational name from Dilwyn near Hereford, recorded in 1138 as Dilun, probably from Old English diglum, dative plural of digle ‘recess’, ‘retreat’, i.e. ‘at the shady or secret places’. Irish (of Norman origin): altered form of de Leon (see Lyon). Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duilleáin ‘descendant of Duilleán’, a personal name, a variant of Dallán meaning ‘little blind one’. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): of uncertain origin; either an ornamental name from the Biblical place name Dilon (Joshua 15:38), or an altered form of Sephardic de León (see Lyon).

English, Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): patronymic from the personal name Abraham.

Variant spelling of Fraser, associated chiefly with northern Ireland.

Scottish and Irish: variant spelling of Downey.

Scottish: habitational name from a place in Lothian, originally named in Middle English as Levingston, from an owner called Levin (see Lewin 1), who appears in charters of David I in the early 12th century. Irish: name adopted as equivalent of Gaelic Ó Duinnshléibhe and Mac Duinnshléibhe (see Dunleavy). Americanized form of Jewish Lowenstein.

Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Henrique, Portuguese form of Henry.

English and Scottish: from a medieval personal name, Latin Valentinus, a derivative of Valens (see Valente), which was never common in England, but is occasionally found from the end of the 12th century, probably as the result of French influence. The name was borne by a 3rd-century saint and martyr, whose chief claim to fame is that his feast falls on February 14, the date of a traditional celebration of spring going back to the Roman fertility festival of Juno Februata. A 5th-century missionary bishop of Rhaetia of this name was venerated especially in southern Germany, being invoked as a patron against gout and epilepsy. It is probably also an Americanization of Valentin, Valentino, and possibly other European cognates.

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.

English: from a common Norman personal name, Ingram, of Germanic origin, composed of the elements Ing (the name of a Germanic god) + hraban ‘raven’.

English and Irish: variant spelling of Tyrrell.

French (Alsace): Frenchified form of German Frey. French and English: from an Old French personal name Fray, of unknown origin.

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

English: variant spelling of Earl.

English: habitational name from any of various places, in Lincolnshire, Northumberland, Staffordshire, and South Yorkshire, so called from Old English fenn ‘marsh’, ‘fen’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’ Irish: English surname adopted by bearers of Gaelic Ó Fionnachta (see Finnerty) or Ó Fiachna ‘descendant of Fiachna’, an old personal name Anglicized as Feighney and sometimes mistranslated as Hunt (see Fee). Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of various like-sounding names, for example Finkelstein (see Funke).

English: from a pet form of the personal name William.

English: topographic name for someone who lived on a heath (Middle English hethe, Old English h?ð) or a habitational name from any of the numerous places, for example in Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and West Yorkshire, named with this word. The same word also denoted heather, the characteristic plant of heathland areas. This surname has also been established in Dublin since the late 16th century.

Irish (Galway): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Madáin ‘descendant of Madán’, a reduced form of Madadhán, from madadh ‘dog’ (see Madigan).

Northern English and Scottish: habitational name from a place called Copeland, of which there is an example in Cumbria, or from Coupland in Northumberland, both named with Old Norse kaupa-land ‘bought land’, a feature worthy of note during the early Middle Ages, when land was rarely sold, but rather held by feudal tenure and handed down from one generation to the next.

Northern Irish (Ulster) and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille Íosa, patronymic from a personal name meaning ‘servant of Jesus’.

Scottish: habitational name from a feudal barony in the former county of Perthshire, named from a British cognate of Gaelic ràth ‘fortress’ + a Pictish term cognate with Welsh tref ‘settlement’.

Scottish and (less frequently) Irish: from the Gaelic personal name Aonghus, said to be composed of Celtic aon ‘one’ + gus ‘choice’. This was borne by an Irish god and a famous 8th-century Pictish king. It is also the name of a county on Tayside (named after him); in some cases the surname may be a regional name from this county.

English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the numerous places so called. The vast majority, including those in Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Dumfries, County Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Oxfordshire, Sussex, and West Yorkshire, are named from Old English denu ‘valley’ (see Dean 1) + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. An isolated example in Northamptonshire appears in Domesday Book as Dodintone ‘settlement associated with Dodda’.

Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from a place so called from Old English fuglere ‘bird-catcher’ (see Fowler) + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. There is a place with this spelling in Hampshire, but the surname derives chiefly if not exclusively from Fullarton in Ayrshire, Scotland.

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

English: variant spelling of Royle. Americanized form of German Reul or Reule. Possibly also an Americanized form of Spanish and Portuguese Real.

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

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

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

English: from a pet form of Sten, a reduced form of Steven.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mag Fhionnbhairr ‘son of Fionnbharr’, a personal name composed of fionn ‘fair’, ‘white’ + barr ‘top’, ‘head’. Welsh and English: from the female personal name Gaenor (a form of Welsh Gwenhwyfar, a compound of gwen ‘fair’, ‘white’ + (g)wyf ‘smooth’, ‘yielding’ + fawr ‘large’. This was the name of King Arthur’s queen Guinevere).

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Charlton, mainly in southern England, from Old English Ceorlatun ‘settlement (Old English tun) of the peasants’. Old English ceorl denoted originally a free peasant of the lowest rank, later (but probably already before the Norman conquest) a tenant in pure villeinage, a serf or bondsman. Irish: altered form of Carlin.

English and Scottish: habitational name from places in Lancashire, Northumberland, and East Lothian, originally named in Old English as Hwitingaham ‘homestead (Old English ham) of the people of Hwita’, a byname meaning ‘white’.

Scottish and northern Irish: from a short form of the personal name Robert.

English: patronymic from Perkin, also found throughout mid and south Wales. Dutch: patronymic from a pet form of Peer, a Dutch form of Peter.

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

English: habitational name from the city of Derby, the county seat of Derbyshire, but also from the much smaller place called West Derby in Lancashire. Both are named from Old Norse djúr ‘deer’ + býr ‘farm’, ‘settlement’. The usual spelling of the surname represents the pronunciation of both the place name and the surname. Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Diarmada (or Mac Diarmada) ‘descendant (or ‘son’) of Diarmaid’, a personal name meaning ‘freeman’. See also Dermott, Macdermott. Insofar as Gaelic Ó Duibhdhiormaigh was sometimes reinterpreted as Ó Diarmada, Darby could also be an Anglicization of this name too. The English surname is also established in Ireland, having been taken to County Leix in the 16th century.

English: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Janyn, Jenyn, a pet form of John. German: patronymic from a pet form of the personal name Johannes (see John).

English (mainly East Midlands): habitational name from any of various places. Melbourne in former East Yorkshire is recorded in Domesday Book as Middelburne, from Old English middel ‘middle’ + burna ‘stream’; the first element was later replaced by the cognate Old Norse meðal. Melbourne in Derbyshire has as its first element Old English mylen ‘mill’, and Melbourn in Cambridgeshire probably Old English melde ‘milds’, a type of plant.

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.

Irish: variant spelling of Roach 2.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Diarmada ‘son of Diarmaid’, a personal name possibly composed of the separative prefix di- + farmat ‘envy’, hence meaning ‘free from envy’. This name was borne in Celtic legend by the lover of Gráinne, and, in historical times, by Diarmaid Mac Murchadha, the 12th-century king of Leinster whose appeal to the English for support led directly to the Anglo-Norman presence in Ireland. Mac Diarmada was an important name in Connacht.

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

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

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

English and southern Scottish: topographic name from Middle English blak(e) ‘black’, ‘dark’ + stok ‘stump’, ‘stock’.

English: variant of Cordner. Americanized form of Jewish Kodner, a habitational name for someone from Kodnya, a place in Ukraine.

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

regional name from the county of Cornwall, which is named with the Old English tribal name Cornwealas. This is from Kernow (the term that the Cornish used to refer to themselves, a word of uncertain etymology, perhaps connected with a Celtic element meaning ‘horn’, ‘headland’), + Old English wealas ‘strangers’, ‘foreigners’, the term used by the Anglo-Saxons for British-speaking people. variant of Cornwell.

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

Northern English: habitational name from Bowes (formerly in North Yorkshire, now in County Durham), or from some other place so called, the place name being derived from the plural of Old English boga ‘bow’, here referring to bends in a river (see Bow). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Buadhaigh (see Bogue).

(Ulster) Anglicized form of Scottish Mac Neachtain, which is usually Anglicized as McNaughton. part translation of Gaelic Mac an Ridire ‘son of the horseman (Gaelic ridire)’.

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

Scottish: variant of Mickle.

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

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

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

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

Americanized form of French and Swiss French Grisel or Grizel, derivatives of Gris, from Old French gris ‘gray’, hence a nickname for a man with gray hair, a gray complexion, or who habitually wore gray.

English (northeastern England and Scotland): variant of Hyslop.

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

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

English: local name for someone who lived in a small cottage or temporary dwelling, Middle English logge (Old French loge, of Germanic origin). The term was used in particular of a cabin erected by masons working on the site of a particular construction project, such as a church or cathedral, and so it was probably in many cases equivalent to an occupational name for a mason. Reaney suggests that one early form, atte Logge, might sometimes have denoted the warden of a masons’ lodge.

Scottish: occupational name for an officer of the courts whose functions resembled those of an English beadle (i.e. a minor official who dealt with petty offenders) and who was known as a mair. Compare Mayer 1. Reaney remarks that this title was used not only of the king’s herald or sergeant but also of such officers as a head forester. Jewish: variant of Meyer 2.

English and Scottish: nickname for a person with a sunny temperament. Compare Merryweather. There is a legend that a Scottish family of Highland origin assumed this name in punning allusion to Job 37:22, ‘Fair weather cometh out of the north’. At the present time the surname is most frequent in East Anglia.

English: habitational name from places in Cambridgeshire, Kent, Northumbria, and North Yorkshire; most are so named from Old English Ellingtun ‘settlement (Old English tun) associated with Ella’, a short form of the various compound names with a first element ælf ‘elf’, but the one in Kent has its first element from the Old English byname Ealda meaning ‘old’.

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

Welsh: variant spelling of Reese.

English: topographic name for someone who lived on the border between two territories, especially in the Marches between England and Wales or England and Scotland, from Anglo-Norman French marche ‘boundary’ (of Germanic origin; compare Mark 2). In some cases, the surname may be a habitational name from March in Cambridgeshire, which was probably named from the locative case of Old English mearc ‘boundary’. English: from a nickname or personal name for someone who was born or baptized in the month of March (Middle English, Old French march(e), Latin Martius (mensis), from the name of the god Mars) or who had some other special connection with the month, such as owing a feudal obligation then. Catalan: from the personal name March, Catalan equivalent of Mark 1.

English (chiefly Lancashire): occupational name for a whitewasher, from an agent derivative of Old English hwitian ‘to whiten’.

English (Lancashire): habitational name from Fairclough Farm near Clitheroe in Lancashire, named in Middle English as fair clough ‘beautiful ravine’ (see Clough).

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

English: variant of Goldstone 2 and 3.

English: from the Old English personal name Tata, possibly a short form of various compound names with the obscure first element tat, or else a nursery formation. This surname is common and widespread in Britain; the chief area of concentration is northeastern England, followed by northern Ireland.

Scottish: habitational name from a place called Carnegie, near Carmyllie in Angus, probably named in Gaelic as cathair an eige ‘fort at the gap’.

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

French and Hungarian (Fráter): status name for a member a religious order, especially a mendicant order; alternatively, possibly a nickname for a pious person or for someone employed in a monastery, from a Latinized form of Old French fratre ‘brother’, Hungarian fráter (from Latin frater).

Scottish and English: status name for a farmer who held his land from an overlord by obligations of rent or service, from Old French, Middle English tenant (present participle of Old French tenir ‘to hold’, Latin tenere). This was the normal situation for landholders in the Middle Ages, since in the feudal system all land belonged ultimately to the king and use of it was granted in return for financial or military support.

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

Irish: reduced form of O’Shields, an alternative Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Siadhail ‘descendant of Siadhal’. Northern English and Scottish: habitational name from a pair of places in Northumberland and County Durham (now both in Tyne and Wear) called North and South Shields, named with Middle English schele ‘shed’, ‘hut’, ‘shelter’. There has been much confusion between Shields and Shield and their variants.

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

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the dale,' from residence therein. Dale is a common suffix in place-names; compare Dunderdale, Tyndale, Martindale, Tweedall, &c.Ralph de la Dale, Suffolk 1273. Hundred Rolls.

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

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

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

English: from the Middle English personal name Asheman (Old English Æscmann, probably originally a byname from æscman ‘seaman’ or ‘pirate’, i.e. one who sailed in an ash-wood boat). Americanized spelling of German Aschmann, an occupational name from Middle High German aschman ‘kitchen servant’ or ‘boatman’. Variant of German and Swiss Eschmann.

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

English: from Anglo-Norman French cas(s)e ‘case’, ‘container’ (from Latin capsa), hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of boxes or chests. Americanized spelling of French Caisse. Americanized spelling of Kaas. Americanized spelling of German Käse, a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of cheese. Compare Kaeser.

Scottish: variant spelling of Fife.

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

Scottish: habitational name from a place near Denholm in the Borders, originally named with British minit (cognate with Welsh mynydd ‘hill’), with the later addition of Middle English ho(e) ‘ridge’, ‘hill’ after the original meaning of the first element had been forgotten.

habitational name, either a variant of Madeley (a name common to several places, including one in Shropshire and two in Staffordshire), named in Old English as ‘Mada’s clearing’, from an unattested byname, Mada (probably a derivative of mad ‘foolish’) + leah ‘woodland clearing’; or from Medley on the Thames in Oxfordshire, named in Old English with middel ‘middle’ + eg ‘island’. nickname for an aggressive person, from Middle English, Old French medlee ‘combat’, ‘conflict’ (Late Latin misculata).

Scottish: patronymic meaning ‘son (or servant) of the dean’ (see Dean).

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

'What craftsman art thou?' said the king.

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

German (Maiss): topographic name from Middle High German meiz ‘cleared land’. Dutch: from a short form of the personal name Thomas.

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

English (chiefly southern): patronymic from Law 1.

English: variant of Whitley.

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

Swedish (Wallén): from vall ‘grassy bank’, ‘pasture’ (see Wall) + the common surname suffix -én, from Latin -enius.

English: habitational name from any of several places called Dockray, of which there are four examples in Cumbria. A possible origin of the place name is Old Norse d{o,}kk ‘hollow’, ‘valley’ + vrá ‘isolated place’; the first element is, however, more likely to be Old English docce ‘dock’ (the plant). Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Dochraidh ‘descendant of Dochradh’, a personal name that is a variant of Dochartach (see Doherty).

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Gairbhshíth ‘descendant of Gairbhshíth’, a personal name from garbh ‘rough’, ‘cruel’ + síth ‘peace’. See also McGarvey.

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

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

English: habitational name from a place in Lancashire named Freckleton, from an Old English personal name Frecia + tun ‘farmstead’, ‘settlement’.

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

Scottish: habitational name from Cargill, a place in eastern Perthshire.

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

occupational name for a custodian of holy relics (which was normally a hereditary office), from Gaelic deoradh ‘pilgrim’, ‘stranger’. habitational name from Dewar, a place near Dalkeith, of uncertain origin.

Swiss French: unexplained. Perhaps a variant spelling of Laty, a habitational name from any of various minor places in Puy-de-Dôme so named.

Scottish and English: of uncertain origin, possibly a nickname for an ungracious individual, from Anglo-Norman French maltalent, mautalent ‘bad temper’ (Late Latin malum ‘bad’ + talentum ‘inclination’, ‘disposition’). However, there is a place called Mautalant in Pontorson, France, which was named for its unproductive soil, and this may well be a partial source of the surname, particularly in Scotland where many historical examples of the name are written with the preposition de. The present spelling is the result of a contracted pronunciation and folk etymological identification with the common topographic element land.

English: patronymic from Wilkin.

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

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

English: topographic name for someone who lived in the eastern part of a town or settlement, or outside it to the east, or a regional name for someone who had migrated from the east of a place. As an American family name, this surname has absorbed various other European names with similar meaning.

Welsh: from the Welsh personal name Llywelyn (anciently Lugobelinos), probably derived from the element llyw ‘leader’, although the exact formation is unclear. This was the name of two princes of North Wales who held the Normans at bay for many years in the 13th century. Etymologically speaking, the form with a fourth -l- is an error, not found as an original Welsh name, but this is now much the most common spelling in the U.S.

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

English: nickname, possibly for a small person, from Middle English pink, penk ‘minnow’ (Old English pinc). English (southeastern): variant of Pinch. Variant spelling of German Pinck, an indirect occupational name for a blacksmith, an onomatopoeic word imitating the sound of hammering which was perceived as pink(e)pank. German (of Slavic origin): from a diminutive of Sorbian pien ‘log’, ‘tree stump’, hence probably a nickname for a solid or stubby person.

Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Dubhghaill ‘son of Dubhghall’, a byname meaning ‘dark stranger’, used among the Gaels to distinguish the darker-haired Danes from fair-haired Norwegians. According to MacLysaght, this is the Irish form of the name of the Scottish clan McDougall, borne by a branch which went to Ireland from the Hebrides as mercenaries. However, Black shows that both forms were current in Scotland.

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

English: patronymic from a reduced form of Philip.

English: patronymic from the personal name Atkin.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places so called, of which there are examples in at least sixteen counties. All get their names from Old English mersc ‘marsh’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

Scottish and English: habitational name from any of the various places so called. A Scottish place of this name near Longniddry is so named because it was held from the 12th century by a Norman family de Sey, from Say in Indre. Other places of this name, for example those in Cumbria, Devon, County Durham, Northumbria, and Yorkshire, are mostly named with Old English s? ‘sea’, ‘lake’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. One in Rutland seems to have as its first element a stream name, S?ge (see Seabrook), or a personal name S?ga. One in Kent is named with Old English seten ‘plantation’, ‘cultivated land’.

From the old barony of the same name in Moray. The first of the family was Willelmus de Rypeley, an Englishman, who obtained a grant or confirmation of the lands of Dolays Mykel from William the Lion (Dallas, p. 28). Archebaldus de Doleys appears as juror on an inquisition on the lands of Mefth in 1262 (APS.

Portuguese or Galician: patronymic from the personal name Nuno.

Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from a place in Renfrewshire, now a suburb of Glasgow. It is first recorded in 1157 as Passeleth, then in 1158 as Paisleth and in 1163 as Passelet, Passelay; it may be derived from Late Latin basilica ‘church’.

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

reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Leannáin ‘descendant of Leannán’, a byname meaning ‘little cloak’ (less likely, ‘sweetheart’). reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Lonáin ‘descendant of Lonán’, a personal name from a diminutive of lon ‘blackbird’.

English and northern Irish: variant spelling of Givens, itself a variant of Given.

German (also Gunther, Günt(h)er) and English: from the Germanic personal name Gunter (Old French Gontier), composed of the elements gund ‘battle’ + hari, heri ‘army’.

Scottish: habitational name from any of the places in southern Scotland so called, from northern Middle English muir ‘moor’ + heid ‘head’, ‘end’.

English and Dutch: variant spelling of Burger.

habitational name for someone from a place named as ‘the wood with a mill in it’. variant of Millward.

English: from Middle English co(o)te ‘coot’, applied as a nickname for a bald or stupid man. The bird was regarded as bald because of the large white patch, an extension of the bill, on its head. It is less easy to say how it acquired the reputation for stupidity.

English (mainly southwestern England): variant of Bryan.

Scottish: variant spelling of Finley.

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

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

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

Scottish and northern Irish: patronymic from James.

English: variant spelling of Park, found mainly in northern Ireland.

This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Bingham' a parish in the Diocese of Southwell, Nottinghamshire.John de Byngham, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.Joanna de Byngham, Somerset, 1 Edward III: ibid.

English: occupational name for a medieval court official, from Middle English bedele (Old English bydel, reinforced by Old French bedel). The word is of Germanic origin, and akin to Old English beodan ‘to command’ and Old High German bodo ‘messenger’. In the Middle Ages a beadle in England and France was a junior official of a court of justice, responsible for acting as an usher in a court, carrying the mace in processions in front of a justice, delivering official notices, making proclamations (as a sort of town crier), and so on. By Shakespeare’s day a beadle was a sort of village constable, appointed by the parish to keep order.

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

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

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

Scottish and northern Irish: from the medieval personal name Lagman, which is from Old Norse Logmaðr, composed of log, plural of lag ‘law’ (from leggja ‘to lay down’) + maðr, ‘man’ (genitive manns). French: habitational name from places called Amont, in Haute-Saône and Haute-Vienne.

Scottish: probably a habitational name from some minor place named with Gaelic làban ‘muddy place’.

Americanized spelling of the French topographic name Garrigue (see Garrigues). Scottish: variant of Garioch, a habitational name from the district in Aberdeenshire so named. English: habitational name from Garwick in Lincolnshire, named from an Old English personal name G?ra + Old English wic ‘(dairy) farm’.

Probably an altered spelling of German Rühl (see Ruhl) or Rühle (see Ruhle).

English: patronymic from Master. Reaney notes the medieval example atte Maysters (1327), and suggests this might have denoted someone who lived at a master’s house, a master’s servant or perhaps an apprentice.

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from a place La Manche in France, so named from Old French mont ‘hill’ (see Mont 1) + agu ‘pointed’ (Latin acutus, from acus ‘needle’, ‘point’). Irish: English surname adopted as equivalent of Gaelic Mac Taidhg, a patronymic from the byname Tadhg (see McTigue).

English and Scottish: variant spelling of Sadler.

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

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

Scottish: variant of Hugh. This was at one time the usual form of the personal name in Scotland. English: status name for a domestic servant, Middle English hewe, a singular form derived from a plural noun hewen (Old English hiwan) ‘members of a household’, ‘domestic servants’.

English (chiefly in the West Midlands): topographic name for someone who lived by an extensive (Middle English long) marsh or fen (Middle English more).

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

Scottish: from an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Fearsithe, composed of the elements fear ‘man’ + sith ‘peace’. Some early forms with prepositions, as for example William de Fersith (Edinburgh 1365), seem to point to an alternative origin as a habitational name, but no place name of suitable form is known. The spelling Forsythe is associated chiefly with northern Ireland.

Welsh: variant of Evan, with the addition of an inorganic initial H-. Irish (County Offaly): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEimhín ‘descendant of Eimhín’, possibly a diminutive of éimh ‘swift’, ‘prompt’, ‘ready’.

Northern English and Scottish: habitational name from Hebron, or Hebburn in County Durham, so named from Old English heah ‘high’ + byrgen ‘burial mound’, ‘tumulus’.

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Ivoy in Cher, northern France.

English: patronymic from a pet form of the personal name Samuel.

English: variant of Ellwood.

English: variant of Rowbottom.

Americanized spelling of German Hausen.

English: occupational name for a roofer, from Old French co(u)vreur, an agent derivative of co(u)vrir ‘to cover’ (Latin cooperire). Roofing materials in the Middle Ages might be tiles (see Tyler), slates (see Slater), or thatch (see Thatcher), depending on the regional availability of suitable materials. English (of Norman origin): occupational name for a maker of barrels and tubs, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Old French cuve ‘vat’, ‘tub’ (Late Latin cupa, of Germanic origin; compare Cooper). Americanized spelling of German Kober.

(of Norman origin): habitational name from a metathesized form of Plouquenet in Ille-et-Villaine, Brittany, so named from Breton plou ‘parish’ (from Latin plebs ‘people’) + Guenec, the personal name (a diminutive of guen ‘white’) of a somewhat obscure saint. As an Irish name, it has been Gaelicized as Pluincéid. alternatively, it may be a metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller of blankets, from Middle English blaunket (Anglo-Norman French blancquet, a diminutive of blanc ‘white’), but replacement of b by p is not usual in English.

English (West Midlands): unexplained.

English: from the medieval female personal name Mariot, a pet form of Mary (see Marie).

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

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

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

French: habitational name for someone from Rhonne in Savoy, or topographic name for someone who lived by the Rhône river. English: apparently a variant spelling of Rone. German: variant spelling of Rohne, a variant of Rohn.

English: variant spelling of Burrows.

English: occupational name for a gamekeeper or warden, from Middle English ranger, an agent derivative of range(n) ‘to arrange or dispose’. German: variant of Rang 2, 3. German: habitational name for someone from any of the places named Rangen, in Alsace, Bavaria, and Hesse. French: from a Germanic personal name formed with rang, rank ‘curved’, ‘bent’; ‘slender’.

English, Dutch, and German: variant of Lock. Dutch (van Locke): habitational name from any of various places called Loock, from look ‘enclosure’.

English: habitational name from Careby in Lincolnshire, which is named with the Old English personal name Kári + býr ‘farmstead’, ‘village’. Swedish and Danish: habitational name from places in Sweden and Denmark named Karby, from karl ‘(free)man’ + býr ‘village’. Possibly an Americanized spelling of German Gerbig.

Scottish: variant of McLafferty.

nickname for someone with a peculiarity or deformity of the foot, from Middle English fot (Old English fot), or in some cases from the cognate Old Norse byname Fótr. topographic name for someone who lived at the foot of a hill.

English: from the Norman personal name Godefrei, Godefroi(s), composed of the Germanic elements god, got ‘god’ + frid(u), fred ‘peace’. See also Jeffrey. Americanized form of Irish Mac Gothraidh or Ó Gothraidh, patronymics from the Irish equivalent of Godfrey (see 1 above), borrowed from the Vikings. Americanized form of the French surname Godefroi, of the same origin as 1.

English: unexplained.

English: habitational name from any of several places so named in Cheshire and Lancashire, which get their names from an ancient British word meaning ‘church’ (see Eccles) + Old English tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

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

English (West Midlands): most probably a variant of Nathan, altered by folk etymology under the influence of the English vocabulary word nation.

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

English (chiefly West Country): from Middle English bolt ‘bolt’, ‘bar’ (Old English bolt ‘arrow’). In part this may have originated as a nickname or byname for a short but powerfully built person, in part as a metonymic occupational name for a maker of bolts. Danish: variant of Boldt. Variant of Bold. German: from a short form of the personal names Baldwin or Reinbold.

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

English, Scottish, and Irish (chiefly northern Ireland): variant of Little.

English (Northumbria) and Scottish: variant of Stoddard.

Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gobhann (Scottish) and Mac Gabhann (Irish) ‘son of the smith’.

English: from Middle English schak(k)en ‘to brandish’ + speer ‘spear’, nickname for a belligerent person or perhaps a bawdy nickname for an exhibitionist or womanizer.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Iain, patronymic from Iain, one of the Gaelic forms of John. This name is found in many other spellings, including McCain, Kean, and McKean. In some cases it may also be a variant of Coyne. English: variant spelling of Cane. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Caen in Calvados, France, named with the Gaulish elements catu ‘battle’ + magos ‘field’, ‘plain’. French (Caïn): from the Biblical name Cain (Hebrew Qayin), probably applied as a derogatory nickname for someone who was considered to be treacherous. Spanish (Caín): habitational name from a place called Caín in León.

Irish: variant of McCleary.

English (now mainly East Midlands) and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived on land belonging to the Church, from northern Middle English kirk ‘church’ + land ‘land’. There are several villages named with these elements, for example in Cumbria, and in some cases the surname will have arisen from these. Exceptionally, Kirkland in Lancashire has as its second element Old Norse lundr ‘grove’.

Scottish: habitational name from a place in Perthshire, named in Gaelic as ‘hill pasture (above) the Teith’, from monadh ‘hill pasture’ + Teith, a river name of obscure origin. This name was introduced to Ulster, where it is now quite numerous in certain areas, particularly County Tyrone.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places in northern England named Bolton, especially the one in Lancashire, from Old English boðl ‘dwelling’, ‘house’ (see Bold 2) + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

Scottish: variant of McGee.

English: status name from Old French chambrelain, Norman French cambrelanc, cambrelen(c) ‘chamberlain’ (of Germanic origin, from kamer ‘chamber’, ‘room’, Latin camera (see Chambers) + the diminutive suffix -(l)ing). This was originally the name of an official in charge of the private chambers of his master.

English, French, and German: from an Old French personal name of uncertain etymology. It appears to be a byname meaning ‘steadfast’, ‘enduring’, from the present participle of Old French (de)morer ‘to remain or stay’, but this may be no more than the reworking under the influence of folk etymology of a Germanic personal name. The later may be from the elements mod ‘courage’ + hramn ‘raven’. Another possibility is derivation from Latin Maurus + suffix -andus (following the pattern of names formed from a verbal noun, such as Amandus). French: habitational name, a variant of Morand.

English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived by a bush or hedge of hawthorn (Old English haguþorn, hægþorn, i.e. thorn used for making hedges and enclosures, Old English haga, (ge)hæg), or a habitational name from a place named with this word, such as Hawthorn in County Durham. In Scotland the surname originated in the Durham place name, and from Scotland it was taken to Ireland. This spelling is now found primarily in northern Ireland.

English: patronymic for the son of a vicar or, perhaps in most cases, an occupational name for the servant of a vicar (see Vicker). In many cases it may represent an elliptical form of a topographic name. Compare Parsons.

English: habitational name from either of two places called Warmington. The one in Warwickshire was named in Old English as W?rmundingtun ‘settlement (Old English tun) associated with W?rmund’. That in Northamptonshire was Wyrmingtun ‘settlement associated with Wyrm’, an unattested byname meaning ‘serpent’, ‘dragon’.

English: variant of Wolcott.

English (Bristol, Gwent): from Middle English tresor ‘treasure’, ‘wealth’, ‘riches’ (Old French trésor, from Latin thesaurus ‘hoard’), hence a metonymic occupational name for a treasurer or person in charge of financial administration, or an affectionate nickname for a loved or valued person.

Scottish: habitational name from a place near Dalkeith named Cranston, from the genitive case of the Old English byname Cran meaning ‘crane’ + Old English tun ‘settlement’.

English: patronymic from Ellis.

English: habitational name from places in Derbyshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, so named from Old English ned ‘need’, ‘hardship’ + ham ‘homestead’, i.e. a place that provided a poor living. Irish (County Mayo): English surname adopted as an equivalent of Irish Ó Niadh (see Nee).

habitational name from any of the various places bearing this name, for example in Essex (Haltesteda in Domesday Book), Kent, and Leicestershire, all of which are probably named from Old English h(e)ald ‘refuge’, ‘shelter’ + stede ‘site’, or possibly Hawstead in Suffolk, which has the same origin. However, the name is now most frequent in Lancashire and Yorkshire, where it is from High Halstead in Burnley, named as the ‘site of a hall’, from Old English h(e)all ‘hall’ + stede ‘place’. occupational name for someone employed at ‘the hall buildings’, Middle English hallested, an ostler or cowhand, for instance.

habitational name from any of the numerous places named with Old English lang ‘long’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘glade’; or a topographic name with the same meaning. English: from the Old Norse female personal name Langlíf, composed of the elements lang ‘long’ + líf ‘life’. Americanized spelling of French Langlais.

Scottish: habitational name from a place in the parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire. The first element of the place name is of uncertain origin, apparently the genitive case of a personal name; the second is probably Old English denu ‘valley’.

English: habitational name from Ormsby in Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire, or Ormesby in Norfolk, all named from the genitive case of the Old Norse personal name Ormr (see Orme 1) + Old Norse býr ‘farm’, ‘settlement’.

English (mainly northern): habitational name from any of various places so called. Several, in particular those in Hampshire, Kent, and Devon, are named from Old English heorot ‘hart’, ‘stag’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. One in Northumberland has as the second element Old English hlaw ‘hill’, and one in Cumbria contains Old English cla ‘claw’, in the sense of a tongue of land between two streams, + probably heard ‘hard’. The surname is widely distributed, but most common in Yorkshire, where it arose from a place near Haworth, West Yorkshire, also named with Old English heorot + leah. As a Scottish name, it comes from the Cumbrian Hartley (see forebears note). Irish: shortened Anglicized form of or surname adopted as equivalent of Gaelic Ó hArtghaile ‘descendant of Artghal’, a personal name composed of the elements Art ‘bear’, ‘hero’ + gal ‘valor’.

English and Irish: variant of Miles.

Scottish: habitational name from any of various places called Comrie, of which there are examples in Fife and Perthshire. All are named with Gaelic comarach, from comar ‘confluence’, ‘river-fork’ + the locative suffix -ach.

Scottish and English: variant spelling of Main. Irish: mainly of Norman English origin (see Main 3–6) but in County Fermanagh used sometimes to represent McManus. French: variant of Maine.

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Airaines in Somme, so named from Latin harenas (accusative case) ‘sands’. The form of the name has been altered as a result of folk etymology, an association of the name with the metal.

English and German: patronymic from John. As a German name it may also be a reduced form of Johannes. Americanized form of Swiss German Schantz.

English (chiefly West Country): occupational name for a weaver, early Middle English webber, agent derivative of Webb. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Weber.

German: variant of Weis 1. Altered spelling of German Wiese.

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

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

Jewish: patronymic from Aaron.

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

English: from a pet form of Tom, a short form of the personal name Thomas.

French: occupational name for a blacksmith or worker in iron, from Old French ferron ‘blacksmith’ (Latin ferro, genitive ferronis, a derivative of ferrum ‘iron’). Italian: from an augmentative of Ferro. Possibly also a reduced form of northern Irish McFerron.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places in southern and central England named with the Old English elements ac ‘oak’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’.

Scottish: regional name from Galloway in southwestern Scotland, named as ‘place of the foreign Gaels’, from Gaelic gall ‘foreigner’ + Gaidheal ‘Gael’. From the 8th century or before it was a province of Anglian Northumbria. In the 9th century it was settled by mixed Gaelic-Norse inhabitants from the Hebrides and Isle of Man.

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

Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the surname Shim. Some sources indicate that there are 63 different Shim clans, but only six can be documented. Each of these clans claims a different founding ancestor. The founding ancestor of at least one of them, the P’ungsan Shim clan, originated in China. Most of the other Shim clans came into being during the Koryo period (918–1392). Members of the Shim clans can be found throughout the Korean peninsula.

Scottish: from a medieval personal name Kid, a variant of Kit, a pet form of Christopher. English: from Middle English kid(e) ‘young goat’, hence a nickname for a frisky person or a metonymic occupational name for a goatherd. English: metonymic occupational name for a seller of faggots, from Middle English kidde ‘faggot’ (of unknown origin).

Portuguese: respelling of Portuguese Rodrigues and possibly also of Spanish Rodríguez (see Rodriguez).

from the personal name Ewart, an Anglo-Norman French form of Edward. occupational name for a shepherd, from Middle English ewehirde, from Old English eowu ‘ewe’ + hierde ‘herdsman’. habitational name from a place in Northumbria named Ewart, from Old English ea ‘river’ + wor{dh} ‘enclosure’; it is enclosed on three sides by the rivers Glen and Till.

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

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

English: patronymic from Parkin. Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish names.

English: habitational name from a lost or unidentified minor place, possibly in East Anglia, where the name is most common, and probably so called from Old English gara ‘gore’, ‘triangular piece of land’ + wudu ‘wood’.

Scottish and northern Irish: there is a place of this name in Nairn, but the name is more likely to be a patronymic from Geddie.

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

Welsh: from fychan, a lenited form of bychan, a diminutive of bach ‘little’. This was often used to distinguish the younger of two bearers of the same personal name, typically the son of a father with the same name.

English: patronymic from Park 2.

English: variant spelling of Forman 1 and 2. Respelling of North German Formann, a variant of Fuhrmann.

Scottish: patronymic from Mander 1.

Scottish: variant spelling of McEwen.

English: variant of Peiser.

German: of uncertain origin; possibly a nickname for a pious person from Middle High German hoch sanc ‘chanting’, ‘songs of praise’.

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

English (also frequent in Wales): patronymic from the personal name Watkin.

Irish: variant spelling of Ratigan.

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

English: habitational name from any of the various places in northern England named with the Middle English elements newe ‘new’ + by ‘farm’, ‘settlement’ (of Old Norse origin).

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

English: variant spelling of Dice.

English and Scottish: from the Middle English personal name Dodde, Dudde, Old English Dodda, Dudda, which remained in fairly widespread and frequent use in England until the 14th century. It seems to have been originally a byname, but the meaning is not clear; it may come from a Germanic root used to describe something round and lumpish—hence a short, plump man. Irish: of English origin, taken to Sligo in the 16th century by a Shropshire family; also sometimes adopted by bearers of the Gaelic name Ó Dubhda (see Dowd).

English: variant of Grove 1.

Northern Irish spelling of Leckie.

Southern English: habitational name from some minor place so called, probably from Old English read ‘red’ + wudu ‘wood’. The reference is probably to birch trees as they appear in the spring.

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

English: variant of Flemings.

English: patronymic from Flower 1.

English: habitational name for someone from a place in Herefordshire named Weobley, from an unattested Old English personal name, Wiobba + leah ‘woodland clearing’.

habitational name from a place in the parish of Wigan (now in Greater Manchester), so called from Old English mearc ‘boundary’ + lanu ‘lane’. topographic name for someone who lived by a stretch of border or boundary land (see Mark 2) or a status name for someone who held land with an annual value of one mark.

Jewish, English, and German: from the Biblical Hebrew personal name Natan ‘given’ (i.e. by God). Sometimes this is also a Jewish short form of Jonathan or Nathaniel. The personal name was comparatively rare among non-Jews in the Middle Ages (although always common among Jews); as a modern surname it is most frequently Jewish.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEodhusa ‘descendant of Eodhus’; this was the name of a bardic family associated with the Maguires of Fermanagh, also Anglicized as Oswell, Oswald. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Houssaye in Seine-Maritime, so called from a collective noun from Old French hous ‘holly’. English: nickname for a woman who was mistress of her own household, from Middle English husewif (a compound of Old English hus ‘house’ + wif ‘woman’). It was not until the 17th century that this word acquired pejorative connotations.

Welsh: patronymic from Owen, with English patronymic -s. Irish: adopted as an Anglicized form by bearers of the Gaelic surname Mac Eoghain (see McEwen).

Scottish: habitational name from the barony of Colquhoun in Dumbartonshire. The name appears to derive from Gaelic còil, cùil ‘nook’, ‘corner’, or coill(e) ‘wood’ + cumhann ‘narrow’. The usual Scottish pronunciation is ka-hoon.

English: topographic name for someone who lived in a dense forest, from Middle English grene ‘green’ + wode ‘wood’, or a habitational name from a minor place so named, as for example Greenwood in Heathfield, East Sussex. English translation of Ashkenazic Jewish Grünholz, an ornamental compound of German grün ‘green’ + Holz ‘wood’, and probably of German Grünwald (see Gruenwald). English translation of French Boisvert.

Chinese : variant of Yu 2. Chinese : variant of Yu 4. Chinese : variant of Yi 2. Korean: variant of Yi 1. Filipino: unexplained.

English: topographic name, from Middle English newe ‘new’ + land ‘land’, for someone who lived by a patch of land recently brought into cultivation or recently added to the village, or a habitational name from any of a number of settlements called Newland for this reason. Translation of Scandinavian Nyland or of German Neuland and North German Nieland, from any of several habitational names from places named Neuland or Nieland(e) in Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.

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

habitational name from any of various places named Whittle, especially one in Lancashire, named from Old English hwit ‘white’ + hyll ‘hill’. variant of Whitwell.

English and Scottish: variant of Firth.

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

Southern English: variant of Beech (see Beach), the -er suffix having a locative sense. Americanized form of German Bücher (cognate with 1) (see Bucher).

Scottish: variant of Innes.

from the personal name (Latin Titus, probably Etruscan in origin). The name was popular in the Middle Ages since it had been borne by a disciple of St. Paul who became bishop of Crete. from a short form of a Germanic personal name (see Tittel 2).

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

English: variant spelling of Dear. Scottish: habitational name from (Old and New) Deer in Aberdeenshire. Hungarian: variant of Dér, from the secular personal name.

English: variant spelling of Goff.

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

German, Swedish, and English: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements wald ‘rule’ + heri, hari ‘army’. The personal name was introduced into England from France by the Normans in the form Walt(i)er, Waut(i)er.

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

Irish: reduced form of McSweeney, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Suibhne ‘son of Suibhne’, a byname meaning ‘pleasant’. Americanized form of French Choinière (see Choiniere).

Northern Irish: patronymic from Arthur, or a variant of McArthur.

Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cúg ‘son of Húg (Hugo)’, a personal name that was used as an Anglicized form of Gaelic Aodh (see McCoy). Anglicized form of Irish Gaelic Mac Dhabhóg ‘son of David’.

Scottish: variant of Laidlaw.

Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Aonghuis, a patronymic from the personal name Aonghus (see Angus). Compare Irish McGinnis.

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

Scottish and English (of Norman origin): topographic name for someone who lived on an island, Old French, Middle English isle (Latin insula). Scottish, English (of Norman origin) and French: habitational name for someone from the French city of Lille, or from various localities called Lisle, in Dordogne, Loir-et-Cher, Meuse, and Tarn, all of which derive their names from Old French isle (see 1). Scottish: variant of Lyall.

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

Scottish: Border surname found mainly around Selkirk and the vales of Ettrick and Yarrow. Family tradition has it that the name comes from Ludlow in Shropshire, England, but this is doubtful.

English: occupational name for a deacon, or perhaps more probably for his servant. In Middle English two forms coalesced: deakne, from Old English, and diacne, from Old French. Both are ultimately from Late Latin diaconus, from Greek diakonos ‘servant’. Irish: when not of English origin; it was taken to Ireland in the 17th century, it may be an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Deocáin ‘descendant of Deocán’, a personal name of uncertain derivation and meaning.

Welsh: from the personal name Maredudd. In Welsh the stress is on the second syllable. The Old Welsh form is Morgetiud, of which the first element may mean ‘pomp, splendor’ and the second is iudd ‘lord’.

Variant, associated chiefly with northern Ireland, of the Scottish surname Aitken.

Scottish and Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giobúin, a patronymic from a pet form of the personal name Gilbert, found in Connacht and Limerick in Ireland, and also in Scotland, where it is sometimes Anglicized as McKibben.

English: of uncertain origin; possibly from a reduced form of the personal name Dominick. Chinese : from the name of Meng Mingshi, a senior minister of the state of Qin in the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). His descendants adopted the first character of his given name, which means ‘bright’, as their surname.

English: variant spelling of Davy.

German, Dutch, Hungarian (Ottó), Danish, and Swedish: from the personal name Otto (see Ott).

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

Connacht form of McCann. possibly a reduced form of McGahan.

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

English: variant of Vassell.

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

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

Scottish: variant spelling of Livingston.

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

Jewish (western Ashkenazic) and German: variant of Lazar.

English: occupational name for someone responsible for looking after stallions, from Middle English steed ‘stud horse’, ‘stallion’ + man ‘man’, ‘servant’.

English: from Middle English stapel ‘post’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a boundary post, or a habitational name from some place named with this word (Old English stapel), as for example Staple in Kent or Staple Fitzpaine in Somerset. Americanized spelling of German Stapel.

Scottish: occupational name for a producer or seller of table linen or for a naperer, the servant in charge of the linen in use in a great house, Middle English, Old French nap(p)ier, an agent derivative of Old French nappe ‘table cloth’ (Latin mappa). Compare Napper. Shortened form of Polish Napierala or a similar name.

English: patronymic from Hodge.

English (East Anglia and the south): topographic name for someone who lived on a spur of a hill, from the Old English dative case hoe (originally used after a preposition) of hoh ‘spur of a hill’. The surname may also derive from any of the minor places named with this word, such as Hoo in Kent and Hooe in Devon and Sussex. Chinese : see Hu.

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

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

English: nickname from fend, a shortened form of defend, thus ‘defender’. South German: from Alemannic Venner ‘flag bearer’, ‘ensign’ or Fähndrich, which has the same meaning (see Fenrich). South German: variant of Fendler.

English: habitational name from any of various places called Walford. Examples in Herefordshire and Shropshire are named with Old English (West Midlands) wæll(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’ + ford ‘ford’. A second place of the same name in Herefordshire was named with Old English w(e)alh ‘foreigner’, ‘Briton’, ‘serf’ (see Wallace) as the first element, and one in Dorset with Old English wealt ‘unsteady’, ‘difficult’.

English: occupational name for a buyer and seller of goods, from Old French, Middle English march(e)ant, Late Latin mercatans (see Marchand). Indian (Gujarat and Bombay city): Muslim and Parsi occupational name for a trader, from the English vocabulary word merchant.

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

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

English (now mainly in Scotland; also West Midlands and Welsh border): habitational name from places in Shropshire and West Yorkshire, so named from Old English hær ‘rock’, ‘heap of stones’ or hara ‘hare’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. In some cases the name may be topographic. Irish: when not of English origin, this is an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEarghaile ‘descendant of Earghal’, a variant of the personal name Fearghal without the initial F- (see Farrell).

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

English: from a pet form of the personal name Bett (see Betts).

Scottish: habitational name from a place on the south bank of the Clyde outside Glasgow, first recorded in 1225 in the form Erskin. Other early spellings vary (1227 Yrskin; 1262 Ireskin; 1300 Harskin, Irschen).

English: habitational name from Leicester, named in Old English from the tribal name Ligore (itself adapted from a British river name) + Old English ceaster ‘Roman fort or walled city’ (Latin castra ‘legionary camp’). English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Lestre in Normandy. English and Scottish: variant of Lister.

English: from Anglo-Norman French chouque ‘tree stump’, possibly applied as a topographic name for someone who lived near a tree stump, or alternatively as a nickname for a person of stumpy build. Compare Such.

English and Dutch: patronymic from Wilkin.

English: metronymic from Lett 1. Americanized spelling of German Letz.

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

Scottish: variant of Rainey.

English and German: occupational name for a maker of saddles, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Middle High German, Middle Low German sadel ‘saddle’.

Scottish, English and French: from Old French, Middle English lion (Latin leo, genitive leonis), hence a nickname for a fierce or brave warrior, or a habitational name for someone living at a house distinguished by the sign of a lion. Scottish, English, French, and Dutch: habitational name from the city of Lyon in south central France (English name: Lyons), or from the smaller Lyons-la-Forêt in Eure, Normandy. The name of the former is recorded in the 1st century bc as Lugdunum and is from the name of a Celtic god Lug (or this as a personal name, from a word meaning ‘brightness’) + dunon ‘hill fort’. Scottish and English: from the name Leo(n) (from Latin leo ‘lion’, or the cognate Greek leon), borne by numerous early martyrs and thirteen popes. Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Laighin (see Lane 2).

English: variant of Rumbold. Altered spelling ofnGerman Rumbel or Rumpel, variants of Rummeln2.

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

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

English: habitational name from any of various places so named, for example in Devon, Greater London (formerly Middlesex), and Suffolk. All have as the second element Old English tun ‘farmstead’, ‘settlement’. The first element of the place in Devon is a pre-English river name; the place in London is named with the Old English personal name Cena; and the place in Suffolk is named either with Cena or more probably with Old English cyne- ‘royal’.

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

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

English and Scottish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Weston, from Old English west ‘west’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. English: variant of Whetstone.

topographic name for someone who lived by a forge, or a metonymic occupational name for someone employed at a one, from Middle English smithe, smythy ‘smithy’. variant of Smith.

Scottish and English: metonymic occupational name for a swineherd, from Middle English hog(ge) ‘swine’. Scottish and English: metonymic occupational name for a shepherd, from Middle English hogg ‘yearling sheep’. German (Högg): topographic name, a variant of Heck 2, found chiefly in Bavaria.

Scottish and northern English: habitational name from any of the numerous places so called from Old English hoh ‘ridge’, ‘spur’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

English and Scottish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Woodhouse; there are examples in Leicestershire, South and West Yorkshire, and Peebleshire, all named from Old English wudu ‘wood’ + hus ‘house’.

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

Dutch (Douwse(n)): patronymic from the Old Frisian personal name Douw(o). Americanized spelling of German Daus.

Northern English: patronymic from Edmond.

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

English (Midlands): habitational name from places in Nottinghamshire and Lancashire called Fulwood, from Old English ful ‘dirty’, ‘muddy’ + wudu ‘wood’.

Irish and English: habitational name from Clare in Suffolk (probably named with a Celtic river name meaning ‘bright’, ‘gentle’, or ‘warm’). One of the first Normans in Ireland (1170–72) was Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, better known as ‘Strongbow’, who took his surname from his estate in Suffolk. English: habitational name from Clare in Oxfordshire, named with Old English cl?g ‘clay’ + ora ‘slope’. English: from the Middle English, Old French female personal name Cla(i)re (Latin Clara, from clarus ‘famous’), which achieved some popularity, greater on the Continent than in England, through the fame of St. Clare of Assisi. See also Sinclair. English: occupational name for a worker in clay, for example someone expert in building in wattle and daub, from Middle English clayere, an agent derivative of Old English cl?g ‘clay’.

This surname means 'of the lion' in Spanish.

Scottish and Irish: variant of McNeese.

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

Jewish: from the Hebrew personal name Amos, of uncertain origin, in some traditions connected with the Hebrew verb amos ‘to carry’, and assigned the meaning ‘borne by God’. This was the name of a Biblical prophet of the 8th century bc, whose oracles are recorded in the Book of Amos. This was one of the Biblical names taken up by Puritans and Nonconformists in the 16th–17th centuries, too late to have had much influence on surname formation, except in Wales. English: variant of Amis, assimilated in spelling to the Biblical name. It occurs chiefly in southeastern England.

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

Irish and English: possibly a variant of Dillon.

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

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

English (mainly Devon): habitational name, perhaps from Arscott in Shropshire, which is named from an unexplained first element + Old English cot ‘hut’, ‘cottage’.

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

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

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.

English: occupational name for a sheepshearer or someone who used shears to trim the surface of finished cloth and remove excess nap, from Middle English shereman ‘shearer’. Americanized spelling of German Schuermann. Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a tailor, from Yiddish sher ‘scissors’ + man ‘man’.

English: variant spelling of Good.

Scottish and Irish: variant of McCormick.

Scottish and Irish: variant of McKean.

English: variant of Loveless. The spelling is apparently the result of folk etymology, which understood the word as a nickname for a dandy fond of lace. The modern sense of this word is, however, not attested until the 16th century and at the time of surname formation it meant only ‘cord’ or ‘shoelace’.

English (mainly Devon) and German: from Middle English steer, Middle Low German ster ‘bullock’, hence a nickname for a truculent person or a metonymic occupational name for someone who was responsible for tending cattle. South German: from Middle High German ster ‘ram’, probably a nickname for a hard-nosed, stubborn person.

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

English and Scottish: from Middle English derling, Old English deorling ‘darling’, ‘beloved one’, a derivative of deor ‘dear’, ‘beloved’ (see Dear 1). This was quite a common Old English byname, which remained current as a personal name into the 14th century. The surname probably derives at least in part from this use, probably in part also from a Middle English nickname.

English and Welsh: from the personal name Moss, a Middle English vernacular form of the Biblical name Moses. English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived by a peat bog, Middle English, Old English mos, or a habitational name from a place named with this word. (It was not until later that the vocabulary word came to denote the class of plants characteristic of a peat-bog habitat, under the influence of the related Old Norse word mosi.) Americanized form of Moses or some other like-sounding Jewish surname. Irish (Ulster): part translation of Gaelic Ó Maolmhóna ‘descendant of Maolmhóna’, a personal name composed of the elements maol ‘servant’, ‘tonsured one’, ‘devotee’ + a second element which was assumed to be móin (genitive móna) ‘moorland’, ‘peat bog’.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Levin. English: variant of Leven 3. Breton (Lévéné): from an old female personal name derived from Old Breton louuinid ‘joy’, ‘gaiety’. The name gained popularity as it belonged to the mother of a Breton saint, Gwenael. Altered spelling of French Lavigne, Lavin, Lavine, Levin, or various other like-sounding surnames.

Scottish and northern English: from a personal name based on a byname for a strong man or ferocious warrior, from Old French taille(r) ‘to cut’ + fer ‘iron’ (Latin ferrum).

(English) Dweller at the Boar-land [Middle Englishbore,O.E.bár, boar + land]

English: habitational name from any of the places called Bradshaw, for example in Lancashire and West Yorkshire, from Old English brad ‘broad’ + sceaga ‘thicket’.

Scottish and northern Irish: variant spelling of McNabb.

English: habitational name from a place in Nottinghamshire, around which once stood the famous Sherwood Forest. The place is so called from Old English scir ‘shire’ or scir ‘bright’ + wudu ‘wood’. Americanized form of some Jewish name.

English and French: occupational name or habitational name for someone who was employed at or lived near one of the houses (‘temples’) maintained by the Knights Templar, a crusading order so named because they claimed to occupy in Jerusalem the site of the old temple (Middle English, Old French temple, Latin templum). The order was founded in 1118 and flourished for 200 years, but was suppressed as heretical in 1312. English: name given to foundlings baptized at the Temple Church, London, so called because it was originally built on land belonging to the Templars. Scottish: habitational name from the parish of Temple in Edinburgh, likewise named because it was the site of the local headquarters of the Knights Templar.

Scottish: reduced form of McCallum.

variant of Hill 1. from a pet form of Hugh.

English: nickname for a fortunate person, from Middle English (i)blescede, blissed ‘blessed’ (from Old English bletsian ‘to bless’). The word also appears to have been in use in the Middle Ages as a female personal name, and some cases of the surname may be derived from this.

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’.

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

English: from the Middle English personal name Knut, of Scandinavian origin. German: variant of Knoth.

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a precipitous slope, Middle English clough (Old English cloh ‘ravine’). Welsh: nickname from cloff ‘lame’.

Scottish: variant spelling of Ewen.

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

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mathghamhna ‘descendant of Mathghamhain’, a byname meaning ‘good calf’.

French and English: habitational name from the city of Nevers in France. The 1881 British census records a William Nevers, born in Norfolk, and eight bearers of the name Albrecht de Nevers, the eldest of whom, Edward, was born in Germany.

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

English: from Middle English bullok ‘bullock’ (Old English bulluc), referring to a young bull rather than a castrated one, probably applied as a nickname for an exuberant young man, or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of bullocks.

English: patronymic from Ellis. Scottish: habitational name from the lands of Elliston, near Bowden, in Roxburghshire.

Scottish and northern Irish: status name for a landlord, from northern Middle English laverd ‘lord’.

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

English: from a short form of Gregory.

English: variant spelling of May.

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

Scottish: probably a topographic name for someone who lived in the lodge at the entrance to a manor house, from Middle English port ‘gateway’, ‘entrance’ + hous ‘house’, or an occupational name with similar meaning, from Latin portarius ‘porter’. Alternatively, as suggested by Reaney, it may be from Anglo-Norman French porte-hors ‘portable prayerbook’ (i.e. a book of hours), hence a metonymic occupational name for a scribe employed in writing such books. The surname is also established in Ireland, the earliest record of its presence there being dated 1563.

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

English: habitational name from various places, for example either of the places named Radway (in Devon and Warwickshire), Reddaway or Roadway (both in Devon), all named from Old English read ‘red’ + waye ‘road’, ‘way’, or from Rodway in Somerset, in which the first element is from Old English rad ‘road’, ‘track’.

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

Irish: variant of Summer or Summers. English (northern): patronymic from Summer.

English: topographic name for someone who lived near a patch of land left open as communal pasturage, from Middle English grene ‘green’ + land ‘land’. Translated form of German Grönland, a topographic name with the same meaning as 1, from Low German grön ‘green’ + Land ‘land’.

English: regional name from the county of Wiltshire in southwest central England, which gets its name from Wilton (once the county’s principal town) + Old English scir ‘district’, ‘administrative division’.

Altered form of Irish McDonnell ‘son of Donal’, from an incorrect association of the Gaelic patronymic with the personal name Daniel.

English: variant spelling of Rayner 1.

Scottish and Irish: reduced form of McDonald.

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

English: patronymic from Garrett.

English (mainly Devon): from the medieval female personal name Peronel, Pernel, Parnell, a vernacular form of Latin Petronilla. This is a diminutive of Petronia, feminine of Petronius, a Roman family name of uncertain etymology. It was borne by an early Roman martyr about whom little is known.

Common patronymic form of Adam, especially in Scotland, where the name is borne by a sept of clan McIntosh. In the U.S., this form may also have absorbed some patronymic forms of Adam in various other languages. Compare Adams.

Irish: variant of Lawler.

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

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

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

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

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Brice, Gaelic (Gille) Bhris ‘(servant of) (Saint) Bricius’ (see Brice). Irish (Donegal): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Briosáin, an altered version of Ó Muirgheasáin (see Morrissey).

Anmericanized form of a Scandinavian patronymic from the personal name Clemet, a variant of Clemens.

Scottish: patronymic or metronymic from the personal name Eade. Americanized spelling of German Essen.

English: variant of Ewer.

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.

English: from the comparative form of Middle English schort ‘short’, hence a distinguishing nickname for the shorter of two closely associated people with the same personal name (for example, members of the same household).

English: habitational name from Woodstock in Oxfordshire, named from Old English wudu ‘wood’ + stoc ‘settlement’.

English: variant spelling of Coley. Irish: reduced form of McColley. Americanized spelling of Swiss German Kohli.

English: topographic name for a man who lived by an enclosure, from Middle English hay (see Hay 1) + man. The term was in many cases effectively a synonym for Hayward. English: nickname for a tall man (see Hay 2). English: occupational name for the servant of someone called Hai (see Hay 3), with man in the sense ‘servant’. English: occupational name for someone who sold hay. Jewish: variant of Heiman. Possibly an Americanized spelling of German Hamann or Heumann.

English and German: from a personal name (Latin Silvester, a derivative of silva ‘wood’). This was borne by three popes, including a contemporary of Constantine the Great.

English: from the Middle English personal name Randel, a diminutive of Rand with the Anglo-Norman French hypocoristic suffix -el.

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

Scottish: variant spelling of Somerville 1.

English: occupational name for a keeper of cattle, Middle English cowherde, Old English cuhyrde, from cu ‘cow’ + hierde ‘herdsman’. (The surname has nothing to do with the modern English word coward, which is from Old French cuard, a pejorative term from coue ‘tail’ (Latin cauda) with reference to an animal with its tail between its legs.)

Vietnamese: unexplained. Cambodian: unexplained.

English: habitational name from places in Lancashire and Gloucestershire called Cowhill, from Old English cu ‘cow’ + hyll ‘hill’. possibly also an Americanized form of Polish, Jewish, and Sorbian Kowal.

occupational name for a physician, Old English l?ce, from the medieval medical practice of ‘bleeding’, often by applying leeches to the sick person. topographic name for someone who lived by a boggy stream, from an Old English læcc, or a habitational name from Eastleach or Northleach in Gloucestershire, named with the same Old English element.

English and French: from the Middle English, Old French personal name Perrin, a pet form of French Pierre (see Peter).

Scottish and Irish (Donegal): see Glenny.

English: from an Old Norse personal name, Lambi. French and English: nickname from Old French amis, ami ‘friend’ or amé(e) ‘beloved’, with the definite article l’.

Variant of Spanish González (see Gonzalez).

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

English: from a Middle English personal name Dunstan, composed of Old English dunn ‘dark’, ‘brown’ + stan ‘stone’. This name was borne by a 10th-century archbishop of Canterbury who was later canonized. English: habitational name from Dunstone in Devon, named from Old English Dunstanestun ‘settlement of Dunstan’ (as in 1). The surname is still chiefly common in Devon, but there are places in other parts of the country with similar names but different etymologies (e.g. Dunstan in Northumbria, Dunston in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire), which may possibly have contributed to the surname. Scottish: partly perhaps the same as 1, but there is a place named Dunstane in Roxburghshire, which may also be a source of the surname.

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

Scottish and Irish (western Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Glasáin (see McGlasson). In Ireland, in many cases, this surname has been translated as Green.

Scottish: variant of McCoy.

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

English (Lancashire): patronymic from the personal name Dicken.

English: ethnic name (see English 1). Norwegian: habitational name from any of various farmsteads, so named from Old Norse eng ‘meadow’ + land ‘land’. Swedish: ornamental name with the same meaning as 2.

English: variant of Bower.

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

German: nickname for someone with long legs or a crutch, from a variant of Middle High German stelze ‘stilt’, ‘leg’. (On the insertion of t [see Stentz].)

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

English: in the northeast, from the Gilpin river in Cumbria; in southern counties, probably a variant of Galpin. Irish (Connacht): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Fionn ‘son of the fair-haired lad’. In Ulster, the name may be of northern English origin (see 1 above).

English: patronymic from the personal name Roger.

English: variant spelling of Day.

English: patronymic from Weather, from Middle English wether ‘wether’, ‘(castrated) ram’ (Old English weðer), hence a nickname for a man supposedly resembling a wether, or a metonymic occupational name for a shepherd.

English: patronymic from Frank.

English: probably a habitational name from Livermere in Suffolk. This is first found in the form Leuuremer (c.1050), which suggests derivation from Old English l?fer ‘rush’, ‘reed’ + mere ‘lake’. However, later forms consistently show i in the first syllable, suggesting Old English lifer ‘liver’, referring either to the shape of the pond or to the coagulation of the water.

Irish (Munster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Súileabháin ‘descendant of Súileabháin’ (see Sullivan).

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