1000 Most Common Last Names in Philippines

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’.

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

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

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

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

Spanish: from the plural of flor ‘flower’.

Variant of Spanish González (see Gonzalez).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish, Italian, and Jewish (from Italy): habitational name from the city of Tolentino in Macerata province, Italy. It was adopted as a given name in Spain because of its association with St. Nicholas of Tolentino (c.1245–1305).

Spanish: variant spelling of Valdés (see Valdes).

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

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

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

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

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

Filipino: unexplained. alternatively, perhaps Catalan (Manaló), variant spelling of Maneló, pet form of the personal name Manel, short form of Emanuel.

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

Filipino: variant of Spanish Izón, unexplained, but possibly a topographic or habitational name.

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

Spanish (Philippines: Córpuz): variant spelling of Corpus.

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

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

from the personal name Velasco, Belasco, formed with Basque bel- ‘raven’ + the diminutive suffix -sco. in some cases possibly a habitational name from any of various places in Logroño, Soria, and Seville provinces named Velasco.

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

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

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

Catalan: occupational name for a blacksmith or a worker in iron, from Latin ferrarius. This is the commonest Catalan surname. English: variant of Farrar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish: variant of Cortés (see Cortes).

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

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

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

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

Italian and Spanish: from the personal name Mariano, from the Latin family name Marianus (a derivative of the ancient personal name Marius, of Etruscan origin). In the early Christian era it came to be taken as an adjective derived from Maria, and was associated with the cult of the Virgin Mary. It was borne by various early saints, including a 3rd-century martyr in Numibia and a 5th-century hermit of Berry, France.

Italian: from Evangelista ‘evangelist’ (a derivative of Greek euangelos ‘bringer of good news’, from eu ‘well’, ‘good’ + angelos ‘messenger’). This is the term used to denote any of the four gospel writers of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), in particular St. John the Evangelist.

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

Spanish (Enríquez): patronymic from Enrique.

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

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

Spanish: byname from pascua ‘Easter’ or from a short form of the personal name Pascual.

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

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

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

Basque: Castilianized variant of Basque Bergara, a habitational name from places so called (earlier Virgara) in the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Navarre. The place name is of uncertain derivation; the second element is gara ‘hill’, ‘height’, ‘eminence’, but the first has not been satisfactorily identified.

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

from a short form of the Marian personal name María de los Ángeles (‘Mary of the angels’). habitational name from a place named Ángeles (in A Coruña province) or Los Ángeles (for example, in the provinces of Córdoba and Cádiz).

Spanish (Espíritu): from a short form of a religious compound name formed with a personal name + ‘del Espíritu Santo’ (Latin Spiritus Sanctus), often bestowed on children born on Easter Sunday.

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

Basque (Legazpi): topographic name from Basque le(g)a ‘gravel’, ‘pebble’ + azpi ‘lower part’, or habitational name from a place called Legazpi in Gipuzkoa.

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

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

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from a place so named in Mantua, Italy; this was the home of the ruling family of Mantua for almost four centuries, whose most famous son was St. Louis Gonzaga.

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

Variant spelling of Guevara.

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

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

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

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

Spanish (Chávez): variant spelling of Chaves.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from places called Tamayo in the provinces of Burgos and Albacete.

Spanish: habitational name from Arellano in Navarre, named in Late Latin as fundus Aurelianus ‘the farm or estate of Aurelius’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Guadalajara province named Atienza.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Spanish (Asunción): metronymic from the female personal name Asunción, bestowed with reference to the Marian title Nuestra Señora de la Asunción ‘Our Lady of the Assumption’.

Spanish: nickname from abad ‘priest’ (from Late Latin abbas ‘priest’, genitive abbatis, from the Aramaic word meaning ‘father’). The application is uncertain: it could be a nickname, an occupational name for the servant of a priest, or denote an (illegitimate) son of a priest. Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ?Abbad ‘devoted worshiper’ or ‘servant’. The banu (tribe) ?Abbad claims descent from the ancient Lakhmid kings of al-?Hirah. The founder of the ?Abbadids of Seville was Muhammad bin ?Abbad (1023–42), whose son ?Abbad succeeded his father as chamberlain to the pretended khalif, but was soon ruling in his own right under the honorific title al-Muta??did ‘petitioner for justice (from Allah)’.

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

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

Filipino: unexplained.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Villamor (Burgos), from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + an unexplained second element. in some cases also, Castilianized form of Galician Vilamor, a habitational name from any of the towns so named in Lugo and A Coruña provinces, Galicia.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: from the personal name Bernardo (see Bernhard).

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

habitational name from any of numerous places named La Concepción. from the Marian female personal name (from Late Latin conceptio, genitive conceptionis ‘conception’), alluding to the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.

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

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese (Gregório): from the personal name Gregorio (see Gregory).

Filipino: unexplained. Compare Pangilinan.

Spanish: variant (old spelling) of Rojas.

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

Filipino: unexplained. Compare Panganiban, Pangelinan.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Vicente, Spanish and Portuguese equivalent of Vincent.

Peruvian: unexplained. The etymology is not Spanish; it is probably Quechuan. Chinese : variant of Cai 1.

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

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

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

Spanish: ethnic name for someone from Austria. Americanized or Latinized form of German Österreich(er) ‘Austria(n)’.

from a short form of Alamangno meaning ‘Germanic’. nickname or byname from magno ‘fat’.

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

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

Filipino: unexplained.

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

Catalan, Galician, and Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Abella, in Catalonia, Galicia and Santander. Catalan and Galician: from abella ‘bee’, hence a nickname for a small, active person or an occupational name for a beekeeper. Italian: mainly Sicilian variant of Avella.

Probably a variant of Basque Ezkerra, a nickname from Basque ezker ‘left-handed’.

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

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

Spanish, Portuguese, French (José): from the personal name José, equivalent to Joseph. English: variant of Joyce.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kapampangan (Philippines): unexplained.

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

Spanish (of Basque origin): topographic name from Basque aintzi ‘swamp’ + the collective suffix -eta.

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

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

Spanish: from cordero ‘young lamb’ (Latin cordarius, a derivative of cordus ‘young’, ‘new’), hence a metonymic occupational name for a shepherd, or alternatively a nickname meaning ‘lamb’.

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

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

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

Spanish: from the personal name Natividad ‘nativity’, ‘Christmas’, from Latin nativitas ‘birth’, genitive nativitatis, usually bestowed with reference to the Marian epithet María de la Natividad. Compare Natal.

Filipino: unexplained.

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

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

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

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

Spanish: from estrella ‘star’ (Latin stella). Although in some cases it may derive from the medieval female personal name Estrella, also a Marian name (María de la Estrella) or from a nickname, in most instances it was probably a habitational name from any of the numerous places named Estrella or from La Estrella in Toledo; other possibilities are a topographic name for someone who lived at a place from which roads radiated out in a star shape or a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a star.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the places (mainly in Asturies) called Villa, from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’, or from any of the numerous places named with this word as the first element. Italian: topographic name for someone who lived in a village as opposed to an isolated farmhouse, or in a town as opposed to the countryside, from Latin villa ‘country house’, ‘estate’, later used to denote of a group of houses forming a settlement and in some dialects to denote the most important area or center of a settlement, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.

Spanish (Bartolomé): from the personal name Bartolomé, Spanish form of Bartholomew.

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

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

Spanish and Portuguese (Custódio): from a religious byname chosen to invoke the protection of a guardian angel, Portuguese anjo custódio (Late Latin angelus custodius, from custos, genitive custodis, ‘guardian’, ‘keeper’).

English (mostly East Anglia): unexplained. Vietnamese (Ông): unexplained. Chinese : variant of Wang 1. Indonesian: unexplained. Filipino: unexplained.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish and Portuguese: mostly from a short form of Spanish (del) Rosario, Portuguese (do) Rosá, from rosario ‘rosary’; or from the Marian name María del Rosario, given in particular to a girl who was born on the festival of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated on the first Sunday in October. The word derives from Late Latin rosarium ‘rose garden’, and was transferred to a set of devotions dedicated to the Virgin Mary as the result of the medieval symbolism which constantly compared her to a rose. Italian: from the male personal name Rosario, of the same origin as 1 above.

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

Galician: possibly a habitational name from Las Canles in Ourense province, Galicia, named from Galician canle ‘channel’ (Latin canal).

English: nickname for a clever or cunning person, from Middle English yap ‘devious’, ‘deceitful’, ‘bent’; ‘shrewd’. Americanized spelling of North German Japp. Chinese: variant of Ye. Filipino: unexplained.

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

Filipino: unexplained.

Filipino (Tuazón): Castilianized variant of Filipino Tuason ‘eldest grandson’.

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

Spanish (Carreón): variant of name Carrion.

Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian (Baltazár), etc. It is derived from the Biblical personal names Balthazar and Belshazzar, which were originally distinct but by medieval times had come to be regarded as variants of a single name. The first is from Aramaic Balshatzar, Babylonian Baal tas-assar ‘may Baal preserve his life’, the second from Babylonian Baal shar-uzzur ‘may Baal protect the king’. The latter was borne by the Chaldean king for whom Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall (Daniel 5); the main reason for the popularity of the first in medieval Italy and Germany was that, according to legend, it was the name of one of the three Magi from the East who attended Christ’s birth. His supposed relics were venerated at first in Milan, but after 1164 in Cologne, where they had been taken by Rainald of Dassel.

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

Spanish: southern variant of Losada.

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

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

Spanish, Portuguese (De Pádua), and Catalan: habitational name from the Italian city of Padua.

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Carlos, Spanish equivalent of Charles.

Basque: topographic name of Basque origin.

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

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

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

Catalan: from the personal name Bernal, a variant of Spanish Bernaldo (see Bernard).

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named Villar, or in some cases a Castilianized spelling of the Catalan and Galician cognates Vilar. English: variant of Villers, cognate with 3. Southern French: topographic name from Late Latin villare ‘outlying farm’, ‘dependent settlement’, or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.

Spanish (Sábadoz) and Portuguese: from a nickname or personal name bestowed on someone born on a Saturday, which was considered a good omen (Late Latin sabbatum, Greek sabbaton, from Hebrew shabat ‘Sabbath’).

Spanish: occupational name for a laborer who worked the land, from an agent derivative of labrar ‘to cultivate (land)’.

Spanish: habitational name from El Ronquillo in Seville province.

Spanish (Cristóbal): from the personal name Cristóbal, Spanish form of Christopher.

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

Spanish: from the personal name Guillermo, Spanish equivalent of William.

Filipino: unexplained. Hungarian: habitational name for someone from a place called Duló in Trencsény county.

Shortened form of Greek Apostolos. Spanish (Apóstol) and French: nickname for a pious or serious man, from Greek apostolos ‘apostle’ (Old French apostol, French apôtre; the Old French word was also used to denote the Pope). See also Apostle. Hungarian: from the old ecclesiastical personal name Apostol, a vernacular form of Apostolos.

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

Spanish (Ábalos): variant of Avalos.

Aragonese, Spanish, and Catalan: habitational name from a place called Quinto, for example in Zaragoza province. However, the high concentration of the surname in Alacant province suggests that in some cases at least it may derive from the personal name Quinto (from Latin Quintus denoting the fifth-born child) or Catalan quinto ‘young soldier’. Italian: from the personal name Quinto (see 1 above). Italian: possibly a habitational name from any of the numerous places named with this word, as for example Quinto di Treviso (Treviso), Quinto Vicentino (Vicenza), Quinto Vercellese (Vercelli).

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

Spanish and southern Italian: from the personal name Alfonso, the name of a number of Spanish and Portuguese kings. It derives from the Visigothic personal name Adelfonsus, composed of the elements hathu ‘war’ + funs ‘ready’.

from a Filipino language, most probably Ilocano: unexplained.

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

Italian and Portuguese: from the medieval personal name Constantino, from Latin Constantinus (see Constantine).

Spanish: variant of Bailón (see Bailon).

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from Quijano in Cantabria province.

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

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Marcos (see Mark 1).

Spanish: variant of Alonso.

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

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

Hispanic (common in El Salvador and the Philippines): possibly from Spanish cinco ‘five’. Italian: unexplained.

Spanish (Gerónimo) and Italian: from the personal name Geronimo, from Greek Hieronymos (see Hieronymus).

Spanish (Córdova): variant of Cordoba.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Eugenio, cognate of Eugène (see Eugene).

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

Southern French (Occitan) and Catalan: variant of Occitan Verai and Veray, nickname from Occitan verai ‘honest’. From southern France this name spread to northern Catalonia.

Spanish (Delfín) and Italian (Venice): variant of Delfino.

Apparently of English origin, but unexplained. Filipino: unexplained.

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

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

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

Spanish (Benítez): patronymic from Benito.

Spanish, Italian, and French (Bernabé): from the personal name Bernabé (see Barnaby).

Spanish: from the personal name Buenaventura meaning ‘good fortune’, bestowed as an omen name or with specific reference to the Italian bishop and theologian St Bonaventura (canonized in the 14th century).

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

Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese: from the personal name Clemente (see Clement).

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

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

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

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

Spanish (Matías), Portuguese, and Dutch: from the personal name (see Matthew). Americanized form of Czech Mat’áš (from Czech Matej), or of some other Slavic form of the personal name Mathias (see Matthew).

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from the village of Magaláns (Castilian Magalanes) in Pontevedra province.

variant of Rolando. habitational name from either of two towns named Roldán, in Murcia province.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Ledesma, in the provinces of Logroño, Salamanca, and Soria. The place name is ancient and probably derives from a superlative form of a Celtic adjective meaning ‘broad’, ‘wide’.

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

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: from a medieval personal name (Latin Felicianus, a derivative of Felix). The name was borne by a number of early saints, most notably a 3rd-century bishop of Foligno and apostle of Umbria.

Spanish: habitational name from the Borromean Islands in Lago Maggiore, Italy, borne by St. Carlo Borromeo (16th century).

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

Filipino: unexplained.

Tagalog: topographic name (alongside the variant Bundoc) from Tagalog bondoc ‘mountain’.

Filipino: unexplained.

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

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

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

Spanish: topographic name from Spanish collado ‘hill’, ‘mountain pass’, from Late Latin collatum, a derivative of Latin collis ‘hill’.

Spanish: from the personal name Juan, Spanish equivalent of John.

Spanish: simplified spelling of Villarreal.

Portuguese: unexplained. variant of German Tewes.

Hispanic (Philippines): unexplained.

Muslim: variant of Muhammad.

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish (Frías) and Portuguese: habitational name from any of various places, for example in the provinces of Burgos and Teruel, so called from the feminine plural form of the adjective frío ‘cold’ (Latin frigidus); a noun such as aguas ‘waters’ or fuentes ‘springs’ has been lost.

Spanish (Catalán): regional name for someone from Catalonia (Spanish Cataluña).

Asturian-Leonese, Spanish, and Catalan: habitational name from any of several minor places named Espina (notably in Asturies), from espina ‘thorn’, ‘prickle’, probably applied in the sense ‘thorn bush’.

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

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

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

Spanish (Filipino): most probably from Spanish calma ‘stillness’ (of sea, ocean); ‘dull’. The surname, however, is not documented in Spain.

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

Galician, Spanish, and Portuguese: habitational name from any of the places named Rosal or El Rosal, for example in Pontevedra and Huelva provinces, from a collective of rosa ‘rose’, thus ‘rose garden’.

Spanish (of Basque origin): topographic name from Basque baso ‘wood’, ‘forest’. Catalan: variant spelling of Bassa, a topographic name from Catalan bassa ‘pool’, ‘pond’. Hungarian: from the old secular personal name Basa, or from Bazsa, a pet form of the ecclesiastical name Bazsil, from Greek Basileios (see Basil). In some cases the Hungarian family name could be a derivative of the Turkish basa (see Basha), probably as a nickname for a self-important person or someone who had dealings with the Turkish authorities or occupying forces. Polish: metonymic occupational name for a musician, from basa, dialect form of basy ‘musical instrument’. Balkan (Muslim): variant of Turkish Pasha.

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

Spanish: possibly from Spanish viernes ‘Friday’. Occitan (Viernés) and Catalan (Viernès): variants of Occitan Biarnés and Catalan Biarnès or Bearnès (alongside the variants Biernés, Biernès), a regional name for somebody from the region of Biarn (Catalan Bearn), in southern France.

Spanish: habitational name from any of various places called Plaza, from plaza ‘town square’.

English: habitational name from places called Caistor, in Lincolnshire and Norfolk, Caister in Norfolk, or Castor in Cambridgeshire, all named with Old English cæster ‘Roman fort or town’.

Italian and Portuguese (Dionísio): from the personal name Dionisio, from Latin Dionysius (see Dennis 1.)

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

Galician: probably a habitational name from Tenorio in Pontevedra province, Galicia.

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.

Portuguese and Spanish: from a medieval personal name (Latin Narcissus, from Greek Narkissos, the name of a flower). This name was borne, according to classical myth, by a vain youth who was so transfixed by his own beauty that he ignored the blandishments of the nymph Echo and stared at his own reflection in water until he faded away and turned into the pale but lovely flower that bears his name. It was also borne by several early Christian saints, in particular by a bishop who was said to have been put to death, together with his deacon Felix, in Catalonia ad c. 307. The personal name owes its popularity to this saint rather than to the mythological youth.

Spanish: from the medieval personal name Pelayo, from Greek Pelagios (a derivative of pelagos ‘sea’). In the Middle Ages this was one of the most popular personal names in the northwestern Iberian peninsula, having been borne by the first king of the Reconquest, and by various martyrs, including a young boy in the 10th century who was, according to legend, tortured and killed by the Moors of Cordoba for refusing to renounce his faith.

Italian and Spanish: from the personal name Romano, Latin Romanus, borne by several saints and martyrs. This was originally a byname for someone from Rome or for a Roman citizen, from Roma ‘Rome’. See also Roman. Italian: (Romanò): in Calabria, a term for someone from Nea Rhome ‘New Rome’, a medieval Greek name for Constantinople.

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

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

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Raymundo (see Raymond).

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

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Soria province.

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

Probably a metathesized spelling of Italian Giunto, a variant of Giunta.

probably Spanish or Asturian-Leonese, habitational name from a place named with the plural of Para.

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

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

Spanish and Portuguese (Hipólito): from the personal name Hipolito (see Ippolito).

Spanish: habitational name from Porras, a town in Andalusia, or nickname from the plural of porra ‘cudgel’, ‘club’, nickname either for a stockily built person or for a tiresome person. ‘Porras!’ is also used as an idiomatic expression meaning ‘Go to the Devil’. Galician: habitational name from any of three places in Lugo province named Porras.

Spanish: ethnic name for a Basque, Spanish vasco, or a regional name for someone who lived in Basque country. See Vasco.

Portuguese: from an irregular derivative, of uncertain significance, of Pimenta.

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

Spanish: variant of Sahagun. Aragonese: variant of Sagunt, a habitational name from Sagunt, a town in Aragon.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with arroyo ‘watercourse’, ‘irrigation channel’ (a word of pre-Roman origin).

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Rodrigo, from Germanic Hrodric (a compound of hrod ‘renown’ + ric ‘power(ful)’); it was borne by the last of the Visigoth kings and is one of the most important Spanish personal names of Germanic origin. This surname is also found in some former Portuguese territories of western India.

Spanish: from a personal name, from the name of a 16th-century Italian saint, Filippo Neri (see 2). Italian (Tuscany): from a short form of the personal name Raineri, Ran(i)eri, or Rin(i)eri, or in some cases from later personal names such as Guarniero, Falconiere, Soldaniero.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from either of two places, in Ávila and Zamora provinces, named Villaflor, from villa ‘farmstead’, ‘settlement’ + flor ‘flower’.

Portuguese (Hilário) and Spanish: from a personal name of the same origin as Hillary 1.

Spanish: from the personal name Felipe, Spanish form of Philip.

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

French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Hungarian (Gáspár): from the personal name, which was common in central Europe up to the 18th century (see Casper). Slovenian (mainly Prekmurje in easternmost Slovenia; Gašpar): from a dialect form of the personal name Gašper (see Casper).

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Patricio, Latin Patricius (see Patrick).

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: from a pet form of the personal name Bernardo.

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

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

Spanish: Castilianized variant of Basque Berano, a habitational name from a town in Biscay province, Basque Country.

Spanish and Catalan: variant (plural) of Casa. The Catalan form is a respelling (probably Castilianization) of Catalan Cases.

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

Variant spelling of Arriola.

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

Portuguese and Spanish: from the personal name Marcelino, Latin Marcellinus, a derivative of Marcellus (see Marcello), borne by several early saints, including the friend of St. Augustine to whom De Civitate Dei was dedicated.

Filipino: unexplained.

Spanish: from the personal name Alejo, Spanish form of Alexis.

Galician: unexplained; it occurs chiefly in Ordes, in Galicia, and is also established in the Philippines. Norwegian: habitational name from any of four farms so named, most likely from ahn ‘elm’ + dal ‘valley’.

Spanish (Águila): from águila ‘eagle’ (Latin aquila). This is either a nickname for a haughty man or one with an aquiline nose, or a habitational name from a place in Salamanca province called Águila.

Chinese : a Cantonese form of Liu 1. Chinese : probably from the name of Lao Mountain in Shandong province, adopted as a surname most likely during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc). Chinese : a Cantonese form of Liu 3. This name is also found in the Philippines. Laotian: unexplained. Tongan: unexplained.

: perhaps a variant of Spanish Zúñiga (see Zuniga).

Spanish: habitational name from any of several places called Montemayor, from monte ‘mountain’ + mayor ‘main’, ‘larger’, ‘greater’, in particular in the provinces of Cordova, Salamanca, and Valladolid.

Spanish and Portuguese: from Italian colonnello, a diminutive of colonna ‘column (of troops)’ (Latin columna), hence a metonymic occupational name for someone in command of a regiment. According to Tibon, the change of -l- to -r- may be under the influence of the word corona ‘crown’ as a symbol of power.

Spanish and southern Italian: from a diminutive of Caro.

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

Hispanic (Filipino): unexplained. Vietnamese: unexplained.

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

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from alegre ‘bright’, ‘merry’ (Latin alacer).

Spanish: from the byname of the 14th-century saint Johannes Nepomucenus, patron saint of Bohemia.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from Meneses de Campos (Palencia, Castile), or for an ethnic name for someone from the Mena valley in Burgos. Portuguese: habitational name from any of the several places named Meneses in Portugal.

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

Hispanic (Philippines, Mexico, etc.): comparatively recent formation from the personal name Aguinaldo.

Filipino: unexplained.

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

Basque: variant of Careaga.

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

Spanish: habitational name from Villafuerte, a place in Valladolid province, most probably named from villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ + the personal name Fuertes (rather than the adjective fuerte ‘strong’).

Spanish and Portuguese: from the Italian surname Imperiale, which was taken from Genoa to Spain in the 16th century.

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

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

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: from amante ‘lover’, used in the Middle Ages as a Christian baptismal name, in the sense ‘he who loves God’.

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

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

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Urbano (see Urban), or a nickname from urbano ‘urbane’, ‘elegant’.

Spanish and Portuguese: variant of Andrade.

Spanish (Pasión): from pasión ‘suffering’, referring to the Passion or suffering of Christ, and hence a name given to someone born on Good Friday.

Spanish: habitational name from Roa in Burgos province.

Muslim: variant of Ismail.

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

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

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

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

Spanish: diminutive of Fontana.

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

Italian: from the medieval personal name Donato (Latin Donatus, past participle of donare, frequentative of dare ‘to give’). It was the name of a 4th-century Italian bishop martyred in c. 350 under Julian the Apostate, as well as various other early saints, and a 4th-century grammarian and commentator on Virgil, widely respected in the Middle Ages as a figure of great learning. See also Donat.

Respelling of English Backus or German Backhus.

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

Filipino: unexplained.

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

Spanish: habitational name from any of the places called Viloria, for example in Valladolid and Burgos provinces. Basque: Castilianized variant of Basque Biloria, a habitational name from either of the two towns in Araba and Navarre provinces named Biloria.

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

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

Spanish: habitational name from Villena, a town in southeastern Spain.

nickname for someone with red hair, from rojo ‘red’ (Latin rubeus). habitational name from either of two places in Galicia called Rojo, in A Coruña and Lugo provinces.

Galician: habitational name from a place named Arceo, in A Coruña province, Galicia.

Portuguese: ethnic name for someone from or who had been to the (Costa da) Mina in Africa. Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Mina, La Mina, from Spanish and Portuguese mina ‘mine’. Greek: variant of Minas. Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic mina?h ‘gifts’, ‘favors’.

Hispanic (mainly Filipino): unexlained, perhaps a variant of the Spanish personal and family name Florindo, a literary name, based on the element flor-, ‘flower’.

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

Spanish (Encarnación): from a short form of the Marian name María de la Encarnación ‘Mary of the Incarnation’ (from Latin incarnatio, from incarnare ‘to make flesh’, a derivative of caro, genitive carnis, flesh).

Basque: habitational name from any of several places named Mendiola, in Araba, Gipuzkoa, and Biscay provinces, so named from Basque mendi + the topographic suffix -ola.

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

Spanish (of Basque origin): variant of Mújica (see Mujica).

English and Irish: variant of Mayhew. Variant of French Mailhot.

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

Ancient surname found in €oria, Navarre, Aragon, Castile, Estremadura, and Andalusia. Name of village near Osma and province in Spain. Means of or from Soria but origin and meaning unknown."Oria" is a variant of "aurea" and in a figurative sense means charming.

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

Spanish: nickname from largo ‘large’; ‘tall’ or ‘broad’.

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

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

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

Spanish: from a nickname based on valiente ‘brave’.

Catalan and Spanish: habitational name from Barcelona, the principal city of Catalonia. The place name is of uncertain, certainly pre-Roman, origin. The settlement was established by the Carthaginians, and according to tradition it was named for the Carthaginian ruling house of Barca; the Latin form was Barcino or Barcilo.

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

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Galician: from the personal name Rafael (see Raphael). Jewish: variant spelling of Raphael.

Spanish form of Basque Loiola: habitational name from Loiola in Guipúzcoa and Biscay provinces, named from Basque loi ‘mud’ + the locative suffix -ola.

Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname from razón ‘reason’.

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

Spanish or Basque: possibly a topographic name from Basque belar ‘vegetation’, ‘grass’ + the suffix -de, -di denoting abundance.

Spanish and Italian: from the personal name Teodoro (see Theodore).

Spanish: from infante literally ‘child’, but in Spain also a title borne by the eldest sons of noblemen before they inherited, and in particular by the son of the king of Castile; thus the surname probably originated either as a nickname for one of a lordly disposition or as an occupational name for a member of the household of an infante. Italian: nickname for someone with a childlike disposition, from infante ‘child’ (Latin infans, literally ‘one who cannot speak’).

Spanish: from dorado ‘golden’ (from Late Latin deaurare ‘to gild’, from aurum ‘gold’), probably applied as a nickname to someone with golden hair.

Spanish and Portuguese: from duque ‘duke’ (from Latin dux, genitive ducis ‘leader’), an occupational name for someone who worked in the household of a duke, or as a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces. French (also Duqué): nickname from duquet, a diminutive of French duc ‘duke’ (see Duchon).

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

Italian: from a pet form of the personal name Fausto.

Italian: regularized (masculine) form of Pasca, a variant of Pasqua. Variant of English Pascoe.

Portuguese, Galician and Spanish: variant of Eustacio (see Eustace).

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

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

Spanish (Marzán): habitational name from any of the many places in Galicia named Marzán, from Latin villa Martiani, a derivative of the personal name Martius.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the many places in Spain, especially Galicia, called Palacio (alongside the Galician form Pazo), or from El Palacio, Castilianized form of El Palaciu, a town in Asturies. All are named with palacio ‘palace’, ‘manor’, ‘great house’, Latin palatium, a word derived from the Palatium or mons Palatinus in Rome, site of the emperor Augustus’ golden house.

Asturian-Leonese and Spanish (Argüelles): habitational name from any of various places called Argüelles, mainly the one in Asturies.

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

from the Marian epithet (Maria de la) Candelaria, referring to the Catholic feast of the Purification of the Virgin. The name derives from Latin candela ‘candle’, since on this day candles were blessed by a priest and then lit to invoke the protection of the Virgin Mary. habitational name from a place in Tenerife called Canelaria.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Inocencio, Latin Innocentius (see Innocenti 1).

Spanish: habitational name from Morillo de Monclús in Uesca province, from a diminutive of moro ‘Moor’.

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic and Sephardic): variant of Magid ‘preacher’. Filipino: unexplained.

Filipino: unexplained.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places, mainly in Castile, named Revilla, from Old Spanish revilla ‘dependent settlement’, a derivative of villa (see Villa).

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

Portuguese, Galician, and Spanish: from the personal name Paulino (from Latin Paulinus).

Spanish: habitational name from a place named Mijares, in particular the one in Ávila province, named from the plural of mijar ‘millet field’, from mijo ‘millet’.

Portuguese and Galician: habitational name from any of the many places named with Late Latin capralis ‘place of goats’, from Latin capra ‘goat’.

Spanish: nickname from Latin mirabilia ‘extraordinary thing’, ‘marvel’.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places called Arenas, from the plural of arena ‘sand’ (Latin (h)arena).

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

Spanish (Alcalá): habitational name from any of the numerous fortified villages named during the Moorish occupation of Spain with Arabic al ‘the’ + qal?ah ‘fortress’.

Spanish: nickname for a man with red hair or a ruddy complexion, from Spanish bermejo ‘red’, ‘ruddy’ (Late Latin vermiculus, from vermis ‘worm’, since a red dye was obtained from the bodies of worms).

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

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

English, French, German, Italian (Venetian), Polish, Czech and Slovak (Fabián), and Hungarian (Fábián): from a personal name, Latin Fabianus, a derivative of the Roman family name Fabius. The personal name achieved considerable popularity in Europe in the Middle Ages, having been borne by a 3rd-century pope and saint. Americanized or Italianized spelling of Slovenian Fabjan or Fabijan (see 1). Jewish: adoption of the non-Jewish surname under the influence of the Yiddish personal name Fayvish.

Spanish: possibly from the plural of costal ‘bag’.

Muslim: variant of Suleiman.

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

Catalan (Salvà): from the personal name Salvá, Catalan form of Latin Silvanus (a derivative of silva ‘wood’). Southern French (Occitan): from a variant of the personal name Salvat, Occitan equivalent of Salvato.

Spanish and Portuguese: from Spanish and Portuguese amor ‘love’, used to denote an illegitimate child, also as a nickname for a philanderer. Spanish, Portuguese, and English: from the medieval personal name Amor (Latin amor ‘love’), which was popular in Spain, Italy, and France, and introduced into England by the Normans. There was a St. Amor, of obscure history and unknown date, whose relics were preserved and venerated at the village of St. Amour in Burgundy.

Spanish: at all events, from a derivative of rosa ‘rose’; possibly from the female personal name Rosete (from French Rosette).

Spanish: from cuaresma ‘Lent’, probably applied as a nickname for someone born during this period.

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

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

Spanish, Portuguese, Jewish (Sephardic), and Italian: habitational name from any of numerous places called Belmonte (‘beautiful mountain’), especially one in Portugal and another in Cuenca province, Spain.

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

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

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

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

Italian: nickname from papa ‘father’, ‘priest’, ‘pope’. In southern Italy it is generally a nickname for someone thought to resemble a priest, or in some cases for the illegitimate child of a priest, but in the North it is more often a nickname meaning ‘pope’, denoting a vain or pompous man. In Calabria it also means ‘uncle’. Greek: shortened form of any of various names beginning with papas ‘priest’, for example Papageorgiou ‘priest George’. Compare Papas. In the Eastern Church priests are allowed to marry and have children. French: from a dialect variant of French Pape. Dutch: variant of Pappert. Hungarian: probably from the old secular personal name Pápa, but in some cases possibly a habitational name from a place called Pápa in Veszprém county, or some other place similarly named.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Galicia: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Real; those in Galicia and Portugal being named from real ‘royal’, while those in southern Spain and Catalonia are named in part from real meaning ‘encampment’, ‘rural property’ (Arabic ra?hal ‘farmhouse’, ‘cabin’). French (Réal) and Spanish: from southern French réal, Spanish real ‘royal’, hence a nickname for someone who behaved in a regal manner or an occupational name for someone in the service of the king. French (Réal): habitational name from any of various places named for having been part of a royal domain (see Reau, Reaux). Probably an Americanized spelling of German Riehl, Riel, or Rühl (see Ruehl).

Spanish (Cádiz): habitational name from the great seaport of this name in southwestern Spain (earlier Gades), which was founded in the 1st millennium bc by Phoenician colonists from Tyre.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the Marian epithet meaning ‘defenseless’.

Galician, Asturian-Leonese, Spanish, and Basque: habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia, Asturies, León, Santander, and Basque Country named with the topographical term cueto ‘hill’, ‘fortified settlement’ (from Latin cautus ‘sheltered’. The Asturian-Leonese form is a Castilianized variant of the Asturian-Leonese habitational name Cuetu (compare Coto)

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

Italian and Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places named with campo ‘field’, ‘country(side)’, a derivative of Latin campus ‘plain’. Possibly a respelling of French Campeau.

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

Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (Glória), and French (Brittany and Provence): metronymic from the female personal name Gloria. according to Morlet, an occupational nickname for a singer, from ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’, part of the mass.

Spanish: habitational name from Cuenca city in Castile, named from cuenca ‘basin’, ‘hollow’ (Latin concha ‘shell’, ‘mussel’).

Muslim: from Arabic salik, literally ‘traveler’, ‘wayfarer’. This is a term used for members of a Sufi order whose intention is to actively seek the realization of God. This name is common in all Muslim countries.

Spanish and Portuguese (Eusébio): from the personal name Eusebio (Greek Eusebios meaning ‘revered’, from eu- ‘good’, ‘well’ + a derivative of sebesthai ‘to honor’, ‘respect’). This was borne by a large number of early saints, including a 5th-century friend of Jerome popularly credited with the foundation of the monastery of Guadalupe. A 4th-century bishop of Samosata in Syria who bore this name is one of many bearers of this name venerated in the Orthodox Church.

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

Spanish and southern French (Occitan): from Spanish and Old French rey ‘king’ (from Latin rex, genitive regis), which could have been applied any of in numerous ways: it may have denoted someone in the service of a king; it may have been from the title of someone in a brotherhood; or a nickname for someone who behaved in a regal fashion or who had earned the title in some contest of skill or by presiding over festivities. English: variant spelling of Ray 1, cognate with 1. German: from a short form of a Germanic personal name formed with ragin ‘counsel’. German: nickname for a leader of dancing or singing, from Middle Low German rei(e) ‘(line) dance’, ‘(satirical) song’.

Spanish: from a medieval personal name, Spanish form of Victor. French: from the personal name Victoria (female form of Victor), which was popularized by a 3rd-century martyr so named.

Spanish: habitational name from the city of Granada in southern Spain.

Spanish: habitational name from a place between Huelva and Sevilla, which was named with a combination of the Arabic article al- ‘the’ with the Spanish noun monte ‘mountain’.

Spanish: habitational name from a place in Santander province called Celis.

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese: topographic name meaning ‘place of olives’.

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

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

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

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

Filipino: unexplained. Swiss German: variant of Lachmann. Swedish: from the old personal name Lagman, from Old Norse Logmaðr, composed of log ‘laws’ + maðr, ‘man’ (genitive manns). Compare Scottish Lamont.

Italian: from a personal name (Latin Silvanus, a derivative of silva ‘wood’), bestowed in honor of various minor early Christian saints. This name is now well established in Mexico.

Spanish: habitational name from Montilla, a place in Córdoba province.

Spanish: habitational name from a place called Alcaraz, in Albacete province, derived perhaps from the ancient Alcaratium Orcia, or possibly from Arabic al ‘the’ + karaz ‘cherry’.

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

Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician: nickname from pulido or polido ‘smart’, ‘neat’, ‘handsome’.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the plural of rosa ‘rose’. Catalan: variant of Roses, habitational name from Roses, a town in L’Alt Empordà, Catalonia (earlier Rodas). Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Las Rosas.

Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese: from the personal name Cornelio, from Latin Cornelius.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Palomar, from palomar ‘dovecote’, a derivative of paloma ‘dove’.

Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: of uncertain and multiple origin. In part at least, it is from the Germanic personal name Amalric, introduced to northern Italy by the Lombards and to the Iberian peninsula by the Visigoths. In Sicily, it is from a nickname meaning ‘bitter’, ‘unlucky’, or ‘disappointed’ or from an Arabic personal name ‘Ammar. In Portugal, it is from a personal name Amaro, of disputed origin.

Spanish (Rendón): unexplained; possibly connected with the adverb (de) rendón ‘bold’, ‘daring’, old variant of Spanish rondón (see Rondon).

Spanish: habitational name from Valera in Cuenca province and possibly also from a place with the same name in Badajoz.

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname for a philanderer, from amores (plural) ‘loves’ (see Amor).

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic and Ashkenazic): nickname from Portuguese, Spanish, Italian caro ‘dear’, ‘beloved’ (Latin carus). In medieval Italy this was also a personal name. Italian (Sicily; Carò): variant of Carrò (see Carro).

Aragonese and Spanish (Castillón): habitational name from any of the places named Castillón or with this word mainly in Aragon, as for example Castillón de Sos, from a derivative of castillo ‘castle’ (see Castillo). Southern French: habitational name meaning ‘little castle’, from any of various places so named.

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

Japanese (Ando): variously written, originally with characters meaning ‘peaceful east’ or ‘pacify the east’; the majority now use characters meaning ‘peaceful wisteria’. A branch of the Abe family bears the name in eastern Japan. Hungarian (Andó): from a pet form of the personal name András, Hungarian form of Andreas.

This surname is derived from an official title. or nick, 'a baron,' or a man who put on an air of dignity such as might become a baron. Middle English baron and barun.Osbert le Barun, Close Roll, 2 Edward I.Richard le Baron, Devon, 1273.

Spanish: from coronado ‘crowned’, past participle of coronare ‘to crown’, applied as a nickname for someone who behaved in an imperious manner.

Catalan: topographic name from balma ‘cave’, ‘hollow’ (of pre-Roman origin), a common element of place names.

Basque: topographic or habitational name, possibly composed of Basque gorosti ‘holly’ or gurutz (goroz) ‘cross’ + -be ‘below’.

Spanish (Pantaleón): from the personal name Pantaleón, Greek Panteleon (see Pantaleo).

Basque: topographic name from a derivative of Basque ola ‘blacksmith’ + arte ‘space’.

Asturain-Leonese: habitational name from Torío, a place in the Asturian district of Cangues.

Indian (southern states): variant of Ram. Portuguese, Galician, and Catalan: habitational name from any of the places called Rama in Portugal (Guimarães), Galicia (A Coruña) and Catalonia (Girona). Spanish, Galician, and Portuguese: topographic name from rama ‘branch’. Italian: topographic name from dialect rama ‘branch’ (see Ramo).

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

Spanish and Portuguese: nickname from claro ‘light’, ‘bright’, or from the personal name Clarus, both from Latin clarus ‘clear’, ‘bright’. Italian (Piedmont): variant of Chiaro.

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

Spanish (Peláez): patronymic from the personal name Pelayo.

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

French: Americanized spelling of Hemard. Hindu name found among people from Sind, Pakistan, derived from a personal name based on Sanskrit amar ‘immortal’. Jewish (Sephardic): ornamental name from ’amr, Levantine or Egyptian form of Arabic qamar ‘moon’, or from an Arabic personal name based on ?amr ’long-lived’.

Spanish, Catalan, and Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from any of numerous places named Nava, from nava ‘treeless plateau’, a word of pre-Roman origin, most probably from Basque naba ‘plain next to mountains’. The name is also borne by Sephardic Jews.

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

Italian and Spanish: literally ‘France’, hence an ethnic name denoting a Frenchman. However, Francia is also found in Renaissance Italy as a personal name (both male and female), and in some instances the surname may be from this use. Hungarian: ethnic name for a Frenchman, from francia ‘French’.

Ilocano (Philippines): nickname from Ilocano agcaoili ‘to hold on’.

Spanish: habitational name from posadas, plural of Posada.

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

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

English, 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.

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

Asturian-Leonese: habitational name from Llanes in Asturies. . Catalan: from the plural of llana ‘wool’, probably a metonymic occupational name for a wool merchant.

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

Spanish: from the plural of Latin villa ‘(outlying) farm’, ‘(dependent) settlement’ (see Villa).

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

probably a habitational name from Buendía in Cuenca province, Spain. occasionally, a nickname from Spanish bueno ‘good’ + día ‘day’, presumably denoting someone who made frequent use of this salutation. Buendía was also occasionally used as a personal name in the Middle Ages, bestowed on a child as an expression of the parents’ satisfaction at the birth, or for the sake of a good omen.

Spanish: probably a habitational name from either of two places called Candelario, in Béjar and Salamanca provinces.

Spanish: habitational name from Pareja in Guadalajara province.

Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mainchín (see Monahan).

Catalan (Abelló): nickname from a derivative of abella ‘bee’ (see Abella).

Spanish and Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia, Santander, and Cáceres named Rivero, from ribero ‘bank’, ‘shore’ (Late Latin riparium, a derivative of ripa ‘bank’).

Catalan: from the personal name Coloma, a vernacular form of Latin Columba (see Colomb).

Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician: from the personal name Marcial, Latin Martialis ‘martial’, literally ‘of or pertaining to Mars’ (the god of war).

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

nickname for a hirsute individual, from Portuguese veloso ‘hairy’ (Latin villosus). habitational name from any of the places in Portugal named Veloso.

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

Catalan (Galó): from galó ‘braid’.

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

French (Céleste), Portuguese, and Spanish: from the female personal name Céleste, Celeste, meaning ‘celestial’, ‘heavenly’ (Latin caelestis).

Filipino: unexplained.

Spanish and Catalan: topographic name from rada ‘natural bay’. Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from places called Rada (Cantabria), Rada de Haro (Cuenca), La Rada (Albacete, Cuenca) or Rada de Moraira (Alacant), or from a Castilianized variant of Basque Arrada, habitational name from a place called Arrada in Navarre. Czech: from a short form of any of several Slavic personal names containing the first element rad- ‘glad’, ‘merry’, in particular Radoslav, in which the second element means ‘glory’, and Radomir, in which the second element means ‘great’, ‘famous’. Hungarian: from the old secular personal name Rada or Ráda, of Slavic origin.

Italian and Jewish (from Italy): habitational name from the Sicilian city of Palermo, the Greek name of which is Panormos, from pan ‘all’ + ormos ‘gulf’, ‘bay’, probably in the sense ‘wide gulf’, but possibly ‘well-protected bay’.

Spanish: topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous oak tree, from Spanish roble ‘oak tree’ (Latin robur). Altered spelling of German Robel.

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

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

Portuguese (Cândido) and Italian: from Portuguese cândido, Italian candito ‘(shining) white’ (Latin candidus, a derivative of candere ‘to be white’), hence a nickname for someone with white hair. The word also came to mean ‘innocent’, ‘simple’, and the surname may often originally have had this sense.

Spanish: habitational name from any of numerous places, for example in Hervás and Cáceres provinces, named Cerezo, from cerezo ‘cherry tree’ (from Latin cerasus).

Spanish (Bolívar): Castilianized form of Basque Bolibar, a habitational name from any of several places named Bolibar, for example in Biscay province, from Basque bolu ‘mill’ (Latin molinum) + ibar ‘meadow’, ‘riverbank’.

Filipino: probably from a personal name. Due to imposition of the Spanish culture in the Philippines, some Filipino names with Tiu were respelt as Tio, by the assimilation to Spanish Tío (see Tio). Chinese: unexplained.

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

Spanish (Guarín): Castilianized form of Catalan Guarí (see Guarino).

Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan: distinguishing name for the younger of two bearers of the same first name, from menor ‘smaller’, ‘lesser’; ‘younger’ (Latin minor).

Italian (Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna), Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (from Italy): topographic name for someone who lived on or near a mountain, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese monte (Latin mons, genitive montis). Italian and Jewish (from Italy): habitational name from any of the places named with Monte or Monti.

Spanish, Catalan (Garcés), and Portuguese (Garcês): variant of the patronymic Garciez, from the personal name García (see Garcia).

Southern French: nickname for someone with long legs, from Occitan cambe, camba ‘leg’, a cognate of French jambe. Galician: habitational name from any of the places called Camba in Galicia.

Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, and southern French: nickname for a man noted for his beard, from barba ‘beard’ (Latin barba). Italian: from a byname from a southern dialect word meaning ‘uncle’ (from Latin barba ‘beard’ via Lombardic barba, barbane), as characterizing a man of wisdom and authority. Greek: see Barbas. Slovenian: unexplained. This name comes from the Brkini region in southwestern Slovenia.

Spanish: habitational name, probably from Espejo in Córdoba province, or otherwise from one of the minor places so named in Málaga and Araba provinces; the place name is evidently connected with espejo ‘mirror’ (Latin speculum).

English (Lancashire): variant spelling of Mayer 1. Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname for an older man or a distinguishing epithet for the elder of two bearers of the same personal name, from Spanish mayor ‘older’ (Latin maior (natus), literally ‘greater (by birth)’). Spanish and Jewish (Sephardic): occupational or status name, from major ‘governor’, ‘chief’. Catalan: variant spelling of Major. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Meyer 2.

Muslim: variant of Muhammad.

Spanish: habitational name from La Somera in Cuenca province.

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

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

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

Spanish and Portuguese: variant (plural) of Canto.

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

Muslim: see Abdullah.

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

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

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

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

Ilocano (Philippines): nickname from Ilocano agbayani ‘to be heroic’.

Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Galician: habitational name from any of numerous places named Pedrosa, from pedroso, pedrosa ‘stoney’, an adjectival derivative of pedra ‘stone’.

Spanish (Borbón): variant of Bourbon.

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

French, Spanish (Gascón), and English: regional name for someone from the province of Gascony, Old French Gascogne (see Gascoigne).

Jewish (Israeli): ornamental name from Hebrew alon ‘oak tree’.

Spanish: variant of Badillo.

Spanish (Antolín): from the personal name, a vernacular form of Antoninus, a name borne by thirteen saints. Slovenian (eastern Slovenia): patronymic from the personal name Antol, an old derivative of Anton, Latin Antonius (see Anthony).

This could be onomatopoeic Spanish for the sound "tap."Found in Asturias. Name of villages near Leon and Oviedo. Derived from word "toppa" meaning a wall made from mud.Basque word meaning a place of the cranberries.Castilian name.

Spanish and Asturian-Leonese: from madera ‘wood’, ‘timber’ (from Late Latin materia), probably applied as a topographic name or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example La Madera in Asturies. Czech (Madera): ethnic name from an old word for a Hungarian (see Magyar).

Scottish: according to Black, an hereditary occupational name for a physician, from Latin doctor ‘teacher’, but possibly in some cases it may have the same origin as Daughters. Americanized form of German, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian Doktor. Indian (Gujarat and Bombay): Parsi occupational name for a physician, from the English word doctor.

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

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

Spanish: nickname for a dark-haired or dark-skinned man, from Old Spanish prieto ‘dark’, ‘black’. The adjective derives from the verb apretar ‘to squeeze or compress’, a metathesized form of apetrar, Late Latin appectorare ‘to hold close to the chest’ (from pectus, genitive pectoris, ‘chest’). The use as a color term seems to have derived originally from its application to rain clouds and fog.

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

Spanish and Italian: from a personal name, probably a variant of Morando under French influence.

Finnish: topographic name from palo ‘field cleared by burning’, also ‘beacon’, ‘signal fire’. This name is found chiefly in Western Finland. Italian: habitational name from any of numerous places named with Palo, as for example Palo del Colle in Baria province or Portopalo in Syracuse province, Sicily.

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

Spanish (Millán): variant of Milían (see Milian). Galician: patronymical name from Millán, from a reduced form of a personal name from Latin Aemilianus (see Milian). Galician: in some cases, possibly a habitational name from any of the places in Galicia called Millán, from Latin villa Aemiliani ‘villa of Aemilianus’. Scottish: shortened form of McMillan.

Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: from the Marian female personal name, Portuguese Maria do Loreto, Italian Maria di Loreto, from Loreto in Ancona province, Italy, the center of a cult of the Virgin Mary dating from the 15th century. Loreto is the site of the Santa Casa, the childhood home of the Virgin Mary, which according to legend was miraculously transported by angels from Nazareth to Loreto in the 13th century. The place name is from Latin lauretum ‘place of laurels’. Compare Loredo.

Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Laguna, from laguna ‘pool’, ‘pond’ (from Latin lacuna ‘hollow’, ‘hole’).

Muslim: from the personal name Ibrahim, Arabic form of Abraham.

Spanish (mainly Latin America): variant of Cía, a habitational name from either of two places so named in Navarra province.

Spanish and Portuguese: from the personal name Avelino, which was borne by Saint Andrea Avellino and is taken from the city of Avellino in Campania, Italy.

Galician and Portuguese: probably a habitational name from any of the places in Galicia and Portugal named Mira. Catalan: of uncertain origin; possibly from the Arabic personal name Amira, or a derivative of Mir. Italian: apparently from the personal name Mira, feminine form of Miro, from Late Latin Mirus and Mira, respectively, from Latin mirus ‘wonderful’, ‘marvellous’. Czech and Polish: from a pet form of any of various personal names formed with the element mir ‘peace’, ‘quiet’, ‘esteem’ (see Mir).

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

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

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

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