1000 Most Common Last Names in Trinidad and Tobago

Muslim: variant of Muhammad. This is the traditional English-language spelling. It is also common as a name adopted by Black Americans on conversion to Islam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Indian (north central): Hindu name, from Sanskrit maharaja ‘great king’, derived from a title denoting an accomplished practitioner (a master) of a particular skill or craft (for example singing, drumming, dancing, cooking, etc.) or a religious guru.

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

Muslim: from a personal name or status name based on Turkish khan ‘ruler’, ‘nobleman’. This was originally a hereditary title among Tartar and Mongolian tribesmen (in particular Genghis Khan, 1162–1227), but is now very widely used throughout the Muslim world as a personal name. In Iran and parts of the Indian subcontinent it is used as an honorific title after a person’s name.

English, Welsh, German, etc.: ultimately from the Hebrew personal name yo?hanan ‘Jehovah has favored (me with a son)’ or ‘may Jehovah favor (this child)’. This personal name was adopted into Latin (via Greek) as Johannes, and has enjoyed enormous popularity in Europe throughout the Christian era, being given in honor of St. John the Baptist, precursor of Christ, and of St. John the Evangelist, author of the fourth gospel, as well as others of the nearly one thousand other Christian saints of the name. Some of the principal forms of the personal name in other European languages are Welsh Ieuan, Evan, Siôn, and Ioan; Scottish Ia(i)n; Irish Séan; German Johann, Johannes, Hans; Dutch Jan; French Jean; Italian Giovanni, Gianni, Ianni; Spanish Juan; Portuguese João; Greek Ioannes (vernacular Yannis); Czech Jan; Russian Ivan. Polish has surnames both from the western Slavic form Jan and from the eastern Slavic form Iwan. There were a number of different forms of the name in Middle English, including Jan(e), a male name (see Jane); Jen (see Jenkin); Jon(e) (see Jones); and Han(n) (see Hann). There were also various Middle English feminine versions of this name (e.g. Joan, Jehan), and some of these were indistinguishable from masculine forms. The distinction on grounds of gender between John and Joan was not firmly established in English until the 17th century. It was even later that Jean and Jane were specialized as specifically feminine names in English; bearers of these surnames and their derivatives are more likely to derive them from a male ancestor than a female. As a surname in the British Isles, John is particularly frequent in Wales, where it is a late formation representing Welsh Siôn rather than the older form Ieuan (which gave rise to the surname Evan). As an American family name this form has absorbed various cognates from continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) It is used as a given name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a surname among families from southern India.

English: from a personal name that has the same origin as Jacob. However, among English speakers, it is now felt to be a separate name in its own right. This is largely because in the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611) the form James is used in the New Testament as the name of two of Christ’s apostles (James the brother of John and James the brother of Andrew), whereas in the Old Testament the brother of Esau is called Jacob. The form James comes from Latin Jacobus via Late Latin Jac(o)mus, which also gave rise to Jaime, the regular form of the name in Spanish (as opposed to the learned Jacobo). See also Jack and Jackman. This is a common surname throughout the British Isles, particularly in South Wales.

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

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

Muslim: variant of Husain.

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

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

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

English and Scottish: variant spelling of Philip.

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

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

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

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

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

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

English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smitan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

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

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

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

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

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

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

English and Welsh: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Jon(e) (see John). The surname is especially common in Wales and southern central England. In North America this name has absorbed various cognate and like-sounding surnames from other languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

English: variant spelling of Clark.

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

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

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

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

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’.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Scottish: originally an occupational name for an administrative official of an estate, from Middle English stiward, Old English stigweard, stiweard, a compound of stig ‘house(hold)’ + weard ‘guardian’. In Old English times this title was used of an officer controlling the domestic affairs of a household, especially of the royal household; after the Conquest it was also used more widely as the native equivalent of Seneschal for the steward of a manor or manager of an estate.

English, 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.

Southern English: patronymic from David.

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

English, 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.

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

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

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

Variant of Spanish González (see Gonzalez).

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

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

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

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

French: from the personal name Antoine, French equivalent of Anthony.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muslim: variant of Muhammad. See also Mohammed.

French (François): from the personal name François, originally an ethnic name meaning ‘Frenchman’, (see Francis).

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

French: from the personal name Alexis, ultimately from Greek alexios ‘helping’, ‘defending’. The personal name owed its popularity in the Middle Ages to St. Alexi(u)s, about whom many legends grew up. The historical St. Alexis is said to have lived in the 4th–5th centuries in Edessa (an early center of Christianity in Syria). His cult was also popular in the Eastern Church, which accounts for the frequency of the Russian personal name Aleks(e)i. In North America this surname has probably absorbed Russian and other cognates, mentioned in Hanks and Hodges (1988).

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

Indian: variant of Das.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

English: patronymic from a pet form of Hugh.

English: variant of Braithwaite.

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

Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robin.

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.

Irish and English variant of Brown.

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

English and Dutch: from Latin Marcus, the personal name of St. Mark the Evangelist, author of the second Gospel. The name was borne also by a number of other early Christian saints. Marcus was an old Roman name, of uncertain (possibly non-Italic) etymology; it may have some connection with the name of the war god Mars. Compare Martin. The personal name was not as popular in England in the Middle Ages as it was on the Continent, especially in Italy, where the evangelist became the patron of Venice and the Venetian Republic, and was allegedly buried at Aquileia. As an American family name, this has absorbed cognate and similar names from other European languages, including Greek Markos and Slavic Marek. English, German, and Dutch (van der Mark): topographic name for someone who lived on a boundary between two districts, from Middle English merke, Middle High German marc, Middle Dutch marke, merke, all meaning ‘borderland’. The German term also denotes an area of fenced-off land (see Marker 5) and, like the English word, is embodied in various place names which have given rise to habitational names. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Marck, Pas-de-Calais. German: from Marko, a short form of any of the Germanic compound personal names formed with mark ‘borderland’ as the first element, for example Markwardt. Americanization or shortened form of any of several like-sounding Jewish or Slavic surnames (see for example Markow, Markowitz, Markovich). Irish (northeastern Ulster): probably a short form of Markey (when not of English origin).

French: from the personal name Modeste, a vernacular form of Latin Modestus, from the adjective modestus ‘reserved’, ‘gentle’, ‘virtuous’. Compare Italian Modesto.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Spanish: of uncertain origin. Possibly a habitational name from Marcano, a region of Margarita Island in the Caribbean, northeast of the mainland of Venezuela.

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

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

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

Italian (chiefly Apulia): from a feminine form of Lallo. Indian: variant of Lala. Guyanese and Trinidadian name found among people of Indian origin.

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

French: from a nickname or personal name composed of the elements tous ‘all’ (plural) + saints ‘saints’. The name was given to someone who was born on All Saints’ Day (1 November), or chosen as an invocation of the protection of all the saints of the calendar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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’.

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

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

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

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

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

English: from a medieval personal name, Latin Constantinus, a derivative of Constans (see Constant). The name was popular in Continental Europe, and to a lesser extent in England, as having been borne by the first Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, Constantine the Great (?280–337), in whose honor Byzantium was renamed Constantinople. In some cases the name may be an Americanized form of one of the many cognates in other languages, in particular Greek Konstantinos. English (of Norman origin): habitational name or regional name for someone from Cotentin (Coutances) in Manche, France (see Constance 2).

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

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

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

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

English: patronymic from the personal name Roger.

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

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

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

Indian (Panjab): Hindu and Sikh name from Sanskrit ratna ‘jewel’. Among Sikhs, this name is found in the Ramgarhia subgroup.

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

Indian: variant spelling of Lal.

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

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

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.

Variant of Welsh Gittings.

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

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

Of uncertain origin and derivation; the name is recorded in France, Italy, and Catalonia (Figaró, alongside its variant Figueró), and is possibly related to French figuier, Italian fico, or Catalan figuera ‘fig tree’.

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

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

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

English, Scottish, 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.

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

Spanish (Villafaña): unexplained, but undoubtedly from a place name formed with villa ‘(outlying) farmstead’, ‘(dependent) settlement’. This name could be related to Villafañé (see Villafane).

English: patronymic from Gibb.

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

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

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

Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): topographic name from Portuguese pereira ‘pear tree’, or a habitational name from a place named with this word in Portugal and Galicia. The surname is also common in western India, having been taken there by Portuguese colonists.

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

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

Muslim: from the Persian royal title Shah ‘king’, ‘emperor’. This was the title adopted by the kings of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–79). Shah is found in combination with other words, e.g. Shah Jahan (name of a Mughal emperor, ruled 1628–57) and Shah ?Alam ‘king of the world’ (name of a Mughal emperor, ruled 1707–12). This name is widespread in Iran and the subcontinent. Indian (Gujarat, Rajasthan): Hindu (Bania, Vania) and Jain name, from Gujarati sah ‘merchant’ (from Sanskrit sadhu ‘honest’, ‘good’). This name was originally Sah; it appears to have been altered under the influence of the Persian word for ‘king’ (see 1).

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

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

English and German: patronymic from Walter.

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

English: variant of Yarwood.

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

Possibly of French origin: unexplained.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

English: variant spelling of Weeks or Wicks.

French: from a feminine form of Marcel. From the 8th century the personal name was popularized in Provence in particular by the cult of St. Marcelle, who, according to a popular myth, was the servant of Martha of Bethany and traveled with her to Gaul.

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

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

Probably an altered spelling of French Célestin (see Celestin).

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

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

English: variant spelling of Seeley.

Welsh: from the Old Welsh personal name Morcant, which is of uncertain but ancient etymology. Irish: importation of the Welsh surname, to which has been assimilated more than one Gaelic surname, notably Ó Muireagáin (see Merrigan). Scottish: of uncertain origin; probably from a Gaelic personal name cognate with Welsh Morcant.

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

English: nickname from Middle English pope (derived via Old English from Late Latin papa ‘bishop’, ‘pope’, from Greek pappas ‘father’, in origin a nursery word.) In the early Christian Church, the Latin term was at first used as a title of respect for male clergy of every rank, but in the Western Church it gradually came to be restricted to bishops, and then only to the bishop of Rome; in the Eastern Church it continued to be used of all priests (see Popov, Papas). The nickname would have been used for a vain or pompous man, or for someone who had played the part of the pope in a pageant or play. The surname is also present in Ireland and Scotland. North German: variant of Poppe.

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

French: unexplained. Filipino: unexplained.

Scottish, Dutch, English, South Indian, etc.: from the Greek name Philippos (from philein ‘to love’ + hippos ‘horse’). In the New Testament this name is borne by one of the apostles; it was also borne by various other early Christian saints. It owes part of its popularity to the medieval romances about Alexander the Great, whose father was Philip of Macedon. As a Highland Scottish surname, it represents an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Fhilib ‘son of Philip’. In North America, this surname has absorbed some cases of cognate names in other languages (e.g. French Philippe, Greek Philippos, Italian Filippi, Spanish Felipe, Catalan Felip, and their derivatives). As a Jewish name, it represents a borrowing of the personal name from Christians. It is found as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. is used as a family name among families from southern India.

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

English: from the New Testament Greek personal name Timotheos, from Greek time ‘honor’ + theos ‘God’. This was the name of a companion of St. Paul who, according to tradition, was stoned to death for denouncing the worship of Diana in Ephesus. This was not in general use in England as a given name until Tudor times, so, insofar as it is an English surname at all, it is a late formation (e.g. in Wales, where surnames came into use only relatively recently). In America it also represents an adoption of the English given name in place of a cognate in Greek (Timotheou, Timotheopoulos) or any of various other European languages. Irish: adoption of the English personal name as an equivalent of Tumulty.

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

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

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

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

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

Variant spelling of English Hunt.

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

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

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

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

Spanish: from a variant of sedeño ‘silken’ or ‘cloth (or rope) of tow’, also ‘bristle’, possibly used as a nickname in the sense of Catalan sedeny ‘very strong man’. This name is common in many parts of Latin America and in the Philippines, but rare in Spain itself.

Indian (Karnataka): Hindu name from Sanskrit sampat ‘prosperity’, ‘wealth’. This is used only as a male given name in India, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S.

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

Polish: possibly from the personal name Cyrus, derived from the Greek form, Kyros, of the name of several kings of Persia. The origin of the name is not known, but in the early Christian period it was associated with Greek kyrios ‘lord’, and borne by various saints, including an Egyptian martyr and a bishop of Carthage. Possibly an Americanized spelling of the Greek family name Kyros, from the personal name (see 1 above).

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

English: habitational name from places in West Yorkshire and Suffolk, named Otley, from an unattested Old English personal name, Otta, + leah ‘woodland’ or ‘clearing’.

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

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

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

Scottish and English: patronymic from Gibb.

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

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

German, Dutch, English, and French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements heri, hari ‘army’ + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’. In Britain, this Old French name, introduced by the Normans, reinforced the less common Old English cognate Herebeorht. The surname was taken to Ireland after the Anglo-Norman invasion and in the 16th century. Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the German personal name.

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

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

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

French (Régis): occupational name for a local dignitary, from a derivative of Old French régir ‘to rule or manage’. French (Régis) and English: from Latin regis, genitive case of rex ‘king’, perhaps an occupational name for someone employed in the royal household, or a patronymic from a nickname. Italian: from Re, probably from an ablative form. German: habitational name from a place so named in Saxony.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scottish: nickname for a man with a crooked leg or legs, from older Scots cruik ‘hook’, ‘bend’ (Middle English crook, Old Scandinavian krókr) + shank ‘leg(-bone)’ (Old English sceanca).

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

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.

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

Scottish: nickname for a fair-haired person, from Gaelic bàn ‘white’, ‘fair’. This is a common name in the Highlands, first recorded in Perth in 1324. It is also found as a reduced form of McBain. Northern English: nickname meaning ‘bone’, probably bestowed on an exceptionally tall, lean man, from Old English ban ‘bone’. In northern Middle English -a- was preserved, whereas in southern dialects (which later became standard), it was changed to -o-. Northern English: nickname for a hospitable person, from northern Middle English beyn, bayn ‘welcoming’, ‘friendly’ (Old Norse beinn ‘straight’, ‘direct’). English and French: metonymic occupational name for an attendant at a public bath house, from Middle English, Old French baine ‘bath’. French: topographic name for someone who lived by a Roman bath, from Old French baine ‘bath’ or a habitational name from a place in Ille-et-Vilaine, named with this word. Possibly an altered spelling of North German Behn.

Variant spelling (mainly French and South Indian) of Emanuel, which was used in the Middle Ages by Christians as an alternative name for Christ. The name was also borne by a 3rd-century martyr. Among Christians in India it is used as a given name, and in the U.S. it has come to be used as a last name among families from southern India.

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

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

Northern English and Scottish: occupational name for a brewer of beer or ale, from Old English breowan ‘to brew’. Brewer is the usual term in southern England, while Brewster is mainly midland, northern, and Scottish.

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

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

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

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

English: variant of Harwood.

English and Scottish: from the Middle English personal name Ma(t)thew, vernacular form of the Greek New Testament name Matthias, Matthaios, which is ultimately from the Hebrew personal name Matityahu ‘gift of God’. This was taken into Latin as Mat(t)hias and Matthaeus respectively, the former being used for the twelfth apostle (who replaced Judas Iscariot) and the latter for the author of the first Gospel. In many European languages this distinction is reflected in different surname forms. The commonest vernacular forms of the personal name, including English Matthew, Old French Matheu, Spanish Mateo, Italian Matteo, Portuguese Mateus, Catalan and Occitan Mateu are generally derived from the form Matthaeus. The American surname Matthew has also absorbed European cognates from other languages, including Greek Mathias and Mattheos. Compare Mathew, Mathai. It is found as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. is used as a family name among families from southern India.

English: variant spelling of Lane.

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Fergus.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

French (also English): variant of Roman.

English: habitational name from the city of this name.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Muslim: variant of Rahman.

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

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

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

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

Scottish: variant of Innes.

Indian (northern states): Hindu name found in several communities, from Sanskrit deva ‘god’, ‘lord’. This was a title used by ruling families in northern India. There is a Jat tribe called Deo. In the northeast this name is found among Kayasths, pronounced deb. In Maharashtra Konkanasth Brahmans have a clan called Dev. Italian: from a short form of the personal names Amadeo, Laudadeo, or Sperindeo, of which only the first now remains in use as a given name.

Origin unidentified.

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

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

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

English: variant spelling of Sealey. Welsh: from the personal name Selyf or Selau, medieval Welsh vernacular forms of Solomon. Irish: probably a variant of Shealy (in counties Kerry and Cork); in other areas it is of English or Welsh origin, as in 1 and 2.

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

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

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

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

English: variant spelling of Hoyt.

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

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

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

English, French, German, and Hungarian (Jób): from the personal name (Hebrew Iyov) borne by a Biblical character, the central figure in the Book of Job, who was tormented by God and yet refused to forswear Him. The name has been variously interpreted as meaning ‘Where is the (divine) father?’ and ‘Persecuted one’. It does not seem to have been used as a personal name in the Middle Ages: the surname is probably a nickname for a wretched person or one tormented with boils (which was one of Job’s afflictions).

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

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

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

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

nickname from Latin primus ‘(the) first’, ‘(the) best’. Compare Furst. variant of Primm (of Slavic origin and perhaps as ultimately from the same element as sense 1) (see Prim 1).

Scottish: habitational name from a place in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), so called from Old English hramsa ‘wild garlic’ + eg ‘island’, ‘low-lying land’. There are other places in England called Ramsey, but the one in Huntingdonshire is almost certainly the source of the surname. The usual spelling of the surname in Scotland is Ramsay.

English and French: occupational name for a farm bailiff, responsible for overseeing the collection of rent in kind into the barns and storehouses of the lord of the manor. This official had the Anglo-Norman French title grainger, Old French grangier, from Late Latin granicarius, a derivative of granica ‘granary’ (see Grange).

Indian (northern states): Hindu name found in several communities, meaning ‘darling’, from Sanskrit lala ‘cajoling’ (related to Sanskrit lalana ‘caressing’). In several modern Indian languages lal is a term of endearment for a child; it is also an epithet of the god Krishna. There is also a homonymous word lal in Hindi, from Persian meaning ‘ruby’, ‘red’, which may have increased the popularity of this name. It occurs more commonly as the final element of a compound personal name, as in Brajlal (Braj being the name of the place where the god Krishna is supposed to have lived as a child) and Motilal (Hindi moti ‘pearl’).

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

English and Scottish: variant spelling of Edmond.

French: from the personal name Hippolyte, from Greek Hippolytos, composed of the elements hippos ‘horse’ + lyein ‘to loose’, ‘release’ (see Ippolito).

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

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

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

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

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in northern France called Rivières, from the plural form of Old French rivière ‘river’ (originally meaning ‘riverbank’, from Latin riparia). The absence of English forms without the final -s makes it unlikely that it is ever from the borrowed Middle English vocabulary word river, but the French and other Romance cognates do normally have this sense. Common Americanized form of French Larivière.

English: habitational name from the city in Hampshire, so named from the addition of Old English ceaster ‘Roman fort or walled city’ (Latin castra ‘legionary camp’) to the Romano-British name Venta, of disputed origin.

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’.

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.

Indian (Panjab): Sikh name found in the Jat community; in Hindi and Panjabi it means ‘cloud’, from Sanskrit vardala ‘water’.

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

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

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

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

English: variant spelling of Benney.

English: variant spelling of Shepherd.

English: patronymic from Seal 4.

Irish: variant of O’Neill.

Italian: from the personal name Romeo, which derives ultimately from the classical Greek adjective rhomaios (modern Greek romeos), originally denoting someone from the eastern Roman Empire, i.e. Byzantium, later someone from Rome itself, in particular someone who had been on a pilgrimage there, and finally someone who had made any pilgrimage, i.e. a pilgrim; from this last sense arose the personal name.

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

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

English: habitational name from places called Brereton, in Cheshire and Staffordshire. The former is named with Old English br?r, brer ‘briar’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; the latter originally had as its final element Old English dun ‘hill’.

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

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

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).

English: variant spelling of Critchlow.

English: patronymic from Rawling.

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

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

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

English: habitational name from places so named, for example in East Worlington, Devon, Norfolk, and West Yorkshire. The two last are named from Old English hors ‘horse’ + ford ‘ford’, because they lay at fords that could only be crossed on horseback.

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

English: patronymic from Good.

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

From the Hebrew name Yirmeyahu (meaning ‘appointed by God’ in Hebrew), borne by a Biblical prophet of the 7th–6th centuries bc, whose story, prophecies of judgement, and lamentations are recorded in the book of the Bible that bears his name.

French: from a personal name (Latin Julius). The name was borne in the Middle Ages in honor of various minor Christian saints. English: patronymic or metronymic from a short form of Julian.

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

English (Newcastle and Durham): variant of Sober.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Irish (Munster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Maol Dhomhnaigh ‘descendant of the devotee of the Church’. Compare Muldowney.

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

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

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

English and Scottish: nickname for someone with red hair, from Middle English re(a)d ‘red’ + heved ‘head’. In some cases it is possibly also a topographic name with the sense ‘red headland’. It occurs mainly in eastern and northern England.

German: ethnic name for someone from Flanders, Middle High German vlaeminc. People from Flanders spread throughout Germany, as well as England, in the Middle Ages as clothmakers and dyers. English: variant spelling of Fleming.

English (of Norman origin) and French: from Godhard, a personal name composed of the Germanic elements god ‘good’ or god, got ‘god’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’. The name was popular in Europe during the Middle Ages as a result of the fame of St. Gotthard, an 11th-century bishop of Hildesheim who founded a hospice on the pass from Switzerland to Italy that bears his name. This surname and the variant Godard are also borne by Ashkenazic Jews, presumably as an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. Possibly also an Americanized spelling of German Gotthard (see Gothard).

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

English: variant of Striker (from the Old English byform stracian).

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

English and French: nickname for a lighthearted or cheerful person, from Middle English, Old French gai. In Middle English the term could also mean ‘wanton’, ‘lascivious’ and this sense may lie behind the surname in some instances. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from places in Normandy called Gaye, from an early proprietor bearing a Germanic personal name cognate with Wade. probably from the Catalan personal name Gai (Latin Gaius), or in some cases a nickname from Catalan gay ‘cheerful’. Variant of German Gau. North German: from a Frisian personal name Gay.

Northern English form of Bridge, from Old Norse bryggja.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

English: apparently a habitational name from an unidentified place. There is a place called Colleymore Farm in Oxfordshire, but it is not clear whether this is the source of the surname. See also Collamore, Cullimore, Gallimore.

Spanish: habitational name from La Salina in Teruel province, or a topographic name from salina ‘saltworks’, ‘salt marsh’.

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

English: variant of Hamlett.

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

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

English: habitational name from Byram in West Yorkshire or Byrom in Lancashire, both named with Old English b¯rum ‘at the cattle sheds’, dative plural of b¯re ‘byre’. This name and the variants Biron and Biram have occasionally been adopted as Jewish surnames, presumably as Americanized forms of Jewish names that cannot now be identified.

English and Irish: variant of Topping.

French: from the personal name Louis, derived from a Germanic personal name (the name of the founder of the Frankish dynasty) composed of the elements hlod ‘fame’ + wig ‘war’. This is recorded in Latin chronicles as Ludovicus (see Ludwig), and Chlodovechus, which became Old French Clovis, Clouis, Louis, a name borne by many French kings.

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

Jewish, French, English, and German: from the Hebrew personal name Refael composed of the elements rafa ‘to heal’ + el ‘God’. This is the name of one of the archangels, but for some reason it was less popular among Christians in the Middle Ages, except perhaps in Italy, than those of the archangels Michael and Gabriel.

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

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

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.

variant of Hill 1. patronymic from Hill 2.

Welsh: variant spelling of Reese.

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

French (Jérôme) and English: from the medieval personal name Jérôme (French), Jerome (English), from Greek Hieronymos (see Hieronymus). This achieved some popularity in France and elsewhere, being bestowed in honor of St Jerome (?347–420), creator of the Vulgate, the standard Latin version of the Bible. English (of Norman origin): from a personal name, Gerram, composed of the Germanic elements gar, ger ‘spear’ + hraban ‘raven’.

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

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

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

English: variant of Jefferson.

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

variant spelling of Job. nickname from Old French job, joppe ‘sorry wretch’, ‘fool’ (perhaps a transferred application of the name of the Biblical character). from Middle English jubbe, jobbe ‘vessel containing four gallons’, hence perhaps a metonymic occupational name for a cooper. It could also have been a nickname for a heavy drinker or for a tubby person. metonymic occupational name for a maker or seller (or nickname for a wearer) of the long woolen garment known in Middle English and Old French as a jube or jupe. This word ultimately derives from Arabic.

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

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

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

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

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.

French: from the personal name Auguste, the French vernacular form of Augustus.

'What craftsman art thou?' said the king.

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

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

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

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

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

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’.

English: variant of Laycock.

English: occupational name for a maker and seller of candles, from Middle English cha(u)ndeler (Old French chandelier, Late Latin candelarius, a derivative of candela ‘candle’). While a medieval chandler no doubt made and sold other articles beside candles, the extended sense of modern English chandler does not occur until the 16th century. The name may also, more rarely, have denoted someone who was responsible for the lighting arrangements in a large house, or else one who owed rent in the form of wax or candles.

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

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

Muslim: see Ismail.

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

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

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

English: habitational name from Durham, a city in northeastern England, named from Old English dun ‘hill’ (see Down 1) + Old Norse holmr ‘island’.

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

Variant of French Philibert or English Filbert.

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

Swiss French: variant spelling of Bailly.

Americanized form of German or Jewish Freitag; in some cases the surname may be the much rarer English cognate, from Old English friggandæg ‘Friday’, which Reaney suggests may also have been used to denote a person with a gloomy disposition.

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

Scottish: variant of Rainey.

English: patronymic from an unidentified medieval personal name, perhaps a survival of Old English H¯nci or H¯nca. Compare Hinckley.

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

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

From the Biblical Hebrew personal name meaning ‘given by God’. This was borne by a minor prophet in the Bible (2 Samuel 7:2). It is found as both a Jewish and Gentile surname in Europe. In South India it is used as a given name among Christians, and in the U.S. it has come to be used as a family name among South Indian Christians.

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

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

Northern English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Harry.

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

Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Morris.

English: habitational name from any of the various places in England so called, which do not all share the same etymology. The county seat of Staffordshire (which is probably the main source of the surname) is named from Old English stæð ‘landing place’ + ford ‘ford’. Examples in Devon seem to have as their first element Old English stan ‘stone’, and one in Sussex is probably named with Old English steor ‘steer’, ‘bullock’.

German and French: from a Spanish (Visigothic) personal name composed of the elements farð ‘journey’, ‘expedition’ (or a metathesized form of frið ‘peace’) + nanð ‘daring’, ‘brave’. The surname is of comparatively recent origin in German-speaking countries and in France, for the personal name was not introduced from Spain until the late 15th century. It was brought to Austria by the Habsburg dynasty, among whom it was a hereditary name, and from Austria it spread to France. The Iberian cognates are of more ancient origin and more frequently found today, since the name was much favored in the royal house of Castile. It owes its popularity in large part to King Ferdinand III of Castile and León (1198–1252), who recaptured large areas of Spain from the Moors and was later canonized.

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

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

English: patronymic from Wilkin.

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

Spanish (of Basque origin): variant of Orozco.

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

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

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

English and French: variant of Bertram.

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

English: variant of Ransom.

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

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.

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

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

Northern English: regional name from Teesdale in northeastern England, which is named for the river Tees (named with Old English (ge)twis ‘forking’, ‘river fork’) + Old English dæl ‘valley’.

English: variant spelling of Franklin.

English: topographic name from Middle English atte welle ‘by the spring or stream’.

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

English: variant of Hall.

English and Dutch: patronymic from the personal name Nichol.

English: from the personal name Toby (see Tobias).

English: from Middle English asche ‘ash tree’ (Old English æsc), hence a topographic name for someone living by an ash tree or a habitational name from any of the many places in southern and central England named with this word (Derbyshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Kent, Surrey, Shropshire, Somerset, and elsewhere). In New England, Ash is commonly found for French Dufresne, with the same meaning. Jewish (Ashkenazic): from an acronym for Yiddish AltSHul (see Altschul) or AyznSHtot (see Eisenstadt).

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

nickname for a much-loved person, a love-smitten individual, an affectionate person, or a philanderer, from amoroso ‘amorous’ (Latin amorosus). from the personal name Amorosus.

French: variant of Elias.

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.

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

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places so called, especially Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester. Most are named from Old English æsc ‘ash tree’ + tun ‘settlement’; the one in Northamptonshire is (æt þ?m) æscum ‘(at the) ash trees’. Others have been assimilated to this from different sources. The one in Devon is ‘the settlement (tun) of Æschere’, while the one in Hertfordshire is ‘the settlement of Ælli’.

English: variant (plural) of Down. Irish (Counties Clare and Limerick): reduced Anglicized form of Irish Gaelic Ó Dubháin (see Doane).

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

French (Théodore) and English: from the personal name Théodore (Greek Theodoros, a compound of theos ‘God’ + doron ‘gift’), which was relatively popular in the Middle Ages because of its auspicious meaning. There was considerable confusion with the Germanic personal name Theodoric (see Terry). As an American family name, it has also absorbed various other European cognates, e.g. Greek Theodorakis, Theodoropoulos.

Spanish: variant spelling of Valdés (see Valdes).

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

Spanish (Mejías): variant of Mejía (see Mejia).

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

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

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

Scottish: from a pet form of Cass.

English: of uncertain origin; possibly an altered form of Irish Doyle. Compare Dyal. Name found among people of Indian origin in Guyana and Trinidad: altered spelling of Dayal. This spelling is found in Indian names occasionally when -dial is the final element of a compound personal name.

English: habitational name from any of the very numerous places in England named Drayton, from Old English dræg ‘drag’, ‘portage’, ‘slipway’, or ‘sledge’ (a place where boats were dragged across land or where loads had to be dragged uphill or on sledges across wet ground, from dragan ‘to draw or drag’) + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

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

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

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

Variant of Prescott.

Scottish (Berwickshire) and Irish: from the Old Norse personal name Makkr, a form of Magnus (Old Irish Maccus). North German, Dutch, and French (Alsace): from the Germanic personal name Macco, Makko, a pet form of a compound name with the initial element mag- ‘kinsman’. Shortened form of any of the many Scottish and Irish names beginning M(a)c-.

Scottish and French: from a short form of Thomas.

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

Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic mu?hammad ‘praiseworthy’ (derived from the verb ?hamida ‘praise’). This is the name of the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (570–632). He began to receive spiritual revelations at the age of 40. The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, was revealed to him by the Angel Jibril (Gabriel). As a personal name, this name is extremely common throughout the Muslim world.

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

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

Scottish: variant of Carruthers.

Scottish and English: distinguishing nickname bestowed on the elder (Old English ealdra) of two bearers of the same personal name. It may also denote an elder of a Church, in the sense of a senior and respected member of a congregation. Americanized form of German Elter, which has the same meaning as 1.

English: patronymic from Park 2.

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

English: variant of Dyson (see Dye). English: nickname for someone with a fiery temperament, from Old French tison ‘firebrand’. Americanized spelling of German Theissen or Theisen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

probably from farfán, a term denoting one of a group of Spaniards who went to Morocco in the 8th century; there they retained their Christian faith and in 1390 their descendants returned to Spain. in some cases, a habitational name from Farfán in Granada.

English (West Midlands): occupational name for a maker of helmets, from the adopted Old French term he(a)umier, from he(a)ume ‘helmet’, of Germanic origin. Compare Helm 2. English: variant of Holmer. Americanized form of the Greek family name Homiros or one of its patronymic derivatives (Homirou, Homiridis, etc.). This was not only the name of the ancient Greek epic poet (classical Greek Homeros), but was also borne by a martyr venerated in the Greek Orthodox Church. Slovenian: topographic name for someone who lived on a hill, from hom (dialect form of holm ‘hill’, ‘height’) + the German suffix -er denoting an inhabitant.

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

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

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

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

Irish and Scottish: reduced form of McConnell or O’Connell.

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

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

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

English: variant spelling of York.

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

Scottish and Irish: variant of McLean.

English: variant of Gumb, itself a variant of Gumm.

Northern English and Scottish: patronymic from Nichol.

Jewish and Gentile (from northern Europe to South India): from the Biblical name, Hebrew Yehoshuah, meaning ‘may Jehovah help him’. It was borne by the Israelite leader who took command of the children of Israel after the death of Moses and led them to take possession of the promised land. In Britain this was a popular name among Nonconformists from the 17th century onward; as a result, it is a typically Welsh surname, since Welsh surnames were comparatively late in formation. It is also used as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a family name among families from southern India.

English: variant spelling of Baines.

Irish: variant of Cuff.

English and Scottish: habitational name from places near Manchester, in Berwickshire Dumfriesshire, and elsewhere, all named from the British word that lies behind Welsh eglwys ‘church’ (from Latin ecclesia, Greek ekklesia ‘gathering’, ‘assembly’). Such places would have been the sites of notable pre-Anglo-Saxon churches or Christian communities.

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

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

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 (Norfolk): from a pet form of the Norman personal name Gerald. Probably also an altered spelling of Scottish Gerrie, Gerry, shortened forms of Garioch.

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

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

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

English: from a pet form of Ellis.

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

English: from the Middle English, Old French female personal name Aveline, a double diminutive of the Germanic personal name Avo, from the element avi, perhaps meaning ‘desired’, ‘wished for’.

Respelling of French Légal, a nickname for a loyal person, from a variant of Old French leial.

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

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

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

Apparently an English habitational name from an unidentified place. Possibly it originated in North America, from Medford, MA, which is named as ‘the ford by the meadow’.

English: habitational name from Codrington in Gloucestershire, named from the Old English personal name Cuþhere + -ing- denoting association with + tun ‘settlement’.

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

German: variant of Ruder 2. Altered spelling ofnGerman Ruder 1 and 2. EG

Scottish and northern English, and Danish: from northern Middle English, Danish kirk ‘church’ (Old Norse kirkja), a topographic name for someone who lived near a church.

Americanized form of Italian Pompei.

Welsh: Anglicized form of Welsh ab Ithel ‘son of Ithael’, a personal name meaning ‘bountiful lord’. Compare Idle.

occupational name from Anglo-Norman French cordewaner ‘cordwainer’, ‘shoemaker’. from an agent derivative of Old French cordon ‘ribbon’, hence an occupational name for a maker or seller of cord or ribbon. occupational name for a worker in fine Spanish kid leather, from an agent derivative of Old French cordoan (see Cordon 2).

English: habitational name from a place named Applethwaite, from Old Norse apaldr ‘apple tree’ + þveit ‘meadow’. There are two or three such places in Cumbria; Applethwaite is also recorded as a surname from the 13th century in Suffolk, England, pointing to a possible lost place name there. The form Applewhite, now found predominantly in Lincolnshire, goes back to the 16th century in Suffolk.

Indian: Hindu name found in several communities, from Sanskrit kumara ‘child’, ‘son’, ‘prince’. It is also an epithet of the god Kartikeya, the son of Shiva. It commonly occurs as the final element of compound given names, and sometimes as a personal name in its own right. Slovenian: either a variant spelling of Kumer or a variant of Humar, a topographic name for someone who lived on a hill, from holm (dialectally hum ‘hill’, ‘height’).

from a variant of the medieval female personal name Mab(be), a short form of Middle English, Old French Amabel (from Latin amabilis ‘loveable’). This has survived into the 20th century in the short form Mabel. possibly from an unattested Old English male personal name, Mappa. Welsh: from Old Welsh map, mab ‘son’, which was used as a distinguishing epithet.

English: variant of Jardin.

Scottish: variant of McSwain.

English: habitational name from either of two places called Caton, in Derbyshire and Lancashire. The former is probably named with the Old English personal name or byname Cada (see Cade) + Old English tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; the latter is from the Old Norse byname Káti (see Cates) + tun. English and French: from a pet form of Catlin.

English: variant of Gold.

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

English: patronymic from Crook 1.

English, Welsh, and Irish (of Norman origin): from Old French pourcel ‘piglet’ (Latin porcellus, a diminutive of porcus ‘pig’), hence a metonymic occupational name for a swineherd, or a nickname, perhaps affectionate in tone. This is a common surname in Ireland, having become established there in the 12th century.

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

English and Dutch: from the personal name Derrick (now more commonly spelled Derek in England, earlier Dederick), which was introduced to England in the 15th century, from Dutch Diederick, Dirck (see Terry). Irish: an English introduction of the same origin as 1, but occasionally a variant of Derrig.

German: variant of Bahl.

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

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

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

Welsh: variant of Lloyd.

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

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’.

Scottish: from a short form of the personal name Archibald.

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

= Daley, q.v.

English: variant spelling of Jemmett, from a pet form of Jem, a short form of James.

Altered spelling of French Millet; the spelling reflects the Canadian practice of sounding the final -t.

English: variant spelling of Motley.

variant of Warwick. metonymic occupational name for a maker of warrocks, wedges of timber that were used to tighten the joints in a scaffold.

English: habitational name from any of various places named in Old English from bean ‘beans’ (collective singular) + feld ‘field’, ‘open land’, as for example Benville in Dorset. Irish: variant of the Norman family name Banville (see Bonfield), associated primarily with county Wexford.

French (Honoré): from a medieval personal name (Latin Honoratus ‘honored’). The name was borne by a 5th-century bishop of Arles and a 6th-century bishop of Amiens, both of whom became popular minor saints and contributed to the frequency of the name in the Middle Ages. The surname was taken to Denmark by French Huguenots who migrated there in the 17th century.

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

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

Scottish: variant of Dunoon, a habitational name from the place on the Clyde west of Glasgow.

French: from the personal name, French form of Hillary 1.

Spanish (Fermín): from the medieval personal name Fermín, Spanish form of Latin Firminus (see Firmin). French: variant of Firmin.

Scottish and Irish: quasi-Gaelic patronymic from David. Compare McDade, McDevitt.

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

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

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

Scottish: according to tradition, this is a rare example of a Gaelic surname of topographic origin, the first element of which is probably Gaelic mun, a mutated form of bun ‘foot’, or British minit ‘hill’. In Ireland this name has sometimes been used as an equivalent of O’Mellan (see Mellon) and Milroy 2.

English: variant spelling of Rock. German (Röcke): variant of Rock 4.

English: derivative of Ayer. The -s most probably represents a trace of the Latin nominative singular in heres ‘heir’, but it may also signify the son or servant of someone known as ‘the heir’, i.e. someone who was heir to some great estate.

English: variant of Merrill.

Italian: from a personal name composed of the elements bona (buona) ‘good’ + parte ‘solution’, ‘match’, a name bestowed as an expression of satisfaction at the child’s arrival. The name has also been adopted as a Jewish surname and by admirers of the Emperor Napoleon in North America and the Caribbean.

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

Bruno, from the latin "prunum"—prunes, or prune tree.This surname should not be associated with the Germanic "brun" - dark complexion - but with "brunna, prunja" - breast plate, cuirass.

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

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

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

Portuguese: the usual Portuguese form of Alvares.

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

Portuguese: unexplained; possibly a variant of Pereira.

English: habitational name from Berkeley in Gloucestershire, named in Old English with be(o)rc ‘birch’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’. Compare Scottish Barclay. Jewish (American): assimilated form of Berkowitz.

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

English: one of the most common and widespread of English surnames, either a nickname for someone who was fond of dressing in this color (Old English grene) or who had played the part of the ‘Green Man’ in the May Day celebrations, or a topographic name for someone who lived near a village green, Middle English grene (a transferred use of the color term). In North America this name has no doubt assimilated cognates from other European languages, notably German Grün (see Gruen). Jewish (American): Americanized form of German Grün or Yiddish Grin, Ashkenazic ornamental names meaning ‘green’ or a short form of any of the numerous compounds with this element. Irish: translation of various Gaelic surnames derived from glas ‘gray’, ‘green’, ‘blue’. See also Fahey. North German: short form of a habitational name from a place name with Gren- as the first element (for example Greune, Greubole).

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

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

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

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

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

English: habitational name from a group of villages in Somerset named with Coker, from a Celtic river name meaning ‘crooked’.

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