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More fun with surname elements! A few more common elements include...

-ez is usually Spanish.

-es, not to be confused with the above example, is Portuguese.

-is is from Catalan.

-escu, -aru and -eanu are Romanian.

-zade is Persian (Farsi) in origin.

-oglu is Turkish and means "son of".

-berg, -s, and -er are common German sufixes, as are -dorf, -baum, -hof,
-stein, -bach, -feld, -heim, -stadt, -mann, and -gross.

-blad, -ek, -gren, -holm, -lind, -kvist, -sjo, and -strom are Swedish.

Van-, Vander-, and Vanden- are all Dutch and are related to the German
Von-, meaning "of" or "at".

-nen is Finnish more often than not.

Ibn- and Ben- are Arabic and Hebrew. Both mean "son of".

-ian and -yan are both Armenian.

-is and -os are usually Greek.

Mc- and Mac- are Gaelic prefixes from Irish and Scots that mean "son of".

• Some surname elements - Jessica Chisholm  Mar 11 2003, 7:46:51 PM
  • Re: Some surname elements - Jessica Chisholm  Mar 11 2003, 8:06:49 PM