American Submitted Surnames
Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
ABELSONEnglishThis name derives from the surname Abelson, meaning "son of Abel." Patronymic.
ACEEnglish, Norman, Medieval FrenchThe surname Ace's origin is from a Norman and Old French personal name, Ace, Asse, from Germanic Frankish origin Azzo, Atso, a pet form of personal names containing adal ‘noble’ as a first element.
ACKLEYEnglishFrom an Old English surname: a place name which meant "Oak meadow". A variation of this is: "dwells at the oak tree meadow". ...
[more] ACKROYDEnglishTopographic name from northern Middle English
ake "oak" and
royd "clearing".
ACTONEnglish, Northern Irish"Oak Town" in Old English. Parishes in Cheshire, Suffolk, Middlesex. There is also a place that bears this name in Ulster.
AGLEREnglishFrom one or more Middle English personal names variously written Alger, Algar, Alcher, Aucher, etc. These represent a falling together of at least three different Continental Germanic and Old English names:
Adalgar "noble spear" (Old English Æ{dh}elgār),
Albgar "elf spear" (Old English Ælfgār), and
Aldgar "old spear" (Old English (E)aldgār)...
[more] AKRIDGEEnglishPossibly English, a habitational name from a place with a name meaning ‘oak ridge’, as for example Aikrigg in Cumbria (from Old Norse eik ‘oak’ + hryggr ‘ridge’), or any of the many places called Oakridge (from Old English āc + hrycg)...
[more] ALABASTEREnglishFrom the name of a whitish kind of gypsum used for vases, ornaments and busts, ultimately deriving from Greek
alabastros, itself perhaps from Egyptian
'a-labaste "vessel of the goddess
Bast"...
[more] ALBANYScottish, English (American)From the title of the Dukes of Albany (House of Stuart), hence a name borne by their retainers. It is an infrequent surname in England and Scotland. The city of Albany, NY (formerly the Dutch settlement of Beverwijck or Fort Orange) was named for James Stuart, Duke of York and Albany; he was the brother of King Charles II and later king in his own right as James II...
[more] ALBRIGHTAmericanThis name was originally Albrecht. It was changed by German imigrants to America in the 1600s.
ALCOTTEnglishEnglish: ostensibly a topographic name containing Middle English
cott,
cote ‘cottage’ (see
Coates). In fact, however, it is generally if not always an alteration of
Alcock, in part at least for euphemistic reasons.
ALDERMANEnglishStatus name from Middle English
alderman, Old English ealdorman, "elder". In medieval England an alderman was a member of the governing body of a city or borough; also the head of a guild.
ALDRIDGEEnglishhabitational name from a place in the West Midlands called Aldridge; it is recorded in Domesday Book as Alrewic, from Old English alor ‘alder’ + wīc ‘dwelling’, ‘farmstead’.
ALFORDEnglish, ScottishHabitation name found in Lincolnshire, Surrey and Somerset, England and Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The name can be derived by combining the Old English female personal name
Ealdg- and
-ford meaning "water crossing" or can mean "from the alder tree ford".
ALISTONEnglishVariant of
Allerston, a habitational surname derived from a place so named in North Yorkshire.
ALLINEnglishVariant spelling of
Allen. Also a derivative of the Norman female name
Adelina, based on Germanic
adal, 'noble'.
ALLISEnglishFrom the Middle English and Old French female personal name
Alis (
Alice), which, together with its diminutive
Alison, was extremely popular in England in the Middle Ages. The personal name is of Germanic origin, brought to England from France by the Normans; it is a contracted form of Germanic
Adalhaid(is), which is composed of the elements
adal "noble" and
haid "brilliance, beauty".
ALLOWAYEnglishMeans (i) "person from Alloway, Alloa or Alva", the name of various places in Scotland ("rocky plain"); or (ii) from the medieval male personal name
Ailwi (from Old English
Æthelwīg, literally "noble battle").
ALLREDEnglishFrom the Middle English personal name
Alured, a form of
ALFRED, which was sometimes written
Alvred, especially in Old French texts.
ALMONDEnglishFrom the Middle English personal name
Almund, from Old English
Æ{dh}elmund, "noble protection" and variant of
Allman, assimilated by folk etymology to the vocabulary word denoting the tree.
ALPERTEnglish, Jewish, German, DutchA variant of the Jewish surname Heilprin or
Halpern. In German and Dutch usage, it is derived from the given name
Albert. One famous bearer is Richard Alpert from the ABC TV show LOST.
AMBEREnglishThis surname may be derived from the River Amber, located in Derbyshire in England....
[more] AMBROSEEnglishFrom the Late Latin name Ambrosius, which was derived from the Greek name
Αμβροσιος (Ambrosios) meaning "immortal".
AMESEnglish, GermanEnglish: from the Old French and Middle English personal name
Amys,
Amice, which is either directly from Latin
amicus ‘friend’, used as a personal name, or via a Late Latin derivative of this,
Amicius....
[more] AMMERGerman, English (Rare)This surname may be derived from Middle High German
amer which means "bunting (as in the bird)." As such, it is used as a nickname for someone with a fine voice or someone who is a flamboyant dresser....
[more] AMORYEnglish, NormanEnglish from a Germanic personal name,
Aimeri, composed of the elements
haim ‘home’ +
ric ‘power’. (The same elements constitute the etymology of
Henry.) The name was introduced into England from France by the Normans...
[more] AMSDONEnglish (Modern)Unknown. Possibly a spelling variant of Amsden. Ancestry.com suggests probably a habitational name, from a reduced form of the Oxfordshire place name Ambrosden, which is composed of an Old English personal name Ambre + Old English dun ‘hill’...
[more] AMYSEnglishFrom the given name
AMIS. Compare with
AMES. An early example using this spelling is Robert Amys of Cambridgeshire, England in 1273.
ANEYEnglishPossibly a respelling of French Ané, from a personal name derived from Latin Asinarius.
ANNEnglishHabitational name from Abbots Ann in Hampshire, named for the stream that runs through it, which is most probably named with an ancient Welsh word meaning ‘water’.
ANSTEYEnglishMeans "person from Anstey or Ansty", the name of numerous places in England (either "single track" or "steep track"). F. Anstey was the pen-name of British barrister and author Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856-1934).
APPLEEnglishFrom Middle English appel meaning "apple" (Old English æppel). An occupational name for a grower or seller of apples.
APPLEGARTHEnglish, ScottishTopographic name from northern Middle English applegarth meaning "apple orchard" (Old Norse apaldr meaning "apple tree" + gar{dh}r meaning "enclosure"), or a habitational name from a place so named, of which there are examples in Cumbria and North and East Yorkshire, as well as in the county of Dumfries.
APPLEGATEEnglishExtremely common variant of
Applegarth, in which the less familiar final element has been assimilated to the northern Middle English word gate meaning "road" or to modern English gate.
APPLEWHITEEnglishHabitational name from a place named Applethwaite, from Old Norse
apaldr ‘apple tree’ and
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...
[more] ARANDSEnglish, SpanishAnglicized version of a name given to residents of Aranda de Duero, a small town in the north of Spain.
ARDELLAAfrican AmericanDerivative of
Arden, popularized by the poem of the same name by Langston Hughes, the most well-known Black poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Meaning is "garden dweller."...
[more] ARDENEnglishFrom various English place names, which were derived from a Celtic word meaning "high"....
[more] ARISENEnglish (Modern)From a Dutch surname that means "son of
Aris". In The Netherlands, this name is never used as a first name, since Dutch law strictly prohibits the use of surnames as first names. Therefore, if this name is indeed sometimes used as a first name in the United States (where it *is* allowed to use surnames as first names), one should classify Arisen as an (American-)English first name.
ARLENAmericanOf uncertain origin. Possibly a form of the German name
Erlen or a Gaelic name meaning "pledge" or "oath".
ARLINGTONEnglishLocation name that refers to a settlement associated with a personal name reduced to
Arl- plus the Anglo-Saxon patronymic element
-ing- then the element
-ton denoting a "settlement"...
[more] ARLOTTEnglishFrom a medieval nickname for a ne'er-do-well (from Middle English
harlot or
arlot "vagabond, base fellow"; "prostitute" is a 15th-century development). This surname was borne by Jack Arlott (1914-1991), a British journalist, poet and cricket commentator.
ARNETTEnglishDerived from
Arnold, a pet name perhaps. Also could be from /arn/ "eagle" and /ett/, a diminutive.
ARTISEnglishEnglish: regional name for someone from the French province of Artois, from Anglo-Norman French Arteis (from Latin Atrebates, the name of the local Gaulish tribe). This surname is popular in North Carolina and Virginia, of the US.
ARUNDELEnglishEnglish surname which comes from two distinct sources. Either it was derived from a place name meaning "horehound valley" in Old English (from
harhune "horehound (a plant)" and
dell "valley"), or it was from Old French
arondel, diminutive of
arond "swallow", which was originally a Norman nickname given to someone resembling a swallow.
ASBURYEnglishEnglish location name with the elements
as- meaning "east" or "ash tree" and
-bury meaning "fortified settlement."
ASHBYEnglishEnglish: 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’.
ASHCROFTEnglishEnglish (chiefly Lancashire) topographic name from Middle English
asche ‘ash tree’ +
croft ‘enclosure’, or a habitational name from a minor place named with these elements.
ASHEREnglishTopographic surname denoting someone who dwelled by an ash tree, from Middle English
asche "ash tree" combined with the suffix
-er.
ASHFORDEnglishDerived from
Ashford, which is the name of several places in England. All but one of these derive the second element of their name from Old English
ford meaning "ford" - for the one in North Devon, it is derived from Old English
worō or
worth meaning "enclosure"....
[more] ASHLANDEnglishThis surname is derived from Old English
æsc &
land and it means "ash tree land."
ASHMANEnglish, Anglo-SaxonFrom Middle English
Asheman, a byname meaning "pirate, seaman". It can also be made up of English
ash referring to the "ash tree", and
man. In that case, it could refer to someone who lived by ash trees...
[more] ASHMOREEnglishEnglish locational name, from either "Aisemare", (from Old English pre 7th Century "aesc" meaning ash plus "mere" a lake; hence "lake where ash-trees grow), or from any of several minor places composed of the Old English elements "aesc" ash plus "mor" a marsh or fen.
ASHTONEnglishDerived from a place name which meant "ash tree town" in Old English.
ASPINALLEnglishA locational name of Anglo-Saxon origin, it means “aspen well”.
ASQUITHEnglishHabitational name from a village in North Yorkshire named Askwith, from Old Norse askr ‘ash tree’ + vi{dh}r ‘wood’
ASSELBROUGHEnglishpronouncec assel brudd the origin of the name id unknown but the family were first fiund in heworth .george asselbrough married sarah keatlie in heworth.they had george b1752-1833 alston,srag 17154c nicholas 1757 - 1813 felling pit disaster.peter 1760 james 1762,...
[more] ATELIERFrench, EnglishFrom the French
atelier meaning "workshop," referring to the workplace of an artist in the fine or decorative arts, particularly during the Middle Ages and into the 19th century.
ATHERTONEnglishHabitational name from a place near Manchester named Atherton, from the Old English personal name Æ{dh}elhere + Old English tūn meaning "settlement".
ATLEEEnglishEnglish: topographic name for someone whose dwelling was ‘by the clearing or meadow’, Middle English
atte lee. The word
lea or
lee (Old English
leah) originally meant ‘wood’, thence ‘clearing in a wood’, and, by the Middle English period, ‘grassy meadow’.
ATMOREEnglishLocational surname derived from Middle English
atte more meaning "at the marsh".
ATWELLEnglishTopographic name from Middle English
atte welle "by the spring or stream"
AUDENEnglishThis surname is derived from the Germanic given name
Aldwin, of which the Old English equivalent is
Ealdwine. Also compare
Alden, which is a surname that has the same etymological origins. The surname Auden was probably formed during the time of the Norman French occupation of England, as Germanic names containing
-al- usually became
-au- in Norman French...
[more] AUGUSTUSEnglishMeans "great" or "venerable", derived from Latin
augere "to increase".
AUSLEYEnglish (Modern)Rare surname which was from an English place name in which the second element is Old English
leah "wood, clearing". The first element may be
hors "horse" (in which case the name likely referred to a place where horses were put out to pasture) or the river name Ouse (ultimately from the ancient British root
ud- "water").
AUSTENEnglishA variant of the surname
Austin. This exact spelling is also on the first name site.
AXFORDEnglishDerived from
Axford, which is the name of two villages in England (one is located in the county of Hampshire, the other in Wiltshire). Both villages derive their name from Old English
æsc(e) "ash tree(s)" and Old English
ford "ford", which gives their name the meaning of "ford by the ash trees" or "a ford with ash trees"...
[more] AYLEREnglishoccupational name from Old French aillier ‘garlic seller’, from ail ‘garlic’ (from Latin allium)....
[more] AYLIFFEnglishFrom the medieval female personal name Ayleve (from Old English
Æthelgifu, literally "noble gift"), or from the Old Norse nickname
Eilífr, literally "ever-life".
AZALEAEnglish, Indonesian, VariousFrom the name of the flower (see
Azalea). A notable bearer is Australian rapper Amethyst Amelia Kelly, who's better known by her stage name Iggy Azalea.
BABINGTONEnglishHabitational name for someone from Babington in Somerset or Great or Little Bavington in Northumberland, named with the Old English personal name Babba + the connective particle -ing- meaning "associated with", "named after" + tūn meaning "settlement".
BACCHUSEnglish(i) Variant of
Backus (meaning "one who lives in or works in a bakery", from Old English
bǣchūs "bakehouse, bakery"), the spelling influenced by
Bacchus (name of the Greek and Roman god of wine)....
[more] BACKMANEnglish, Swedish, GermanCombination of Old English
bakke "spine, back" and
man "man". In Swedish, the first element is more likely to be derived from Swedish
backe "hill", and in German the first element can be derived from German
backen "to bake"...
[more] BACONEnglish, French, NormanAn occupational surname for someone who sold pork, from Middle English and Old French
bacun or
bacon, meaning 'bacon', which is ultimately of Germanic origin. Can also be derived from the Germanic given names
Baco,
Bacco, or
Bahho, from the root
bag-, meaning 'to fight'...
[more] BADDELEYEnglishFrom place names in both Suffolk and Staffordshire derived from an Old English personal name, 'Badda,' possibly meaning "battle" and
lee or
leah for a "woodland clearing," therefore meaning someone from "Badda's woodland clearing."
BADRINETTEEnglishApparently an extremely rare name of French origin, but isn't used as a first name in France. It might come from the rather uncommon French surname
Bardinette, which apparently is a variant spelling of the surname
Bardinet...
[more] BAINBRIDGEEnglishfrom Bainbridge in North Yorkshire, named for the Bain river on which it stands (which is named with Old Norse beinn ‘straight’) + bridge.
BAINEBRIDGEEnglish, IrishBridge over the Bain, An English town named for its place on the river Bain, now used as a surname. Lives near the bridge over the white water...
[more] BAIRNSFATHEREnglishFrom a medieval nickname in Scotland and northern England for the (alleged) father of an illegitimate child (from northern Middle English
bairnes "child's" +
father). This surname was borne by British cartoonist and author Bruce Bairnsfather (1888-1959).
BALCOMEnglishAltered spelling of English
Balcombe, a habitational name from Balcombe in West Sussex, which is named with Old English
bealu "evil, calamity" (or the Old English personal name
Bealda) combined with
cumb "valley".
BALDOCKEnglish (Rare)Means "person from Baldock", Hertfordshire ("Baghdad": in the Middle Ages the lords of the manor were the Knights Templar, whose headquarters were in Jerusalem, and they named the town
Baldac, the Old French name for Baghdad).
BALDYEnglishPossibly from an Old English female personal name, Bealdḡ{dh}, meaning ‘bold combat’, first recorded c.1170 as Baldith, and in others from the Old Norse personal name Baldi.
BALEEnglishVariant of
Bail. This is the surname of Welsh footballer Gareth Bale.
BALENEnglishEnglish surname, perhaps of Cornish British origin, from belen, meaning "mill."
BALLARDEnglishEnglish and Scottish: derogatory nickname from a derivative of
bald ‘bald-headed’ (see also
Bald).
BALLASTEREnglishMeant "person who makes or is armed with a crossbow" (from a derivative of Middle English
baleste "crossbow", from Old French).
BANKSTONEnglishDerived from the old English world "Banke" usually given to a family who lived near a hill or a slope.
BANKSYEnglish, Popular CultureThis is pseudonyms Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter. Banksy's real name might be Robin Gunningham. How Banksy got his pseudonym is unknown...
[more] BANWELLEnglishMeans "person from Banwell", Somerset ("killer spring (perhaps alluding to a contaminated water source)").
BARDELLEnglishOriginally meant "person from Bardwell", Suffolk ("Bearda's spring"). A fictional bearer of the surname is Mrs Bardell, Mr Pickwick's widowed landlady in Charles Dickens's 'Pickwick Papers' (1837), who misconstrues an innocent remark about having a companion as a marriage proposal, which leads to her suing Pickwick for breach of promise.
BARDENEnglishEnglish: habitational name from places in North and West Yorkshire named Barden, from Old English
bere ‘barley’ (or the derived adjective
beren) +
denu ‘valley’.
BAREFOOTEnglishEnglish: nickname for someone who was in the habit of going about his business unshod, from Old English bær ‘bare’, ‘naked’ + fot ‘foot’. It may have referred to a peasant unable to afford even the simplest type of footwear, or to someone who went barefoot as a religious penance.In some instances, probably a translation of German Barfuss, the northern form Barfoth, or the Danish cognate Barfo(e)d.
BARHAMEnglishEnglish: habitational name from any of the various places so called. Most, for example those in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, are named with Old English beorg ‘hill’ + ham ‘homestead’. The one in Kent, however, is from an unattested Old English byname Biora, Beora (a derivative of bera ‘bear’) + ham.
BARKEREnglishSURNAME Town cryer, or someone who shouts out notices
BARKISEnglishMeant "person who works in a tannery" (from Middle English
barkhous "tannery" - bark was used in the tanning process). A fictional bearer is Barkis, a carrier in Charles Dickens's 'David Copperfield' (1849) who sends a message via David to Clara Peggotty that "Barkis is willin'" (i.e. to marry her).
BARKUSEnglishProbably a reduced form of Barkhouse, a topographic name for someone who lived by a tannery, Middle English barkhous, or an occupational name for someone who worked in one.
BARNABYEnglishEither (i) means "person from Barnaby", Yorkshire ("Beornwald's settlement"); or (ii) from the medieval male personal name
Barnaby, the English form of
Barnabas, a biblical name ultimately from Aramaic
Barnabia "son of Nabia".
BARNEREnglishSouthern English habitational name for someone who lived by a barn.
BARONEnglish, FrenchFrom the title of nobility, derived from Middle English & Old French
baron (ultimately of Germanic origin). Instead of referring to someone of rank, this surname referred to a service in a baronial household or a peasant with ideas above their station...
[more] BARRINGTONEnglish, IrishEnglish: habitational name from any of several places called Barrington. The one in Gloucestershire is named with the Old English personal name
Beorn + -ing- denoting association + tun ‘settlement’...
[more] BARROWEnglishHabitational name from any of the numerous places named with Old English
bearo,
bearu "grove" or from Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, which is named with an unattested Celtic word,
barr, here meaning "promontory", and Old Norse
ey "island"...
[more] BARROWMANEnglishA man employed in wheeling a barrow; specifically, in coal-mining, one who conveys the coal in a wheelbarrow from the point where it is mined to the trolleyway or tramway on which it is carried to the place where it is raised to the surface.
BARTHORPEEnglishThis surname originates from the village of the same name in the East Riding of Yorkshire, likely combining the Old Norse personal name
Bǫrkr with Old Norse
þorp meaning "village."
BARTLEYEnglish, American1. English: habitational name from Bartley in Hampshire, or from Bartley Green in the West Midlands, both of which are named with Old English be(o)rc ‘birch’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’; compare
Barclay...
[more] BARTMANEnglishLast name Bartman is very rare but I believe it’s a English last name .Possibly variant of the last name BAUMAN
BARWICKEnglish, GermanEnglish: habitational name from any of various places called Barwick, for example in Norfolk, Somerset, and West Yorkshire, from Old English
bere ‘barley’ +
wic ‘outlying farm’, i.e. a granary lying some distance away from the main village....
[more] BASKERVILLEEnglishMeans "bush tonwn", from Anglo-Norman French boschet (a little bush) and ville (town).
BASSETTEnglishFrom Old French
basset, which is a diminutive of
basse meaning "low, short". It was either used as a nickname for a short person or someone of humble origins.
BATEYEnglish (?)Originates from mostly northern England. Is the presumed given name to fishers. (With it meaning "Small fishing boat" in old English.)
BATHGATEScottish, EnglishFrom the town of Bathgate, west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The town's name derives from Cumbric
*beith, meaning 'boar' (Welsh
baedd) and
*gaith. meaning 'wood' (Welsh
coed).
BAUCOMEnglishVariant spelling of
BALCOMBE, a habitational name from West Sussex derived from Old English
bealu "evil" and
cumb "valley".
BAUMFREEDutch, American, African AmericanThis name is clearly derived from Sojourner Truth, a former African-American slave who was born as Isabella Bomefree (but at some point the surname was changed to the more German-looking Baumfree). Although Sojourner's original owners - James and Elizabeth Bomefree/Baumfree - were apparently of Dutch descent, it is questionable whether the surname is really of Dutch origin...
[more] BAXEnglishPossibly a short form of
Baxter, or maybe from the Anglo-Saxon word
box, referring to the box tree.
BAXENDALEEnglishHabitational name, probably an altered form of Baxenden, a place near Accrington, which is named with an unattested Old English word bæcstān meaning "bakestone" (a flat stone on which bread was baked) + denu meaning "valley"...
[more] BAYEnglish, French, DutchDerived from Middle English and Old French
bay,
bai and Middle Dutch
bay, all meaning "reddish brown". It was originally a nickname for someone with a hair color similar to that.
BAYLOREnglishPossibly derived from the legal term
bailor "one who delivers goods". It could also be a respelling of German name
BEILER, an occupational name for an inspector of measures or a maker of measuring sticks...
[more] BEABEREnglish (American)Americanized spelling of German
Bieber or
Biber, from Middle High German biber ‘beaver’, hence a nickname for someone thought to resemble the animal in some way, a topographic name for someone who lived in a place frequented by beavers or by a field named with this word, or a habitational name from any of various place names in Hesse containing this element.
BEACHEnglishName for someone living near a beach, stream, or beech tree.
BEAMEnglishFrom Old English
beam "beam" or "post". It could be a topographic name from someone living near a post or tree, or it could be a metonymic occupational name for a weaver....
[more] BEAREnglishFrom the Middle English nickname Bere meaning "bear" (Old English bera, which is also found as a byname), or possibly from a personal name derived from a short form of the various Germanic compound names with this first element...
[more] BEARDEnglish (American)Nickname for a bearded man (Middle English, Old English beard). To be clean-shaven was the norm in non-Jewish communities in northwestern Europe from the 12th to the 16th century, the crucial period for surname formation...
[more] BEARDENEnglishEnglish habitational name, a variant of
Barden, or from places in Devon and Cornwall called Beardon.
BEAUCHAMPEnglish, FrenchFrom the Old French "beau, bel" meaning "fair" and "lovely" and "champ(s)" meaning "field" or "plain." It is the name of several places in France. It is also the surname of the Beauchamp Family in the hit series Witches of East End.
BEAUVOIREnglishFrom the surname of Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), a French feminist and philosopher.
BECKEREnglishOccupational name for a maker or user of mattocks or pickaxes, from an agent derivative of Old English
becca "mattock".
BECKETTEnglishAn Old English name simply meaning "beehive". Famous Irish playwrite Samuel Beckett bears this name.
BECKLEYEnglishThis surname was taken from an English habitational name from any of the various places, in Kent, Oxfordshire, and Sussex, named Beckley whose name was derived from the Old English byname
Becca and the Old English
lēah "woodland clearing"....
[more] BECRAFTEnglish (American)English, variant of Beecroft. topographic name for someone who lived at a place where bees were kept, from Middle English bee ‘bee’ + croft ‘paddock’, ‘smallholding’.
BEDFORDEnglishFrom the English county Bedfordshire and its principal city or from a small community in Lancashire with the same name. The name comes from the Old English personal name
Beda, a form of the name
Bede and the location element
-ford meaning "a crossing at a waterway." Therefore the name indicates a water crossing once associated with a bearer of the medieval name.
BEDWORTHEnglishAn English habitational surname from a place so named near Nuneaton, in Warwickshire, derived most likely from the Old English personal name
Baeda (see
Bede), suffixed with
worþ, 'enclosure', denoting an enclosed area of land belonging to Baeda.
BEEEnglishFrom Middle English be meaning "bee", Old English beo, hence a nickname for an energetic or active person or a metonymic occupational name for a beekeeper.
BEEREnglish, German, Dutch, German (Swiss)Habitational name from any of the forty or so places in southwestern England called Beer(e) or Bear(e). Most of these derive their names from the West Saxon dative case, beara, of Old English bearu ‘grove’, ‘wood’ (the standard Old English dative bearwe being preserved in Barrow)...
[more] BELGRAVEEnglishAristocratic surname from
French, meaning "beautiful grove"; comes from a place name in Leicestershire. A famous namesake is British polar explorer Belgrave Ninnis, who perished in Antarctica on a 1912 expedition.
BELLERSEnglishName came from the son of a French Noble born in Leicestershire, England. Hamon Bellers took his last name after the Kirby Bellers (Bellars) which was the name of the land given to him by his father.
BENEDICTEnglishOf Latin origin. Due to an early association as a saint's name and a papal name, often said to mean "blessed." Originally the Latin elements are 'bene-' meaning "good" or as an adverb "well" plus '-dict,' meaning "spoken." Thus, the literal meaning is "well spoken." ...
[more] BENNINGTONEnglishHabitational name from either of two places called Benington, in Hertfordshire and Lincolnshire, or from Long Bennington in Lincolnshire. The first is recorded in Domesday Book as
Benintone "farmstead or settlement (Old English
tūn) by the Beane river"; both Lincolnshire names are derived from the Old English personal name
Beonna combined with
-ing-, a connective particle denoting association, and
tūn.
BENTHAMEnglishHabitational name from any of various places named Bentham, from Old English
beonet "bent grass" +
ham "homestead" or
hamm "enclosure hemmed in by water".
BERESFORDEnglishEnglish: habitational name from a place in the parish of Alstonfield, Staffordshire named Beresford, from Old English beofor ‘beaver’ (or possibly from a byname from this word) + Old English ford ‘ford’...
[more] BERLINGerman, EnglishHabitational name from the city in Germany, the name of which is of uncertain meaning. It is possibly derived from an Old Slavic stem
berl- meaning
swamp or from a West Slavic word meaning "river lake".
BERNEREnglish, NormanFrom the Norman personal name
Bernier from Old English
beornan ‘to burn’, hence an occupational name for a burner of lime (compare German
Kalkbrenner) or charcoal. It may also have denoted someone who baked bricks or distilled spirits, or who carried out any other manufacturing process involving burning...
[more] BERRYCLOTHEnglish (Rare)This name is of English locational origin, from the place called
Barrowclough near Halifax in West Yorkshire.
BESSEnglishPopularly grown surname from the diminuative form of "Elizabeth" during any time of a Queen Elizabeth