indicate the level to which a name has been verified.
Type Surname (from occupation)
Other Forms FormsCardenal (Spanish, English, French)
Meaning & History
English, French, Spanish, and Dutch: from Middle English, Old French cardinal "cardinal", a church dignitary (Latin cardinalis, originally an adjective meaning "crucial"). This surname may have denoted a servant who worked in a cardinal’s household, but was probably more often bestowed as a nickname for someone who habitually dressed in red or who had played the part of a cardinal in a pageant, or for one who acted in a lordly and patronizing manner, like a prince of the Church.