Kaur Indian (Sikh)Means
"princess", ultimately from Sanskrit
कुमारी (kumārī) meaning "girl". In 1699 Guru Gobind Singh gave all his Sikh female followers the surname
Kaur and all males
Singh. In many instances, it is also used as a middle name with the family name serving as the surname.
Kurosawa JapaneseFrom Japanese
黒 (kuro) meaning "black" and
沢 or 澤 (sawa) meaning "marsh". A notable bearer was Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), a Japanese film director.
Durnin IrishFrom Irish
Ó Doirnáin meaning
"descendant of Doirnín", a given name meaning "little fist".
Padmore EnglishOriginally indicated a person from Padmore in England, derived from Old English
padde "toad" and
mor "moor, marsh".
Guzmán SpanishFrom the name of the town of Guzmán in Burgos, Spain. The town's name itself may be derived from an old Visigothic given name, from the Germanic elements *
gautaz "a Geat" and *
mannô "person, man".
Seaver EnglishFrom the unattested Old English given name
Sæfaru, derived from the Old English elements
sæ "sea, ocean" and
faru "journey".
Araya SpanishDenoted a person from Araia in the Basque Country, Spain. It is of uncertain meaning.
Triggs EnglishFrom a byname derived from Old Norse
tryggr meaning
"true, loyal".
Joiner EnglishOccupational name for a carpenter (that is, a person who joins wood together to make furniture).
Cruyssen DutchFrom the name of a place in the Netherlands, derived from
kruis "cross".
Baron English, FrenchFrom the title of nobility, derived from Latin
baro (genitive
baronis) meaning "man, freeman", possibly from Frankish
barō meaning "servant, man, warrior". It was used as a nickname for someone who worked for a baron or acted like a baron.
Fairclough EnglishFrom a place name meaning
"fair ravine, fair cliff" in Old English.
Amantea ItalianFrom the name of a town in Calabria, Italy. It is possibly derived from Arabic (dating from the Arab raids of the 9th century) meaning "the fortress".
Nespoli ItalianFrom the name of towns such as Nespoli and Nespoledo, derived from Italian
nespola meaning "medlar (tree)".
Boon 2 EnglishOriginally indicated a person from the town of Bohon, in Manche in France. The town's name is of unknown origin.
Afolayan YorubaMeans
"walks like a wealthy person, walks with confidence" in Yoruba.
Doctor EnglishOriginally denoted someone who was a doctor, ultimately from Latin
doctor meaning "teacher".
Camus FrenchMeans
"flat-nosed" in French. A notable bearer was the French philosopher Albert Camus (1913-1960).
Ó Seighin IrishMeans
"descendant of Seighin". The given name
Seighin means "small hawk" from Old Irish
séigene.
Ainsworth EnglishHabitational name for a person from the village of Ainsworth near Manchester, itself from the Old English given name
Ægen and
worþ meaning "enclosure".
Van der Aart DutchMeans
"from the earth", derived from Dutch
aarde "earth". It perhaps referred to either an earth bank or to a farmer.
Booth EnglishTopographic name derived from Middle English
both meaning
"hut, stall".
Sturm GermanMeans
"storm" in German, originally a nickname for a volatile person.
Popa RomanianFrom Romanian
popă "priest", from Old Church Slavic
popŭ. This is the most common surname in Romania.
Cao ChineseFrom Chinese
曹 (cáo) referring to the ancient state of Cao, which existed during the Zhou dynasty in what is now Shandong province.
Wheeler EnglishOccupational name for a maker of wagon wheels, derived from Middle English
whele "wheel".
Modugno ItalianFrom the town of Modugno, in Apulia in southern Italy. It is the surname of the Italian actor and singer Domenico Modugno (1928-1994).
Fortune EnglishFrom Middle English, ultimately from Latin
fortuna meaning
"fortune, luck, chance". This was possibly a nickname for a gambler.
Sanna ItalianFrom Italian
sanna or
zanna meaning
"tusk, fang", a nickname for a person with a protruding tooth. It is especially common on Sardinia.
Courtenay 1 EnglishFrom the name of towns in France that were originally derivatives of the Gallo-Roman personal name
Curtenus, itself derived from Latin
curtus "short".
Porsche GermanPossibly derived from German
Bursche meaning
"boy, servant" or from the given name
Boris.
Groß GermanFrom Old High German
groz meaning
"tall, big".
Medeiros PortugueseFrom various Portuguese place names that were derived from Portuguese
medeiro meaning
"haystack", ultimately from Latin
meta meaning "cone, pyramid".
Clifton EnglishDerived from various place names meaning "settlement by a cliff" in Old English.
Ó Comhraidhe IrishMeans
"descendant of Comhraidhe", in which the given name
Comhraidhe is of unknown meaning.
Ashley EnglishDenoted a person hailing from one of the many places in England that bear this name. The place name itself is derived from Old English
æsc "ash tree" and
leah "woodland, clearing".
Hooper EnglishOccupational name for someone who put the metal hoops around wooden barrels.
Wild English, GermanMeans
"wild, untamed, uncontrolled", derived from Old English
wilde. This was either a nickname for a person who behaved in a wild manner or a topographic name for someone who lived on overgrown land.
Nixon EnglishMeans
"son of Nick". A famous bearer was the American president Richard Nixon (1913-1994).
Haight EnglishTopographic name for someone who lived at the top of a hill, derived from Old English
heahþu "height, summit".
Mussolini ItalianFrom Italian
mussolina meaning
"muslin", a type of cloth, itself derived from the city of Mosul in Iraq. This name was borne by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945).
Farro ItalianDerived from the name of a place on Sicily, Italy, derived from Latin
far meaning "wheat, spelt".
Garner 1 EnglishFrom Old French
gernier meaning
"granary", a derivative of Latin
granum meaning "grain". This name could refer to a person who worked at a granary or lived near one.
Hino JapaneseFrom Japanese
日 (hi) meaning "sun, day" or
火 (hi) meaning "fire" and
野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".
Teahan IrishAnglicized form of Irish
Ó Téacháin meaning
"descendant of Téachán". The given name
Téachán possibly means "fugitive".
Sultan ArabicFrom a nickname meaning
"sultan, ruler" in Arabic.
Peng ChineseFrom Chinese
彭 (péng) referring to the ancient state of Peng, which existed during the Shang dynasty in what is now Jiangsu province.
Grasso ItalianMeans
"fat" in Italian, originally a nickname for a stout person. It is derived from Latin
crassus.
Peltola FinnishFrom Finnish
pelto meaning
"field" with the suffix
-la indicating a place.
Imai JapaneseFrom Japanese
今 (ima) meaning "now, present" and
井 (i) meaning "well, mine shaft, pit".
Szántó HungarianOccupational name for a ploughman or tiller, derived from Hungarian
szánt meaning "to plow".
Ojala Finnish, EstonianFrom Finnish and Estonian
oja meaning
"ditch, channel, brook" with the suffix
-la indicating a place.
Kinsley EnglishFrom the name of a town in West Yorkshire, meaning "clearing belonging to Cyne". The Old English given name
Cyne is a short form of longer names beginning with
cyne meaning "royal".
Narang HindiFrom the name of a Pakistani town that was in undivided India.
Giese German, DanishDerived from a short form of the given name
Giselbert or other Old German names beginning with the element
gisal meaning "pledge, hostage".
Derrick EnglishDerived from the given name
Derrick (see
Derek). A famous bearer of this surname is the character Stephan Derrick from the German television series
Derrick (1974-1998).
McIntosh ScottishFrom Scottish Gaelic
Mac an Tòisich meaning
"son of the chief".
Colquhoun ScottishFrom a place name meaning
"narrow corner" or "narrow wood" in Gaelic.
Small EnglishFrom a nickname for a small person, from Middle English
smal.
Pleško SloveneNickname for a bald person, from Slovene
pleša meaning
"bald patch".
Shepherd EnglishOccupational name meaning
"shepherd, sheep herder", from Old English
sceaphyrde.
Rubio SpanishNickname for a person with red hair, from Latin
rubeus "red".
Sessa ItalianOriginally indicated a person from from Sessa or Sessa Cilento, Italy (from Latin
Suessa, of uncertain meaning).
Bruno Italian, PortugueseMeans
"brown" in Italian and Portuguese, a nickname for a person with brown hair or brown clothes. A famous bearer was the cosmologist Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).
Bradshaw EnglishFrom any of the places by this name in England, derived from Old English
brad "broad" and
sceaga "thicket".
De Jong DutchMeans
"young" in Dutch, from Middle Dutch
jonc. This is the most common surname in the Netherlands.
Böhler GermanDerived from the name of several German towns called
Boll or
Böhl, meaning "hill".
Porter EnglishOccupational name meaning
"doorkeeper", ultimately from Old French
porte "door", from Latin
porta.
Silva Portuguese, SpanishFrom Spanish or Portuguese
silva meaning
"forest". This is the most common surname in Portugal and Brazil.
Gustafsson SwedishMeans
"son of Gustaf". The actress Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was originally named Greta Gustafsson.
Webb EnglishOccupational name meaning
"weaver", from Old English
webba, a derivative of
wefan "to weave".
Van Rijn DutchMeans
"from the Rhine". A famous bearer was the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).
Thatcher EnglishReferred to a person who thatched roofs by attaching straw to them, derived from Old English
þæc meaning "thatch, roof". A famous bearer was the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013).
Mills EnglishOriginally given to one who lived near a mill or who worked in a mill, from Middle English
mille.
Leslie ScottishFrom a Scottish clan name, earlier
Lesselyn, derived from a place name in Aberdeenshire, itself probably from Gaelic
leas celyn meaning "garden of holly".
Demir TurkishMeans
"iron" in Turkish, originally referring to an ironworker.
Van Assen DutchMeans
"from Assen", a city in the Netherlands, which is possibly from
essen meaning "ash trees".
Tolbert EnglishPossibly from a Germanic given name of unknown meaning. The second element of the name is derived from
beraht meaning "bright, famous".
Anjema FrisianDenoted a person from the village of Anjum in the Netherlands. It possibly means "corner" in Dutch.
Stanford EnglishDerived from various English place names meaning
"stone ford" in Old English.
Newport EnglishGiven to one who came from the town of Newport (which means simply "new port"), which was the name of several English towns.
Tindall EnglishFrom
Tindale, the name of a town in Cumbria, derived from the name of the river Tyne combined with Old English
dæl "dale, valley".
Lee 1 EnglishOriginally given to a person who lived on or near a
leah, Old English meaning
"woodland, clearing".
Amundsen NorwegianMeans
"son of Amund". This name was borne by the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928).
Thrussell EnglishFrom Old English
þrostle meaning
"song thrush", referring to a cheerful person.
Pozzi ItalianFrom Italian
pozzo meaning
"well, pit", derived from Latin
puteus.
Sciacca ItalianOriginally denoted someone from Sciacca, Sicily, Italy, which is of uncertain origin.
Penzig YiddishDenoted a person who came from Penzig, the German name for Pieńsk, a town in southwest Poland. It is derived from Polish
pień meaning "stump, tree trunk".
Lynn EnglishFrom the name of a town in Norfolk (King's Lynn), derived from Welsh
llyn meaning
"lake".
Vogt GermanOccupational name from Middle High German
voget meaning
"bailiff, administrator, steward", ultimately from Latin
advocatus.
Arias SpanishPossibly derived from a medieval given name of Germanic origin.
Duffy 1 IrishDerived from Irish
Ó Dubhthaigh meaning
"descendant of Dubthach". Their original homeland was Monaghan where the surname is still the most common; they are also from Donegal and Roscommon.
Troy EnglishOriginally denoted a person from the city of Troyes in France.
Ó Corra IrishMeans
"descendant of Corra" in Irish. The given name
Corra means "spear".
Kubo JapaneseFrom Japanese
久 (ku) meaning "long time ago" and
保 (ho) meaning "protect".
Smith EnglishMeans
"metalworker, blacksmith" from Old English
smiþ, related to
smitan "to smite, to hit". It is the most common surname in most of the English-speaking world. A famous bearer was the Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790).
Piątek PolishMeans
"Friday" in Polish, derived from the word
piąty meaning "fifth".
Van der Veen DutchMeans
"from the swamp", from Dutch
veen meaning "fen, swamp, peat". It originally indicated a person who resided in a peat district or fen colony.
Ávila SpanishFrom the name of the city of Ávila in Spain. It is of uncertain meaning, possibly of Punic or Celtic origin.
Wyndham EnglishFrom the name of the town of Wymondham, meaning "home belonging to Wigmund", from the given name
Wigmund combined with Old English
ham meaning "home, settlement".
Morales SpanishDerived from Spanish
moral meaning
"mulberry tree", of Latin origin.
Oomen DutchPatronymic derived from Middle Dutch
oom meaning
"(maternal) uncle".
Nguyễn VietnameseVietnamese form of
Ruan, from Sino-Vietnamese
阮 (nguyễn). This is the most common Vietnamese surname, accounting for over a third of the population.
Shaw 1 EnglishOriginally given to a person who lived near a prominent thicket, from Old English
sceaga meaning
"thicket, copse".
Murray 1 ScottishDerived from the region in Scotland called
Moray (Gaelic
Moireabh), possibly of Pictish origin, meaning
"seashore, coast". A notable bearer of this surname was General James Murray (1721-1794), who was the first British Governor-General of Canada.
Pugliese ItalianFrom an adjectival derivative of Puglia, from Latin
Apulia, a region of southeast Italy containing the boot heel and some of the coastline of the Adriatic Sea. It is a regional name for someone from that region.
Van Baarle DutchMeans
"from Baarle", a town in both the Netherlands and Belgium.
Naggi ItalianOriginally denoted a person from the town of Naggio in Lombardy, Italy.
Dudley EnglishFrom a place name meaning "
Dudda's clearing" in Old English. The surname was borne by a British noble family.