ArmstrongEnglish Means "strong arm" from Middle English. Tradition holds that the family is descended from Siward, an 11th-century Earl of Northumbria. Famous bearers of this name include the Americans Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), a jazz musician, and Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), an astronaut who was the first person to walk on the moon.
BaileyEnglish From Middle English baili meaning "bailiff", which comes via Old French from Latin baiulus "porter".
BraddockEnglish From various locations derived from Old English meaning "broad oak".
BradleyEnglish From a common English place name, derived from brad "broad" and leah "woodland, clearing".
BrewsterEnglish Variant of Brewer, originally a feminine form of the occupational term.
BridgesEnglish Originally denoted a person who lived near a bridge, or who worked as a bridgekeeper, derived from Middle English brigge, Old English brycg.
BrunoItalian, Portuguese Means "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).
CameronScottish Means "crooked nose" from Gaelic cam "crooked" and sròn "nose".
CampbellScottish From a Gaelic nickname cam beul meaning "wry or crooked mouth". The surname was later represented in Latin documents as de bello campo meaning "of the fair field".
CarrollIrish From the given name Cearbhall. A famous bearer was Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
ChávezSpanish Variant of Chaves. A famous bearer was the labour leader César Chávez (1927-1993).
CrawfordEnglish From a place name derived from Old English crawa "crow" and ford "river crossing". A notable bearer was the American actress Joan Crawford (1904-1977), born Lucille Fay LeSueur.
DempseyIrish Anglicized form of Irish Ó Díomasaigh meaning "descendant of Díomasach", a given name meaning "proud".
DouglasScottish From the name of a town in Lanarkshire, itself named after a tributary of the River Clyde called the Douglas Water, derived from Gaelic dubh "dark" and glais "water, river" (an archaic word related to glas "grey, green"). This was a Scottish Lowland clan, the leaders of which were powerful earls in the medieval period.
FreitasPortuguese Means "broken" in Portuguese, a name for one who lived on broken, stony ground.
GarcíaSpanish From a medieval given name of unknown meaning, possibly related to the Basque word hartz meaning "bear". This is the most common surname in Spain.
GattiItalian Means "cat" in Italian, originally a nickname for an agile person.
GonzálezSpanish Means "son of Gonzalo" in Spanish. This is among the most common surnames in Spain.
GrahamScottish, English Derived from the English place name Grantham, which probably meant "gravelly homestead" in Old English. The surname was first taken to Scotland in the 12th century by William de Graham.
HolmesEnglish, Scottish Variant of Holme. A famous fictional bearer was Sherlock Holmes, a detective in Arthur Conan Doyle's mystery stories beginning in 1887.
InoueJapanese Means "above the well", from Japanese 井 (i) meaning "well, mine shaft, pit", an unwritten possessive marker の (no), and 上 (ue) meaning "above, top, upper".
JacksonEnglish Means "son of Jack". Famous bearers of this name include the American president Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) and the singer Michael Jackson (1958-2009).
JohnsonEnglish Means "son of John". Famous bearers include American presidents Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) and Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973).
MarshallEnglish Derived from Middle English mareschal"marshal", from Latin mariscalcus, ultimately from Germanic roots akin to Old High German marah "horse" and scalc "servant". It originally referred to someone who took care of horses.