Albero ItalianFrom Italian
albero meaning
"tree", ultimately from Latin
arbor, referring to someone who lived in the woods or worked as a woodcutter.
Allaway ScottishFrom a Scottish place name, itself derived from
alla "wild" and
mhagh "field".
Aoki JapaneseFrom Japanese
青 (ao) meaning "green, blue" and
木 (ki) meaning "tree, wood".
Appelhof DutchIndicated a person who lived by or at an apple garden, from Dutch
appel "apple" and
hof "yard, court".
Appleby EnglishFrom the name of various English towns, derived from Old English
æppel "apple" and Old Norse
býr "farm, settlement".
Appleton EnglishFrom the name of several English towns, meaning "orchard" in Old English (a compound of
æppel "apple" and
tun "enclosure, yard").
Ash EnglishFrom Old English
æsc meaning
"ash tree", indicating a person who lived near ash trees.
Bagley EnglishFrom various English place names, derived from the Old English given name
Bacga combined with
leah "woodland, clearing".
Barlow EnglishDerived from a number of English place names that variously mean "barley hill", "barn hill", "boar clearing" or "barley clearing".
Bergman SwedishFrom Swedish
berg meaning "mountain" and
man (Old Norse
maðr) meaning "person, man", originally a name for a person living on a mountain.
Bergmann GermanFrom Old High German
berg meaning "mountain" and
man meaning "man", originally denoting someone who lived on a mountain.
Blakeley EnglishFrom name of various English places, derived from Old English
blæc "black" and
leah "woodland, clearing".
Brandon EnglishFrom the name of various places in England meaning
"hill covered with broom" in Old English.
Brownlow EnglishFrom Old English
brun meaning "brown" and
hlaw meaning "mound, small hill". The name was probably given to a family living on a small hill covered with bracken.
Carrasco SpanishTopographic name derived from Spanish
carrasca meaning
"holm oak" (species Quercus ilex).
Clayton EnglishFrom the name of various places meaning "clay settlement" in Old English.
Clifford EnglishDerived from various place names that meant "ford by a cliff" in Old English.
Cock EnglishDerived from the medieval nickname
cok meaning
"rooster, cock". The nickname was commonly added to given names to create diminutives such as
Hancock or
Alcock.
Cockburn Scottish, EnglishOriginally indicated someone who came from Cockburn, a place in Berwickshire. The place name is derived from Old English
cocc "rooster" and
burna "stream".
Corna ItalianDerived from the names of places in northern Italy, especially Lombardy, from a word that means
"crag, cliff" in the Lombard dialect.
Cowden EnglishFrom various English place names, which meaning either "coal valley", "coal hill" or "cow pasture" in Old English.
Croft EnglishFrom Old English
croft meaning
"enclosed field".
Delaney 1 EnglishDerived from Norman French
de l'aunaie meaning
"from the alder grove".
Denman EnglishFrom Middle English
dene "valley" combined with
man.
Dubois FrenchMeans
"from the forest", from French
bois "forest".
Dumbledore LiteratureFrom the dialectal English word
dumbledore meaning
"bumblebee". It was used by J. K. Rowling for the headmaster of Hogwarts in her
Harry Potter series of books, first released in 1997.
Engberg SwedishOrnamental name derived from Swedish
äng (Old Norse
eng) meaning "meadow" and
berg meaning "mountain".
Fairburn EnglishFrom a place name meaning
"fern stream", from Old English
fearn "fern" and
burna "stream".
Feld German, JewishMeans
"field" in German. The name was originally given to someone who lived on land cleared of forest.
Forest English, FrenchOriginally belonged to a person who lived near or in a forest. It was probably originally derived, via Old French
forest, from Latin
forestam (silva) meaning "outer (wood)".
Forst GermanDerived from Old High German
forst "forest". Probably unrelated to the Old French word
forest, which was derived from Latin, Old High German
forst was derived from
foraha meaning "fir tree".
Fox EnglishFrom the name of the animal. It was originally a nickname for a person with red hair or a crafty person.
Gardener EnglishOccupational surname for one who was a gardener, from Old French
jardin meaning "garden" (of Frankish origin).
Garland EnglishMeans
"triangle land" from Old English
gara and
land. It originally belonged to a person who owned a triangle-shaped piece of land.
Green EnglishDescriptive name for someone who often wore the colour green or someone who lived near the village green.
Greenwood EnglishTopographic name for someone who lived in or near a lush forest, from Old English
grene "green" and
wudu "wood".
Grover EnglishFrom Old English
graf meaning
"grove of trees". A famous bearer was the American president Grover Cleveland (1837-1908).
Grünewald GermanMeans
"green forest" from German
grün "green" and
Wald "forest".
Haggard EnglishFrom a nickname meaning
"wild, untamed, worn", from Old French, ultimately from a Germanic root.
Hartley EnglishHabitational name for someone originally from any of the various locations in England named Hartley, from Old English
heorot "hart, male deer" and
leah "woodland, clearing".
Hawking EnglishFrom a diminutive of
Hawk. A famous bearer was the British physicist Stephen Hawking (1942-2018).
Hawthorne EnglishDenoted a person who lived near a hawthorn bush, a word derived from Old English
hagaþorn, from
haga meaning "haw berry" and
þorn meaning "thorn bush". A famous bearer was the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), author of
The Scarlet Letter.
Hayden 1 EnglishFrom place names meaning either
"hay valley" or
"hay hill", derived from Old English
heg "hay" and
denu "valley" or
dun "hill".
Haywood EnglishFrom various place names meaning "fenced wood" in Old English.
Herschel German, JewishDiminutive form of
Hirsch 1 or
Hirsch 2. A famous bearer was the British-German astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822), as well as his sister Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) and son John Herschel (1792-1871), also noted scientists.
Hino JapaneseFrom Japanese
日 (hi) meaning "sun, day" or
火 (hi) meaning "fire" and
野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".
Hirsch 1 GermanMeans
"deer, hart" in German. This was a nickname for a person who resembled a deer in some way, or who raised or hunted deer.
Hu ChineseFrom Chinese
胡 (hú) meaning
"beard, whiskers, recklessly, wildly, barbarian".
Huff EnglishMeans
"spur of a hill", from Old English
hoh.
Hummel 2 German, DutchNickname for a busy person, from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch
hommel, Middle High German
hummel, all meaning
"bee".
Keith ScottishFrom a place name that is probably derived from the Brythonic element
cet meaning
"wood". This was the surname of a long line of Scottish nobles.
Kjær DanishTopographic name for someone living near a wetland, from Danish
kær "marsh", from Old Norse
kjarr "thicket".
Kohl GermanDerived from Middle High German
kol "cabbage".
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.
Langbroek DutchFrom the name of a small town in the province of Utrecht, Holland, derived from
lang meaning "wide" and
broek meaning "meadow".
Langley 1 EnglishFrom any of the various places with this name, all derived from Old English
lang "long" and
leah "woodland, clearing".
Layton EnglishDerived from the name of English towns, meaning "town with a leek garden" in Old English.
Linton EnglishOriginally from place names meaning either "flax town" or "linden tree town" in Old English.
Lowell EnglishFrom a nickname derived from a Norman French
lou meaning
"wolf" and a diminutive suffix.
Lyndon EnglishOriginally from a place name meaning "linden tree hill" in Old English.
Marsh EnglishOriginally denoted one who lived near a marsh or bog, derived from Old English
mersc "marsh".
Maxwell ScottishFrom a place name meaning "Mack's stream", from the name
Mack, a short form of the Scandinavian name
Magnus, combined with Old English
wille "well, stream". A famous bearer was James Maxwell (1831-1879), a Scottish physicist who studied gases and electromagnetism.
Meadows EnglishReferred to one who lived in a meadow, from Old English
mædwe.
Northrop EnglishOriginally denoted one who came from a town of this name England, meaning "north farm".
Ono JapaneseFrom Japanese
小 (o) meaning "small" and
野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".
Ortega SpanishFrom a Spanish place name (belonging to various villages) derived from
ortiga "nettle".
Østergård DanishFrom Danish
øst meaning "east" and
gård meaning "enclosure, farm".
Peacock EnglishFrom Middle English
pecok meaning
"peacock". It was originally a nickname for a proud or haughty person.
Poirot French, LiteratureFrom a diminutive of French
poire "pear", originally referring to a pear merchant or someone who lived near a pear tree. Starting in 1920 this name was used by the mystery writer Agatha Christie for her Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Christie based the name on that of Jules Poiret, a contemporary fictional detective.
Pollock ScottishFrom the name of a place in Renfrewshire, Scotland, derived from a diminutive of Gaelic
poll meaning
"pool, pond, bog". A famous bearer was the American artist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956).
Rafferty IrishAnglicized form of Irish
Ó Rabhartaigh meaning
"descendant of Rabhartach". The given name
Rabhartach means "flood tide".
Rhodes EnglishTopographic name derived from Old English
rod meaning
"cleared land", or a locational name from any of the locations named with this word.
Rivera SpanishFrom Spanish
ribera meaning
"bank, shore", from Latin
riparius.
Rose 1 English, French, German, JewishMeans
"rose" from Middle English, Old French and Middle High German
rose, all from Latin
rosa. All denote a person of a rosy complexion or a person who lived in an area abundant with roses. As a Jewish surname it is ornamental, from Yiddish
רויז (roiz).
Rowbottom EnglishOriginally indicated a person who lived in an overgrown valley, from Old English
ruh "rough, overgrown" and
boðm "valley".
Rowntree EnglishOriginally given to a person who lived near a rowan tree or mountain ash.
Sandberg Swedish, Norwegian, JewishFrom Swedish and Norwegian
sand (Old Norse
sandr) meaning "sand" and
berg meaning "mountain" (or in the case of the Jewish surname, from the Yiddish or German cognates).
Sandoval SpanishDerived from the name of a town in Spain, ultimately from Latin
saltus "forest, glade" and
novalis "unploughed land".
Savage EnglishEnglish nickname meaning
"wild, uncouth", derived from Old French
salvage or
sauvage meaning "untamed", ultimately from Latin
silvaticus meaning "wild, from the woods".
Schoorl DutchOriginally indicated a person from the town of Schoorl in the province of Noord-Holland in the Netherlands. It means "forest by the shore" in Dutch.
Shirley EnglishFrom an English place name, derived from Old English
scir "bright" and
leah "woodland, clearing".
Skov DanishTopographic name meaning
"forest, wood" in Danish, from Old Norse
skógr.
Smedley EnglishFrom an unidentified place name probably meaning "smooth clearing" in Old English.
Stone EnglishName for a person who lived near a prominent stone or worked with stone, derived from Old English
stan.
Tenley EnglishPossibly from the name of an English town derived from Old English
tind "point" and
leah "woodland, clearing".
Thornton EnglishFrom any of the various places in England by this name, meaning "thorn town" in Old English.
Tveit NorwegianHabitational name derived from Old Norse
þveit meaning
"clearing".
Vadas HungarianFrom Hungarian
vad meaning
"wild", either a nickname or an occupational name for a hunter of wild game.
Vestergaard DanishFrom a place name, derived from Danish
vest "west" and
gård "farm, yard".
Vogel German, DutchFrom Old High German and Old Dutch
fogal meaning
"bird". It was originally an occupational name for a bird catcher, or a nickname for a person who liked to sing.
Voss GermanFrom Middle Low German
vos meaning
"fox". It was originally a nickname for a clever person or a person with red hair.
Waldvogel JewishOrnamental name derived from German
Wald meaning "forest" and
Vogel meaning "bird".
Weasley LiteratureUsed by J. K. Rowling for the character of Ron Weasley (and other members of his family) in her
Harry Potter series of books, first released in 1997. Rowling presumably derived it from the English word
weasel, perhaps in combination with the common place name/surname suffix
-ley, which is derived from Old English
leah meaning "woodland, clearing".
Witherspoon EnglishOriginally given to a person who dwelt near a sheep enclosure, from Middle English
wether "sheep" and
spong "strip of land".
Wood English, ScottishOriginally denoted one who lived in or worked in a forest, derived from Old English
wudu "wood".
Woodward EnglishOccupational name for a forester, meaning
"ward of the wood" in Old English.
Yasuda JapaneseFrom Japanese
安 (yasu) meaning "peace, quiet" or
保 (yasu) meaning "protect, maintain" and
田 (ta) meaning "field, rice paddy".