AndronikashviliGeorgian Means "son of Andronikos". This was the name of a Georgian family of nobility that claimed descent from Andronikos I, the emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 1183-1185.
AneyEnglish English surname of uncertain origin, though it has been suggested that this is an anglicized form of French Ané. Ané itself is said to be taken from a personal name, possibly a gallicized form of Asnar or Aznar, which may be derived from Latin asinarius meaning "keeper of asses, ass-driver", from asinus "ass".
AngelouGreek (Cypriot) Means "son of Angelos" or "son of the angel" in Greek. A famous bearer is the American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
AngilloyCornish From an-kelli, "the grove"; or an-gilly, "the wood or grove of hazels".
AnnoJapanese Means "of hermitage" in Japanese. A famous bearer is famous Japanese illustrator and children's educational book author Mitsumasa Anno (1926-present).
ApolloItalian, Spanish From the Greek personal name Apollo. There are several saints Apollo in the Christian Church, including an Egyptian hermit and monastic leader who died in 395 ad. The personal name derives from the name in classical mythology of the sun god, Apollo, an ancient Indo-European name, found for example in Hittite as Apulana "god of the gate" (from pula "gate", cognate with Greek pylē), therefore "protector, patron".
AppenzellGerman Habitational name for someone from Appenzell (village or canton) in northeastern Switzerland. The placename derives from Latin abbatis cella, "cell (i.e., estate) of the abbot".
ArabeyaJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "uncultivated, desolate", 部 (be) meaning "department, division; part", and 谷 (ya) meaning "valley".
ArachchigeSinhalese From the colonial-era Sinhala title ආරච්චි (arachchi) used to denote a native village headman combined with the suffix -ගේ (-ge) meaning "of, home, house".
AragónSpanish Habitational name from Aragon Spain which was an independent kingdom from 1035 to 1479. It took its name from the river Aragón which arises in its northwestern corner... [more]
ArataniJapanese From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "rough, wild" and 谷 (tani) meaning "valley".
ArayaJapanese From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "rough, wild" and 谷 (ya) meaning "valley".
ArboledaSpanish From arboleda meaning "grove of trees". This is the name of a prominent Colombian family, in which case it is derived from their region of origin in Arboleya, Spain.
ArchilaSpanish Either a variant of Arcila or derived from Arabic الشَّلَّال (aš-šallāl) meaning "the waterfall".
ArdernEnglish Means "eagle valley" or "gravel valley". From Old English ear "gravel" or eran "eagle" and denu "valley". Also a variant of Arden.
ArdzinbaAbkhaz Means "son of silver" from Abkhaz араʒны (aradzny) meaning "silver" and аҧа (apa) meaning "son".
AriesEnglish, French The name means either a person who worked in a fashion of the "Arras" cloth, as in the quotation "one bede Coveringe of Aries" (1562), or someone who was a former inhabitant of Arras in France, or Arras in Yorkshire; the latter being a particularly popular source of the name.
ArisenEnglish (Modern) From a Dutch surname that means "son of Aris 2". In The Netherlands, this name is never used as a first name, since Dutch law strictly prohibits the use of surnames as first names... [more]
ArundelEnglish English 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.
AruorgEstonian Aruorg is an Estonian surname meaning "grassland/meadow valley".
AsatoJapanese (Rare) There are several readings for the name but 2 are Asa:"Morning",and To:"Door,Asa:"Safe" and To:"Village". There are multiple places in the Ryukyu's (where the name originates and mostly stays) that have that name;that could've been the influence... [more]
AshfordEnglish Derived 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]
AshmoreEnglish English 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.
AtatürkTurkish It means "Father of the Turks" in Turkish. It was given to the first Turkish president, Mustafa Kemal, by the Turkish Parliament in 1934.
AtempaMexican, Nahuatl (Hispanicized) Means "on the riverbank" or "on the bank of the lake", derived from Nahuatl atl meaning "water" combined with tentli "bank, shore" and the suffix -pan "in, on".
AucoinFrench (Cajun) From French *au coin* meaning “at the corner”, referring to someone who lived at the corner of a block or town.
AudiArabic (Mashriqi) Lebanese and Palestinian surname. Believed to have originated from the Arabic word "al-'awdi," which means "the one who returns."
AufdembergeAmerican (Rare) The surname Aufdemberge originated in America, but in German it means "on the mountains".... [more]
AufderheideGerman Topographic name for someone who lived on a heath, derived from German auf der heide literally meaning "on the heath".
AvanceñaFilipino Hispanicised form of Arabic اِبْن سِينَا (ibn sīnā) meaning "son of Sina". This was the Arabic name for Avicenna (980-1037), a Persian polymath.
AvicennaArabic (Latinized) Latin form of Ibn Sina, an Arabic surname meaning "son of Sina". Ibn Sina was a famous Persian polymath most known for his canon on disease and medicine.
AviviHebrew Means "springlike" or "of the spring" in Hebrew. (see Aviv)
AxfordEnglish Derived 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]
AxundovmAzerbaijani Means "son of the akhund", from Azerbaijani axund referring to a Persian title for an Islamic scholar.
AziAfizere Azi is actually pronounced Azīh which means "Unending, in ended father of many generations" it is named after children believed to become the origin or source of lasting families.
Azuaje-fidalgoPortuguese (Rare), Spanish, Italian Fidalgo from Galician and Portuguese filho de algo — equivalent to "nobleman", but sometimes literally translated into English as "son of somebody" or "son of some (important family)"—is a traditional title of Portuguese nobility that refers to a member of the titled or untitled nobility... [more]
BagrationiGeorgian Means "son of Bagrat" in Georgian. This was the name of a royal dynasty that ruled Georgia from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
BalcomEnglish Altered 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".
BallutFrench Derived from Old Occitan baluter, cognate of French bluter (via Middle French beluter), meaning "to sift, to sieve, especially the flour from the bran", this name used to denote a miller.
BalmacedaSpanish, Basque From Balmaseda, the name of a town and municipality in the province of Biscay, in the Basque Country of Spain. It is derived from Spanish val meaning "valley" and Basque mahatseta meaning "vineyard"... [more]
BalstonEnglish From the name of a place meaning "Beald's valley" from Old English denu meaning valley.
BaltimoreEnglish (American) From the name of the American city of Baltimore, and an anglicisation of Irish Gaelic Baile an Tí Mhóir meaning "town of the big house".
BandoJapanese It means "east of the slope", referring to eastern provinces of Osaka. The surname originates from there, and that is where it is most common.
BanikIndian Hindi word for "farmer, merchant" & Bengali word for "the merchant"
BankokuJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 万国 meaning "all nations; the whole world; universal". The fact that it is homophonous as Japanese バンコク (Bankoku) meaning "Bangkok", the city in Thailand, is coincidental.
BanovićSerbian, Croatian "Son of a Ban", the -ić "son of" suffix with ban, the title of class of Croatian nobility beginning in the 7th century approximately equivalent to viceroy, lord or duke, stemming potentially from the Turkic bajan ("rich, wealthy").
BarinovRussian Means "son of the boyar" from Russian барин (barin) meaning "boyar, nobleman".
BarkSwedish Perhaps derived from a place name containing either Old Swedish *barke "throat", Old Swedish biork "birch tree" or Swedish bark "bark (covering of the trunk of a tree)"
BarnabyEnglish Either (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".
Bar NaimHebrew Combination of Bar and Naim with the meaning of "son of pleasantness".
BarnoItalian, Ukrainian, French, Ancient Aramaic, Russian The surname Barno was first found in the north of Italy, especially in Tuscany. The name occasionally appears in the south, usually in forms which end in "o," but the northern forms ending in "i" are much more common... [more]
BaronJewish From German or Polish baron or Russian барон (baron) meaning "baron". In Israel the name is often interpreted to mean "son of strength" from Hebrew בר און (bar on).
BarskiyUkrainian Means "of Bar", referring to the city of Bar in the Vínnitsya Oblast.
BartholomewEnglish From a medieval personal name, Latin Bart(h)olomaeus, from the Aramaic patronymic bar-Talmay "son of Talmay", meaning "having many furrows", i.e. rich in land. This was an extremely popular personal name in Christian Europe, with innumerable vernacular derivatives... [more]
Bar YonahHebrew Means "son of Jonah" or "son of the dove" from Hebrew yonah "dove".
BaskinJewish Means "son of Baske", a Yiddish female personal name (a pet-form of the Biblical name Bath Seba). Baskin-Robbins is a US chain of ice-cream parlours founded in Glendale, California in 1945 by Burt Baskin (1913-1969) and Irv Robbins (1917-2008).
BaşoğluTurkish Means "son of the leader" from Turkish baş meaning "leader, head".
BassettEnglish From Old French bas meaning "short", low". It was either used as a nickname for a short person or someone of humble origins.
BattEnglish This is patronymic form of the medieval personal name "Batte", meaning "son of Batte", ... [more]
BattiloroItalian Means "goldworker", specifically an artisan who applied gold foil to other material, from Italian batti "to beat, to strike" and 'loro "the gold".
BaucomEnglish Variant spelling of BALCOMBE, a habitational name from West Sussex derived from Old English bealu "evil" and cumb "valley".
BaxendaleEnglish Habitational 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]
BeauregardeFrench Variant of Beauregard used by one of the main characters in Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as well as its film and broadway adaptations.
BeckemeyerGerman Beckemeyer is a surname of German origin. The name likely traces back to a place named Beckum, located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The "-eyer" suffix could potentially mean "from" or "of" in this context, so " Beckemeyer " could translate to "from Beckum".
BecksonEnglish (British) The name comes from having lived in an enclosed place, means dweller at the old enclosure or dwelling. The surname Aldeman was first found in Essex, Suffolk and Yorkshire at Aldham. In all cases, the place name meant "the old homestead," or "homestead of a man called Ealda," from the Old English personal name + "ham."
BeddoesWelsh “This name derives from Old Welsh name and patronymic surname “Morgetuid / Margetiud”, composed of two elements: “mere” (great, splendid) plus “iudd” (lord). As a personal name the origins are lost in the mists of time but it is certainly pre Roman, however the modern use of the name is commonly taken from Merdydd ap Bleddyn, prince of Powys who died in 1132... [more]
BeedenEnglish (British) Probably means "from Beeden", a village near Newbury in Berkshire. Ultimately coming from either Old English byden, meaning "shallow valley", or from the pre 7th century personal name Bucge with the suffix dun, meaning "hill of Bucge".
BégonFrench Probably from French béguin "(male) Beguin", referring to a member of a particular religious order active in the 13th century, and derived from the surname of Lambert le Bègue, the mid-12th-century priest responsible for starting it... [more]
BeifongPopular Culture Surname of Toph from the American TV show "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Could be derived from the Chinese word "北方 (Běifāng)" meaning "north".
BelhadjArabic (Maghrebi) Means "son of the pilgrim" from Arabic بْن (bn) meaning "son (of)" اَلحَاجّ (al-ḥājj) meaning "the pilgrim".
BéliveauFrench (Rare), French (Quebec) Derived from Old French besliver meaning "to stagger along", originally a nickname referring to a drunkard. It could also denote a person who lived in a beautiful, lovely valley, derived from French beau "beautiful" or Old French beu, bel "fair, lovely", combined with val meaning "valley"... [more]
BenArabic (Maghrebi) Maghrebi variant of Arabic بْن (bn), a form of اِبْن (ibn) meaning "son (of), offspring". It is often used as a prefix for other Maghrebi patronymic names (such as Benali "son of Ali 1" or Ben Amor "son of Amor").
Ben AliArabic (Maghrebi), Comorian Maghrebi transcription of Arabic بن علي (bin Ali) meaning "son of Ali 1". A notable bearer was Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1936-2019), who served as the president of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011.
Ben-GurionHebrew Means "son of the lion cub", from Hebrew גוּר (gur) meaning "lion cub, young lion". A notable bearer was the Polish-born David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973; real name David Grün), the founding father of Israel who also served as the country's first prime minister.
Ben HadjArabic (Maghrebi) Means "son of the pilgrim"; the title Hadj refers to a Muslim who has successfully completed the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. This surname is mainly found in Tunisia.