AbercrombieScottish Derived from a surname. It is the name of a parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Frith of Forth, whence the possessor took his surname; from Aber, marshy ground, a place where two or more streams meet; and cruime or crombie, a bend or crook... [more]
AbernathyScottish A different form of Abernethy, which originally meant "person from Abernethy", Perth and Kinross ("confluence of the (river) Nethy"). This was one of the surnames of the Scots who settled in northern Ireland during the ‘plantation’ in the 17th century, and it was brought to the U.S. as the name of a Southern plantation owner.
AbregoSpanish As a Spanish surname, it was from Spanish ábrego, which originally meant "African", from Latin africus. The vocabulary word in modern Spanish has lost this general sense and now means "south wind" (literally, "African (wind)").
AchioSpanish (Latin American) Possibly derived from the town, Achio, near Guadalajara in Mexico. The name itself is probably from the Nahuatl achio meaning "frequent".
AckerleyEnglish Old English surname which came from a place name which meant "Oak meadow." See Ackley.
AckleyEnglish From an Old English surname: a place name which meant "Oak meadow". A variation of this is: "dwells at the oak tree meadow". ... [more]
AddingtonEnglish Habitational name from any of various places named in Old English as Eaddingtun 'settlement associated with Eadda' or Æddingtun 'settlement associated with Æddi'.
AgassiArmenian, Persian, Italian The surname Agassi most likely evolved from a nickname for someone resembling a mappie, perhaps jokingly referred to as chattering or nagging person. ... [more]
AghaTurkish Means "chief, master, lord" in Turkish. From the Turkish ağa 'chief, master, lord', from the Old Turkish aqa 'elder brother'. Traditionally it was a title for a civilian or military officer, or often part of such title, and was placed after the name of certain military functionaries in the Ottoman Empire... [more]
AhearnaIrish (Anglicized, Rare) Either from an Irish surname which was derived from Ó Eachthighearna meaning "descendant of Eachthighearna", or else an anglicized form of Eachthighearna.
AlabasterEnglish From the name of a whitish kind of gypsum used for vases, ornaments and busts, ultimately deriving from Greek alabastros, itself perhaps from Egyptian 'a-labaste "vessel of the goddess Bast"... [more]
AldaiaBasque, Spanish From the name of a municipality in Valencia, Spain, probably derived from Arabic الضيعة (ad-day'a) meaning "the village" (compare Aldea).
AlfordEnglish, Scottish Habitation name found in Lincolnshire, Surrey and Somerset, England and Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The name can be derived by combining the Old English female personal name Ealdg- and -ford meaning "water crossing" or can mean "from the alder tree ford".
AlkainBasque Etymology uncertain. Possibly derived from a place name, using the Basque toponymic suffix -ain with an uncertain first element.
AllemannGerman (Swiss) Derived from German Alemanne, originally "member of the Alemanni tribe", this word came to denote "of Germanic descent". It was used to refer to members of the German-speaking population of Switzerland (as opposed to those who spoke one of the Romance languages; compare Welsch).
AlmendingerUpper German, German (Swiss) Habitational name for someone from a place called Allmendingen, of which there are two examples in Switzerland, in the canton of Bern, and one in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
AlomarCatalan From the given name Alomar, used especially in the Balearic Islands, itself derived from the Old German name Aldemar. This is borne by the Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Alomar (1968-).
AlthoffGerman A surname predominantly found in Westphalia and the Rhineland region of Germany which is derived from German alt "old" and Hof (Hoff in the local dialects) "farmstead; farm; manor".
AltınTurkish Derived from Turkish altın "gold", ultimately via Ottoman Turkish آلتون (altın, altun) "gold", from Proto-Turkic *altun "gold".
AmendolaItalian Southern Italian: habitational name from any of several places in southern Italy named Amendola or Mendola, named with the dialect word amendola 'almond', 'almond tree' (from Greek amygdalea), or a topographic name for someone who lived by an almond tree or trees.
AmesEnglish Derived from the Old French and Middle English personal name Amys, Amice, which is either directly from Latin amicus ‘friend’, used as a personal name, or via a Late Latin derivative of this, Amicius.
AmmannUpper German, German (Swiss) Alemannic form of Amtmann "official". Ultimately derived from Middle High German ambet man "retinue man; retainer", this word came to denote various kinds of administrator including a tax farmer.
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.
AsanteWestern African, Akan From the ethnic name of the Ashanti, a sub-ethnic group of the Akan from southern Ghana. The name possibly means "warlike" in the Twi language.
AscotEnglish Surname originating from the village of Arscott in Devon, meaning "eastern cottage" in Saxon. It can also be used to refer to Ascot in Berkshire, where the Royal Ascot race meeting is held each year.