JavertLiterature The name of the policeman in Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables." His name was taken from the word Javert, which means "to pursue relentlessly."... [more]
JoplinEnglish Possibly derived from a Middle English diminutive of Geoffrey, a nickname from Middle English joppe "fool", or from the Biblical name Job... [more]
KallweitGerman (East Prussian) East Prussian German (and thus heavily Lithuanian influenced) name meaning "smith; blacksmith; farrier", derived from Old Prussian kalt "to forge; to hammer" and Old Prussian kalweitis "the village smith".
KapelDutch, Dutch (Surinamese) Means "chapel" in Dutch, a habitational name for someone who lived near a chapel (or in a place named after one), or an occupational name for a chaplain.
KapelaPolish Occupational name for a musician, derived from Polish kapela "music band; court orchestra".
KapellerGerman, German (Austrian) Derived from Middle High German kappelle, kapelle "chapel", this name denoted someone who lived near a chapel.
KareninaLiterature In Leo Tolstoy's novel 'Anna Karenina' (1877), this is the title character's surname, the feminine form of her husband's surname, Karenin.
KarlinJewish Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic) habitational name for someone from Karlin, a suburb of Pinsk in Belarus, in which the Jews formed the majority of the population until the Holocaust. A well-known Hasidic sect originated in Karlin and at one time it attracted so many followers that a (now obsolete) Russian word for ‘Hasid’ was Karliner (of Yiddish origin)... [more]