BaackGerman, North Frisian Either from a reduced form of the Germanic personal name Baldeke (a short form of any of the compound names with the first element bald "bold, brave ", for example Baldewin), or from Middle Low German baec, bake "pork, bacon", hence a metonymic occupational name for a butcher or pig farmer.
IllingworthEnglish It indicates familial origin within the eponymous village in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
BartleyEnglish, American 1. English: habitational name from Bartley in Hampshire, or from Bartley Green in the West Midlands, both of which are named with Old English be(o)rc ‘birch’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’; compare Barclay... [more]
SpenderEnglish Occupational name for a paymaster or someone in charge of finances, from Old English spendan "to spend" and Latin expendere "to pay out".
SamsonFilipino From Hokkien 三孫 (sam-sun) meaning "third grandson".
ChanthaphoneLao From Lao ຈັນທະ (chantha) meaning "moon" and ພອນ (phone) meaning "blessing".
CavillEnglish Derived from Cavil, a place located in the East Riding of Yorkshire in northern England, named from Old English ca meaning "jackdaw" and feld meaning "open country". It is borne by the British actor Henry Cavill (1983-).
GötzGerman Originally a hypocorism of Gottfried, which is derived from an Old High German given name. Variants include the surnames Getz and Goetz, as well as the given name Götz.
McewenScottish, Irish Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eoghain ‘son of Eoghan’, a widespread and ancient personal name, possibly derived from eo ‘yew’, meaning ‘born of yew’. It was Latinized as Eugenius (see Eugene), and was also regarded as a Gaelic form of John... [more]
ScudamoreAnglo-Norman A locational surname that was first recorded in England in 1264. Derived from one of the ancient villages of Fifield Scudamore or Upton Scudamore, with Scudamore coming from the Old English scitemor, which means "one who lived at the moor."
SchuknechtGerman Occupational name for a shoemaker’s assistant, from Middle High German schuoch meaning "shoe" + knecht meaning "journeyman", "assistant".
KrabbeGerman, Dutch, Danish Means "crab, shrimp", either a metonymic occupational name for someone who caught or sold shellfish, or a nickname based on someone’s way of walking.
VietmeyerGerman German: distinguishing name for a tenant farmer who was a tenant of or owed some obligation to an estate or monastery named for Saint Veith.
KhalifeLebanese (Gallicized) French version of the Arabic name Khalifa which means “successor of Mohammed” used by Lebanese Christians ever since the French occupation of Lebanon.
JollEstonian Joll is an Estonian surname meaning "dinghy (boat)".
AragakiJapanese From Japanese 新 (ara) meaning "new" or 荒 (ara) meaning "rough, wild" and 垣 (kaki) meaning "hedge, fence".
CockeEnglish nickname from Middle English cok ‘cock’, ‘male bird or fowl’ (Old English cocc), given for a variety of possible reasons. Applied to a young lad who strutted proudly like a cock, it soon became a generic term for a youth and was attached with hypocoristic force to the short forms of many medieval personal names (e.g. Alcock, Hancock, Hiscock, Mycock)... [more]
LousadaPortuguese Name given from the village of Lousada, in Northern Portugal.
Van OssDutch Means "from Oss", a town in the southern Netherlands.
BogleScottish, Northern Irish From a medieval Scottish and Northern Irish nickname for someone of scary appearance (from Middle Scots bogill "hobgoblin").
PervakUkrainian, Russian Derived either from Russian первый (pervy) meaning "first" or directly from colloquial Ukrainian первак (pervak) meaning "firstborn".
AbañoFilipino Possibly derived from Spanish baño meaning "bath".
RueangsiThai From Thai เรือง (rueang) meaning "bright, brilliant" and ศรี (si) meaning "glory, honour, splendour".
YongChinese From Chinese 雍 (yōng) either referring the ancient state of Yong, located in what is now Henan province, or the ancient fief of Yong, which existed during the Shang dynasty in what is now Shaanxi province.
NovoselićCroatian Derived from nov, meaning "new", and selo, meaning "village", so the possible meaning is "the one who's new to the village".... [more]
OkudaJapanese From Japanese 奥 (oku) meaning "inside" and 田 (ta) meaning "field, rice paddy".
KnowlesIrish As an Irish surname it is an anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Tnúthghail meaning "descendant of Tnúthgal", a given name composed of the elements tnúth "desire, envy" and gal "valor".
RayamajhiNepali Probably a portmanteau of the Nepali words meaning 'Royal Fishmongers'. A member of the Rajput-Chhetri subcaste of Nepali family names.
ShaulisLithuanian Occupational name from Lithuanian šaulys ‘rifleman’.
SchwandtGerman Topographic name for someone who lived in a forest clearing, from Middle High German swant (from swenden "to thin out", "make disappear", causative from swinden "to disappear" modern German schwinden.
GucciItalian Patronymic or plural form of the given name Guccio, a late medieval Italian diminutive of various names ending in go, such as Arrigo (via Arriguccio) or Ugo (via Uguccio)... [more]
CallenderEnglish Occupational name for a person who finished freshly woven cloth by passing it between heavy rollers to compress the weave. From Old Franch calandrier, calandreur.
HirsekornGerman Hirsekorn - millet grain - seems to be of Jewish origin
BoucharebArabic (Maghrebi) Means "father of the moustache" or "father of the drinker" from Arabic أَبُو (ʾabū) meaning "father" and شَارِب (šārib) meaning "moustache" or "drinker".
GilgenGerman, German (Swiss) Derived from Middle High German gilge "lily", this was a habitational name from the inflected form of a house name meaning "at the lily".
CarlyonCornish Cornish: habitational name from any of three places in Cornwall called Carlyon, in St. Minver and Kea parishes. The first element is Celtic ker ‘fort’; the second could represent the plural of Cornish legh ‘slab’.
IhimaeraMaori This name in English means Ishmael. This name is not only a surname but was used at least in the past as a first name. This name could have another origin. This is the last name of the first Maori author to produce a book made up of stories Witi Ihimaera (1944- ).
SheeneIrish (Anglicized) Derived from the Gaelic siodhach which means "peaceful." Most commonly used in Ireland and originated in the county's southwest region.
SteinmeierGerman Distinguishing name for a tenant farmer (Meyer) whose farm was on stony ground or was distinguished by a conspicuous rock formation (Middle High German stein 'rock').
LarkEnglish From the name of the bird, a nickname for a singer or a cheerful person, or perhaps someone who caught and sold larks. Alternatively, could be a shortened form of the personal name Larkin.
TounsiArabic (Maghrebi) Derived from Arabic تُونِسِيّ (tūnisiyy) meaning “Tunisian”, ultimately from تُونِس (tūnis) meaning "Tunisia, Tunis". It can refer to a native of the country of Tunisia, someone from the city of Tunis (in Tunisia), or the Tunisian Tounsi dialect of Arabic.
DesmoulinsFrench A French surname meaning “of the windmills.” A famous bearer of this surname is Camille Desmoulins, a journalist and politician during the French Revolution who was guillotined.
BaudelaireFrench Possibly from French baudelaire, a type of short sword with a curved blade and S-shaped quillons. A famous bearer of the name was French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867).
SedinSwedish Two famous bearers are the Swedish ice hockey players, and twins, Henrik and Daniel Sedin (b. 1980).
GuyEnglish Occupational name for a guide, Old French gui (a derivative of gui(d)er "to guide", of Germanic origin).
WilburnEnglish A habitation name of uncertain origin found in the East Midlands. Speculation includes the possibility of the meaning "well" and "burn, borne" therefore meaning one who lived near a well or spring by a waterway crossing.
SchatzGerman, Jewish German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) metonymic occupational name for a treasurer, from German Schatz ‘treasure’, Middle High German scha(t)z. It may also have been a nickname for a rich man (or ironically for a miser), or else for a well-liked person or a ladies’ favorite, from the use of the vocabulary word as a term of endearment... [more]
RuskykhUkrainian, Russian (Ukrainianized) Means "a Russian", from Ukrainian руський (rus'kyy) "Russian". It can also derived from the Russian word русский (russkiy), with the same meaning.
SordinoLiterature The surname of Melinda "Mel" Sordino, the main character of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (1999). Her surname was apparently derived from Italian sordino meaning "mute" or "deaf".
FillmoreEnglish Of uncertain origin: it could be derived from the Norman given name Filimor, composed of the Germanic elements filu ("very") and mari or meri ("famous"), or it might be a combination of the Saxon elements fille ("abundance") and mere, a word denoting a lake or otherwise humid land.
LingChinese From Chinese 凌 (líng) meaning "ice", originally used as an occupational name for a palace official who was in charge of storing and handling ice.
MorantEnglish, French From the Old French personal name Morant, perhaps from a nickname meaning "steadfast", or alternatively of Germanic origin and meaning literally "courage-raven". A known bearer was the British-born Australian soldier and poet Breaker Morant, original name Edwin Henry Murrant (?1864-1902).
SumantoChinese (Indonesian) Indonesianized form of Chinese surnames such as Chen (陳) or Huang (黃). Surnames like these were instituted during the New Order era (1966–1998) in Indonesia due to social and political pressure toward Chinese Indonesians.
MyōchinJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 明珍 (myōchin), the 2 characters used in 明らかに珍しい (akiraka ni mezurashii) meaning "evidently rare". This is from the event in the Heian Period, of an armorer who created an armor that was then praised by Emperor Konoe... [more]
ZanniItalian, Venetian From the given name Zanni, a Venetan form of Gianni. This is also the name of a broad character archetype of commedia dell’arte, covering a wide range of servant and trickster characters; in some cases, the surname could have originated as a nickname based on this archetype.
BakunPolish Possibly from bak "screaming" or bakać "to scold", from bakun "low-quality tobacco", or from the Hebrew personal name Bakum, possibly related to Habakkuk.
TaczaPolish Deppreciation of TARCZA which means shield in Polish.
DahmerGerman, Danish A northern German or Danish habitual name for someone from one of the many places named Dahme in Brandenburg, Holstein, Mecklenburg, or Silesia. A famous bearer of this name was Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer (1960 - 1993).
SancakTurkish Means "flag, banner, emblem" in Turkish.