BearEnglish From the Middle English nickname Bere meaning "bear" (Old English bera, which is also found as a byname), or possibly from a personal name derived from a short form of the various Germanic compound names with this first element... [more]
YararTurkish Means "benefit, profit, gain" in Turkish.
MroczkowskiPolish Name for someone from any of various places called Mroczkowa, Mroczków or Mroczkowice, all derived from Polish mroczek meaning "house bat".
DerricottEnglish Habitational name, possibly a variant of Darracott, from Darracott in Devon. However, the present-day concentration of the form Derricott in the West Midlands and Shropshire suggests that this may be a distinct name, from a different source, now lost.
BalDutch Means "ball, sphere" in Dutch, a nickname for a ball player or someone who made balls, or a habitational name for someone who lived by a landmark shaped like a ball. Cognate to English Ball.
StollerGerman, Jewish, English Habitational surname for someone from a place called Stolle, near Zurich (now called Stollen).... [more]
KolesnikRussian Denoting to a person who fixed wheels, from Russian колесник (kolesnik), meaning "wheelwright".
TimoneyIrish (Gallicized) The name Timoney is an Irish name. It originated in the west of Ireland. In Irish it is O'Tiománaí. Tiománaí means driver in Irish.
Van Der SteenDutch, Flemish Means "from the stone", a habitational name for someone from any of various minor places called Steen or Ten Stene, for example in the Belgian provinces of East Flanders and Brabant.
MiddlemoreEnglish Derived from an unidentified place in the West Midlands named with Old English middel "middle" and mor "moor", possibly the Middelmore which is recorded in the 13th and 15th centuries at Haughton in Morville (Shrops).
KhomyakovRussian From Russian хомяк (khomyak), meaning "hamster".
QuastGerman habitational name from any of several places so named in northern Germany. metonymic occupational name for a barber or nickname for someone who wore a conspicuous tassel or feather, from Middle Low German, Middle High German quast(e) "tuft", "tassel", "brush", also "fool".
EsakiJapanese E means "river, inlet" and saki means "cape, peninsula".
WinfordEnglish English location name meaning "from a white ford or water crossing" or "from a meadow ford".
JeschkeGerman Germanized form of Czech and Slovakian Ješko and Polish Jeszka, pet forms of given names beginning with Ja- or Je- such as Jan 1 or Jarosław, as well as various cognates or similar-sounding names, such as Ježek ("hedgehog").
GernikaBasque (Rare) From the name of a town and municipality (called Guernica in Spanish and English) in Biscay, Basque Country, of uncertain etymology... [more]
KamutharatThai It is a surname bestowed upon the reign of King Rama VI of the Thai Chakri Dynasty.
RohmeGerman From the Germanic personal name Ruom (Old High German hruom ‘fame’), a short form of Ruombald and similar personal names containing this element.
DuretFrench Derived from French dur meaning "hard, tough".
KrumholzJewish, German German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) from Krumbholz ‘bent timber’, ‘mountain pine’, hence probably a metonymic occupational name for a cartwright or wheelwright. As a Jewish surname it is ornamental.
GiudiceItalian Means "judge, magistrate" in Italian, from Latin iudex, composed of ius "law" and dicere "to say, declare". This was an occupational name for an officer of justice, or a nickname for a solemn and authoritative person.
RoddEnglish Locational name for someone "at the rod" of land, from Middle English rodde. Also could come from the given name Rod, or the parish of Rodd in Herefordshire, England.
HalfpennyEnglish Nickname probably for a tenant whose feudal obligations included a regular payment in cash or kind (for example bread or salt) of a halfpenny. From Old English healf "half" (from proto Germanic halbaz) and penning "penny" meaning "half penny".
PortierFrench occupational name for the gatekeeper of a walled town or city, or the doorkeeper of a great house, Old French portier (from Late Latin portarius)... [more]
DefensorFilipino From Spanish defensor meaning "defender, advocate". A notable bearer was Miriam Defensor Santiago (1945-2016), a Filipino stateswoman and lawyer.
TurkuFinnish Derived from "Turku" a city in Finland.
MenonMalayalam Means "accountant" in Malayalam, itself derived from the title മേലവൻ (melavan) meaning "overseer, boss, exalted one", from മേല (mel) meaning "top, above, high" and the third person pronoun അവൻ (avan) meaning "he".
HiiopEstonian Hiiop is an Estonian surname derived from the Biblical name "Hiiob" (also, "Iiob", or "Job" in English).
DualRomansh Derived from the preposition de "of" and Romansh ual "brook, creek".
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]
ValleraFrench French: habitational name from Vallery in Yonne, once a Romano-Gallic estate, recorded in 1218 as Valerianus. The surname is also found in the British Isles and may be of Norman origin, from the same place.
NakamatsuJapanese This surname combines 中 (chuu, ata.ru, uchi, naka) meaning "centre, in(side), mean (not as in the way a person acts), middle" or 仲 (chuu, naka) meaning "go-between, relationship" with 松 (shou, matsu) meaning "pine tree." One bearer of this surname is inventor Yoshirō Nakamatsu (中松 義郎), also known as Dr... [more]
WinfreyEnglish From the Old English personal name Winfrith, literally "friend-peace". A famous bearer of this surname is Oprah Winfrey (1954-), a US television talk-show presenter.
YahataJapanese From 八 (ya) meaning "eight" and 幡 (hata) meaning "banner, flag".
HolteyGerman Old German name meaning "Wood Island". Holt means wood and ey means island. Family can be traced back to around 650 A.D. and is located in the Ruhr and Essen area of Germany.
GabaratyOssetian Derived from Алгуз (Alguz), an earlier Ossetian family name of unknown meaning. Historically, the last of the Alguz family migrated to the village of Zalda (located in present-day South Ossetia), where most members of the family presently reside.
UllmannGerman Variant spelling of Uhlmann, associated with Jewish Europeans, meaning "man from Ulm". It is derived from the name of the city of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
PolandEnglish, German, French (Anglicized), Irish (Anglicized) English and German name is derived from the Middle High German Polan, which means "Poland". The surname originally signified a person with Polish connections.This French surname originated from an occupational name of a poultry breeder, or from a fearful person; it is derived from the Old French poule, which means "chicken".In other cases, particularly in Ireland, the English Poland is a variant of Polin,which is in turn an Anglicised form of the original Gaelic spelling of Mac Póilín, which translated from Irish means "son of little Paul"... [more]
StaffEnglish Derived from Middle English staf "rod staff, stave" (Old English stæf) used as a nickname either for a tall thin person someone who made staves or for anyone who carried a staff of office.
ArroitzBasque From the name of a town and municipality in Navarre, Spain, possibly derived from Basque (h)arri "stone, rock".
BurelFrench metonymic occupational name for a worker in the wool trade or perhaps a nickname for someone who habitually dressed in brown from Old French burelborel a diminutive of boure "frieze" a type of coarse reddish brown woolen cloth with long hairs (from Late Latin burra "coarse untreated wool").
AchladiotisGreek From Greek αχλάδι (achladi) meaning "pear". Possibly from a village in the island of Syros, Greece.
KarjaneEstonian Karjane is an Estonian surname meaning "herdsman".
McGahanIrish (Rare) Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eacháin or Mag Eocháin, ‘son of Eachán’ a diminutive of Eachaidh, a personal name based on each ‘horse’. Scottish variants tend to spell the internal fricative x as ch rather than gh or h as in Ireland.
TanoseJapanese From 田 (ta) meaning "field, rice paddy", 野 (no) meaning "field, plain, wilderness", and 瀬 (se) meaning "ripple, rapids, current".
FlavignyFrench French form of Flavinius. The Flavigny Abbey, in the French region of Burgundy, became famous because of the candies made by its Benedictine monks, called the anise of Flavigny... [more]
DenhamEnglish From the name of various places in England, most of which meant "farm in the valley" (from Old English denu "valley" + ham "homestead"). Notable bearers of the surname included John Denham (1615-1669), an English poet; British Labour politician John Denham (1953-); and British actor Maurice Denham (1909-2002).
PotierFrench An occupational name for a maker of drinking and storage vessels, from potier "potter", an agent derivative of Old French pot "drinking vessel"... [more]
FassbinderGerman Occupational name for a cooper, derived from German Fass "barrel, keg, cask" and Binder "girder, tie". Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) was a German filmmaker considered as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement.
ThianthongThai From Thai เทียน (thian) meaning "candle" and ทอง (thong) meaning "gold".
PhilippartBelgian In the Medieval period, of Ancient Greek origin, derives from philippos, a compound made of philein meaning "to love", and hippos, a horse, hence "lover of horses".
WengChinese From Chinese 翁 (wēng) meaning "elderly man".
LeckeyScottish, English, Irish Originally Scottish, but also found in England, Northern Ireland and Ireland. Possibly derives from the barony of Leckie (meaning "place of flagstones", from Gaelic leac, "flagstone") in Stirlingshire.
MitsuishiJapanese From 三 (mitsu) meaning "three" or 光 (mitsu) meaning "light, radiance" and 石 (ishi) meaning "stone".
ZugGerman (Swiss) Denotes somebody from either the Canton of Zug or town of Zug.
BakalinskyRussian From Russian Бакали (bakaly) which is derived from Turkish bakkal (Slavicized form bakal) "grocer". Possibly given to someone who dwells in Bakaly or Bakalinsky.
LehnsherrPopular Culture From German Lehnsherr/Lehnsgeber "feudal lord". A notable fictional character is Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (born as Max Eisenhardt), also known as Magneto, in the 'X-Men' franchise.
DimaporoFilipino, Maranao From Maranao di' meaning "no, not" and maporo' meaning "tall, high".
YamabiJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 山 (yama) meaning "mountain" and 火 (bi), the joining form of 火 (hi) meaning "fire". It is a reference to an event when the leader of the Morioka Domain came to the mountains and the residents warmed him up by starting a fire using flint... [more]
RappoldGerman From a personal name composed of the Germanic elements rad "counsel", "advice" + bald "bold", "brave".
AlhadeffJudeo-Spanish Possibly an occupational name for a weaver from Arabic الهداف (al-̣haddāf) meaning "the weaver's shuttle". Alternately, it may be from Arabic الهدى (al-hadā) meaning "the guided one".
NorrellEnglish, German (?) A locational surname from the Germanic (Old English/Old Norse) term for the north. It either refers to someone who lived in a location called Northwell, lived north of a well, spring or stream (Old English weall)... [more]