SvedbergSwedish Combination of Swedish svedja "to burn off, to swidden" (referring to slash-and-burn agriculture (in Swedish: svedjebruk)) and berg "mountain". This name can be both locational (surname derived from a place named with Sved-... [more]
SamarakoonSinhalese Derived from Sanskrit समर (samara) meaning "coming together, meeting" or "conflict, struggle" combined with Sinhala කෝන් (kon) meaning "king" (of Tamil origin).
AviñaGalician Galician surname referring to someone who "lives by a vineyard", from d’Aviña, a variant of da viña.
MeadesEnglish The name Meades is a plural variation of the name Meade, Mead, Mede, etc., the spelling being rather arbitrary and phonetic in the middle ages (even among the very few scribes, clerics and high-born persons who were literate) and without due consideration of standarized form, hence the various spellings of the name today... [more]
SchumannGerman, Jewish An occupational name for a shoemaker, cobbler. From Middle High German scuoh "shoe" and man "man".
PalmeroItalian The Palmero family lived in the territory of Palma, which is in Campania, in the province of Naples. The surname Palma was also a patronymic surname, derived from the personal name Palma, which was common in medieval times... [more]
BatmazTurkish Means "unsinkable, buoyant" or "cheerful, carefree" in Turkish.
CreusCatalan Means "crosses" in Catalan, the plural of creu. Also compare Spanish Cruces. A famous bearer of this surname is the Spanish footballer Xavi Hernández Creus (1980-).
BavaroItalian Means "Bavarian" in Italian, denoting someone from Bavaria, a state in Germany that was formerly an independent kingdom.
KowsariPersian "Kowsar" refers to a river or stream in paradise, which is mentioned in the Quran. Another interpretation is that it means "abundant" or "overflowing."
DimaapiFilipino, Tagalog Means "cannot be oppressed" from Tagalog di- meaning "no, not" and inaapi meaning "oppressed".
SlovenskyCzech Ethnic name for someone from Slovakia or who had connections with Slovakia.
VladiCzech Czech, Slovak, and Romanian: from a short form of the personal name Vladislav, an old Slavic name composed of the elements volod ‘rule’ + slav ‘glory’, Latinized as Ladislaus and found in Hungarian as László ( see Laszlo ).
PreciadoSpanish Past participle of the infinitive preciar meaning "excellent, precious, of great estimation".
UpshawEnglish Probably a habitational name from a lost or unidentified place named with Old English upp meaning "up(per)" and sc(e)aga meaning "copse", or a topographic name with the same meaning.
VoogdesOld Dutch Occupational name and feminine title from Old Dutch meaning Lord Protector or Governor. Derived from Latin advocatus. Dutch masculine variant Voogd, German variant Vogt, Polish variant Wójt, Swedish variant Fogde... [more]
ApicellaItalian Possibly derived from a diminutive of Italian ape "bee", an occupational name for a beekeeper, or perhaps a nickname for an industrious person. Alternatively, it could derive from the Latin cognomen Apicius.
FleischmannGerman, Jewish occupational name for a butcher literally "meatman, butcher" from Middle High German fleisch "flesh, meat" and man "man".
BurkinsEnglish English variant of Birkin, Burkin, a habitational name from the parish of Birkin in West Yorkshire, so named with Old English bircen ‘birch grove’, a derivative of birce (see Birch).
LymanGerman Americanized form of German Leimann, Americanized form of Leinemann, habitational name for someone from Leine in Pomerania, or for someone who lived by either of two rivers called Leine, near Hannover and in Saxony.
DefensorFilipino From Spanish defensor meaning "defender, advocate". A notable bearer was Miriam Defensor Santiago (1945-2016), a Filipino stateswoman and lawyer.
GemayelArabic (Mashriqi) Derived from the given names Jamal or Jamil. This surname is borne by members of a Lebanese Maronite Christian political family, notably the assassinated president-elect and militia commander Bachir Gemayel (1947-1982).
WoodruffEnglish, Caribbean Topographic name for someone who lived on a patch of land where woodruff grew, Anglo-Saxon wudurofe composed of wudu "wood" with a second element of unknown origin.
VesperGerman Either a nickname from Latin vesper "6 o’clock in the evening evening time" originally the second to last canonical hour or a habitational name from a place so called on the Ruhr river.
HarumatsuJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 春 (haru), from 原 (hara) meaning "meadow; plain; field" and 松 (matsu) meaning "pine", referring to grassland with pine trees.
NordahlNorwegian, Swedish The surname derives from a place name in Sunnmøre, Norway. Meaning from Old Norse norðr ''north'' and dalr ''dale'', ''valley''. In Sweden, this name is mostly ornamental, rather than habitaional.
VienneauFrench Denoted a person from Vienne, a commune in the Isère department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France, or perhaps derived from the given name Vivien 1.
KalhorhUrdu, Sindhi Originally a nickname for a person who belonged to the Kalhora clan in Sindh, Pakistan. The clan's name is derived from Sindhi ڪلهوڙو (kalhoro), ultimately from ڪَلھو (kalho) meaning "alone".
De MarniItalian From Italy, most likely Northern Italy. One theory is that De Marni or a similar sounding name was the name of an orphanage, but it's origin is unknown.
al-RumaithiArabic Originally indicated a person who came from the city of Al-Rumaitha in Iraq, or the Rumaithiya area in Kuwait City, Kuwait. The place names are derived from either the Arabic words الرمث (al-ramth) or حافة (rimth), both the names of a type of flowering plant (genus Haloxylon), called saxaul in English... [more]
LubarskyUkrainian, Lithuanian, Jewish Habitational name for someone from Liubar, an urban-type settlement in the Zhytomyr Oblast of Ukraine, or Lubarka, an unknown place in Lithuania.
KehlerGerman Habitational name from various places called Kehl, notably the town across the Rhine from Strasbourg. In some cases it may be a variant of Köhler.
FiggisEnglish From a medieval nickname for a trustworthy person (from the Anglo-Norman form of Old French fichais "loyal").
LambergFinnish, Swedish Perhaps combination of an unexplained first element (maybe taken from a place name) and Swedish berg "mountain". It could also be of German origin (see other submission).
ShippōJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 七宝 (Shippō) meaning "Shippō", a former village in the district of Toyota in the former Japanese province of Aki in parts of present-day Hiroshima, Japan.
IkariJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 五十里 (Ikari) meaning "Ikari", a division in the town of Nyūzen in the district of Shimoniikawa in the prefecture of Toyama in Japan or an area in the city of Takaoka in the prefecture of Toyama in Japan.
RavelFrench, French (African) Derived from either a place called Ravel in the district of Drome or Provence, or from the word 'rave' meaning a root vegetable, and hence a grower or seller of such items.
MolDutch Means "mole (animal)" in Dutch. Could be a nickname for someone with poor eyesight or who was known for digging, an occupational name for a mole catcher, or a habitational name for someone from Mol in the Antwerp province, Belgium.
OnotoraJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 男虎 (onotora) meaning "male tiger", from 男 (o) meaning "male; man", の (no), an unwritten possessive particle, and 虎 (tora) meaning "panthera tigris", referring to someone with qualities of a male tiger.... [more]
FilosaItalian Southern Italian: Probably an occupational nickname for a fisherman, from Sicilian filuòsa ‘fishing net’. Also from the subphylum: Filosa. These are known as euglyphids, filose (which means stringy or thread-like), amoebae with shells of siliceous scales or plates, which are commonly found in soils, nutrient-rich waters, and on aquatic plants.
CasleyEnglish Derived from Old English C(e)atta, a personal name meaning "cat" and leah "woodland, clearing"."
MalfeytDutch, Flemish Generally a Dutch form (or "dutchization", if you will) of Malfait, with the spelling reflecting the surname's origin from older times (as -eyt is an exclusively archaic spelling that has not survived into modern times like its counterparts -eit and -ijt did)... [more]
RedmayneEnglish, Irish Derived from Redmain, a small hamlet in Cumbria, England. It is named with Old English rēad meaning "red" and Welsh main meaning "rock, stone". The name could also be derived from the given name Réamonn, which is an Irish form of Raymond... [more]