RaischGerman, German (Swiss) From Middle High German rīsch, rūsch ‘reed’, ‘rush’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a reed bed, or perhaps a metonymic occupational name for someone who used or harvested reeds... [more]
BrinkerGerman, Dutch Derived from brink "edge, slope" or "village green", indicating that the bearer of the surname lived near a prominent slope of land or next to the centre of a village.
SorensonJewish Means "son of the son of Sore", a Yiddish female personal name (from Hebrew Sara, literally "princess"), with the addition of the Slavic possessive suffix -in and German Sohn "son".
GiresseFrench Alain Giresse is a French footballer and manager... [more]
RadlerGerman Occupational name, which was derived from the kind of work done by the original bearer. It is a name for a wheelmaker or wheelwright. The name stems from the German noun rat, meaning wheel. The origin is more clear in the variant Rademacher
MayhewEnglish Anglicized form of a Norman French variant of the given name Matthew.
CornacchiaItalian Means "crow, carrion crow, jackdaw" in Italian, a nickname for someone who was talkative, or thought to resemble a crow or jackdaw in some other way.
FaheyIrish Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fathaidh or Ó Fathaigh meaning "descendant of Fathadh", a given name derived from the Gaelic word fothadh "base, foundation".... [more]
WhitehornScottish A locational name from Whithorn near Wigtown, from Old English hwit "white" and ærn "house".
HeinbokelGerman (Hein) is a short form of the name Heinrich, (the German form of the name Henry) & Bokel is a place name in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein & North Rhine-Westphalia.
KooritsEstonian Koorits is an Estonian surname possibly derived from "koor" meaning both "(tree) bark" and "choir". It may also be a corruption of "kõrvits" meaning "pumpkin".
AmparoSpanish (Philippines) Means "protection, shelter, refuge" in Spanish. It is taken from the title of the Virgin Mary, Nuestra Señora del Amparo, meaning "Our Lady of Refuge".
MollicaItalian Means "crumb, breadcrumb; soft inner part of bread" in Italian, a nickname for a physically small or unintelligent person, or perhaps someone considered kind and soft-hearted.
FalascaItalian Possibly from a dialectical word falasca meaning "straw", referring to someone's build or hair, or possibly an occupation of making things out of straw.
al-MusratiArabic (Maghrebi) Denoted a person from Misrata (also called Misurata or Misratah), a city in the Misrata district in northwestern Libya.
MerleauFrench The name Merleau is a rare French given name and surname, derived from "merle" meaning "blackbird" in French with the diminutive suffix "-eau", which can indicate a place of water or serve as a poetic augmentative, enhancing its natural imagery.... [more]
BacchusEnglish (i) Variant of Backus (meaning "one who lives in or works in a bakery", from Old English bǣchūs "bakehouse, bakery"), the spelling influenced by Bacchus (name of the Greek and Roman god of wine).... [more]
ShrivastavIndian, Hindi Short form of Sanskrit श्रीवास्तव्य (shrivastavya) meaning "abode of wealth", itself from श्री (shri) meaning "diffusing light, radiance, splendour, beauty, wealth, prosperity" and वास्तव्य (vastavya) meaning "residence, abode, dwelling, inhabiting".
OuwehandDutch Means "old hand" in Dutch, originally a nickname for a fisherman, associated with the phrase "old hands at sea". Another theory holds that it comes from a misdivision of the surname Oudeland... [more]
KatzenJewish (Ashkenazi) Katzen is a variant of Kotzen, or a shortened version of Katzenellenbogen. Its origins can also be traced back to a habitational form of Katzenelnbogen. There is no clear answer of where this surname exactly came from... [more]
AllisEnglish From the Middle English and Old French female personal name Alis (Alice), which, together with its diminutive Alison, was extremely popular in England in the Middle Ages. The personal name is of Germanic origin, brought to England from France by the Normans; it is a contracted form of Germanic Adalhaid(is), which is composed of the elements adal "noble" and haid "brilliance, beauty".
KsiazekPolish Nickname meaning ‘little priest’ or possibly a patronymic for an illegitimate son of a priest, from ksiadz ‘priest’ + the diminutive suffix -ek.nickname meaning ‘little prince’, from a diminutive of ksia?ze ‘prince’.
HäggSwedish From Swedish hägg meaning "prunus padus", but also known as "hackberry, bird cherry". It is a type of small tree native to northern Asia and Europe.
ÕisEstonian Õis is an Estonian surname meaning "flower" and "blossom".
VidrineFrench (Cajun) Vidrines are French Cajuns that live mostly around south central Louisiana, towns and cities like Mamou, Eunice and Ville Platte.
HuntzingerGerman Habitational name for someone from Hintschingen, earlier Huntzingen.
HoarEnglish Habitational name for a person who lived in the village called Ore in East Sussex, or someone who lived by a bank or shore, both derived from Old English ora "shore, edge".
Van EckDutch Means "from Eck", a town in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Derived from hek "fence".
SirueangThai From Thai ศรี (si) meaning "glory, honour, splendour" and เรือง (rueang) meaning "bright, brilliant".
GunawanChinese (Indonesian) Indonesianized version of various Chinese surnames (including 陳 Chen, 郭 Guo, etc.), under the social and political pressure during the New Order era (1966–1998) in Indonesia toward Chinese Indonesians.
ShiranitaJapanese From 白 (shira) meaning "white" and 仁 (ni) meaning "compassion, benevolence", that is then combined with 田 (ta) meaning "rice paddy, field".
KirouacFrench (Quebec) From an unidentified place name in Brittany, France, derived from Breton kaer, caer, ker meaning "fortified settlement" and an unknown given name.
SebaldLiterature In 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events', Gustav Sebald was a film director who hid secret codes in his movies, a member of V.F.D., and the likely creator of the Sebald Code.
PangestuChinese (Indonesian) Indonesianized form of Chinese surnames such as Peng (彭) or Feng 1 (馮). Surnames like these were instituted during the New Order era (1966–1998) in Indonesia due to social and political pressure toward Chinese Indonesians.
LehtoFinnish Finnish: from lehto ‘grove’; either a habitational name, recorded since the 17th century, from any of the farms in eastern Finland named for their location by a grove, or in other cases a more recent ornamental adoption... [more]
MeghnagiJewish, Northern African Sephardic Jewish, originating from the Libyan Jewish community. Most were from Tripoli, with a much smaller contingent from Benghazi.
ValeEnglish Topographic name for someone who lived in a valley, Middle English vale (Old French val, from Latin vallis). The surname is now also common in Ireland, where it has been Gaelicized as de Bhál.
SeatterScottish From an ancient barony called "The lands of Setter", Stromness, Orkney. Derives from the Ancient Norse word "saetr" meaning a hut or shelter for animals.
ChửVietnamese Vietnamese form of Chu, from Sino-Vietnamese 褚 (chử).
SofianArabic It is an old and rare Arabic name and its rapid meaning is to walk, fly or float. Among the famous people who were called by this name is the companion Abu Sufyan bin Harb, the father of Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan
KurupMalayalam From a title traditionally bestowed upon weapon makers and masters of martial arts, of uncertain meaning.
KõrvitsEstonian Kõrvits is an Estonian surname meaning "pumpkin".
YasutomiJapanese Yasu means "relax, cheap, peace" and tomi means "wealth, abundance".
PlumleyEnglish Meaning "plum-tree wood or clearing" from the Old English words plume and leah.
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]
PirasSardinian Means "pears", derived from Sardinian pira "pear".
WycherleyEnglish Derived from a place name apparently meaning "elm-wood clearing" from Old English wice and leah. A famous bearer was the dramatist William Wycherley (1640-1715).
TrauschGerman, Slavic, Low German, Luxembourgish A nickname either derived from Trauschke, a nickname from Old Slavic drugu "companion", or from Middle Low German druus "sullen", "dour".
ElsassAlsatian A geographical surname based on a region named "Alsace" in France.
KharaziaAbkhaz There are several theories on the origin of the name. It could be derived from Arabic حَارِس (ḥāris) meaning "guard, guardian, defender", from a contraction of a Hebrew term, or from the Abkhaz word ҳара (ḥārā́) meaning "we, ours" combined with the Abkhaz suffix -ya or -ia denoting descent.
ÖgrenSwedish Combination of Swedish ö "island" and gren "branch".
MullisEnglish As either Mulles and Mullis, the surname first found in Parish Registers in Cornwall Co. by 1548 in Michaelstow. Manorial tenement rolls trace that particular family to 1483. Between 1337 and 1453 random tenants were recorded between Tintagel and Altarnun as Molys and Mollys... [more]
GombertFrench, German French and German: from Gundbert, a Germanic personal name composed of the elements gund ‘battle’ + berht ‘bright’, ‘famous’... [more]
LeitEstonian Leit is an Estonian surname derived from either "leitav" meaning "findable" or "leitsak" meaning "humid/sultry air".
HamburgGerman, Jewish German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) habitational name from the great city and port at the mouth of the river Elbe, named with the Germanic elements ham ‘water meadow’ + burg ‘fortress’, ‘fortified town’.
PeachyEnglish (Anglicized) Means “lived near a peach tree, sold peaches, or was associated with the fruit in some other way”. Originally arrived with the in England after the Norman conquest of 1066.
MarreroSpanish Occupational name for a stonecutter, derived from Spanish marrear "to hit with a sledgehammer", ultimately from Latin marra "hoe, hook, spade".
CarducciItalian From Riccarduccio, an affectionate form of the given name Riccardo. A famous bearer of this surname is Italian poet Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906.
WeinGerman, Yiddish, Hungarian Means "grape, vine, wine" in German and Yiddish (װײַנ). According to Nelly Weiss, Wein-style family names originated from signboards (house sign, house shield) in Jewish communities. Wein may also be related the German verb weinen meaning "to cry"... [more]
TsudzumiJapanese (Rare) This surname is used as either 鼓 or 都積 with 鼓 (ko, tsudzumi) meaning "beat, drum, muster, rouse", 都 (tsu, to, miyako) meaning "capital, metropolis" and 積 (seki, tsu.mu, tsu.mori, tsu.moru, -dzu.mi) meaning "acreage, amass, contents, load, pile, up, stack, volume."... [more]
FontanarosaItalian Denoted a person who came from one of the various places in Italy with this name or similar, derived from Italian meaning "red fountain".