GraffEnglish Metonymic occupational name for a clerk or scribe, from Anglo-Norman French grafe "quill, pen" (a derivative of grafer "to write", Late Latin grafare, from Greek graphein).
ArtabiaBasque (Rare) From the name of a neighborhood in the municipality of Allin, Navarre, possibly derived from Basque arte "oak (tree), evergreen oak, holm oak" or arto "millet; corn, maize" combined with the suffix -be "lower part".
LeedsEnglish From the city of Leeds in Yorkshire. The name was first attested in the form Loidis in AD 731. In the Domesday Book of 1086, it is recorded as 'Ledes'. This name is thought to have ultimately been derived from an earlier Celtic name... [more]
LeverEnglish Topographic name for someone who lived in a place thickly grown with rushes, from Old English lǣfer "rush, reed". Compare Laver. Great and Little Lever in Greater Manchester (formerly in Lancashire) are named with this word, and in some cases the surname may also be derived from these places.
LilienthalGerman Habitational name from any of the places called Lilienthal in Schleswig-Holstein Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemburg named with Middle High German liljen "lilies" (from Latin lilium) and tal "valley".
DeldojarScottish (Anglicized, Rare) Deldojar is a nickname for Bangladeshi traders who settled on the coastal port of Perth and Kinross, Scotland. This name is taken from the name of the merchant's hometown, Deldur upazila, a district of Tangail in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
PalinEnglish (i) "person from Palling", Norfolk ("settlement of Pælli's people") or "person from Poling", Sussex ("settlement of Pāl's people"); (ii) from the Welsh name ap Heilyn "son of Heilyn", a personal name perhaps meaning "one who serves at table"
GuedjJudeo-Spanish Possibly derived from the Kabyle word agaji related to movement, though it may in fact be a variant of the surname Guez.
GatdulaFilipino, Tagalog This surname honors Lakan Dula, the last ruler of the Kingdom of Tondo, via his alternative name Gat Dula. In it, the word or prefix Gat is a shortened version of the Tagalog honorific Pamagat, which at the time meant "nobleman," while Dula possibly means "palace." Altogether, it means "Nobleman of the Palace."
HedgeEnglish Topographic name for someone who lived by a hedge, Middle English hegg(e). In the early Middle Ages, hedges were not merely dividers between fields, but had an important defensive function when planted around a settlement or enclosure.
LapishEnglish (British) Derives from the surname Lapage, referring to a "law-page", that is, someone who worked as a servant.
KronenGerman From German Krone 'crown', probably as an ornamental name. Or a nickname for a slender, long-legged individual, from a dialect form of Kranich.
KesslerGerman, Jewish Means "kettle-maker, tinker", denoting a maker of copper or tin cooking vessels, derived from Middle High German kezzel meaning "kettle, cauldron". In some instances, it could have referred to the shape of a landform.
RohrbachGerman, German (Swiss) German and Swiss German: habitational name from any of numerous places called Rohrbach (‘reed brook’ or ‘channel brook’) in many parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. It is a common surname in Pennsylvania.
KönigsbergJewish Associated with the Polish/Prussian/German/Russian town Königsberg, now called Kaliningrad. This surname was borne by the parents of American actor, writer, teacher, and director Walter Koenig (1936-) before they emigrated to the United States.
ZellerGerman, Dutch, Jewish Originally denoted someone from Celle, Germany or someone living near a hermit's cell from German zelle "cell". It is also occupational for someone employed at a zelle, for example a small workshop.
PetraliphasGreek The surname is composed of the name Petros and the city Alifa in Campania, Italy. The surname was held by a Byzantine-Italian family in Epirus.
DenbroughPopular Culture Surname from the fictional character "Bill Denbrough" from "IT" and "IT Chapter Two".
ZareiPersian Derived from Arabic زارع (zari') meaning "farmer".
ŌkawaraJapanese From Japanese 大 (o) meaning "big, great", 河 (ka) meaning "river, stream" and 原 (wara) meaning "field, plain".
HampshireEnglish Originally indicated a person from the county of Hampshire in England (recorded in the Domesday Book as Hantescire), derived from Old English ham meaning "water meadow, enclosure" and scir meaning "shire, district"... [more]
TaaramäeEstonian Taaramäe is an Estonian surname meaning "Taara's hill/mountain". Taara is a prominent god in ancient Estonian mythology.
CairnsScottish From Gaelic carn "cairn", a topographic name for someone who lived by a cairn, i.e. a pile of stones raised as a boundary marker or a memorial.
HolcombEnglish Habitational name from any of various places, for example in Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Oxfordshire, and Somerset, so named from Old English hol meaning "hollow", "sunken", "deep" + cumb meaning "valley".
BitsuieNavajo From bitsóí meaning "his grandchild", a commonly adopted surname when the BIA required Native Americans to take surnames for the purpose of official records.
AnanVarious Anan (Hebrew: עָנַן ‘ānan) is used as both a Hebrew or Arabic name meaning "cloud, vapour" or descriptive "visible water vapour floating above the earth". The Arabic form is from Classical Arabic, possibly adopted from the Hebrew, but with the spelling (Arabic: عَنَان ‘anān) since the proper term of "cloud" in Arabic is saḥāb (سَحَاب).
SavorgnanItalian (Rare) From a small town near Udine named Savorgnano del Torre, of Friulian origin. This was the name of a Friulian aristocratic family, ascribed to the Venetian participate. The famous bearer of this surname was an Italian-French explorer Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza (1852-1905)
DeschanelFrench Derived from French eschamel meaning "stepladder" or des chanels meaning "from the channels, from the little jugs". An occupational nickname for a trader, it supposedly originated in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France... [more]
MadenTurkish Means "mine, mineral, ore" in Turkish, ultimately from Arabic معدن (ma'din).
KanakapindaThai It is a surname bestowed upon the reign of King Rama VI of the Thai Chakri Dynasty.
KoitlaEstonian Koitla is an Estonian surname derived from "koit" meaning "dawn".
CapelleFrench, English, Dutch, Flemish French topographic name for someone living by a chapel, from a regional variant of chapelle "chapel" (compare Chapell 2), or a habitational name from any of several places named La Capelle... [more]
GladstoneScottish Habitational name from a place near Biggar in Lanarkshire, apparently named from Old English gleoda meaning "kite" + stān meaning "stone".
VillasurdaGerman Villasurda is a Germanic name dating back to the time of the Vikings. It, roughly translated from a Norse word, means, "the one who is fat."
SorokaUkrainian, Jewish From the nickname Soroka meaning "magpie", which indicates a thievish person or a person with a white streak of hair among black hair.
XiChinese From Chinese 习 (xí) referring to an ancient territory named Xi, which existed during the Zhou dynasty in the Qin state in what is now Shangxian County, Shaanxi province. A notable berarer is Xi Jinping (1953-), the current president of China.
MockfordEnglish Mockford comes from "Mocca's ford", with Mocca being an Old English name of uncertain origin. An alternative theory is that it comes from "Motholfr's ford" from the Old Norse meaning "renown-wolf". Either way, Mockford was once a place in Sussex, near Rottingdean, and it is from there that most branches of the name originate.
MaggioriItalian Recorded in many spelling forms including the 'base' form of Maggi, and the diminutives and double diminutives Maggiore, Maggiori, Di Maggio, Maggorini, and many others, this is an Italian surname of Roman (Latin) origins... [more]
RaiaItalian, Sicilian Either a topographic name from Sicilian raia ‘smilax’ (a climbing shrub), or else derived from Sicilian raja meaning ‘ray’, or ‘skate’ (the fish), presumably a nickname for someone thought to resemble the fish or a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman or fish seller.
ThursbyEnglish habitational name from a place in Cumbria so named from the Old Norse personal name Thorir a derivative of Thor and Old Norse býr "farmstead settlement"... [more]
GeersDutch Patronymic from the short form of any of various personal names formed with the Germanic element ger "spear". Compare Geerts.