YuleMedieval English Nickname for someone who was born on Christmas Day or had some other connection with this time of year, from Middle English yule ‘Christmastide’ (Old English geol, reinforced by the cognate Old Norse term jól).
ZadaPashto Derived from Persian زاده (zadeh) meaning "offspring".
ZagoItalian Probably from Venetian zago "alter boy", or someone preparing to become a priest. Alternately, may derive from a toponym, such as Massanzago, Lorenzago, Cazzago, Vanzago, or Sozzago.
ZahmMedieval German Zahm is a nickname from Middle High German Zam meaning "tame".
ZahnGerman Zahn was a nickname given to a person with a peculiar tooth or a strange or defective set of teeth. It comes from the Middle High German Zan(t), which means "tooth".
ZaimTurkish Zaim may be a representation of the male Arabic given name Za'im / Zaeim (Arabic: ضعیم / زاعِم/ زاعيم), meaning leader, chief. Correspondingly al-Za'im (Arabic: الزعيم) means "the leader".
ZaleEnglish (American), Polish (Anglicized) Possibly a habitational name derived from the Polish toponym Żale meaning "on the other side of the wood", from za "beyond" and las "forest".
ZaneEnglish Meaning unknown. It could be a Americanization of the German surname Zahn. Zane 1 is also used as a given name.
ZaniItalian Comes from the personal name Z(u)an(n)i, a northeastern (Venetian) form of Gianni (from Giovanni, Italian equivalent of John). Zani or Zanni is a comic figure in the Commedia del’Arte, and the surname may be a nickname derived from this use, which is also the origin of the English word zany.
ZhaiChinese From Chinese 翟 (zhái) referring to the ancient state of Zhai, which existed during the Zhou dynasty in what is now Shanxi province. The character 翟 was originally read as Di but was later changed to Zhai due to dialectal differences.
ZinnGerman From the German for word for tin "tin." The name indicated someone who worked with the metal. A famous bearer is Johann Gottfried Zinn, a German botanist. Carl Linnaeus named the flower Zinnia in his honor.
ZionHebrew Means "monument" or "raised up" in Hebrew.
ZolaItalian Italian: habitational name from any of various minor places named with Zol(l)a, from a dialect term for a mound or bank of earth, as for example Zola Predosa (Bologna) or Zolla in Monrupino (Trieste)... [more]
ZongChinese From Chinese 棕 (zōng) meaning "brown".
ZongChinese From Chinese 宗 (zōng) meaning "lineage, ancestry". Perhaps it originally denoted a person who was a geneaolgist.
ZopfGerman Nickname for someone who wore his hair in a pigtail or plait, Middle High German zopf, zoph, or from a field name from same word in the sense ‘tail’, ‘end’, ‘narrow point’.
ZornGerman From Middle High German zorn "wrath, anger". A notable bearer was Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920) whose father was German.