EstrelaPortuguese The surname Estrela, of Portuguese origin, means "star," symbolizing guidance, hope, and celestial beauty, and is commonly found in Portugal.
EtienamNigerian, Ibibio (?), Spanish (Caribbean, ?) This is a name which originates from the Calabar/Akwa Ibom region of southeastern Nigeria. It means "a doer of good, or benevolent". It is also found in Spanish-speaking regions of the Caribbean such as Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba (El Oriente) which have populations of people of Ibibio/Efik decent known as "Carabali".
EtxagueBasque Habitational name derived from Basque etxe "house, home, building" and an altered form of the suffix -gune "place, area".
EtxaideBasque It indicates familial origin within either of 2 Navarrese neighborhoods: the one in Elizondo or the one in Anue.
EtxalarBasque From the name of a town and municipality in Navarre, Spain, derived from Basque etxe "house, home, building" and larre "pasture, meadow, prairie".
EtxauriBasque From the name of a town in Navarre, Spain, derived from Basque etxe "house, building" and uri "town, city".
EtzdorfGerman Origin and meaning unknown, possibly a given name. Usually has nobiliary particle "Von".
EubanksEnglish Topographic name for someone who lived by a bank of yew trees, from Old English iw "yew" and bank "bank".
EvertonEnglish Habitational name from any of various places, in Bedfordshire, Merseyside, and Nottinghamshire, so named from Old English eofor ‘wild boar’ + tun ‘settlement’.
EveshamEnglish Derived from the Old English homme or ham and Eof, the name of a swineherd in the service of Egwin, third bishop of Worcester.
FairfaxEnglish From a medieval nickname for someone with beautiful hair, from Old English fæger "fair" and feax "hair". It was borne by the English general Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron Fairfax of Cameron (1612-1671), commander of the Parliamentary army during the Civil War... [more]
FajardoGalician Topographic name for someone who lived by a beech tree or in a beech wood, from Late Latin fagea (arbor) meaning "beech (tree)", a derivative of classical Latin fagus meaning "beech".
FalangaItalian From Sicilian falanga "plank, temporary bridge; fence".
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.
FanningIrish The roots of the name are unclear. It seems the name is Native Irish Gaelic. It is thought to be derived from the Gaelic name Ó Fionnáin which means "fair".
FaradayIrish From Irish Gaelic Ó Fearadaigh "descendant of Fearadach", a personal name probably based on fear "man", perhaps meaning literally "man of the wood". A famous bearer was British chemist and physicist Michael Faraday (1791-1867).
FarooqiMuslim Muslim: Arabic family name (Fārūqī), denoting someone descended from or associated with someone called Farooq , in particular a descendant of the khalif ῾Umar.
FastolfEnglish From the Old Norse male personal name Fastúlfr, literally "strong wolf". It was borne by Sir John Fastolf (1380-1459), an English soldier whose name was adapted by Shakespeare as "Falstaff".
FaucettEnglish Locational surname from various British places: Fawcett in Cumberland, Facit in Lancashire, Forcett in North Yorkshire, or Fa’side Castle in East Lothian, Scotland. The linguistic origins of the name arise variously from, in Cumberland and Lancashire, "multi-coloured hillside" in 7th century Old English fag or fah, "brightly coloured, variegated, flowery" with side, "slope"; in North Yorkshire from Old English ford, "ford", and sete, "house, settlement"; or, reputedly, in East Lothian, "fox on a hillside"... [more]
FawcettEnglish Habitational name from Fawcett, Westmorland, or Facit, Lancashire, both derived from Old English fāh "multicoloured, variegated, colourful" and sīde "side, hill slope"... [more]
FeatherEnglish from Middle English fetherfedder "feather" or perhaps a shortened form of Middle English fetherer applied as a metonymic occupational name for a trader in feathers and down a maker of quilts or possibly a maker of pens... [more]
FechterGerman Occupational name derived from Middle High German vehten "to fence", denoting a fencer. Notable bearers include German bricklayer Peter Fechter (1944–1962), and American engineer and inventor Aaron Fechter (1953-), creator of the band Rock-afire Explosion.
FeinmanGerman, Jewish Nickname for a fine person, derived from either Middle High German fīn meaning "fine, elegant, cultivated" or German fein and Yiddish fayn meaning "fine, excellent", combined with man.
FellousJudeo-Spanish Derived from Maghrebi Arabic فلوس (fallus) meaning "chick, young chicken".
FellowsEnglish English: patronymic from Fellow, from Middle English felagh, felaw late Old English feolaga ‘partner’, ‘shareholder’ (Old Norse félagi, from fé ‘fee’, ‘money’ + legja to lay down)... [more]
FerrandFrench, English This French surname can be derived from a given name (thus making it a patronymic surname) as well as from a nickname (thus making it a descriptive surname). In the case of a patronymic surname, the surname is derived from the medieval French masculine given name Ferrand, which was a variant form of the name Fernand, itself a contraction of Ferdinand.... [more]
FerrersAncient Roman It derives from Latin, "ferrum", which means "iron". As a surname, it derives from two French villages named "Ferrieres" where iron was mined.
FerrierScottish Scottish: occupational name for a smith, one who shoed horses, Middle English and Old French ferrier, from medieval Latin ferrarius, from ferrus ‘horseshoe’, from Latin ferrum ‘iron’. Compare Farrar.
FeuilleFrench This is actually a standard word in French, correctly pronounce like "furry" without the r's. It means "leaf", or "sheet" (i.e. feuille de papier).
FeulnerGerman Franconian dialect form of Feilner (see Feiler), or derived from Feuln, a town near the district of Kulmbach, Bavaria, Germany. A notable bearer is the American academic Edwin Feulner (1941-).
FeverelEnglish From a Middle English form of February, probably used as a nickname either for someone born in that month or for someone with a suitably frosty demeanor. In fiction, this surname was borne by the central character of George Meredith's novel 'The Ordeal of Richard Feverel' (1859).
FianderEnglish (British) The Fiander surname may have it's origins in Normandy, France (possibly from the old-French "Vyandre"), but is an English (British) surname from the Dorset county region. The Fiander name can also be found in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, Canada the origins of which can be traced back to the mid-1700's in the village of Milton Abbas, Dorsetshire.
FicheraItalian From Sicilian fichera "fig tree", a nickname for someone who grew or sold figs, or perhaps lived near them.
FichterGerman Topographic name for someone who lived near pine trees (originally bei den Fichten, Feichten, or Feuchten), from Old High German fiohta. The vowel of the first syllable underwent a variety of changes in different dialects.
FichterGerman (Austrian) Habitational name deriving from places named with this word in Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony, or Austria.
FiennesEnglish Derived from Fiennes, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. The wealthy and influential Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family, prominent in British society, originated in northern France... [more]
FigginsEnglish Derived from a medieval diminutive of Fulk (such as Fygge or Fulchon).
FiguierFrench (Rare) From French figuier meaning "fig tree" (ultimately from Latin ficus; a cognate of Figueroa), possibly indicating a person who lived near a fig tree or one who owned a plantation of fig trees.
FilagicSerbian, Croatian Probably derived from the Turkish word aga. Agas were the Sultan's regents.
FilkinsEnglish Means either (i) "person from Filkins", Oxfordshire ("settlement of Filica's people"); or "son of Filkin", a medieval personal name meaning literally "little Phil", from Philip.
FilleryEnglish From a medieval nickname derived from Anglo-Norman fitz le rei "son of the king" (see also Fitzroy), probably applied mainly (and ironically) to an illegitimate person or to someone who put on quasi-royal airs.
FillionFrench, French (Quebec) Probably a diminutive of fils or fille, respectively "son" and "daughter". May have alluded to the bearer being the youngest amongst siblings.
FinkleaEnglish Variant form of Finkley. A famous bearer was the American actress and dancer Cyd Charisse (1922-2008), whose birth name was Tula Ellice Finklea.
FinkleyEnglish From Finkley, a hamlet in Hampshire, England, derived from Old English finc meaning "finch" and leah meaning "woodland, clearing".
FinstadNorwegian Means "Finn's farmstead", from the given name Finn 2 and Old Norse staðr "farmstead, dwelling". This was the name of several farms in Norway.
FinsterGerman, Jewish Nickname from German finster "dark, gloomy" or Yiddish fintster (Middle High German vinster). The name may have referred to a person's habitual character or it may have been acquired as a result of some now irrecoverable anecdote... [more]
FlannerEnglish This early occupational and mainly 'midlands' English surname, is actually of pre-medieval French origins. Introduced into England at the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066, it derives from the French word flaonet meaning a 'little flan', and described a maker of patisserie or pancakes.
FlobergSwedish, Norwegian (Rare) Of uncertain origin. Could possibly be combination of flo, an unexplained element (but probably either ornamental or locational), and berg "mountain", or a habitational name from a place so named.
FloerkeGerman Floerke Name Meaning German (Flörke): from a pet form of the personal names Florian or Florentinus, from Latin Florus (from florere ‘to bloom’).Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4... [more]
FlutureRomanian From Romanian fluture, flutur "butterfly" (itself possibly a deverbative from flutura "flutter, float, flit").
FlygareSwedish Means "someone who flies" in Swedish, ultimately a combination of the verb flyga "to fly" and the suffix -are denoting a person who performs the action of the verb. The surname was first used in the 17th century and is therefore unrelated to the modern occupation pilot (the Swedish word for pilot is also "pilot"), instead, a flygare probably referred to a person who was quick, fast.
FogartyIrish (Anglicized) Reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fógartaigh ‘son of Fógartach’, a personal name from fógartha meaning "proclaimed", "banished", "outlawed". It is sometimes Anglicized as Howard.
FordhamEnglish Habitational name from any of the places in Cambridgeshire, Essex, and Norfolk named Fordham, from Old English ford ‘ford’ + ham ‘homestead’ or hamm ‘enclosure hemmed in by water’.
ForsythScottish Variant of Forsythe. Known bearers include the Scottish botanist William Forsyth (1737-1804), after whom the genus Forsythia is named, and Scottish inventor Alexander John Forsyth (1769-1843).
FragolaItalian apparently from fragola "strawberry" probably applied as either a topographic name for someone who lived by a patch of wild strawberries a metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of soft fruits or a nickname for someone with a conspicuous strawberry mark.
FragosoPortuguese, Spanish Means "rocky, rough, uneven" in Portuguese and Spanish, ultimately from Latin fragosus. It was originally a habitational name from any of various places called Fragoso.