PickfordEnglish This surnames origins lie with the Anglo-Saxons. It is a product of their having lived in the parish of Pitchford in Shropshire. ... [more]
PierahudBelarusian Derived from Belarusian перагуд (pierahud) meaning "prolonged rumble". This may have been a nickname for a gossip.
PierpontEnglish English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places, for example in Aisne and Calvados, so called from Old French pierre ‘stone’ + pont ‘bridge’.
PihelgasEstonian Pihelgas is an Estonian surname meaning "rowen/ash".
PihlakasEstonian Pihlakas is an Estonian surname meaning "rowan" or "mountain ash".
PihlapuuEstonian Pihlapuu is an Estonian surname meaning "rowan/mountain ash tree".
PiirimaaEstonian Piirimaa is an Estonian surname meaning "border land".
PiirimäeEstonian Piirimäe is an Estonian surname meaning "border mountain".
PilarskiPolish Occupational name for a sawyer, Polish pilarz + -ski, common ending of surnames.
PilengisLatvian (Rare) This was my mother's maiden name. She and the rest of my family were born in Latvia. I am the first American born. I do not know what Pilengis means.
PimentelPortuguese, Spanish Derived from Portuguese pimenta meaning "pepper", used as an occupational name for someone who grew or sold peppers.
PinckneyEnglish The surname Pinckney originally denoted someone from Picquigny, France, which derives from a Germanic personal name, Pincino (of obscure derivation) and the Latin locative suffix -acum... [more]
PinochetBasque, French, Spanish Derived from Basque pinoche meaning "pine cone". Alternately, it could be derived from the name of the hamlet of Pinouchet, located in the Gironde department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France... [more]
PlayfairEnglish From a medieval nickname for an enthusiastic competitor in sports and games (from Middle English pleyfere "companion in play, playmate"), or else a different form of Playford (from a Suffolk place-name meaning "ford where sports are held")... [more]
PleasantAmerican Means being a very bright man in the near future. Also can be used as a alias.
PlimsollFrench (Acadian) I don't know the meaning, but it is my maiden name, and I understand it to be French. Samuel Plimsoll is my ancestor. He was born in Bristol, UK. He was an MP who spoke up in parliament and subsequently the Plimsoll or loading line was introduced on ships... [more]
PlumtreeEnglish From any of the locations called Plumtree for anyone who lived near a plum tree derived from Old English plume "plum" and treow "tree".
PolidoriItalian Means "son of Polidoro". Famous bearers include John William Polidori (1795-1821), a physician to Lord Byron and author of 'The Vampyre' (1819), and his sister Frances Polidori (1800-1886), the mother of painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet Christina Rossetti, critic William Michael Rossetti, and author Maria Francesca Rossetti.
PolitzerHungarian, German, Jewish Habitational name derived from any one of several places called Police (known as Pölitz in German) in the Czech Republic. Hugh David Politzer (1949-) is an American theoretical physicist who, along with David Gross and Frank Wilczek, discovered asymptotic freedom.
PõlluäärEstonian Põlluäär is an Estonian surname meaning "arable (land) side".
PõlluaasEstonian Põlluaas is an Estonian surname meaning "arable meadow".
PõllumaaEstonian Põllumaa is an Estonian surname meaning "farmland".
PõllupüüEstonian Põllupüü is an Estonian surname meaning "field grouse".
PoloskinRussian Derived from полоска (poloska), a diminutive of полоса (polosa) meaning "stripe, strip, streak". This may have been a nickname for a tall and thin person.
PoortmanDutch Occupational name for a gatekeeper or topographic name for someone who lived near the gates of a fortified town, from Dutch poort meaning "gate" and man meaning "man".
PopalzaiPashto Meaning unknown, possibly derived from Persian پوپل (pupal) meaning "betel nut". The Popalzai are a Pashtun sub-tribe of the Durrani in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan.
PorcelliItalian From Italian porcello, meaning "piglet". Used to denote someone who worked as a swineherd, or perhaps a nickname for someone who resembled a piglet in some way.
PorteousScottish A topographic surname for someone who lived in the lodge at the entrance to a manor house, derived from Middle English port, meaning "gateway" or "entrance", and hous meaning "house". It can also be an occupational name with similar meaning, derived from Latin portarius meaning "porter"... [more]
PortmannGerman Occupational name for a gatekeeper, derived from Middle Low German port(e) meaning "gate" and man, or a topographic name for someone who lived near the gates of a fortified town.
PortugalSpanish, Portuguese, English, Catalan, French, Jewish Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, English, French, and Jewish surname meaning ethnic name or regional name for someone from Portugal or who had connections with Portugal. The name of the country derives from Late Latin Portucale, originally denoting the district around Oporto (Portus Cales, named with Latin portus ‘port’, ‘harbor’ + Cales, the ancient name of the city)... [more]
PostgateEnglish From Postgate in Danby (NR Yorks) which is recorded as Postgate in the 12th century. The place-name derives from Old English post "post pillar" and Old Scandinavian gata ‘way path road" or Old English gæt "gate".
PotemkinRussian A Russian surname which derives from the word "Потёмка" (Potyomka) meaning "dark". People bearing the name Potemkin rose to prominence in Muscovy from the 16th century onwards.
PrideauxCornish Means "person from Prideaux, earlier Pridias", Cornwall (perhaps based on Cornish prȳ "clay"). The modern Frenchified spelling is based on the idea that the name comes from French près d'eaux "near waters" or pré d'eaux "meadow of waters".
PridmoreEnglish unexplained; perhaps a habitational name from a lost or unidentified place. Pridmore has long been a Leicestershire name.
PrimroseScottish From the name of Primrose in Fife, Scotland, a place originally named Prenrhos, literally "tree-moor" in Welsh. This is the family name of the Earls of Rosebery.
PríncipeItalian, Spanish From principe "prince, heir" (Latin princeps, genitive principis, from primus "first" and capere "to take"), applied probably as a nickname for someone who gave himself airs and graces or for someone in the service of a prince.
PrinslooAfrikaans Prinsloo is an Afrikaans surname. The name is derived from the dutch word Prins (meaning prince), and a loo suffix meaning clearing in the forest. Variant spellings include Prinzloo and Prinslo.
ProcopioItalian Italian (Calabria) and Greek (Prokopios): from the personal name Procopio, Greek Prokopios, from pro ‘before’, ‘in front’ + kopē ‘cut’, actually an omen name meaning ‘success’, ‘prosperity’ but as a Church name taken to mean ‘pioneer’ as it was the name of the first victim of Diocletian's persecutions in Palestine in AD 303... [more]
ProiettiItalian From Latin proiecto "abandoned, thrown away", given to foundlings and children abandoned at orphanages. The name may have been taken from la ruota dei proietti, or "foundling wheel", that some orphanages and religious institutes in Italy installed for infants to be anonymously abandoned in.
ProkuskiPolish Polish in origin with history in America since at least the early 1900s
PudiwitrCzech Originally Pudivitr, or Pudivitrova(female only). V was switched to W when the family came to the U.S., though there are both names in the U.S.
PugachevRussian From the nickname Pugach which is probably derived from Ukrainian пугач (pugach) meaning "owl". Following this etymology, the nickname was most likely given to someone who was wise or sensible (attributing to the owl as a symbol of wisdom).
PuławskiPolish It indicates familial origin within the eponymous Lesser Polish city.
PulitzerHungarian, German, Jewish Variant form of Politzer. A famous bearer was the Hungarian-American businessman, newspaper publisher and politician Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911). His family came from Hungary, but they were of Czech origin.
PunzalanFilipino, Tagalog, Pampangan Possibly an occupational name for a maker of fences or a nickname derived from Spanish punzar meaning "to punch, to sting".
QuennellEnglish From the medieval female personal name Quenilla, from Old English Cwēnhild, literally "woman-battle". This was borne by Peter Quennell (1905-1993), a British poet, critic and historian.
QuiambaoFilipino Possibly from Hokkien 欠賺 (khiàm-báu) meaning "owed money, lacking money" or 鹹賺 (kiâm-báu) meaning "stingy with money".
QuintelaPortuguese Has its roots in Latin, deriving from "quintus," meaning "fifth." It likely originated from describing a person as the fifth child in a family or from the division of land among heirs, where a fifth part was given to one heir.
QuinteroSpanish Habitational name from a location in Galicia named Quintero, from Galician quinteiro meaning "farmstead, square, plaza". Alternately, it may be derived from Spanish quinto meaning "fifth", possibly used as a name for a renter of quintas (a type of wine-growing estate).
QuislingNorwegian A treacherous person who sides with opposing forces, this meaning comes from Vidkun Quisling of Norway. He helped the Germans during the German rule of Norway in the 1940's. Original meaning "One from" (-ling) "Quislemark", (quis) A romanization of the place name of Kvislemark.
RabinskyJewish From the root rabi "rabbi" combined with the Polish suffix -ski
RacioppiItalian, Sicilian Derived from Sicilian racioppu meaning "cluster of grapes", hence presumably a metonymic occupational name for someone who sold or produced grapes.
RägapartEstonian Rägapart is an Estonian surname meaning "garganey" ("Spatula querquedula": a species of dabbling duck).
RagettliRomansh Derived from a truncated form of Anrig in combination with the diminutive suffix -ett and the diminutive suffix -li.
RaghavanIndian (Kerala, Tamil Nadu): Hindu name from Sanskrit raghava ‘derived from Raghu’, ‘descendant of Raghu’ (an epithet of the god Rama, incarnation of Vishnu) + the Tamil-Malayalam third-person masculine singular suffix -n... [more]
RagsdaleEnglish Apparently an English habitational name from Ragdale in Leicestershire, which is probably named from Old English hraca "gully", "narrow pass" + dæl "valley", "dale".
RahamägiEstonian Rahamägi is an Estonian surname meaning "money mountain".
RahumägiEstonian Rahumägi is an Estonian surname meaning "peace(ful) mountain".
RahumeelEstonian Rahumeel is an Estonian surname meaning "peaceful minded".
RahusaarEstonian Rahusaar is an Estonian surname meaning "reef island".
RaidväliEstonian Raidväli is an Estonian surname meaning "hewed/sculpted field".
RainbirdEnglish From the Old French male personal name Rainbert, of Germanic origin and meaning literally "counsel-bright" (cf. Raginbert). The modern form of the name has been influenced by English rainbird "plover".
RäisänenFinnish From an unexplained personal name (possibly of Russian Orthodox origin) + the common surname suffix -nen. It occurs chiefly in central and eastern Finland.
RaisbeckEnglish Raisbeck is a hamlet in the civil parish of Orton, in the Eden district, in the county of Cumbria, England. The surname Raisbeck originates from the hamlet. The name of the hamlet derives from Hrridarr, a personal name and beck, a stream or river.
RajabianIndian, Hindi Derived from Hindi राजबियन (raajabiyan), possibly from Arabic رجب (rajab) meaning "respect".
RajaguruSinhalese Derived from Sanskrit राज (raja) meaning "king" and गुरु (guru) meaning "teacher, sage".
RajasaarEstonian Rajasaar is an Estonian surname meaning "border island" or "storm island".
RajasaluEstonian Rajasalu is an Estonian surname meaning "border grove".
RamasamyTamil From the name of the Hindu god Rama 1 combined with Tamil சாமி (sami) meaning "chief, master, lord" (ultimately from Sanskrit स्वामिन् (svamin)).
RamplingEnglish Originally indicated a person who lived in a thickly wooded area, derived from Latin ramus meaning "branch" (see Ramos). Famous bearers include English actress Charlotte Rampling (1946-) and her father, athlete and British Army officer Godfrey Rampling (1909-2009).
RandmetsEstonian Randmets is an Estonian surname meaning "beach/seashore forest".
RandolphEnglish, German Classicized spelling of Randolf, a Germanic personal name composed of the elements rand "rim (of a shield), shield" and wolf "wolf". This was introduced into England by Scandinavian settlers in the Old Norse form Rannúlfr, and was reinforced after the Norman Conquest by the Norman form Randolf.
RandpaluEstonian Randpalu is an Estonian surname meaning "beach/seashore sandy heath".
RandpereEstonian Randpere is an Estonian surname meaning "beach/seashore folk".
RandpõldEstonian Randpõld is an Estonian surname meaning "beach/shore field".
RandsaluEstonian Randsalu is an Estonian surname meaning "beach grove".
RandviirEstonian Randviir is an Estonian surname meaning "beach line/bar".
RatcliffEnglish Habitational name from any of the places, in various parts of England, called Ratcliff(e), Radcliffe, Redcliff, or Radclive, all of which derive their names from Old English rēad meaning "red" + clif meaning "cliff", "slope", "riverbank".
RathboneEnglish Of unknown origin, but might denote a person with short legs. From Olde English rhath, meaning "short, and bon, "legs".
RavelingGerman nickname or patronymic from Middle Low German rave(n) ‘raven’
RavelinoOld Celtic (Latinized, Archaic) It means manufacturing of fine and expensive fabrics. Also means the tailor or weaver. It comes from Asti and Piedmont (noth of Italy).