AshikagaJapanese Ashikaga is a surname that originated with samurai families. Kaga means "Flower Bud,Reed" and Ashi means "Place",but it is most commonly, ( if not always ) written with characters meaning ,"foot" and "advantage".
AskeladdFolklore The main character in Asbjornsen and Moe's Norwegian Folktales, Askeladd is usually the youngest and smallest of three brothers who is left to sit by the fire in the ashes, hence his name (similar to Cinderella)... [more]
AspergerGerman Denoting a person who lived in Asperg, a town in Southwest Germany, derived from a cadet named Asperg who lived in the ruling house... [more]
AspergesItalian A kind of device used to sprinkle holy water, or the ceremony in which it is used, derived from Latin asperges "you will sprinkle", a conjugation of aspergo "to scatter, to strew (something); to sprinkle (liquid)", taken from the first word of the 9th verse of Psalm 51 (or Psalm 50) in its Latin translation... [more]
AspinallEnglish A locational name of Anglo-Saxon origin, it means “aspen well”.
AstridgeEnglish Perhaps a habitational surname from one or more places called Ashridge.
AsunciónSpanish Means "assumption" in Spanish, referring to the bodily taking up of Mary, the mother of Jesus, into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. The unaccented form, Asuncion, is much more common.
AthertonEnglish Habitational name from a place near Manchester named Atherton, from the Old English personal name Æðelhere + Old English tun meaning "settlement".
AtreidesLiterature Used by Frank Herbert for the main character of first two novels of Dune, Paul Atreides, the heir of house Atreides. He probably based it on Ancient Greek Ἀτρείδης (Atreídēs), meaning "child of Atreus".
AtzerodtEnglish, German This was the surname of George Atzerodt, a conspirator in a plot to kidnap Abraham Lincoln.
AubuchonFrench (Modern, ?) The Aubuchon name is French, but of uncertain origin. It is probably from the patronymic prefix au + buchon, a dialect term for a woodcutter (Standard French bûcheron).
AvalloneItalian Topographic name for someone who lived in a deep valley.
AvanceñaFilipino Hispanicised form of Arabic اِبْن سِينَا (ibn sīnā) meaning "son of Sina". This was the Arabic name for Avicenna (980-1037), a Persian polymath.
BaamondeGalician This indicates familial origin within either of 5 eponymous parishes.
BaamondeSpanish habitational name from one of the Galician places called Baamonde (earlier written Bahamonde) in the province of Lugo most probably Santiago de Baamonde (Begonte).
BacunawaFilipino, Cebuano Derived from Cebuano bakunawa referring to a type of serpent or dragon in Visayan mythology.
BaddeleyEnglish From place names in both Suffolk and Staffordshire derived from an Old English personal name, 'Badda,' possibly meaning "battle" and lee or leah for a "woodland clearing," therefore meaning someone from "Badda's woodland clearing."
BaguindaFilipino, Maguindanao, Maranao From the Minangkabau title bagindo denoting a prince or member of royalty. It was probably adopted in honour of Rajah Baguinda Ali (Raja Bagindo Ali in Indonesian sources), a Minangkabau prince who became a ruler of the Sulu Archipelago.
BąkowskimPolish Habitational name for someone from any of various places called Bąkowa, Bąkowice, Bąkowiec or Bąkowo, all derived from Polish bąk meaning "horsefly", "bumblebee" or "bittern" (a type of bird).
BalfagerGothic, Medieval Portuguese Name of a Visigoth noble family (around the 10th century) from the Iberian Peninsula (current northern Portugal), meaning "bold spear"; they descent from the Balti dynasty.
BalingitFilipino, Tagalog From the name of Rajah Balingit (or Pedro Balingit), a 16th-century Filipino chief.
BalkwillEnglish Possibly derived from the name of a lost settlement in Devon, composed of Old English balca "balk, beam; ridge, bank" and wella "spring, stream". Alternatively, can be a variant form of Bakewell.
BankheadScottish, Northern Irish Topographic name for someone who lived at the top or end of a bank or hill, derived from Middle English bank meaning "bank" and hed meaning "head". There are several minor places in Scotland so called, but the most likely source of the surname is one on the border between the parishes of Kilmarnock and Dreghorn in Ayrshire, Scotland.
BankstonEnglish Derived from the old English world "Banke" usually given to a family who lived near a hill or a slope.
BanuelosSpanish Spanish (Bañuelos): habitational name from any of various places, primarily Bañuelos de Bureba in Burgos, named for their public baths, from a diminutive of baños ‘baths’ (see Banos)
BárcenasSpanish This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the Castilian municipality of Espinosa de los Monteros.
BarchardEnglish The name is derived from when the family resided in Cheshire, where they held a family seat near Birkenhead at the estuary of the River Birket. It is from the name of the river that their name is derived.
BarcroftEnglish English habitational name from for example Barcroft in Haworth, West Yorkshire, so named with Old English bere (barley) and croft (smallholding).
BardwellEnglish From the name of a town in Suffolk, derived from Old English "Bearda’s spring", or a combination of breord "rim, edge, brim" and wella "well, spring, stream".
BarefootEnglish English: nickname for someone who was in the habit of going about his business unshod, from Old English bær ‘bare’, ‘naked’ + fot ‘foot’. It may have referred to a peasant unable to afford even the simplest type of footwear, or to someone who went barefoot as a religious penance.In some instances, probably a translation of German Barfuss, the northern form Barfoth, or the Danish cognate Barfo(e)d.
BarreiraPortuguese, Galician From several habitations in Galicia and Portugal, from barreira meaning "clay or loam hollow".
BarreiroGalician, Portuguese Barreiro is a habitational name from any of numerous places in Galicia (Spain) and Portugal named with a derivative of barro 'clay loam'.
BascianiItalian The surname Basciani derives from a nickname probably given to the family of origin (from the Latin "Bassus"), for the probable short stature of some components, although the derivation from the Campania family "Bassus" is not excluded.
BascöurtFrench The Bascourt or Bascur surname is from France, from that place dates the beginning of the surname, however the French of previous centuries had no records of that surname. ... [more]
BassfordEnglish Habitational name from any of several places called Basford, especially the one in Nottinghamshire. There are others in Staffordshire and Cheshire. Either that or it's from Old English berc "birch tree" + Old English ford "ford".