AounArabic (Mashriqi), Arabic (Maghrebi) Derived from a French-influenced variant of a given name based on the Arabic noun عون (aun) meaning "help, aid". This surname is more commonly used by Maronite Christians in Lebanon. A notable bearer is the former Lebanese president Michel Aoun (1933-).
AoyagiJapanese From Japanese 青 (ao) meaning "green, blue" and 柳 (yagi) meaning "willow".
AozakiJapanese (Rare) Ao means "blue,somewhat green" & zaki means "blossom". So, Nobutaka "Blue Blossom",is an artist who was born in Japan,but now lives in New York as an artist who has been featured in magazines.
ApacibleSpanish (Philippines) Means "peaceful" in Spanish. Galicano Apacible was a Filipino physician and politician who was the co-founder of La Solidaridad and the Nacionalista Party.
ApaleNahuatl Possibly means "coloured water", from atl "water" and tlapalli "painting".
ApanecatlNahuatl Possibly related to Nahuatl apantli, "canal, channel, water ditch".
AparicioSpanish Derived from the Latin word “aparitio” meaning “appearance” or “arrival”. It may also be a habitational name, indicating a person who lived near or at a place with the same name.
ApellidoSpanish (Philippines) This likely originated as a surname taken by people who didn't have a surname and wrote "Apellido" (the Spanish for surname) when filling in an official form.
ApelsinovmRussian From Russian aпельсин (apel'sin) meaning "orange (fruit)". Probably denoted to someone who worked with oranges or lived by orange trees.
ApeltiaEnglish (Rare) Comes from the word "appellation" referring to the Appellation Mountains.
ApicellaItalian Southern Italian: from a diminutive of apa ‘bee’, probably applied as a nickname for an industrious person, or possibly as a metonymic occupational name for a beekeeper.
ApisamaimongkolThai From Thai อภิ (aphi) meaning "superhuman, magic knowledge", สมัย (samai) meaning "time, era", and มงคล (mongkhon) meaning "prosperity".
AplinEnglish Probably a patronymic of the popular medieval English given name Abel. See also Appling.
ApolloItalian, Spanish From the Greek personal name Apollo. There are several saints Apollo in the Christian Church, including an Egyptian hermit and monastic leader who died in 395 ad. The personal name derives from the name in classical mythology of the sun god, Apollo, an ancient Indo-European name, found for example in Hittite as Apulana "god of the gate" (from pula "gate", cognate with Greek pylē), therefore "protector, patron".
AppelGerman, Dutch, Jewish, Yiddish From Low German Appel, Middle Dutch appel, or Yiddish epl "apple", an occupational name for a grower or seller of the fruit. As a Jewish surname, it is generally ornamental rather than occupational.
AppelGerman, Dutch From the personal name Appel, a pet form of Apprecht (common especially in Thuringia and Franconia), itself a variant of Albrecht... [more]
AppenzellGerman Habitational name for someone from Appenzell (village or canton) in northeastern Switzerland. The placename derives from Latin abbatis cella, "cell (i.e., estate) of the abbot".
ApplegarthEnglish, Scottish Topographic name from northern Middle English applegarth meaning "apple orchard" (Old Norse apaldr meaning "apple tree" + gar{dh}r meaning "enclosure"), or a habitational name from a place so named, of which there are examples in Cumbria and North and East Yorkshire, as well as in the county of Dumfries.
ApplegateEnglish Extremely common variant of Applegarth, in which the less familiar final element has been assimilated to the northern Middle English word gate meaning "road" or to modern English gate.
ApplewhiteEnglish Habitational name from a place named Applethwaite, from Old Norse apaldr ‘apple tree’ and þveit ‘meadow’. There are two or three such places in Cumbria; Applethwaite is also recorded as a surname from the 13th century in Suffolk, England, pointing to a possible lost place name there... [more]
AquinasItalian Aquinas indicates ancestral origins from the Italian county "Aquino." Aquino comes from the latin word "Aquinum" which itself probably comes from the latin word aqua. Aqua means water in English.
ArabeyaJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "uncultivated, desolate", 部 (be) meaning "department, division; part", and 谷 (ya) meaning "valley".
AràbiaItalian, Spanish Ethnic name for someone from Arabia or some other Arabic-speaking country or a nickname for someone who had visited or traded with one of these countries.
ArabianArmenian Patronymic from the ethnic term arab ‘Arab’.
ArabieFrench Ethnic name denoting someone from Arabia or an Arabic-speaking person.
ArabikiJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "rough; harsh; intense", referring to rough land, and 引 (biki), from 引き (biki), the joining continuative form of 引く (hiku) meaning "to pull".
ArablePopular Culture An occupational surname for people who are capable of being farmed productively. Also used in the novel Charlotte's Web (1952).
ArabuliGeorgian Means "Arabic, Arab" in Georgian, referring to Arabs who historically resided in the region of Khevsureti in Georgia.
ArachchiSinhalese From a title used during the British colonial era of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) to denote a native village headman or leader.
ArachchigeSinhalese From the colonial-era Sinhala title ආරච්චි (arachchi) used to denote a native village headman combined with the suffix -ගේ (-ge) meaning "of, home, house".
AradhyaIndian, Sanskrit Means "one who worships god". Commonly seen in India, Karnataka and other parts of India like kashi. They wear holy thread (yagnopaveetha).
AragónSpanish Habitational name from Aragon Spain which was an independent kingdom from 1035 to 1479. It took its name from the river Aragón which arises in its northwestern corner... [more]
ArahiJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "rough; harsh; intense", referring to rough land, and 樋 (hi) meaning "gutter".
ArahiraJapanese From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "rough; harsh; intense" and 平 (hira) meaning "flat; flattened" or, in a dialect, "cliff", referring to a rough flatland or a rough cliff.... [more]
AraiJapanese From Japanese 新 (ara) meaning "new, natural" or 荒 (ara) meaning "rough, sparse, wild" and 井 (i) meaning "well".
AraldiItalian Means “heralds” in Italian. Famous bearers include Italian painters Alessandro Araldi (c. 1460 – c. 1529) and Paolo Araldi (18th century – after 1820).
AranJapanese From 亜 (a), a phonetic character, and 蘭 (ran) meaning "orchid."
AranaBasque This indicates familial origin within either of 3 eponymous localities: the hamlet in the County of Trebiñu, the neighborhood in Gasteiz, or the neighborhood in Bermeo.
AranamiJapanese Ara (荒) means rough, wild. Nami (波) means wave(s).
ArandaSpanish Habitational name from any of various places for example Aranda de Duero in Burgos province which bears a name of pre-Roman probably Celtic origin.
ArboledaSpanish From arboleda meaning "grove of trees". This is the name of a prominent Colombian family, in which case it is derived from their region of origin in Arboleya, Spain.
ArcheambeauFrench The name Archambeau is derived from the Latin personal name 'Arcambaldus'. In turn the name 'Arcambaldus', is derived from the Germanic word 'Ercan', which means precious in Germanic, and 'bald', meaning bold and daring.... [more]
ArchibongEfik, Ibibio of Efik Origin, originally pronounced asibong but changed by the british to Archibong, meaning Kings Father, Kings Friend, (amasi Obong)
ArchilaSpanish Either a variant of Arcila or derived from Arabic الشَّلَّال (aš-šallāl) meaning "the waterfall".
ArcillaSpanish (Philippines) From Spanish arcilla meaning "clay," derived via Latin from Greek ἄργιλλος (árgillos), ultimately from ἀργός (argós) meaning "white."
ArciniegaBasque Castilianized form. Name for someone from the Spanish town of Artziniega. The town's name likely comes from the Basque artzain meaning "shepherd" and -aga, a suffix for place names.
ArczyńskiPolish Patronymic from a name beginning with Jaro- (meaning "strong; robust") such as Jarosław, Jaromir or Jarogniew, suffixed with -yński based on habitational surnames.
ArdScottish Habitational name from any of several places called Aird, including one near Hurlford in Ayrshire, another near Stranraer in Galloway, and the Aird, the higher part of the Vale of Beauly, near Inverness... [more]
ArdaghIrish A rare Irish surname named after Ardagh, in County Longford.
ArdehiPersian, Kurdish, Old Persian House Ardehis of Zagors or Ardahvans (Persian: اردهیان) were one of the Persian Sassanid royal families, who occupied the Mounts of Zagros before the Islamic conquest of Persia in 650 CE. Ardahvans in Shahnameh and Persian mythology are mentioned to be the first settlers of Zagros mountains, and the constructors of Forts Of Zagros.
ArdellaAfrican American Derivative of Arden, popularized by the poem of the same name by Langston Hughes, the most well-known Black poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Meaning is "garden dweller."... [more]
ArdenEnglish From various English place names, which were derived from a Celtic word meaning "high".... [more]
ArditiItalian The heraldic tradition has it that this illustrious family, called Ardito or Arditi, is the same one that flourished in Lombardy with the name of Conti, and that, transplanted in the Neapolitan with the Lombard hostages taken by the emperor Federico II, left that name, changing it.