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]
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.
ARABULIGeorgian Means "Arabic, Arab" in Georgian, referring to Arabs who historically resided in the region of Khevsureti in Georgia.
ARADHYAIndian, Sanskrit Means "one who worships god". Commonly seen in India, Karnataka and other parts of India like kashi. They wear holy thread (yagnopaveetha).
ARAKIJapanese (Rare) ARA means "Wild" or "New" in surnames while Ki means "Tree",but the "Wild Tree" kanji/definition is more common. This name was listed in the Shinsen shojiroku.
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).
ARANBURUBasque Proper, non-Castilianized form of ARAMBURÚ, literally meaning the peak of a valley.
ARAQUISTAINBasque, Spanish ''Place of the ferns'' in Basque. It first appeared when a family arrived for the first time to a part of the Pyrenees where they where a lot of ferns. Then, that family, changed their last name to ''Araquistain'' which means ''place of the ferns'' in basque.
ARASHIJapanese This surname is used as 嵐 (ran, arashi) meaning "storm, tempest."... [more]
ARASHIROJapanese (Rare) A Japanese surname. A bearer of this surname is Yukiya Arashiro (Born 1984-) He is a Japanese cyclist.
ARATAJapanese (Rare) ARATA is a rare masculine given name and surname. Ara: "Wild" or "New" and Ta: "Rice Patty". The general reading is from the Ryukyu Islands ,but in Proper Japanese it is pronounced "Shinden" or "NITTA" often.
ARATANIJapanese From Japanese 荒 (ara) meaning "rough, wild" and 谷 (tani) meaning "valley".
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".
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]
ARDEHIPersian, Kurdish, Ancient 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]
ARDEREstonian Arder is an Estonian surname meaning, possibly a corruption of "ader", meaning "plow".
ARENCIBIASpanish Castilianized combination of the basque words of aranz meaning "thorn"; "hawthorn" + ibi meaning "ford" + a (basque article suffix); meaning someone living by a thorny ford. A "ford" is a body of water shallow enough to walk through; In this context topographically referring to a some places in Spain
ARETXEDERRABasque This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the municipality of Gordexola.
ARFAOUIArabic (Maghrebi) Possibly derived from Arabic عَرَفَ (ʿarafa) meaning "to know" or أَرْفَع (ʾarfaʿ) meaning "high, lofty, elevated" (chiefly Tunisian).
ARGENTOItalian From argento "silver", perhaps sometimes applied as a nickname for someone with silvery gray hair, but more often a metonymic occupational name for a silversmith.
ARGINDEGIBasque This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the municipality of Legazpi.
ARGYLEScottish, Scottish Gaelic From the regional name Argyll, a county of southwestern Scotland, named in Gaelic as Earre Ghàidheal ‘coast of the Gaels’. Argyll was the earliest part of Scotland to be settled by Gaelic speakers from Ireland from the 6th century onwards... [more]
ARGYLLScottish, Scottish Gaelic From the regional name Argyll, a county of southwestern Scotland, named in Gaelic as Earre Ghàidheal ‘coast of the Gaels’. Argyll was the earliest part of Scotland to be settled by Gaelic speakers from Ireland from the 6th century onwards... [more]
ARIOKAJapanese Ari means "Exist" and Oka means"Ridge, Hill."
ARISAWAJapanese 有 (Ari) means "Exist" and 沢/澤 (Sawa) means "Swamp, Marsh". Mamizu Arisawa is a light novel author, it is likely that this isn't her real last name though, since Mamizu isn't her real first name.
ARISENEnglish (Modern) From a Dutch surname that means "son of Aris". In The Netherlands, this name is never used as a first name, since Dutch law strictly prohibits the use of surnames as first names... [more]
ARISTAVAAbkhaz Mingrelian form of the Abkhaz name Арстаа (Arstaa) ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek personal name ARISTARCHUS.
ARLINGHAUSGerman Perhaps a habitational name from Oerlinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia.
ARLINGTONEnglish Location name that refers to a settlement associated with a personal name reduced to Arl- plus the Anglo-Saxon patronymic element -ing- then the element -ton denoting a "settlement"... [more]
ARLOTTEnglish From a medieval nickname for a ne'er-do-well (from Middle English harlot or arlot "vagabond, base fellow"; "prostitute" is a 15th-century development). This surname was borne by Jack Arlott (1914-1991), a British journalist, poet and cricket commentator.
ARLOTTASicilian From the French personal name Arlot, recorded in the Latinized form Arolottus from the 13th century.
ARMENDARIZSpanish, Basque from the Basque personal name Armendari or Armentari, from Latin Armentarius 'herdsman'. Spanish and French variant of ARMENDARITZE, a habitational name from a village in Low Navarre named Armendaritze.
ARMENTEROSSpanish Habitational name from either of two places called Armenteros, in the provinces of Ávila and Salamanca, from the plural of armenatero meaning ‘cowherd’, from Latin armenta ‘herd(s)’.
ARMIJOSpanish Derived from the Spanish adjetive "armigero", meaning "one who bears arms". First found in the Northern Region of Spain in Cantabria. Alternate spellings include: Armijos, Armigo, and Armija.
ARMOURScottish, Northern Irish From Middle English, Old French armure, blended with the agent noun armer (see Armer), hence an occupational name for a maker of arms and armor. The collective noun armure denoted offensive weapons as well as the more recently specialized sense of protective gear.
ÄRMPALUEstonian Ärmpalu is an Estonian surname possibly derived from "härmas" ("frosty") and "palu" ("sandy heath/heathy woodland").
ARORAIndian, Hindi, Punjabi, Sindhi Hindu and Sikh name derived from اروهڙ (Aror), the name of the former capital of Sindh, India (now a part of Pakistan and known as Rohri). The name itself is derived from Hindi and Punjabi Aur meaning "someone else", used by the past Aroras to escape persecution.
AROUETFrench A famous bearer was French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778), whose birth name was François-Marie Arouet.
AROUSIJewish, Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Arabic Yemenite Jewish and Arabic name possibly deriving from Arabic words aroosi, "bridal, relating to a wedding", rousi, "groom". El Aroussi, a variant, is found densely in Morocco and Francophone populations (France, Canada).
AROZTEGIBasque This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the Navarrese municipality of Atetz.
ARQUETTEFrench From arquet meaning "little bow" or "little arch" (diminutive of arche, from Latin arcus). It was originally an occupational name for an archer, but the French word arquet(te) is also found in the sense 'market trader' (originally, perhaps, one with a stall underneath an arch)... [more]
ARRAGalician, Sicilian Habitational name from a place in Galicia called Arra, this surname was also found in some parts of Sicily.
ARRETXEABasque This indicates familial origin within the eponymous hamlet in the French canton of Uztaritze.
ARRHENIUSSwedish (Rare) The name of two separate family linages with no relation between each other. One family originates from Linköping, Östergötland and probably got its name from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́ρρην (árrhēn) "male" (taken from the last syllable of ancestor's last name, Kapfelman)... [more]
ARRIGOItalian Italian: from the medieval personal name Arrigo, a variant of Enrico.
ARRIGUNAGABasque This indicates familial origin within the vicinity of the eponymous beach in the municipality of Getxo.
ARRILLAGABasque This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the municipality of Usurbil.
ARSHBAAbkhaz Most likely from a contracted form of Arabic أَرْشَد (ʾaršad) meaning "most sensible, most reasonable" or Persian ارشد (arshad) "senior, superior, eldest" combined with Abkhaz аԥа (āpā) "son".
ARTETABasque This indicates familial origin within either of 3 eponymous localities: the neighborhood of the Navarrese municipality of Ollaran, the neighborhood of the Navarrese municipality of Ezporogi, or the neighborhood of the municipality of Galdakao.
ARTINOGreek Habitational name for someone from the city of Arta in Epirus.
ARTISEnglish English: regional name for someone from the French province of Artois, from Anglo-Norman French Arteis (from Latin Atrebates, the name of the local Gaulish tribe). This surname is popular in North Carolina and Virginia, of the US.
ARUNDELEnglish English surname which comes from two distinct sources. Either it was derived from a place name meaning "horehound valley" in Old English (from harhune "horehound (a plant)" and dell "valley"), or it was from Old French arondel, diminutive of arond "swallow", which was originally a Norman nickname given to someone resembling a swallow.
ARUNURMEstonian Arunurm is an Estonian surname meaning "grassland meadow".
ARUORGEstonian Aruorg is an Estonian surname meaning "grassland/meadow valley".
ARUPÕLDEstonian Arupõld is an Estonian surname meaning "grassland field".
ARUSAAREstonian Arusaar is an Estonian surname meaning "meadow/grassland island".
ASAJapanese Variously written, sometimes with characters used phonetically. It can mean ‘morning’, but the most likely meaning is ‘hemp’, making it a topographic or occupational name. Both forms are found mostly in Amami, one of the Ryūkyū Islands.
ASAHINAJapanese Asa means "Morning". Hi in this surname means "Ratio, Proportion". Na means "Nara, what?". It's also a first name.
ASAIJapanese Japanese surname meaning "shallow well".
ASAKAJapanese From the Japanese 淺 or 浅 (asa) "superficial" and 香 (ka) "odour," "smell," 加 (ka) "increase," "step-up" or 賀 (ka) "congratulation."
ASAKAWAJapanese ASA ("Morning"), ("Superficial"), or ("Shallow") + Kawa ("River").
ASAKURAJapanese, Popular Culture This surname is made with 浅 (Asa) means "Superficial, Shallow", or 朝 (Asa) meaning "Morning", and 倉/蔵 (Kura) means "Storehouse, Owns, Posesses". Azumi Asakura is a voice actress. There are a lot of fictional characters with this surname as well, such as Ryouko Asakura from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
ASANOJapanese Meaning ‘shallow plain’; probably derived from two places of that name, one in Mino (now southern Gifu prefecture), the other in Owari (now Nagoya prefecture). Both families descend from the Minamoto clan through the Toki family.
ASATOJapanese (Rare) There are several readings for the name but 2 are Asa:"Morning",and To:"Door,Asa:"Safe" and To:"Village". There are multiple places in the Ryukyu's (where the name originates and mostly stays) that have that name;that could've been the influence... [more]