CABABASpanish Spanish (Cabaña) and Portuguese: habitational name from a place named with Spanish cabaña ‘hut’, ‘cabin’ (Late Latin capanna , a word of Celtic or Germanic origin).
CABALEIROGalician 'Knight' derived from an occupation, Galician origins.
CABALLEROSpanish Occupational name from caballero "knight, soldier, horseman" (from Late Latin caballarius "mounted soldier").
CABALLOSpanish, Spanish (Latin American) Derived from the Spanish word cabello, ultimately derived from the Latin word caballus, meaning "horse". This denoted someone who worked in a farm that took care of horses, or someone who had personality traits attributed to a horse, such as energetic behaviour.
CABAÑASpanish, Portuguese Habitational name from a place named with Spanish cabaña ‘hut’, ‘cabin’ (Late Latin capanna, a word of Celtic or Germanic origin).
CABAÑASSpanish, Portuguese Habitational name from a place named with Spanish cabaña or Portuguese cabanha ‘hut’, ‘cabin’.
CABANISSFrench Variant spelling of Cabanis, a habitational name from any of various places in Gard named Cabanis, from Late Latin capannis ‘at the huts’, ablative plural of capanna 'hut'... [more]
ČABARKAPASerbian, Montenegrin Derived from čabar (чабар), meaning "tub, bucket", and kapa (капа), meaning "cap, hat".
CABELLCatalan, English, German As a Catalan name, a nickname for "bald" from the Spanish word cabello. The English name, found primarily in Norfolk and Devon, is occupational for a "maker or seller of nautical rope" that comes from a Norman French word... [more]
CABLEEnglish English: metonymic occupational name for a maker of rope, especially the type of stout rope used in maritime applications, from Anglo-Norman French cable ‘cable’ (Late Latin capulum ‘halter’, of Arabic origin, but associated by folk etymology with Latin capere ‘to seize’).... [more]
CACCAVALEItalian Possibly a combination of cacare "to shit" and vale "valley".
CACCIATOREItalian Derived from Italian cacciatore meaning "hunter, huntsman", which is ultimately derived from the Italian verb cacciare meaning "to hunt".... [more]
CADDICKWelsh From the Welsh male personal name Cadog, a pet-form of CADFAEL (a derivative of Welsh cad "battle").
CADEROUSSEFrench, Literature A character in the classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. In the novel, Caderousse is a tailor and inkeeper who aids in the arrest of Dantès.
CADILLACFrench From the name of a city in France, of origin I am not sure of (anyone who knows the name's etymology edit this). This is most notably the name of the car company of the same name, named after Detroit, Michigan founder Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac.
CADOGANWelsh From the Welsh male personal name Cadwgan, literally probably "battle-scowler". Cadogan Estate is an area of Chelsea and Belgravia, including Cadogan Square, Sloane Street and Sloane Square, owned by the earls of Cadogan, descended from Charles Sloane Cadogan (1728-1807), 1st Earl Cadogan.
CADORETFrench, Breton From an old Breton given name Catuuoret meaning "protector in combat".
CAESARAncient Roman, English An Ancient Roman political title that indicated a military leader. A famous bearer was Julius Caesar, Roman general, dictator, and politician. In modern times, the surname is used to refer to an individual with a tyrannical attitude, which references the connotative meaning of the word "caesar", meaning "a dictator".
CAGADASFilipino The name Cagadas is most likely made or given to the Filipinos during the baptism of native Filipinos to Christianity in the 19th Century during the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Most Filipinos had no surnames prior to their baptism and these names are given by the Spanish colonizers.
CAGNEYIrish Anglicized form of Irish Gaelic Ó Caingnigh meaning "descendant of Caingneach", a given name meaning "pleader, advocate". A famous bearer was American actor and dancer James Cagney (1899-1986).
CAIChinese From Chinese 蔡 (cài) referring to the ancient state of Cai during the Zhou dynasty. Among Hui Muslims, it is interpreted as a contraction of the Arabic given name Uthman.
CAIRDScottish Derived from Scottish Gaelic ceard meaning "craftsman, artist mechanic, travelling tinker".
CAIRNSScottish From Gaelic carn "cairn", a topographic name for someone who lived by a cairn, i.e. a pile of stones raised as a boundary marker or a memorial.
CAKEEnglish From the Middle English cake denoting a flat loaf made from fine flour (Old Norse kaka), hence a metonymic occupational name for a baker who specialized in fancy breads. It was first attested as a surname in the 13th century (Norfolk, Northamptonshire).
ÇAKIRTurkish Means "greyish blue (eyes)" in Turkish.
CALCATERRAItalian Nickname from calcare meaning "to tread", "to stamp" + terra meaning "land", "earth", "ground", probably denoting a short person, someone who walked close to the ground, or an energetic walker.
CALDEIRAPortuguese Name given to a maker of kettles or other cooking vessels.
CALDERASpanish Derived from Spanish caldera meaning "basin, crater, hollow", ultimately from Latin caldarium or caldaria both meaning "hot bath, cooking pot". The word also denotes a depression in volcanoes, and it is commonly used as an element for surnames denoting streams or mountains.
CALDERÓNSpanish Occupational name for a tinker or a seller or maker of kettles from Vulgar Latin *caldaria meaning "cauldron". Alternately, it may be a habitational name for someone from any of various locations named Calderón or a topographic name from Spanish caldera meaning "crater, basin".
CALDERONEItalian From the Latin word Caldaria "cauldron". Given to someone who worked as a tinker or tinsmith.
CALIGIURIItalian Comes from the Greek words "kalos" meaning "beautiful" and "gheros" meaning "elderly," and was often given to children in the hopes that they would retain their beauty in their old age.
CALIMERISGreek It can be Kalimeris as well and it means good morning.
CALLENDEREnglish Occupational name for a person who finished freshly woven cloth by passing it between heavy rollers to compress the weave. From Old Franch calandrier, calandreur.
CALLIARIItalian (Latinized, Archaic) This is an Italian surname, in the north of Italy. Calliari is the result of the deformation of the graphically Calligari, where you can clearly see excision of the letter or character D, which is located in the middle of the surname... [more]
CALLIGANIrish (Rare) Before Irish names were translated into English, Calligan had a Gaelic form of O Ceallachain, possibly from "ceallach", which means "strife".... [more]
CALLOWAYAmerican (Modern, Rare) Means "pebble". From the Old French cail(ou) 'pebble'. Traditionally an English surname, which is a regional name of French Norman origin from Caillouet-Orgeville in Eure, France.
CAMACHOSpanish, Portuguese From the ancient European camb, meaning twisted or disfigured, denoting to someone with visible physical abnormalities, but could possibly also refer to residents of a particularly gnarly tract of land.
CAMINOSpanish Derived from the Spanish word for "path", or "walkway". This could have been used to denote a person who lived near a path, or one who built paths for a living.
CAMMEnglish English (of Norman origin): habitational name for someone from Caen in Normandy, France.English: habitational name from Cam in Gloucestershire, named for the Cam river, a Celtic river name meaning ‘crooked’, ‘winding’.Scottish and Welsh: possibly a nickname from Gaelic and Welsh cam ‘bent’, ‘crooked’, ‘cross-eyed’.Americanized spelling of German Kamm.
CAMPEREnglish Respelling of German Kamper or Kämpfer (see Kampfer). The surname Camper is recorded in England, in the London and Essex area, in the 19th century; its origin is uncertain, but it may have been taken there from continental Europe.
CAMPIONNorman, French English (of Norman origin) and French: status name for a professional champion (see CHAMPION, KEMP), from the Norman French form campion.
CANABRAVABrazilian Cana is the short form of 'cana de açucar' that means "sugar cane", and Brava is the feminine form of 'bravo' that means "angry". There is a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, called Canabrava do Norte, and according to oral tradition, the origin of the name is due to the disease and subsequent death of some animals after eating a plantation of sugar cane.
CANADAFrench, English It derives from the Middle English "cane", a development of the Old French "cane", meaning cane, reed.
CANAVANIrish (Anglicized) Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Ceanndubháin "descendant of Ceanndubhán", a byname meaning "little black-headed one", from ceann "head" combined with dubh "black" and the diminutive suffix -án.
CANDYEnglish Unexplained.There was a family of this name in Roussillon, France, descended from a partisan of James II named Kennedy, who was exiled in France in the 17th century. The family died out in France in 1868, but may have had an American branch.
CANELLAItalian Italian regional surname denoting someone who lived by a canal. From the Italian canale 'canal', from the Latin canalis meaning "canal; conduit; groove; funnel; or ditch". Alternatively, it may come the genus name of wild cinnamon, a diminutive of the Latin canna "reed, cane".
CANIZALESSpanish (Latin American) This surname came from around the beginnings of 1800 in south regions of Colombia where sugar cane was cultivated. It's a variation of Cañizales, that literally means "sugar cane fields".
CANOMANUELSpanish The first part of this surname is possibly derived from Spanish cano "hoary, white-haired, grey-haired". The second part is derived from the given name MANUEL... [more]
CAÑOSAFilipino It is derived from the word 'Caña' meaning 'reed'. Born as a surname in before World War I, it is a newly formed family name built by Angelo Cañosa and his 2 siblings, formerly his birth surname is Caña when he and his siblings migrated to Agusan when they are wanted by the Spanish Authorities as they were berdugos(Killing Spanish allies)in their native place, Minglanilla and by rowing boats, they landed in Mindanao and he, Angelo Caña and his two siblings changed their family name into Cañosa... [more]
CANTEnglish Means "singer in a chantry chapel", or from a medieval nickname for someone who was continually singing (in either case from Old Northern French cant "song").
CANTELLOWEnglish Means "person from Canteleu, Canteloup, etc.", the name of various places in northern France ("song of the wolf").
CANTELOUPFrench Name of several places in France. The surname means "Song of the Wolf" from canta and loup as in "place where the wolves howl".
CANTERBURYEnglish Habitational name from Canterbury in Kent, named in Old English as Cantwaraburg "fortified town (burgh) of the people (wara) of Kent".
CAÑUSAFilipino (Hispanicized, Modern, Archaic) Cañusa is the only variant of the family name of Cañusa. Used by the descendants of Ortillo Cañosa and Eulalia Cañosa in Agusan del Sur, Philippines.
CAPONFrench A name for a person who worked as a poultry farmer.
CAPONEItalian Is a Italian origin surname from an augmentative of capo ‘head’, applied as a nickname for someone with a big head, probably in the sense ‘arrogant’ or ‘stubborn’ rather than in a strictly literal sense... [more]
CAPSHAWEnglish Unexplained. Perhaps a habitational name from Cadshaw near Blackburn, Lancashire, although the surname is not found in England.
CAPUAItalian Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km (16 mi) north of Naples on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now.... [more]
CARAMELLEFrench Name given to a chalumeau player, derived from the old French chalemel, calamel or chalemie, which in turn were derived from the Latin word calamus meaning "reed". Italian variations of the surname are: CARAMELLA, Caramelli, Caramello (diminutive: Caramellino) and Caramelo.
CARAWAYEnglish Probably means "spice merchant" (from Middle English carewei "caraway").
CARBAJALSpanish, Judeo-Spanish Probably a habitational name demoting someone originally from any of the multiple locations called Carbajal in León, Asturias, or Zamora in Spain. Alternatively, it may be of pre-Roman origin from the word carbalio meaning "oak", denoting someone who either lived near an oak tree or who was like an oak tree in some way.... [more]
CARBONELLEnglish From a medieval nickname for a dark-haired or swarthy person, from Anglo-Norman carbonel, literally "little charcoal".
CARBONEROSpanish Famous bearers are Carlos Carbonero, a Colombian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Sampdoria on loan from Fénix and Sara Carbonero, a Spanish sports journalist.
CARBREYIrish Anglicized form of Irish Gaelic Ó Cairbre and Mac Cairbre meaning "descendant of CAIRBRE", a given name meaning "charioteer".
CARCELÉNSpanish This indicates familial origin within the eponymous Manchego municipality.
CARDEnglish English: metonymic occupational name for someone who carded wool (i.e. disentangled it), preparatory to spinning, from Middle English, Old French card(e) ‘carder’, an implement used for this purpose... [more]
CÁRDENASSpanish Habitational name from places in the provinces of Almería and Logroño named Cárdenas, from the feminine plural of cárdeno "blue, bluish purple" (Late Latin cardinus, from carduus "thistle")... [more]
CARDENETESpanish This indicates familial origin within the eponymous Manchego municipality.
CARDUCCIItalian From Riccarduccio, an affectionate form of the given name RICCARDO. A famous bearer of this surname is Italian poet Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907), winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906.
CARDWELLEnglish From the traditionally British surname, which is a variant of the British surname Caldwell, a from the Old English cald "cold" and well(a) "spring, stream".