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]
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.
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.
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.
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 either "goshawk", "wine", or "greyish-blue" 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.
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 Is a Spanish occupational surname. It is derived from the Vulgar Latin "caldaria" ("cauldron") and refers to the occupation of tinker. As a topographic name from an augmentative of caldera 'basin', 'crater', 'hollow', a common element of stream and mountain names, or a habitational name from a place named with this word, as for example Calderón in Valencia province.
CALEWelsh Possibly derived from the River Cale. A famous barer of this name is Welsh musician John Cale (1942- ).
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.
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 (Spanish, 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.
CAPEDERRomansh From the Romansh surname prefix Ca and the given name PEDER, which is the Scandinavian (and apparently also Romansh) form of PETER.
CAPELEnglish From the Domesday Book of 1086, from the old French word 'capele' meaning chapel.
CAPELLASpanish, Catalan, Italian From capella "chapel", a topographic name for someone who lived by a chapel or a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked in one.
CAPLINEnglish Means "singer in a chantry chapel" (from Old Northern French capelain, a variant of standard Old French chapelain (cf. CHAPLIN)).
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]
CAPULETEnglish This is the last name of Juliet from William Shakepeare's tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.
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.
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]
CARDELLAItalian Habitational name from a place called Cardella in Sicily.
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.
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".
CARISBROOKEnglish Carisbrooke is a village on the Isle of Wight; the name is thought to mean "Carey's brook". When in 1917 the British royal family changed its name from the "House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha" to the "House of Windsor" and renounced all German titles, the title of Marquess of Carisbrooke was created for the erstwhile German Prince Alexander of Battenberg.
CARLINSwedish (Rare) Combination of the given name KARL, which is also a common place name prefix, and the common surname suffix -in (originally from Latin -inus "descendant of").
CARLYONCornish Cornish: habitational name from any of three places in Cornwall called Carlyon, in St. Minver and Kea parishes. The first element is Celtic ker ‘fort’; the second could represent the plural of Cornish legh ‘slab’.
CARMACKEnglish Anyone with information about this last name please edit.
CARRAWAYEnglish (British) The name Carraway belongs to the early history of Britain, and its origins lie with the Anglo-Saxons. It is a product of one having lived on a road near a field or piece of land that was triangular in shape... [more]
CARREFrench French (Carré): from Old French carré "square", applied as a nickname for a squat, thickset man.
CARRELFrench French: from Old French quar(r)el ‘bolt (for a crossbow)’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of crossbow bolts or a nickname for a short, stout man. The word also meant ‘paving slab’, and so it could also have been a metonymic occupational name for a street layer... [more]
CARRELLEnglish English: from Old French carrel, ‘pillow’, ‘bolster’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of these. In some cases perhaps an altered spelling of Irish CARROLL... [more]
CARREÑOAsturian This indicates familial origin within the eponymous municipality.
CARRERASpanish, Italian Spanish: topographic name for someone living by a main road, carrera ‘thoroughfare’, originally a road passable by vehicles as well as pedestrians (Late Latin carraria (via), a derivative of carrum ‘cart’), or a habitational name from any of various places named with this word.... [more]
CARREYIrish Variant spelling of Carey. A famous bearer is Canadian-American actor Jim Carrey (1962-).
CARRICKScottish The possible roots of the Carrick family name may be from the ancient Strathclyde people of the the Scottish/English Borderlands. Carrick may also be of local origin, referring to those who lived in or near the place called Carrick in Ayrshire... [more]