Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
GABARATY OssetianDerived from Алгуз
(Alguz), an earlier Ossetian family name of unknown meaning. Historically, the last of the Alguz family migrated to the village of Zalda (located in present-day South Ossetia), where most members of the family presently reside.
GABIRIA BasqueThis indicates familial origin within the eponymous municipality.
GABLE EnglishNorthern English: of uncertain origin, perhaps a habitational name from a minor place named with Old Norse
gafl ‘gable’, which was applied to a triangular-shaped hill. The mountain called Great Gable in Cumbria is named in this way.... [
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GABRIEL English, Cornish, Welsh, Scottish, French, German, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovene, Jewish, Indian (Christian)Derived from the given name
GABRIEL.
GADBURY EnglishHabitational name from Cadborough, alias Gateborough, in Rye, Sussex, probably so named from Old English gāt meaning "goat" + beorg meaning "hill".
GADD WelshMeans "battlefield" in Welsh. Comes from the Welsh word
gad which means battlefield.
GADDAFI Arabic (Maghrebi)From قذاذفة
(Qadhadhfa), the Arabic name for a Berber tribe in Libya. The name possibly means "thrower, archer", from Arabic قَذَفَ
(qaḏafa) meaning "to throw". A famous bearer was
Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011), a Libyan politician and revolutionary.
GADDAM TeluguThis surname is primarily from the Telugu states of India (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). It is the Telugu word for beard
GADOLIN Finnish (Rare)Derived from the name of the homestead Magnula in Kalanti (formerly Nykyrko) parish in southwest Finland. Magnula is thought to be associated with Latin
magnus "large, big, great" and the name Gadolin is derived from Hebrew
gadol with the same meaning... [
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GADSBY EnglishHabitational name from Gaddesby in Leicestershire, recorded in Domesday Book as
Gadesbi and so named from the Old Norse personal name
Gaddr (or from Old Norse
gaddr "spur (of land)") and
býr "settlement".
GADŽO BosnianIt is assumed that Gadžo derives from the old-Indian gārhya ("domestic") and means farmer, villager, head of the house or husband.
GAETA ItalianDerived from the town of Gaeta, in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. It can also derive from the given name
GAETANO which shares its origin.
GAGARIN RussianA Russian surname derived from the word gagara, meaning loon (a waterbird, genus Gavia). Notable people with the surname include: Gagarin family, a Rurikid princely family.
GAGLIANO ItalianHabitational name from a few places in Italy, which all derived from the Latin personal name
Gallius GAGULIA AbkhazMingrelian form of the Abkhaz name
Dzug-ipa meaning "son of
Dzug", the name itself of Adyghe or Circassian origin of unknown meaning.
GAIDA LatvianFrom a personal name
GAIDA, based on the verb
gaidīt meaning ‘to wait for’.
GAINES English, Norman, WelshEnglish (of Norman origin): nickname for a crafty or ingenious person, from a reduced form of Old French
engaine ‘ingenuity’, ‘trickery’ (Latin
ingenium ‘native wit’). The word was also used in a concrete sense of a stratagem or device, particularly a trap.... [
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GAINSBOROUGH EnglishFrom the city of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, England. A famous bearer of this surname includes English painter Thomas Gainsborough.
GAINTZA BasqueThis indicates familial origin within either of 2 eponymous municipalities, the one in Leitzaldea or the one in Goierri.
GALANIS GreekMeans 'someone with blue, pale eyes', derived from the Greek "galanos", meaning 'azure', 'milky' or 'blue'.
GALANTE Italian, French, JewishComes from the ancient French word "galant" meaning someone in love or who has fun. In the case of Mordecai Galante, a Spanish exile in 16th century Rome, his courteous manners won for him from the Roman nobles the surname "Galantuomo" (gentleman), from which Galante was eventually derived.... [
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GALARTZA BasqueThis indicates familial origin within either of 3 eponymous neighborhoods: the one in Etxebarria, Comarca of Lea-Artibai, the one in Larrabetzu, Comarca of Bilbo, or the one in Aretxabaleta, Comarca of Debagoiena.
GALBRAITH Scottish, Scottish GaelicEthnic name for someone descended from a tribe of Britons living in Scotland, from Gaelic
gall ‘stranger’ +
Breathnach ‘Briton’ (i.e. ‘British foreigner’). These were either survivors of the British peoples who lived in Scotland before the Gaelic invasions from Ireland in the 5th century (in particular the Welsh-speaking Strathclyde Britons, who survived as a distinctive ethnic group until about the 14th century), or others who had perhaps migrated northwestwards at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions.
GALEWSKI PolishHabitational name for someone from Galew, Galewice, or Galów in the voivodeships of Kalisz, Kielce, or Konin.
GALICIA SpanishSpanish: ethnic name for someone from the former kingdom of Galicia, now an autonomous region of northwestern Spain.
GALICKI Jewish, PolishA Jewish and Polish surname for someone from a lost location called 'Galice'
GALINDO Spanish, AragoneseFrom the medieval personal name Galindo, of predominantly Aragonese origin and distribution, but of unknown etymology.
GALISHOFF Upper German, German (Austrian)Derived from the ancient Roman name "Gallus", meaning "rooster" in Latin. "Hoff" meaning house combines the growing or tending to poultry on a farm house, hence the name "Galishoff" which has been modified over the millennia... [
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GALKIN RussianDerived from Russian галка
(galka) meaning "jackdaw".
GAŁKOWSKI PolishHabitational name for someone from a place called Gałkowo or Gałków, both derived from Polish
gałka meaning "knob, handle, lump".
GALL Scottish, Irish, EnglishNickname, of Celtic origin, meaning "foreigner" or "stranger". In the Scottish Highlands the Gaelic term
gall was applied to people from the English-speaking lowlands and to Scandinavians; in Ireland the same term was applied to settlers who arrived from Wales and England in the wake of the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century... [
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GALLANT EnglishNickname for a cheerful or high-spirited person, from Old French, Middle English
galant "bold, dashing, lively". The meanings "gallant" and "attentive to women" are further developments, which may lie behind some examples of the surname.
GALLEGOS SpanishDerived from Spanish
gallego meaning "Galician", denoting someone originally from the region of Galicia in northeastern Spain.
GALLOWAY ScottishScottish: regional name from Galloway in southwestern Scotland, named as ‘place of the foreign Gaels’, from Gaelic
gall ‘foreigner’ +
Gaidheal ‘Gael’. From the 8th century or before it was a province of Anglian Northumbria... [
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GALOVAC CroatianPossibly originates from a village, castle and/or lake in Croatia with the same name.
GALPIN EnglishEnglish: occupational name for a messenger or scullion (in a monastery), from Old French galopin ‘page’, ‘turnspit’, from galoper ‘to gallop’.
GALT EnglishAn early member was a person with a fancied resemblance to the wild boar.
GALURA Filipino, Pampangan, TagalogDerived from Sanskrit गरुड
(garuḍa) referring to the Garuda, a mythical bird in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain mythology.
GÁLVEZ SpanishThis indicates familial origin within the eponymous Castilian municipality in the Province of Toledo.
GAMA PortugueseProbably from gama ‘fallow deer doe’, feminine form of gamo, possibly as a topographic or habitational name.
GAMBINO Italianfrom a diminutive of gamba ‘leg’, probably applied as a nickname for someone with short legs.
GAMBLE Englishfrom the Old Norse byname Gamall meaning "old", which was occasionally used in North England during the Middle Ages as a personal name. ... [
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GAMELIN FrenchFrom pet form of any of the compound personal names formed with gamal, related to Old Norse gamall, Old German gamel "old", "aged". ... [
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GAMGEE LiteratureIn J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", the surname of Samwise "Sam" Gamgee, Frodo Baggins' gardener.
GAMIZ BasqueThis indicates familial origin within either of 2 eponymous neighborhoods: the one in the municipality of Gasteiz or the one in the municipality of Gamiz-Fika.
GAMIZ JapaneseGamiz is Gamizu or Gamisu is a rare Japanese Surname, it means Sweet Water and it is used by the western parts of Japan such as Tokushima or Kyushu... [
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GAMMON EnglishFrom a medieval nickname applied to a merry or sportive person (from Middle English
gamen "game"), or to someone who walked in a strange way or had some peculiarity of the legs (from Anglo-Norman
gambon "ham").
GAMON IrishThis name is a last name for the Irish it means Liam Gamon.
GAMP English (British)This surname is thought to originate from Sarah or Sairey Gamp, Mrs. Gamp as she is more commonly known, in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens.... [
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GANAS GreekOccupational name for a coppersmith, from
gana "coating", "verdigris". Possibly also a variant of
Ganis.
GÁNDARA GalicianIt refers to a type of unproductive wetland, of alluvial origin, rich in gravel and sand.
GANDHI Indian, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, PunjabiDerived from Sanskrit गान्धिक
(gandhika) meaning "perfumier, perfume seller". Notable bearers include Indian civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), also known as Mahatma Gandhi, and Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi (1917-1984).
GANDIN FrenchFrom the French
gandin, pronounced /ɡɑ̃dœ̃/, which is a word used for a dandy, an elegant young man with affected, quite often ridiculous, manners.
GANESAN IndianIndian (Kerala, Tamil Nadu): Hindu name from Sanskrit gaṇeṣa ‘lord of the army’ ( see Ganesh ) + the Tamil-Malayalam third-person masculine singular suffix -n. This is found only as a given name in India, but has come to be used as a family name in the U.S.
GANGOPADHYAY BengaliFrom the name of the Ganges River (also the name of a villge) combined with Sanskrit उपाध्याय
(upadhyaya) meaning "teacher, instructor, priest".
GANJI JapaneseJapanese: rare in Japan, the name is written with characters meaning ‘red’ and ‘govern’. The actual meaning is unclear.
GANJOO Indian, Urdu, PersianGanjoo is a surname from Kashmiri Pandit clan . The original name was
Ganwar, meaning Person in charge of Treasury in Kings court. This name gradually changed to Ganjoo or
Ganju.
GANN GermanTopographic name for someone who lived near an expanse of scree, Middle High German gant.
GANSER GermanFrom the Middle High German word
ganser meaning "gander", occupational name for a geese shepherd.
GANUS Russian, UkrainianPossibly derived from Russian анис
(anis) referring to the anise (
Pimpinella anisum) plant or from the Turkish given name
Gainislam itself from Arabic عَيْن
(ʿayn) meaning "spring, source" combined with the name of the religion
ISLAM.
GANZ German, German (Swiss)Variant of Gans 'goose'. German: from a short form of the Germanic personal name Ganso, a cognate of modern German ganz 'whole', 'all'.
GAO ChineseFrom Chinese 高
(gāo) meaning "tall, high".
GARABEDIAN ArmenianMeans "son of
Garabed", an Armenian personal name meaning literally "leader, precursor" and traditionally used as an epithet of John the Baptist in the Armenian church.
GARAIKOETXEA BasqueIt indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the municipality of Hondarribia.
GARATE BasqueHabitational name from a town called Garate in Basque Country, or topographic name, possibly from a derivative of Basque gara ‘height’, ‘peak’.
GARAY HungarianHabitational name for someone from a place called
Gara.
GARCZYŃSKI Polishhabitational name for someone from a place called Garczyn, in Gdańsk and Siedlce voivodeships.
GARDE IndianFound among the Konkanasth Brahmins, probably from Marathi gəṛda ‘belch’.
GARDEA BasqueThis indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the municipality of Laudio.
GARDLIN SwedishPossibly derived from the Swedish word Gård meaning (Garden, or Gardener).
GARFINKEL YiddishJewish (Ashkenazic) ornamental name or nickname from Yiddish
gorfinkl ‘carbuncle’, German
Karfunkel. This term denoted both a red precious or semi-precious stone, especially a garnet or ruby cut into a rounded shape (in which case it is an ornamental name), and a large inflamed growth on the skin like a large boil (in which case it is a descriptive nickname).
GARFUNKEL Jewish, YiddishFrom גאָרפֿינקל (
gorfinkl), "carbuncle" in Yiddish, which in turns derives from German
Karfunkel. A notable bearer of this surname is Art Garfunkel.... [
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GARG HinduismOswal Banias and Agarwal Banias have clans named Garg. It was the name of an ancient Hindu sage.
GARIBAI BasqueThis indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the municipality of Oñati in the Comarca of Debagoiena.
GARLICK English(i) "grower or seller of garlic"; (ii) perhaps from a medieval personal name descended from Old English
Gārlāc, literally "spear-play"; (iii) an anglicization of the Belorussian Jewish name
Garelick, literally "distiller"
GARNEAU FrenchFrom a pet form of the Germanic given name
Warinwald, composed of the elements
war(in) meaning "guard" and
waldan meaning "to govern".
GARRIGHAN Irishto denote 'son of Geargain' a name which originally in derived from 'gearg' which meant grouse but which was often used figuratively for warrior
GARWOOD EnglishComes from a lost locational name from the Olde English
gara, referring to a "triangular piece of land" or to a "spearhead", and
wudu meaning a "wood".
GĄSIOR PolishMeans "gander (male goose)" in Polish. It was used as a nickname for a person who resembled a gander or as an occupational name for a keeper of geese.
GĄSIOROWSKI PolishName for someone from a place called Gąsiorowo or Gąsiorów, both derived from Polish
gąsior meaning "gander".
GASKILL EnglishMeaning "Goat Shelter". English (Lancashire) habitual name from Gatesgill in Cumbria, so named from Old Norse geit ‘goat’ + skáli ‘shelter’. The surname is first recorded in the early half of the 14th Century.
GASNIER FrenchFrom Old French
gaaigner meaning "to win, to earn" or "to till, to cultivate", possibly used as an occupational name for a farmer.
GASPARRINO Italian (Tuscan)Gasparinus de Bergamo was a Italian Teacher who tutored The Future Popes of Italy and was a Secertary for Pope Martin V in the late 1400.
GASSER German (Swiss)Occupational name for a goat herd from Middle High German geiz meaning "Goat" and (n)er an agent suffix.
GATCHALIAN Filipino, TagalogFrom a Hispanicised spelling of
Gat Sa Li-Han, a Chinese title meaning "lord of Li-Han". It was used by the rulers of Li-Han, an ancient Philippine state that was located in the present-day city of Malolos.
GATLIN EnglishEnglish of uncertain origin; probably a variant of
Catlin or
Gadling, a nickname from Old English
gœdeling ‘kinsman’, ‘companion’, but also ‘low fellow’.
GATLIN GermanPossibly an altered spelling of German
Göttling, from a Germanic personal name formed with
god ‘god’ or
god ‘good’ +
-ling suffix of affiliation, or, like
Gättling (of which this may also be an altered form), a nickname from Middle High German
getlinc ‘companion’, ‘kinsman’.
GATMAITAN Filipino, TagalogFrom a Hispanicised form of
Gat Maitan, a title meaning "lord of Mait" that was used by rulers of an ancient place named Mait or Maitan.
GATO SpanishGato is a Spanish, Portuguese and Galician word for cat.
GATSBY EnglishA different form of
Gadsby ("person from Gaddesby", Leicestershire ("Gaddr's farmstead")). A fictional bearer is Jay Gatsby, the central character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel 'The Great Gatsby' (1925).
GATZ GermanHabitational name from a place so named in Pomerania.
GAU GermanHabitational name from any of various places named with Middle High German gau, göu ‘area of fertile agricultural land’.
GAUCI MalteseDerived from Maltese
Għawdex through Arabic غودش
(ġawdeš) which refers to the island of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago. The name itself is of Phoenician origin (through a Greek borrowing) possibly meaning "turn around"... [
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GAUGER GermanMiddle High German gougern 'to wander around or stagger', presumably a nickname for someone with a peculiar gait.
GAUNT EnglishThis name is believed to have derived "from the town of Gaunt, now Ghent, in Flanders."... [
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