OldEnglish From Middle English old, not necessarily implying old age, but rather used to distinguish an older from a younger bearer of the same personal name.
OldhamEnglish Habitational name from Oldham in Lancashire. The placename derives from Old English ald "old" and Old Norse holmr "island water meadow" or eald "old" and ham "farmstead" meaning either "old lands" or "old farm".
OlinEnglish, Dutch English or Dutch name meaning either "from a low lying area" or from the word Hollander meaning "one from the Netherlands" a country well known for a low lying landscape.
OlinSwedish Combination of the unexplained element o-/oh- and the common surname suffix -lin. A notable bearer is Swedish actress Lena Olin (b. 1955).
OliphantEnglish Means "elephant" (from Middle English, Old French and Middle High German olifant "elephant"), perhaps used as a nickname for a large cumbersome person, or denoting someone who lived in a building distinguished by the sign of an elephant.
OlivaItalian, Spanish Of uncertain origin: derived either from a nickname to those who picked, worked with or sold olives, or from the given name Oliva.
OlivaresSpanish Habitational name from any of several places named Olivares, from the plural of Spanish olivar meaning "olive grove". Compare Portuguese and Galician Oliveira.
OliveraSpanish Comes from the Latin etymology related to olive trees, olive grees and olives.
OliverasCatalan Catalan: variant spelling of the topographic name Oliveres, from the plural of olivera ‘olive tree’, or a habitational name from Las Oliveras in Murcia province.
OlivoItalian, Spanish Topographic name from olivo "olive tree" or occupational name for someone who sold olives. Or from the given name Olivo given to someone born on Palm Sunday.
OnstadNorwegian, German Habitational name from the name of any of seven farmsteads mainly in the southeast most of them with names formed from any of various Old Norse personal names plus stathir "farmstead" as for example Augunarstathir from the personal name Auðun (from Auth "wealth" plus un "friend")... [more]
OppGerman Generally considered a (very) contracted form of given names that contained the Old High German element od "fortune; wealth" (or a variant thereof) and a second element that began with or contained the letter B, for example Audobald.
OppedisanoItalian Italian: habitational name for someone from Oppido Mamertino in Reggio Calabria, so named from Latin oppidum ‘fortified place’, ‘stronghold’. The original settlement was destroyed by an earthquake in 1783 ; it was rebuilt on a site further south.
OppegårdNorwegian Habitational name meaning "upper farm". Derived from Old Norse uppi "upper" and garðr "farm, yard". This was the name of several farmsteads in Norway. ... [more]
OpstadNorwegian Norwegian: habitational name from any of ten farmsteads in southeastern Norway named Olstad, from a contracted form of Old Norse Ólafsstaðir, from the personal name Ólaf + staðir, plural of staðr ‘farmstead’, ‘dwelling’.
OrangeMedieval English, Medieval French, English Derived from the medieval female name, or directly from the French place name. First used with the modern spelling in the 17th century, apparently due to William, Prince of Orange, who later became William III... [more]
OrbisonEnglish From a village in Lincolnshire, England originally called Orby and later Orreby that is derived from a Scandinavian personal name Orri- and the Scandinavian place element -by which means "a farmstead or small settlement."
OrchardEnglish, Scottish English: topographic name for someone who lived by an orchard, or a metonymic occupational name for a fruit grower, from Middle English orchard.... [more]
OrcuttEnglish Perhaps a much altered spelling of Scottish Urquhart used predominantly in Staffordshire, England.
OrdEnglish, English (American) Ord is an English descent surname that also has Gaelic roots. It's also short for many English surnames that end with "Ord". people include US Army general Edward Ord who practiced in California and had many street names after him.
OrganEnglish Metonymic occupational name for a player of a musical instrument (any musical instrument, not necessarily what is now known as an organ), from Middle English organ (Old French organe, Late Latin organum ‘device’, ‘(musical) instrument’, Greek organon ‘tool’, from ergein ‘to work or do’).
OrganEnglish From a rare medieval personal name, attested only in the Latinized forms Organus (masculine) and Organa (feminine).
OrgeronFrench (Cajun) From the Norman French family name Orger, which is a abbreviated form of the ancient Norman name Orglander.
OrleansFrench From Orléans, a city in France sieged by the English in 1429. Orléans is derived from Aurelianum, meaning "of Aurelius" in Latin.
OrleyDutch, Flemish, English A surname of uncertain origin found among the Dutch, Flemish and English. In England the name is primarily found in Yorkshire and Devon. Orley may be an adapted form of a French name D'Orley or a nickname for Orlando... [more]
OrlikowskiPolish Habitational name for someone from a place called Orlikowo in Łomża voivodeship.
OrnsteinJewish Ornamental name composed of a variant of Horn (in regions where Yiddish has no h) + stein ‘stone’.
OroñaGalician This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the parish of Santo Ourente de Entíns in the municipality of Outes.
OronaSpanish Spanish: habitational name from a town of this name in Burgos province.
OronozBasque This indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the Navarrese municipality of Baztan.
OroscoSpanish, Basque Variant of Orozco. Means "place of the holly trees" from oros meaning "holly tree" and the suffix -ko signifying a place. Also believed to have been derived from Latin orosius meaning "the son of bringer of wisdom".
O'RourkeIrish Means "descendant of Ruairc", a pre-9th-century Norse personal name. A famous bearer was child actress Heather O'Rourke (1975-1988).
OrozcoSpanish, Basque Comes from the Bilbao province in the Basque region of Spain.
OrpinEnglish Means "herbalist" (from Middle English orpin "yellow stonecrop", a plant prescribed by medieval herbalists for healing wounds). A variant spelling was borne by British painter Sir William Orpen (1878-1931).
OrrScottish This is an old name of Renfrewshire area of Scotland. The origins could be French or Norwegian (Viking) from more man 1000 years ago. What is known is that Orr is a place name and a sept of the Campbell clan... [more]
OrrisEnglish (Canadian) This unusual and interesting name is of Italian, Latin origin, and derives from one of the earliest Roman names, "Horatius". The name is thought to mean something connected with "hora", the Latin for "hour", but the original meaning has been lost... [more]
OrsiItalian Patronymic or plural form of Orso. It may also be an Italianized form of Slovenian Uršic, metronymic from the female personal name Urša, short form of Uršula (Latin Ursula), or a patronymic from the male personal name Urh, Slovenian vernacular form of Ulrik, German Udalrich
OrtmanGerman The surname Ortman was first found in Silesia, where the name emerged after the 14th century, where it was related to the name "Ertmar"; this name is also reflected in the place name Erdmannsdorf, found in both Saxony and Silesia... [more]
OrtolanoItalian, Spanish occupational name for a cultivator or seller of fruit and vegetables ortolano "gardener" from a derivative of orto "vegetable garden" (from Latin hortus "garden"). The term was also used in the medieval period to denote both a cleric with a fervant devotion to pastoral work and a rough or uncouth person and in some instances may have been applied as a nickname in either sense... [more]
OsgoodEnglish, Jewish English: Old Norse personal name Asgautr, composed of the elements as'god'+the tribal name Gaul. This was established in England before the Conquest, in the late old English forms Osgot or Osgod and was later reinforce by the Norman Ansgot.... [more]
OslerEnglish Possibly derived from Ostler (from the the Norman 'Hostelier') meaning clerk or bookkeeper. First used in England after the Norman invasion of 1066. Surname of a 19th cent... [more]
OsterdayAmerican (Germanized, Rare) One day in Germany there was a male infant left on the steps to a church. When someone found the baby on the steps, they decided to name him Oster because that day was the day of Easter. Easter in German is Oster... [more]
OsterhoutDutch From the town of Oosterhout,, meaning "East Wood", as it is located nearby forests in the east of the Netherlands. Primary modern usage is in the United States can be traced back to Jan Jensen van Oosterhoudt, who immigrated to New Amsterdam in the 17th Century, and has been generally been simplified to Osterhout, where the O is pronounced as "AW"... [more]
OstiguyBasque, French Worn Quebec (Ostéguy variant), the name is visibly Basque and assumes initially a Ostegi form, which could designate a place where the foliage is abundant (osteo = + -egi sheet suffix). Alternatively, place the cold, cold house (Ortz, otz, followed -egi or -tegi).
OstosSpanish Habitational name from a place called Ostos which no longer exists; the surname was in the 15th century recorded near Écija in Seville.
OstranderDutch Translated as "from the east border." The name may have been originally borne by one who lived near the eastern border of a town, province, or country.
OstwaldGerman from the ancient Germanic personal name Ostold composed of the elements ōst "east" (see Oest ) and Old High German walt(an) "to rule". Variant of Oswald.
OsunaSpanish Habitational name from a place in the province of Seville, named from Arabic Oxuna, perhaps named from Late Latin Ursina (villa) "estate of Ursus" a byname meaning "bear".
O’tooleIrish O'Toole, along with Toole, comes from the Irish O Tuathail. This derives from the personal name Tuathal, meaning "ruler of the people", used by many Irish kings and heroes and accordingly incorporated into a surname in a number of distinct areas, among them south Ulster, Mayo and Kildare.
OtradovecCzech Habitational name for someone from any of four places in Bohemia called Otradov or Otradovice.
OtsuJapanese O means "big, great" and tsu means "harbor, seaport".
ŌtsuboJapanese From Japanese 大 (o) meaning "big, great" and 坪 (tsubo), a traditional unit of measurement equivalent to approximately 3.306 square metres.