VirayFilipino, Tagalog, Pampangan, Pangasinan Occupational name derived from Tagalog, Pampangan and Pangasinan biray referring to a type of small, flat-bottomed rowing boat.
ShrewsburyEnglish From Shrewsbury, a market town and the county town of Shropshire, England, derived from Old English scrobb meaning "scrub, brushwood" and burg meaning "fortified place".
GarandFrench nickname or status name from the Old French legal term garant "guarantor". perhaps from a personal name based on the ancient Germanic element warin "protection shelter" or "guard".
ChapaSpanish An occupational name for a metalworker meaning "metal sheet", amongst other things. It may also come from the name of a place in Galicia, Spain, or the Basque word and oak bush, "chaparro".
LifSwedish This is most likely a name adopted by soldiers in the 17th century. The actual meaning is unclear. It could be taken directly from the Swedish word liv meaning "life" or from a location named with this element.
MorabitoItalian Ultimately from Arabic مُرَابِط (murabit) "holy man, one who preaches in the street; soldier stationed in an outpost", from which comes Sicilian murabitu "moderate, sober" and murabbiu "teetotal".
VennGerman Derived from Middle High German venne "mire, bog, fen".
BernadotteFrench, Swedish Possibly from the name of a historical province in Southern France named Béarn. This was originally a French non-noble surname. French general Jean Baptise Bernadotte (1763-1844) became the king of Sweden as Charles XIV John (Swedish: Karl XIV Johan) in 1818 and founded the current royal house in Sweden, House of Bernadotte.
YoungkinScottish (?), Irish (?) Possibly derived from Younkin; A Strathclyde-Briton family from the Scottish/English Borderlands was the first to use the surname Younkin. It is a name for a person who was very young, from the Old English word yong and yung... [more]
OstosSpanish Habitational name from a place called Ostos which no longer exists; the surname was in the 15th century recorded near Écija in Seville.
ArichiJapanese Ari means "have, possess, exist" and chi means "ground, soil".
MittelkauffGerman (Archaic) An extinct occupational name for a broker or middleman from Middle High German mittel meaning "middle" and kauf meaning "purchase".
DarabontHungarian, Romanian Occupational name meaning "guardsman" in Hungarian, ultimately derived from French brabançon. The American movie director Frank Darabont (1959-) is a famous bearer of this name.
NorthwayEnglish Habitational name from one or more of the minor places called with Middle English bi northe weie "(place) to the north of the way or road" from the elements norþ "north" and weg "way" including Northway in Monkleigh Widecombe in the Moor and Parkham Norway in Whitestone Narraway in Drewsteignton (all Devon) and Northway in Halse (Somerset)... [more]
AwayaJapanese From Japanese 粟 (Awa) meaning "Mllet" and 谷 (Tani) meaning "valley".
LemaîtreFrench Means "the master" in French, either used as a nickname for someone who behaved in a masterful manner or an occupational name for someone who was a master of their craft.
LehtmetsEstonian Lehtmets is an Estonian surname meaning "leaf(y) forest".
GaglianoItalian Habitational name from any of several places in Italy, most of which derive from the Latin personal name Gallius (see Gallus). Alternatively, it could derive directly from the given name Gallius, or from a similar name such as Galianus or Galenus.
TamminenFinnish From "tammi" meaning "oak tree". A place with lot of oaks.
RuusEstonian Ruus is an Estonian surname possibly derived from "kruus" meaning "mug", "shingle" and "ballast". Possibly derived from "rüüs" meaning "frilled".
SiriwardanaSinhalese Derived from Sanskrit श्री (shri) meaning "diffusing light, radiance, splendour, beauty" and वर्धन (vardhana) meaning "increasing, growing".
VeraguthRomansh Derived from Latin ferrum acutum "cutting sword", this name was given to a blacksmith.
ModiglianiItalian Used by Sepharditic Jews, this surname comes from the Italian town of Modigliana, in Romagna. Famous bearers of this surname include painter Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) and Nobel Prize in Economics recipient Franco Modigliani (1918–2003).
AkahiraJapanese From Japanese 赤 (aka) meaning "red" and 平 (hira 2) meaning "level, even, peaceful".
MomosakiJapanese Momo can mean "peach" or "hundred" and saki means "cape, promontory, peninsula".
DruzhkoUkrainian, Russian Means "friend", from Ukrainian and Russian друг (druh, drug) in a diminutive form.
CaldeiraPortuguese Name given to a maker of kettles or other cooking vessels.
SophaThai, Lao Means "beautiful, fine" in Thai and Lao.
EspadaPortuguese, Spanish metonymic occupational name for an armorer or a swordsman from espada "sword" (from Latin spata from Greek spathe originally denoting a broad two-edged sword without a point)... [more]
LawtonEnglish Habitational name, common in Lancashire and Yorkshire, from Buglawton or Church Lawton in Cheshire, or Lawton in Herefordshire, named in Old English as ‘settlement on or near a hill’, or ‘settlement by a burial mound’, from hlaw ‘hill’, ‘burial mound’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’... [more]
DerkachUkrainian Means "derkach", a Ukrainian folk instrument similar to a rattle or a noisemaker, from Ukrainian деркач (derkach).
NurchisItalian Denoting someone from Nure or Nurra in Sardinia, which were possibly derived from the pre-Roman root words nur meaning "fire" or "stones, heap" and the suffix -ke meaning "earth" or "dwelling".
WijemanneSinhalese Derived from Sanskrit विजय (vijaya) meaning "victory" and मान (mana) meaning "pride, honour".
AldaiaBasque, Spanish From the name of a municipality in Valencia, Spain, probably derived from Arabic الضيعة (ad-day'a) meaning "the village" (compare Aldea).
KampūJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 寒風 (Kampū) meaning "Kampū", a former division in the former large village of Kamiminamiaosawa in the former district of Akumi in the former Japanese province of Ugo in parts of present-day Akita and Yamagata in Japan.
BookmanGerman (East Prussian) Bookman, as a surname, derives from East Purssian origin. It is the American version of “Buchmann” with “Buch” meaning book in German, and “Mann” meaning man, creating the Americanized German surname Bookman.
EichenbergGerman Derived from Middle High German eih "oak" and berg "mountain hill" meaning "oak hill, oak mountain"; a topographic name for someone who lived on an oak-covered hillside or a habitational name from any of the places so named... [more]
ChemlaJewish (Sephardic) Derived from Arabic ﺷﻤﻠﺔ (shamlah) meaning "cloak, mantle", probably used as a name for someone who wore, made or sold cloaks.
LalondeFrench Habitational name from any of various places in Normandy called La Londe, from the French feminine definite article la combined with Old Norse lundr meaning "grove".
DickerEnglish Either an occupational name for a digger of ditches or a builder of dikes, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a ditch or dike, derived from Middle English dike or dik meaning "dyke.
DiasamidzeGeorgian Means "son of Diasami", from a Georgian given name of unknown meaning, perhaps meaning "master" or derived from Abkhaz дәаӡа (dwaʒa) meaning "uncultivated land, virgin soil" (thus used to refer to someone who plowed land)... [more]
ScheunemannGerman It literally means someone who either lives near (or in, if poor &/or homeless) a barn or works within its general vicinity.
ThanosGreek From a short form of the personal name Athanasios, literally "immortal". This was the name of several saints venerated in the Greek Orthodox Church, the most important of them being Athanasios the Great (293–373), theologian and patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt.
HemsworthEnglish Habitational name from a place in West Yorkshire, England, meaning "Hymel's enclosure".
GofiganChamorro Chamorro for "very hot climate". Gof- is an amplifier which means very. Figan is a word for "hot", implying the climate
NeuhausGerman, Jewish Topographical name for someone who lived in a new house, Middle High German niuwe hus, modern German neu Haus, or a habitational name for someone from any of several places named Neuhaus ('new house') in various parts of Germany and Austria, also in Bohemia.
RugbyEnglish From Rugby, Warwickshire. Originally named *Rocheberie, from Old English *Hrocaburg, 'Hroca's fort', the name was altered due to influence fort Danish settlers, with the second element being replaced with Old Norse byr, 'farm'.... [more]
CalatayudSpanish From the city in Spain, in province of Zaragoza within the autonomous community Aragón. The name Calatayud came from the Arabic قلعة أيوب Qal‘at ’Ayyūb, "the qalat (fortress) of Ayyub".
AmaralPortuguese Unknown origin. It may come from the name of a country estate near Viseu, Portugal (quinta do Amaral) or from an old word meaning "place full of clary sages". This is also the name of a variety of red wine grape in northern Portugal whose name comes directly from the surname.
MuChinese From Chinese 穆 (mù) meaning "pure, solemn, honest".
StantzGerman Possibly an altered spelling of German Stanz, a habitation name from places called Stans or Stanz in Austria and Switzerland (see also Stentz).