KostraCzech, Slovak Unusual surname found in Slovakia and the Czech Republic meaning "skeleton" from the word kostra, ultimately from the word kost meaning "bone". In Czech in particular, kostra refers only to the biological meaning of "skeleton" - a skeleton as an independent entity is known as a kostlivec.
LemmingDanish Derived from any of the places in Denmark called Lemming where the first element lem "lamb" is combined with the suffix -ing denoting a place.
UppadathilMalayalam From Old Malayalam uppadam (sea), lit. "from over the Arabian sea," referring to the descendants of a group of Arab traders who settled in Kerala. Predominantly Muslim, although sizeable sections have branched away and practice Hinduism... [more]
NööpEstonian Nööp is an Estonian surname meaning "button".
MerlJewish Jewish (Ashkenazic) metronymic from the Yiddish female personal name Merl, a pet form of Hebrew Miryam (see Mirkin).
DiabArabic Derived from Arabic ذئب (dhiʾb) meaning "wolf".
ChatzigeorgiouGreek Means "son of Georgios the pilgrim" from Greek χατζη (chatzi) meaning "pilgrim", ultimately from Arabic حاجي (haji), combined with the given name Georgios.
VerhofstadtDutch, Flemish Means "from the farmstead" or "from the homestead" in Dutch. A notable bearer is the Flemish politician Guy Verhofstadt (1953-), a Prime Minister of Belgium.
IbarrolaBasque From the name of a village in Basque Country, derived from ibar "valley, riverbank" and ola "factory, forge, ironworks", or possibly -ola "location, place of".
SevernEnglish From the name of the River Severn, which is of unknown meaning. The Severn is Great Britain's longest river, flowing from Wales through much of western England to the Bristol Channel. It is one of Britain’s most ancient river names, recorded as early as the 2nd century AD in the form Sabrina; its original meaning may have been "slow-moving" or "boundary".
BaamondeGalician This indicates familial origin within either of 5 eponymous parishes.
WanChinese From Chinese 万 (wàn) referring to a city that existed during the Zhou dynasty in what is now Shaanxi province.
FasanoItalian Probably from Italian fasani "pheasant", a nickname for someone who resembled the bird in appearance or (lack of) intelligence, who hunted them, or who lived in an area populated by them. ... [more]
SakuramiJapanese rom Japanese 桜 or 櫻 (sakura) meaning "cherry blossom" combined with 見 (mi) meaning "to see, appearance, look, view" or 実 (mi) meaning "berry, fruit, nut, seed, reality, truth, real".
ElsegoodEnglish (British), English (Australian) Derived from an Old English given name, possibly *Ælfgod or *Æðelgod, in which the second element is god "god". (Another source gives the meaning "temple-god", presumably from ealh and god.)... [more]
ŞekerciTurkish Means "confectioner, candy seller" in Turkish.
VesperGerman Either a nickname from Latin vesper "6 o’clock in the evening evening time" originally the second to last canonical hour or a habitational name from a place so called on the Ruhr river.
ChallinorEnglish Occupational name for a blanket maker, derived from Middle English chaloun "blanket", itself derived from the French city of Châlons-sur-Marne (now Châlons-en-Champagne), where blankets were made in the Middle Ages.
ErreyEnglish This uncommon and intriguing name is of Old Norse origin, and is found chiefly in the north western counties of England, reflecting the dense settlement of Scandinavian peoples in those areas. The surname is locational, from places such as Aira Beck or Aira Force near Ullswater in Cumberland, or some other minor or unrecorded place also named with the Old Norse term "eyrara", meaning "gravel-bank stream river”.
TiirmaaEstonian Tiirmaa is an Estonian surname meaning "twirl/wander "land".
TrapizonyanArmenian Originally denoted someone who came from the Turkish city of Trabzon, formerly a part of the Byzantine Empire, whose Armenian community stayed as the Ottoman Empire took over.
BérubéFrench Habitational name from some minor place named with Old French belru "beautiful stream", with the subsequent pleonastic addition of bé, variant of bel "beautiful".
Van MusschenbroekDutch Means "from Musschenbroek", a hamlet in Limburg, derived from plural form of Dutch mus "sparrow" and broek "marsh, wetland". Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692–1761) was a Dutch scientist credited with the invention of the first capacitor.
BanuelosSpanish Spanish (Bañuelos): habitational name from any of various places, primarily Bañuelos de Bureba in Burgos, named for their public baths, from a diminutive of baños ‘baths’ (see Banos)
DisharoonFrench (Americanized) Americanized form of an unidentified French name, possibly de Charente. This name was established in MD by the end of the 17th century.
SlutskyJewish Habitational name for someone from Slutsk, a city in Belarus.
MobergSwedish Combination of Swedish mo "sandy heath" and berg "mountain". A notable bearer was Swedish author and playwright Vilhelm Moberg (1898-1973).
PorkEstonian Pork is an Estonian surname possibly derived from "põrkama" meaning to "bound", "strike", and "bump". bounce, spring
PasaribuBatak Derived from Batak ribu meaning "thousand".
StreteEnglish Strete is derived from Old English "Straet" which, in turn is derived from the latin "strata". This surname has spelling variants including, Streeter, Street, Straight, and Streeten. The first occurrences of this surname include Modbert de Strete of Devon (1100), AEluric de Streitun and his heir Roger (at the time of Henry de Ferrers) and Eadric Streona, Ealdorman of Mercia.
MitakaJapanese There is a city in Tokyo with this name. It is spelled using 三 (mi) meaning "three" and 鷹 (taka) meaning "falcon, eagle, hawk". As a surname, it could likely be spelled using 見 (mi) meaning "outlook, view, mindset" or 高 (taka) meaning "tall, high" as well.
OpetaiaMaori, Polynesian This name possibly came from the given name Opetaia. A notable bearer of this name is Jai Opetaia, an australian boxer born in 1995.
AritzalaBasque (Rare) From the name of a municipality in Navarre, Spain, probably derived from Basque haritz "oak tree" and ala "pasture, meadow".
SummerEnglish, German From Middle English sum(m)er, Middle High German sumer "summer", hence a nickname for someone of a warm or sunny disposition, or for someone associated with the season of summer in some other way.
MitamuraJapanese From Japanese 三 (mi) meaning "three", 田 (ta) meaning "field, rice paddy", and 村 (mura) meaning "town, village".
TannenGerman, Jewish German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) habitational name from any of several places in Lower Saxony or Baden named with German Tannen ‘pine’, or from a short form of any of the many compound names formed with this element... [more]
CrookScottish, English Possible origin a medieval topographical surname, denoting residence from the Middle English word "crok" from the Old NOrse "Krokr". Possibly a maker or seller of hooks. Another possibility is meaning crooked or bent originally used of someone with a hunch back.
TauntonEnglish Habitational name from Taunton in Somerset, Taunton Farm in Coulsdon, Surrey, or Tanton in North Yorkshire. The Somerset place name was originally a combination of a Celtic river name (now the Tone, possibly meaning ‘roaring stream’) + Old English tūn ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’... [more]
CojuangcoChinese (Filipino) From the name of family patriarch Kho Giok Hoan (許玉寰), a 19th-century Chinese-Filipino businessman originally from Fujian. He was also known by his Hokkien nickname Khó͘ Hoân-ko (許寰哥) meaning "brother Kho Hoan", comprised of 許 (Khó͘), the Hokkien romanization of his surname, 寰 (Hoân), the second syllable of his given name, and 哥 (ko), a male honorific meaning "brother"... [more]
RoserGerman German: topographic name for "someone who lived at a place where wild roses grew" (see Rose 1), with the suffix -er denoting an inhabitant.German (Röser): habitational name from places called Rös, Roes, or Rösa in Bavaria, Rhineland, and Saxony, or a variant of Rosser.Swiss German (Röser): from a short form of a Germanic personal name based on hrod "renown".English: "unexplained".
PitaSpanish Spanish and Portuguese: from Spanish, Portuguese pita ‘chicken’ or in some cases possibly from the plant pita ‘pita’, ‘American aloe’, presumably a topographic name.
FontanarosaItalian Denoted a person who came from one of the various places in Italy with this name or similar, derived from Italian meaning "red fountain".
KitanokoujiJapanese (Rare) Kitanokouji (北小路) comes from kita (北) means "North", Kouji (小路) means "Alley". This is one of the kuge surnames and this surname is very rare. No notable people or fictional characters bear this surname.
KrčmarCroatian Derived from Croatian krčmar meaning "innkeeper, tavern owner, barkeeper", which is ultimately derived from Croatian krčma meaning "inn, tavern, pub".... [more]
RumpEstonian Rump is an Estonian surname meaning "dugout" and "punt".
DazaSpanish Derived from the Basque word "dazio", meaning "tax". It is a surname that is typically associated with the region of Navarre in Spain.
DevaneyIrish (Anglicized) Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duibheannaigh ‘descendant of Duibheannach’, a personal name of uncertain origin; the first element is dubh ‘black’, the second may be eanach ‘marshy place’... [more]
SekizawaJapanese 關 translates to "connection; barrier; gateway; involve; concerning" and 澤 translates to "swamp" so it could be translated as "a connected swamp"
CasamonicaItalian (Rare) Derived from Italian casa meaning "house" with the suffix -monica which is taken from the name of Saint Monica. Casamonica is a relatively rare surname associated with a notorious Italian clan involved in organized crime and criminal activities... [more]
ChokalingamIndian, Tamil Variant of Chockalingam. A famous bearer is American actress and comedienne Vera Mindy Chokalingam (1979-), who uses the stage name Mindy Kaling.
UhlerGerman Uhler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kastellaun, whose seat is in the like-named town.
UnnikrishnanMalayalam Means "Lord Krishna" or "young Krishna", a combination of the title and given name ഉണ്ണി (uṇṇi) meaning "infant boy, young boy" and the name of Krishna, Hindu deity.
VillatoroSpanish Presumably a name given to someone from Villatoro, Spain
AmmannUpper German, German (Swiss) Alemannic form of Amtmann "official". Ultimately derived from Middle High German ambet man "retinue man; retainer", this word came to denote various kinds of administrator including a tax farmer.
SpataforaItalian This surname originates from the Italian island of Sicily, where it was first borne by a noble family of Byzantine origin, which had settled on the island in the 11th century AD. Their surname was derived from the Greek noun σπάθη (spathe) "blade, sword" (akin to Latin spatha "broad sword with a double edge") combined with Greek φορεω (phoreo) "to carry, to bear", which gives the surname the meaning of "he who carries the sword" or "sword-bearer"... [more]