Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
SchlatterUpper German Topographic name from Middle High German slâte "reedy place", or a habitational name from any of several places named Schlatt, from the same word.
SchmidtbergerGerman A distinguishing name for someone named Berger who worked as a blacksmith, or a habitational name for someone from any of several places called Schmidtberg in Bavaria and Switzerland.
SchorrGerman In the south a topographic name from Middle High German schor(re) 'steep rock', 'rocky shore'.
SchottlanderGerman, Jewish From German Schottland "Scotland" and, in some cases, denoted an immigrant from Scotland or Ireland. As a Jewish surname, it is most often an ornamental name.
SchouDanish Topographic name for someone who lived by a small wood, from a Germanized form of Danish skov 'wood', 'forest', 'copse'.
SchrödingerGerman Denoted a person from Schröding, a old placename in Bavaria.
SchuknechtGerman Occupational name for a shoemaker’s assistant, from Middle High German schuoch meaning "shoe" + knecht meaning "journeyman", "assistant".
SchullerGerman Possibly a habitational name from Schüller in the Eifel.
SchutzGerman Occupational surname for an archer or a watchman, from Middle High German schützen "to guard, protect". Also a habitational name from Schutz, a place near Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
SchuurmanDutch Derived from Dutch schuur "barn, shed" and man "person, man".
SchwabGerman, Jewish German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): regional name for someone from Swabia (German Schwaben), from Middle High German Swap, German Schwabe ‘Swabian’. The region takes its name from a Germanic tribe recorded from the 1st century BC in the Latin form Suebi or Suevi, of uncertain origin; it was an independent duchy from the 10th century until 1313, when the territory was broken up.
SchwabeGerman 1. The name given to those who lived in Swabia
SchwanbeckGerman Habitational name from any of several places so named, for example near Lübeck and near Anklam.
SchwandtGerman Habitational name from any of the various places called Schwand or Schwanden, all in southern Germany, named with this element, from Middle High German swant (from swenden "to thin out", "make disappear", causative from swinden "to disappear" modern German schwinden.
SchwarzbachGerman Habitational name from any of several places so named literally "dark stream", derived from the elements swarz "black" and bah "stream".
ScobieScottish Means "person from Scobie", an unidentified place in Perth and Kinross ("thorny place"). A fictional bearer is Henry Scobie, the conscience-wracked and ultimately suicidal deputy commissioner of police in Graham Greene's West Africa-set novel 'The Heart of the Matter' (1948).
ScorranoItalian Denotes someone from Scorrano, Italy. Coincides with scorrano "to run, to flow".
ScorseseItalian From a nickname that indicated a person who came from Scotland, derived from Italian scozzese literally meaning "Scotsman, Scottish". This spelling arose from a transcription error of the surname Scozzese... [more]
ScotfordEnglish Derived from Scotforth, the name of a village near Lancaster (in Lancashire) in England. The village's name means "ford of the Scot(s)" and is derived from Old English Scott "Scot" combined with Old English ford "ford".
ScotlandEnglish (i) "person from Scotland"; (ii) "person from Scotland or Scotlandwell", Perth and Kinross; (iii) from the Norman personal name Escotland, literally "territory of the Scots"
ScottoItalian Either an ethnic name for someone from Scotland or Ireland from medieval Italian scotto or scoto meaning "Scot", making it a cognate of Scott, or from a diminutive of given names ending in sco such as Francesco (via its diminutive Francescotto) or Maresco (via Marescotto).
ScreetonEnglish Locational surname originating from the village of Screveton in Nottinghamshire. Derived of Old English elements scīr-rēfa "sheriff" and tun "settlement".
ScrogginsEnglish Derived from Middle English scrogge meaning "brushwood", given to someone who lived near a bushy area, or perhaps a nickname for someone with a prickly personality.
ScroggsEnglish From Middle English scrogge meaning "brushwood".
ScroggsScottish Derived from a place in Scotland named Scrogges.
ScudamoreAnglo-Norman A locational surname that was first recorded in England in 1264. Derived from one of the ancient villages of Fifield Scudamore or Upton Scudamore, with Scudamore coming from the Old English scitemor, which means "one who lived at the moor."
SeaborgEnglish, Swedish (Americanized) English cognate of Sjöberg, as well as the Americanized form. Glenn T. Seaborg (1912-1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements.
SeabraPortuguese Habitational name from the town of Puebla de Sanabria in northwestern Spain of uncertain meaning, possibly of Arabic, Celtic or Latin origin.
SeaforthEnglish The name of a projection of the sea on the east coast of Lewis, on the Long Island, Scotland. Means "the forth of the sea".
SeagraveEnglish Habitational name from a place in Leicestershire, recorded in Domesday Book as Satgrave and Setgrave; probably named from Old English (ge)set meaning "fold", "pen" (or sēað meaning "pit", "pool") + grāf meaning "grove" or græf meaning "ditch".
SeamarkEnglish Derived from any of several places in France called Saint-Marc.
SeatterScottish From an ancient barony called "The lands of Setter", Stromness, Orkney. Derives from the Ancient Norse word "saetr" meaning a hut or shelter for animals.
SeddaItalian From a place name in Sardinia, meaning "top of a mountain". May alternately derive from Sardinian sedda "saddle", indicating the bearer's occupation.
SeddonEnglish "Broad hill" in Old English. A surname that most occurs in Merseyside, and Lancashire.
SedgwickEnglish Habitational name from Sedgwick in Cumbria, so named from the Middle English personal name Sigg(e) (from Old Norse Siggi or Old English Sicg, short forms of the various compound names with the first element "victory") + Old English wic "outlying settlement", "dairy farm"; or from Sedgewick in Sussex, named with Old English secg (sedge) + wic.
SeeEnglish, German Topographic name for someone who lived by the sea-shore or beside a lake, from Middle English see meaning "sea", "lake" (Old English sǣ), Middle High German sē. Alternatively, the English name may denote someone who lived by a watercourse, from an Old English sēoh meaning "watercourse", "drain".
SegărceanuRomanian A topographical surname designating someone from Segarcea, a small town in Dolj County, Romania.
SegarraCatalan Regional name from the district of La Segarra, or habitational name from any of the places named with Segarra or La Segarra in Catalonia and Valencia.
SeidenbergGerman, Jewish Derived from several places with the same name. As an ornamental name, it is derived from German seide meaning "silk" and berg meaning "mountain".
SeijoSpain (Rare) Seijo is a rare surname hailing from Spain. It is derived from the name Sexia, which in itself derives from the Latin word Saxum, meaning stone.
SeijoCastillan (Rare) Seijo is a rare surname hailing from Spain. It is derived from the name Sexia, which in itself derives from the Latin word Saxum, meaning stone.
SeinfeldGerman, Jewish From the German word sein "to be" and the word of German Jewish origin feld which means "field". It was a name given to areas of land that had been cleared of forest.
SeinoJapanese From Japanese 清 (sei) meaning "clear, pure, clean" and 野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".
SeixasPortuguese Habitational name from any of various places called Seixas in Galicia, Spain, most likely derived from Galician seixo meaning "pebble, stone" (ultimately from Latin saxum).
SekawaJapanese From Japanese 瀬 (se) meaning "rapids, current" and 川 (kawa) meaning "river, stream".
SekineJapanese From Japanese 関 (seki) meaning "frontier pass" and 根 (ne) meaning "root, foundation".
SekinoJapanese From Japanese 関 (seki) meaning "frontier pass" and 野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".
SekiyaJapanese From Japanese 関 (seki) meaning "frontier pass" and 谷 (ya) meaning "valley".
SekizawaJapanese 關 translates to "connection; barrier; gateway; involve; concerning" and 澤 translates to "swamp" so it could be translated as "a connected swamp"
SelaHebrew Means "rock" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this is the name of a city, the capital of Edom. Famous bearer is the Israeli model, actress and television presenter Rotem Sela (born 1983)
SeldenEnglish Habitational name derived from Seldon in Hatherleigh, Devon, and possibly also Selden Farm in Patching, Sussex. The former likely derives from Old English sele "great hall, dwelling, house" (see saliz) and dun "hill, mountain".
SelfridgeEnglish habitational name from an unidentified minor place called with Old English scelf "shelf" and hrycg "ridge".
SellandNorwegian From the Old Norse habitational name Seljuland, from selja "willow" and land "land", "farm".
SelouaniMoroccan Habitational name from the Rifian town of Selouane.
SelvaCatalan, Italian From any of various places in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, or northern Italy named Selva, as for instance the Catalan district La Selva, from selva "wood", Latin silva.
SelvikNorwegian From any of the farms in Norway named with Old Norse selja "willow" or selr "seal" combined with vík "bay, inlet".
SelzGerman The Selz is a river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and a left hand tributary of the Rhine. It flows through the largest German wine region, Rheinhessen or Rhenish Hesse. Also, Seltz (German: Selz) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of the Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine region in north-eastern France.... [more]
SemNorwegian Norwegian: habitational name from any of about fifteen farms so named, a variant of Seim.
SemerEnglish From the village of Semer in Suffolk.
SemuraJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 瀬 (se) meaning "rapids, ripple, current" and 村 (mura) meaning "town, hamlet, village".... [more]
SenamiJapanese Se means "ripple, current" and nami means "wave".
SendaJapanese From Japanese 千 (sen) meaning "thousand" and 田 (ta) meaning "field, rice paddy".
SengGerman 1. Topographic name for someone who lived by land cleared by fire, from Middle High German sengen ‘to singe or burn’. ... [more]
SenjūJapanese From Japanese 千 (sen) meaning "thousand" and 住 (jū) meaning "abode, residence".
SenoJapanese From Japanese 瀬 (se) meaning "rapids, current" and 野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".
SenooJapanese From 妹 meaning "younger sister" combined with 尾 meaning "tail, end, foot of a mountain".
SensabaughAmerican Americanized form of German Sensenbach, a topographic name formed with an unexplained first element + Middle High German bach ‘creek’.
SensenbachGerman A topographic name formed with an unexplained first element + Middle High German bach ‘creek’. Pretty common in Iowa and Pennsylvania.
SerbiaSpanish Unknown.. researching history of the spanish name that was first identify being used in Utado Puerto, Rico in 1790s by Fransico Serbia and Paula Serbia Filare
SerbinmRussian Possibly from Russian сербский (serbskiy), meaning "Serbian".
SercombeEnglish Derived from Sharracombe, a former settlement in Devon, England, derived from Old English cumb "valley, hollow" and an uncertain first element – possibly scir "shire, district" or the related scīrgerēfa "sheriff".
SerdàCatalan (Valencian) Variant of Cerdà, or from the name of the village of Cerdà (also called La Serda) in the province of Valencia in Spain.
SerednickimPolish Habitational surname for someone from a village called Serednica, meaning uncertain.
SetonScottish It has been claimed in the past that the name Seton is Norman in origin, however evidence points to it being Flemish. Various suggestions have been put forward regarding the derivation of the name but nothing proved conclusively; it probably means "town by the sea" and possibly derives from the "sea town" of Staithes in modern day North Yorkshire... [more]
SetsuharaJapanese From Japanese 節 (setsu) meaning "section, period, verse, melody" combined 原 (hara) meaning "plain, field".
SettaiJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 摂待 (Settai) meaning "Settai", a former village in the former district of Hei in the former Japanese province of Rikuchū in parts of present-day Iwate and Akita in Japan or a division in the same place, in the area of Tarō in the city of Miyako in the prefecture of Iwate in Japan.... [more]
SettleEnglish From the town of Settle in Yorkshire, England.
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".
SevernyymRussian Means "northern". Likely denoted to someone who lived in the northern part of a village.
SevillaSpanish Habitational name from the city of Seville (or Sevilla) in Andalusia, Spain. The city's name is probably derived from Phoenician šplh meaning "valley, plain" through Arabic إِشْبِيلِيَة (ʾišbīliya).
SeydouxFrench, French (Swiss), Occitan Derived from the Germanic names Sedulius, Sedulfus or Segedolfus. Another theory suggests Occitan roots; it might be an occupational name for someone who worked with silk, derived from Occitan sedós meaning "silky, soft"... [more]
ShaChinese From Chinese 沙 (shā) referring to the ancient state of Sha, which was part of the state of Song during the Zhou dynasty in what is now Hebei province. Alternately it may come from Sha Sui, the name of a fief that was part of Song in what is now Henan province, or from Su Sha, the name of an ancient clan that inhabited parts of present-day Shandong province.
ShacklefordEnglish, Medieval English Locational surname deriving from the place called Shackleford in Surrey, near the town of Farnham. The origin of "shackle" is uncertain. It could be derived from Old English sceacan "to shake"... [more]
ShackletonEnglish The place name probably means "valley by a point of land," from the Old English scacol + denu. Another source claims the word scacol, describes a "tongue of land."
ShadeEnglish, Scottish Topographic name for someone who lived near a boundary, from Old English scead "boundary".
ShadwellEnglish English surname meaning "By the shed spring"
ShahotmIndian (Sikh) The Shahot caste, one of the 13 Jatt clans associated with Sikhism, traces its origins to the 1900s. Historically, they were an agrarian community, deeply connected to the land and farming.
ShallcrossEnglish Means "person from Shallcross", Derbyshire ("place by the Shacklecross", an ancient stone cross in the High Peak, its name perhaps denoting a cross to which people could be shackled as a penance).
ShamiArabic Means "Syrian" or "Damascene", derived from Arabic الشام (ash-Sham) referring to both Syria and the Syrian city of Damascus.
ShamirHebrew Derived from Hebrew שָׁמִיר (shamiyr) meaning "thorn, briar, thistle" or "flint, diamond, emery, adamant". It was borne by the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir (1915-2012), whose birth name was either Yitzhak Yezernitsky or Icchak Jaziernicki.
ShanChinese From the place name Shan. Cheng Wang, the second king (1115–1079 bc) of the Zhou dynasty, granted to a son the area of Shan, and the son’s descendants adopted the place name as their surname. It comes from the Chinese word meaning "mountain"... [more]
ShanChinese From Chinese 单 (shàn) referring to the ancient state of Shan, which existed during the Zhou dynasty in what is now Henan province.
ShanklandScottish Believed to be a locational name derived from a now-lost or unidentified place name. The name is composed of the Old Scots term "schank," meaning "a projecting point of a hill" or "spur," and the suffix "-land," which indicates land or territory.
ShaoChinese From Chinese 邵 (shào) referring to the ancient fief of Zhao, which existed during the Shang dynasty in what is now Shaanxi province. The name of the fief, 召, had the same pronunciation as the character 邵.
ShaoChinese From Chinese 韶 (sháo) possibly referring to the ancient town of Shao that existed during the Sui dynasty in what is now Guangdong province.
SharabiJudeo-Arabic Denotes someone originally from the district of Sharab in western Yemen.
SharafkandiKurdish Denoted a person from Sharafkand, a village in the Central District of Bukan County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran.
SharptonEnglish Habitational name from Sharperton in Northumberland, possibly so named from Old English scearp "steep" and beorg "hill", "mound" and tun "settlement".
SharqawiArabic (Egyptian) Means "easterner, one from the east", derived from Arabic شرق (sharq) meaning "east, Orient".
ShatnerGerman (Anglicized), Jewish (Anglicized) Anglicized form of Schattner. A notable bearer was Canadian actor William Shatner (1931-), who is known for his roles as Captain James T. Kirk in 'Star Trek', T.J. Hooker in 'T.J. Hooker', Denny Crane in 'Boston Legal', and the Priceline Negotiator in Priceline.com commercials.
ShattuckEnglish A locational name from a family in Chaddock, a hamlet in the parish in Lancashire, England. Also a variant of Chadwick.
ShazarHebrew Referred to someone living near acacia trees that tend to be twisted, derived from Hebrew שָׁזַר (shazar) literally meaning "to twist, to be twisted, to intertwine". A famous bearer was the Israeli president, author and poet Zalman Shazar (1889-1974), who was born Shneur Zalman Rubashov.
SheardEnglish English surname which was originally from a place name meaning "gap between hills" in Old English.
ShelleyEnglish, Irish (Anglicized) Habitational name from any of the three places called Shelley (Essex Suffolk Yorkshire) or from Shelley Plain in Crawley (Sussex)... [more]
ShenChinese From Chinese 沈 (shěn) referring to the ancient state of Shen, which existed during the Zhou dynasty in what is now the Henan province.
ShengChinese From Chinese 盛 (shèng) meaning "flourishing, prosperous", also referring to the ancient state of Sheng which existed during the Zhou dynasty in present-day Shandong province.
ShentonEnglish "Beautiful town" in Old English. Parishes in Leicestershire, and Cheshire.
SheptitskiyUkrainian This indicates familial origin with the village of Sheptychi in Ukraine, which, as of February 2017, is located within Sambir Raion in the Lviv Oblast.
ShereshevskyRussian, Jewish Name for someone originally from the city of Sharashova in Belarus, probably derived Russian шерешь (sheresh) meaning "frozen mud, ice (on a river)".
SherrellEnglish This surname is of English locational origin, from the place in Devonshire called Shirwell. The placename is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Sirewelle, and by 1242 as Shirewill... [more]
SherwoodEnglish From a place name meaning "bright forest", derived from Old English scir meaning "bright" and wudu meaning "tree, wood".
ShewellEnglish Variant of Sewell, possibly influenced by the Middle English word shewel "scarecrow".
ShiChinese From Chinese 施 (shī) referring to the ancient state of Shi, which existed during the Xia dynasty in present-day Hubei province.
ShiChinese From Chinese 石 (shí) meaning "stone", also referring to the ancient city of Chach that is now Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
ShijouJapanese From Japanese 市 (shi) meaning "market, town", 四 (shi) meaning "four" or 砥 (shi) meaning "whetstone"; combined with 場 (jou) meaning "place", 條 (jou) meaning "article, twig, ray", 条 (jou) with the same meaning as the previous one, or 上 (jou) meaning "above".
ShimodaJapanese From Japanese 下 (shimo) meaning "below, down, under" and 田 (ta) meaning "field, rice paddy".
ShimoenooJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 下酔尾 (Shimoenoo) meaning "Shimoenoo", a former division in the area of Terushima in the city of Ichikikushikino in the prefecture of Kagoshima in Japan, or a name of a group of several households in the Kadowari System that took place in the Edo Period in the former Japanese province of Satsuma in parts of present-day Kagoshima, Japan.
ShimoyamaJapanese From Japanese 下 (shimo) meaning "lower portion, end" and 山 (yama) meaning "mountain".
ShimoyashikiJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 下 (shimo) meaning "lower, downstream" and 屋敷 (yashiki) meaning "mansion", referring to a mansion in the lowlands.