TerpstraWest Frisian, Dutch Derived from terp, a kind of artificial hill used as shelter during floods or high tide, and the Frisian habitational suffix -stra.
TerraccianoItalian Derived from Italian terrazzano "inhabitant of a walled city or castle; fellow countryman, villager, peasant", ultimately derived from Latin terra "land, earth, country".
TerraceScottish Possibly means "from Tarras", a place in Morayshire, Scotland.
TerracinaItalian From the name of a city in Lazio, Italy, called Tarracina in Latin.
TetleyEnglish habitational name from Tetlow in Manchester. The placename derives from the Old English male personal name Tetta or female Tette annd Old English hlaw "mound hill"... [more]
TetsuJapanese Tetsu could mean "iron", or it could be spelled with te meaning "hand" and tsu meaning "harbor, seaport".
TetsukaJapanese Te means "hand" and tsuka means "mound, hillock".
TetsukiJapanese Tetsu means "iron" and ki means "tree, wood".
TetzelGerman A variant of Tetzlaff and is derived from the bakery Tetzel Prime in Casey, Illinois.
TewksburyEnglish Derived from Tewkesbury, a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is named with the Old English given name Teodec and burg meaning "fortification".
ThackerayEnglish Habitational name for a person from the place named Thackray in Yorkshire, from Old Norse þak "thatch, roof" and rá "corner, nook".
ThackeryEnglish English (Yorkshire) habitational name from Thackray in the parish of Great Timble, West Yorkshire, now submerged in Fewston reservoir. It was named with Old Norse þak ‘thatching’, ‘reeds’ + (v)rá ‘nook’, ‘corner’.
TháiVietnamese Vietnamese form of Cai, from Sino-Vietnamese 蔡 (thái).
ThalJewish, German Ornamental and topographic name derived from German Tal "valley".
ThamesEnglish Derived from the name of the River Thames, a major river in England. It is thought to have derived from Celtic Tamesis, which may have meant "dark, cloudy" or "turbid, turbulent".
TheronSouthern African, Afrikaans, Occitan Habitational name for someone from any of various locations in Occitanie named Théron or Thérond, ultimately from Latin torus meaning "elevation, height, embankment". A famous bearer is South African and American actress Charlize Theron (1975-).
TherouxFrench (Quebec) Southern French (Théroux): of uncertain origin; perhaps a topographic name for someone living by "the wells", from a plural variant of Occitan théron "well".
ThirringUpper German (Rare) The name Thirring has many different forms/variant spellings. These include Thiering, Thiring, Thuring,Thuringer, Turinger, Duringer, Diringer, Diring and During. One of the reasons for all the variant spellings is that the church scribes in Hungary originally all recorded the name differently... [more]
ThistlethwaiteEnglish Habitational name for a person from Thistlewood in Castle Sowerby, or from a lost place named Thistelthuait in Lancashire. The placenames derive from Old English þistel "thistle" and Old Norse þveit "clearing" (cf... [more]
ThorbeckeGerman Possibly from an unknown place name meaning either "at the brook" or "Thor's stream" in German. A noteworthy bearer was the Dutch liberal statesman and prime minister Johan Rudolph Thorbecke (1798-1872), whose family was of German origin; he is best known for almost single-handedly drafting the revision of the Constitution of the Netherlands, which turned the country from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy, during the Revolutions of 1848.
ThornburgEnglish The name Thornburg comes from the Old English thorn broc, because the original bearers lived near a "stream by the thorns" in Buckinghamshire and North Yorkshire.
ThornhillEnglish Habitational name from any of various places named Thornhill, for example in Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, Dorset, and Wiltshire, from Old English þorn "thorn bush" + hyll "hill".
ThornleyEnglish Derived from Thornley, which is the name of three villages in England (two are located in the county of Durham, the third in Lancashire). All three villages derive their name from Old English þorn "thorn" and Old English leah "clearing (in a wood), glade", which gives their name the meaning of "the thorny glade"... [more]
ThorsbyEnglish habitational name from North and South Thoresby (Lincolnshire) Thoresby in Carperby (North Yorkshire) or Thoresby in Perlethorpe cum Budby (Nottinghamshire). The Lincolnshire and Yorkshire placenames derive from the Old Norse personal name Thorir (genitive Thoris) + Old Norse býr "farmstead village"... [more]
ThrestonMedieval English (Rare) The surname of Threston is English in origin, and, means "to twist"** and, can be traced as far back as the 11th century where the name is found in the "Domesday Book." The name Threston is a variation of the name of the town of Threxton, Norfolk, UK, and, there are several variations of the name Threxton including:... [more]
ThuringerGerman Habitational name for someone from Thuringia.
ThurlesEnglish Today's generation of the Thurles family bears a name that was brought to England by the migration wave that was started by the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Thurles family lived in Suffolk, at Thurlow which was in turn derived from the Old English word tryohlaw, meaning dweller by the hill.
ThursbyEnglish habitational name from a place in Cumbria so named from the Old Norse personal name Thorir a derivative of Thor and Old Norse býr "farmstead settlement"... [more]
TiddEnglish This Old English Surname was derived from a hill named after its resemblance to a teat or tead (mammary gland) of which Tidd is a variant. That name became a name for the locale and further by extension for its people.
TiensuuFinnish Means "The road's mouth". Tien means "the road" and Suu means "mouth" in Finnish.
TiếtVietnamese Vietnamese form of Xue, from Sino-Vietnamese 薛 (tiết).
TilsleyEnglish Derived from the place name Tyldesley, which in turn derives from Old English personal name Tīlweald with the suffix lēah “clearing, meadow”. Notable bearers of this name include Canadian salvationist and writer Bramwell Tillsley, as well as Welsh poet and Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales Gwilym Tilsley known under his bardic name of "Tilsli".... [more]
TinsleyEnglish From a place name in England composed of the unattested name Tynni and Old English hlaw "hill, mound, barrow".
TinworthEnglish (New Zealand) Tinworth, a fictional Cornish village, the location of Shell Cottage in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Also a rare surname, mostly found in New Zealand.
TisdaleEnglish Variant spelling of Teasdale. Famous bearers or this name include the actress and singer Ashley Tisdale (1985-), basketball player and bass guitarist Wayman Tisdale (1964-2009) and the engraver, miniature painter and cartoonist Elkanah Tisdale (1768-1835), all Americans.
TobiJapanese (Rare) From Japanese 登 (to) meaning "to climb; to rise" and 日 (bi), the joining form of 日 (hi) meaning "sun; day", referring to a port that is closest to sunrise.
TocquevilleFrench From the names of various French communes in Normandy meaning "Tóki's town". As a title it was borne by the French political philosopher, aristocrat and historian Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, Count of Tocqueville (1805-1859), the author of Democracy in America.
TodaJapanese Japanese: there are multiple meanings with this surname depending on the kanji used. ... [more]
TodachineNavajo Variant of Todicheene meaning "bitter water people."
TodrickScottish From the name of a family manor in Selkirk, Scotland, itself from Scots tod "fox" and rig "ridge".
TofteNorwegian Named after the village of Tofte in the Halstoy district of Norway. The town of Tofte, Minnesota, United States, was founded by Norwegian immigrants with the surname.
TogashiJapanese From Japanese 富 or 冨 (tomi) meaning "abundant, rich, wealthy" and 樫 (kashi) meaning "oak".
TollEnglish A surname given to a person who lived near a clump of trees.
ToltonEnglish, Irish habitational name possibly from either of two places called Tollerton in Nottinghamshire and North Yorkshire. The first is named from the Old Norse personal name Þórleifr and Old English tun "settlement, enclosure"; the second is from Old English tolnere "tax gatherers" and tun.
TołwińskiPolish This indicates familial origin within the Podlachian village of Tołwin.
TomabechiJapanese From Japanese 苫 (toma) meaning "woven mat", 米 (me) meaning "rice" and 地 (chi) meaning "earth, land".
TomatsuJapanese From the Japanese 戸 (to or do) "door," "shutter" and 松 (matsu) "pine tree."
TombaughGerman topographic name from to dem bach ‘at the creek’, perhaps a hybrid form as Bach is standard German, bek(e) being the Low German form. habitational name from places in Hesse, Baden, and Bavaria called Dombach (earlier Tunbach, from tun, tan ‘mud’).
ToneEnglish Was first found in Leicestershire where Ralph de Toni received lands of the Lordship of Belvoir for his services as Standard bearer at Hastings in 1066 A.D.
TopeliusFinnish (Rare), Swedish (Rare) Latinized form of the Finnish place name Toppila in Ostrobothnia, Finland. Zachris Topelius (1818-1898) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author, journalist, and historian.
ToppGerman German: from Low German topp 'point', 'tree top', hence a topographic name; or alternatively a metonymic occupational name or nickname from the same word in the sense 'braid'.
ToriumiJapanese From Japanese 鳥 (tori) meaning "bird" and 海 (umi) meaning "sea, ocean".
ToriyamaJapanese From Japanese 鳥 (tori) meaning "bird" and 山 (yama) meaning "mountain, hill". A notable bearer of this surname is Akira Toriyama (1955–), a manga artist best known for creating the Dragon Ball manga series.
TorkingtonEnglish From the name of a place in Greater Manchester, originally meaning "Tork's settlement" (Tork being a name or nickname combined with Old English tun meaning "enclosure, yard, town").
ToroSpanish, Italian Either a habitational name from Toro in Zamora province. Compare De Toro . Or a nickname for a lusty person or for someone who owned a bull or a metonymic occupational name for a tender of bulls or possibly for a bull fighter from toro "bull" (from Latin taurus).
TorquemadaCastilian It indicates familial origin within the eponymous municipality in the Province of Palencia.
TorralbaSpanish, Catalan, Aragonese Habitational name from any of several places called Torralba, named with torre meaning "tower" + alba meaning "white".
TorrenceScottish, Irish Scottish and northern Irish habitational name from either of two places called Torrance (one near East Kilbride, the other north of Glasgow under the Campsie Fells), named with Gaelic torran ‘hillock’, ‘mound’, with the later addition of the English plural -s.... [more]
TorrentSpanish A topographical name for someone who lived by a flood stream, deriving from the Spanish torrente. Topographical surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguish names in the small communities of the Middle Ages... [more]
TorrubianoSpanish It indicates familial origin within the municipality of Torrubia de Soria.
TorshkhoevIngush (Russified) Russified form of an Ingush family name derived the name of an Ingush teip (clan). The clan's name itself is derived from ТӀаьрши (Tarsh), a village in Ingushetia, of unknown meaning.
TouitouJudeo-Spanish Likely a variant of Touati, though it has also been connected to the Arabic word نونو (nunu) meaning "thrush, blackbird" (a dialectal term).
ToujouJapanese From Japanese 東 (tou) meaning "east" and 條 or 条 (jou) meaning "paragraph".
ToulzaOccitan Originally indicated a person from the city of Toulouse, of uncertain etymology.
TounsiArabic (Maghrebi) Derived from Arabic تُونِسِيّ (tūnisiyy) meaning “Tunisian”, ultimately from تُونِس (tūnis) meaning "Tunisia, Tunis". It can refer to a native of the country of Tunisia, someone from the city of Tunis (in Tunisia), or the Tunisian Tounsi dialect of Arabic.
TouretFrench Derived from the French town of Tourrettes-sur-Loup which is located in the southeast of France.
TouriñoGalician It indicates familial origin within the eponymous neighborhood of the parish of San Martiño de Lanzós in the municipality of Vilalba.
TourvilleFrench The name Tourville is a very old, and in one case, very famous name. One of the Marshall's of France was named Anne Hilarion de Cotentin de Tourville. This reads: Anne Hilarion of/from Cotentin, Comte (Count) of Tourville... [more]
TownEnglish topographic name from Middle English toun(e) th one tun(e) "town village settlement" (Old English tun) often in the senses "primary settlement within an area" "manor estate" and "hamlet farm" for someone who lived in such a place.
TrabelsiArabic (Maghrebi) Habitational name for someone originally from the city of Tripoli in Libya from Arabic طَرَابُلُس (ṭarābulus). The city's name ultimately comes from Ancient Greek Τρίπολις (Trípolis) meaning "three cities", from τρι- (tri-) meaning "three" and πόλις (pólis) meaning "city".
TrachtenbergGerman, Jewish Could mean either mean "mountain of thoughts", from Yiddish trakhtn (טראַכטן) "to think" and berg "mountain" or "mountain of costumes", from German tracht "to wear, carry" and berg "mountain"... [more]
TraffordEnglish Habitational name derived from either Trafford, Lancashire (an Anglo-French variant of Stratford), from Bridge Mickle and Wimbolds Trafford, Cheshire (derived from Old English trog "trough, valley" and ford "river crossing"), or from the now-lost settlement of Trafford in Northamptonshire (derived from Old English traeppe "trap, fish trap" and ford).
TrahanFrench (Cajun), Welsh From the Welsh name Trahern, derived from the Welsh family seat Trehaverne.
TrailScottish This surname is most likely a habitational name, taken on from a place name; perhaps from the Gaelic "Traill Creek" which runs into Upper Loch Torridon of Scotland.... [more]
TranmerEnglish Habitational name from Tranmere, a district within the borough of Birkenhead, Cheshire, or Tranmires, an area in Hackness, North Yorkshire. Both toponyms derive from Old Norse trani "crane (bird)" and melr "sandbank, dune".
TrapaneseItalian Habitational name meaning "Trapanese", "from the city of Trapani or "from the province of Trapani". Variant of Trapani.
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.