AlthoffGerman A surname predominantly found in Westphalia and the Rhineland region of Germany which is derived from German alt "old" and Hof (Hoff in the local dialects) "farmstead; farm; manor".
AltmeyerGerman Status name for an older steward, headman, or tenant farmer, as distinguished from a younger one, from Middle High German alt ‘old’ + meier ‘steward’, ‘headman’, ‘tenant farmer’
AmberEnglish This surname may be derived from the River Amber, located in Derbyshire in England.... [more]
AmbergGerman, Jewish German and possibly Jewish (Ashkenazic) habitational name from any of several settlements called Amberg (literally ‘by the mountain’), including a city in Bavaria. It could also be a topographic name of identical etymology... [more]
AmesEnglish Derived from the Old French and Middle English personal name Amys, Amice, which is either directly from Latin amicus ‘friend’, used as a personal name, or via a Late Latin derivative of this, Amicius.
AmherstEnglish It comes from when the family lived in the locality of Amherst, in the parish of Pembury in Kent.
AmisEnglish (British) Kingsley and Martin Amis, father and son novelists from England.
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.
AmmerGerman, English (Rare) This surname may be derived from Middle High German amer which means "bunting (as in the bird)." As such, it is used as a nickname for someone with a fine voice or someone who is a flamboyant dresser.... [more]
AmsdonEnglish (Modern) Unknown. Possibly a spelling variant of Amsden. Ancestry.com suggests probably a habitational name, from a reduced form of the Oxfordshire place name Ambrosden, which is composed of an Old English personal name Ambre + Old English dun ‘hill’... [more]
AmslerGerman (Swiss) Derived from German Amsel "(European) blackbird", this was an occupational name for a fowler (bird catcher).
AmspacherGerman Habitational name for someone from a place called Amsbach
AmstadGerman topographic name from Middle Low German am "at the" and stade "bank shore".
AmstutzGerman (Swiss), German (Austrian) Topographic name for someone living near or at the foot of a steep mountainside, German am Stutz ‘at the escarpment’.
AmysEnglish From the given name Amis. Compare with Ames. An early example using this spelling is Robert Amys of Cambridgeshire, England in 1273.
AnackerGerman Nickname for a day laborer, as opposed to someone who owned fields, from Middle High German āne meaning "without" + acker meaning "field".
AndertonEnglish Habitational name for a person from the villages called Anderton in Cheshire, Lancashire and Devon, of different origins. the one in Cheshire is derived from Old English given name Eanred while the one in Lancashire is derived from Old Norse given name Eindriði, both of them have the second element of tun "enclosure, town"... [more]
AneyEnglish English surname of uncertain origin, though it has been suggested that this is an anglicized form of French Ané. Ané itself is said to be taken from a personal name, possibly a gallicized form of Asnar or Aznar, which may be derived from Latin asinarius meaning "keeper of asses, ass-driver", from asinus "ass".
AngelSpanish, Catalan, Occitan, English, Slovene From the Latin personal name Angelus meaning "Angel", derived from the Greek word ἄγγελος (angelos) meaning "messenger" (see the given name Angel).
AngerhoferGerman Habitational name for someone from Angerhof in Bavaria.
AngilleyEnglish (Australian, Modern) Supposedly from a long history of Tin and Terracotta miners in Wales under the name Gilley in the 15-60's. the 'An' is theorised to be a result of the Anglo-Saxon faith being a prominent belief within the area, and has become a prominent name ever since with few more variations.... [more]
ÅngströmSwedish Combination of Swedish ånga "steam" and ström "river, current, stream". A notable bearer was Swedish physicist Anders Ångström (1814-1874), one of the founders of the science of spectroscopy... [more]
AnkjærDanish From a place name meaning 'water-hole with ducks.'
AnnEnglish Habitational name from Abbots Ann in Hampshire, named for the stream that runs through it, which is most probably named with an ancient Welsh word meaning ‘water’.
AnslowEnglish Habitational name from Anslow in Staffordshire.
AnsteadEnglish Possibly derived from places named with Old English ham-stede meaning "homestead".
AnstedEnglish Variant of Anstead, possibly derived from places named with Old English ham-stede meaning "homestead".
AnsteyEnglish Means "person from Anstey or Ansty", the name of numerous places in England (either "single track" or "steep track"). F. Anstey was the pen-name of British barrister and author Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856-1934).
AntrobusEnglish This very unusual name is of Old Norse origin and is a locational surname from the place in Cheshire called "Antrobus". The placename is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Entrebus", and in the Pipe Rolls of Cheshire of 1282 as "Anterbus"... [more]
ApeltiaEnglish (Rare) Comes from the word "appellation" referring to the Appellation Mountains.
ApfelGerman, Jewish Means "apple" in German, from Middle High German apfel, an occupational name for someone who grew or sold apples. As a Jewish name, it is ornamental.
AppelGerman, Dutch, Jewish, Yiddish From Low German Appel, Middle Dutch appel, or Yiddish epl "apple", an occupational name for a grower or seller of the fruit. As a Jewish surname, it is generally ornamental rather than occupational.
AppelGerman, Dutch From the personal name Appel, a pet form of Apprecht (common especially in Thuringia and Franconia), itself a variant of Albrecht... [more]
AppenzellGerman Habitational name for someone from Appenzell (village or canton) in northeastern Switzerland. The placename derives from Latin abbatis cella, "cell (i.e., estate) of the abbot".
ApplegarthEnglish, Scottish Topographic or habitational name from Middle English applegarth meaning "apple orchard", from Old Norse apaldr "apple tree" and garðr "enclosure, yard".
ApplewhiteEnglish Habitational name from a place named Applethwaite, from Old Norse apaldr ‘apple tree’ and þveit ‘meadow’. There are two or three such places in Cumbria; Applethwaite is also recorded as a surname from the 13th century in Suffolk, England, pointing to a possible lost place name there... [more]
ArborneEnglish (British) A surname found in England as well as in America. This surname has been attached to Americans of English ancestry.
ArbuckleEnglish, Scottish Habitational name for a person from the minor place of Arbuckle in North Lanarkshire, derived from Scottish Gaelic earrann "part, section" and buachaill "herdsman".
AretzEnglish (American) The Aretz family name was found in the USA, and Canada between 1880 and 1920. The most Aretz families were found in USA in 1920. In 1880 there were 14 Aretz families living in Minnesota. This was 100% of all the recorded Aretz's in USA.
AriqEnglish (American) This name means a men with many gifts. The first person with the name spelled as this was an gangbanger from Covington, Kentucky. He died in 1998.
ArisenEnglish (Modern) From a Dutch surname that means "son of Aris 2". In The Netherlands, this name is never used as a first name, since Dutch law strictly prohibits the use of surnames as first names... [more]
ArlinghausGerman Perhaps a habitational name from Oerlinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia.
ArlingtonEnglish Location name that refers to a settlement associated with a personal name reduced to Arl- plus the Anglo-Saxon patronymic element -ing- then the element -ton denoting a "settlement"... [more]
ArlottEnglish From a medieval nickname for a ne'er-do-well (from Middle English harlot or arlot "vagabond, base fellow"; "prostitute" is a 15th-century development). This surname was borne by Jack Arlott (1914-1991), a British journalist, poet and cricket commentator.
ArmitageEnglish Topographic name for someone who lived on or near a hermitage or a habitational for places so called, derived from Middle English ermitage. A famous bearer of the name is English actor Richard Crispin Armitage (1971-).
ArneEnglish (British, Rare) From the name of a village in Dorset named with Old English ærn "house" or hær "at the tumuli".
ArneNorwegian (Rare) From the name of a place called Arna, derived either from Old Norse ǫrn "eagle" or from an Indo-European root meaning "to stream, to flow".
ArrheniusSwedish (Rare) The name of two separate family linages with no relation between each other. One family originates from Linköping, Östergötland and probably got its name from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́ρρην (árrhēn) "male" (taken from the last syllable of ancestor's last name, Kapfelman)... [more]
ArrowsmithEnglish Occupational name for someone who made the iron tips for arrows.
ArscottEnglish From the the words ars, of unexplained origin, and cot "cottage, small house"
ArtellEnglish (American) Artell is a name that was brought to England by the ancestors of the Artell family when they emigrated following the Norman Conquest of 1066. The name Artell comes from the Dutch surname Van Arkel. The name Van Arkel may spring from the Anglo-Saxon form of Hercules, which is Ercol.
ArtertonEnglish Variant of Atherton. A famous bearer is the English actress Gemma Arterton (1986-).
ArtingstallEnglish From the name of a lost place in Cheshire called Alretunstall, probably derived from Old English alor "alder tree" combined with tun "enclosure, town" and steall "place, stead"... [more]
ArtisEnglish English: regional name for someone from the French province of Artois, from Anglo-Norman French Arteis (from Latin Atrebates, the name of the local Gaulish tribe). This surname is popular in North Carolina and Virginia, of the US.
ArundelEnglish English surname which comes from two distinct sources. Either it was derived from a place name meaning "horehound valley" in Old English (from harhune "horehound (a plant)" and dell "valley"), or it was from Old French arondel, diminutive of arond "swallow", which was originally a Norman nickname given to someone resembling a swallow.
AsburyEnglish Variant of Astbury. A famous bearer of the name was British-American Methodist minister Francis Asbury (1745-1816).
AschanSwedish Shortened form of Aschanius (now obsolete) taken from the name of a village whose name was derived from Swedish ask "ash tree".
AscheGerman From German meaning "ash, ash tree". Likely a habitational name for someone who lived by an ash tree.
AscherGerman Derived from German asche meaning "ash" (tanners worked with ash)
AscotEnglish Surname originating from the village of Arscott in Devon, meaning "eastern cottage" in Saxon. It can also be used to refer to Ascot in Berkshire, where the Royal Ascot race meeting is held each year.
AshbeEnglish Derived from one of the several places in England called Ashby.
AshbrookEnglish Derived from Ampney St Mary, a small village and civil parish locally known as "Ashbrook", in Gloucestershire, England (recorded in the Domesday Book as Estbroce). It is named with Old English est meaning "east, eastern" and broc meaning "brook, stream".
AshbyEnglish From the names of various places in England, all derived from Old English æsċ or Old Norse askr, both meaning "ash tree", or the given name Aski combined with býr "farm, settlement".
AshcroftEnglish English (chiefly Lancashire) topographic name from Middle English æsc ‘ash tree’ + croft ‘enclosure’, or a habitational name from a minor place named with these elements.
AshfordEnglish Derived from Ashford, which is the name of several places in England. All but one of these derive the second element of their name from Old English ford meaning "ford" - for the one in North Devon, it is derived from Old English worō or worth meaning "enclosure".... [more]
AshlandEnglish This surname is derived from Old English æsc & land and it means "ash tree land."
AshmanEnglish, Anglo-Saxon Derived from Anglo-Saxon Æscmann, a byname meaning "pirate, seaman", composed of æsc "(boat or spear made of) ash tree" and man "person, man"... [more]
AshmoreEnglish From the name of any of the various places in England so-called, all derived from Old English æsc "ash tree" and mor "moor, heath, bog" or mere "lake, pool".