ABSTONEnglish (British) The surname Abston is of an uncertain origin. Perhaps from an English place name, but not now recorded in England as a surname. One possibility is Abson near Bristol, earlier Abston; another is Adstone in Northamptonshire, which is named from an Old English personal name Ættīn + Old English tūn ‘settlement’.
ACEEnglish, Norman, Medieval French The surname Ace's origin is from a Norman and Old French personal name, Ace, Asse, from Germanic Frankish origin Azzo, Atso, a pet form of personal names containing adal ‘noble’ as a first element.
ACKERLEYEnglish Old English surname which came from a place name which meant "Oak meadow." See ACKLEY.
ACKERSONEnglish From the middle english word "aker" meaning field, basically means "son of the field"
ACKLEYEnglish From an Old English surname: a place name which meant "Oak meadow". A variation of this is: "dwells at the oak tree meadow". ... [more]
ACKROYDEnglish Topographic name from northern Middle English ake "oak" and royd "clearing".
ACTONEnglish, Northern Irish "Oak Town" in Old English. Parishes in Cheshire, Suffolk, Middlesex. There is also a place that bears this name in Ulster.
ACUFFEnglish (American) Acuff Name Meaning. English: of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of northern English Aculf, from an Old Norse personal name Agúlfr 'terror wolf'... [more]
ADDINGTONEnglish Habitational name from any of various places named in Old English as Eaddingtun 'settlement associated with Eadda' or Æddingtun 'settlement associated with Æddi'.
ADNEYEnglish Habitational name from Adeney in Shropshire, named in Old English as Eadwynna ey "island of a woman called Eadwynn". English: from a Middle English pet form of ADAM... [more]
AGLEREnglish From one or more Middle English personal names variously written Alger, Algar, Alcher, Aucher, etc. These represent a falling together of at least three different Continental Germanic and Old English names: ADALGAR "noble spear" (Old English Æ{dh}elgār), Albgar "elf spear" (Old English Ælfgār), and Aldgar "old spear" (Old English (E)aldgār)... [more]
AIZLEWOODEnglish (Rare) Believed to be a South Yorkshire variant of the popular Hazelwood, of which there are several villages in the region. Also known as a development of Olde English 'Ashlac' found in the Yorkshire village of Aislaby, which translates as The farm (bi) of Ashlac... [more]
AKRIDGEEnglish Possibly English, a habitational name from a place with a name meaning ‘oak ridge’, as for example Aikrigg in Cumbria (from Old Norse eik ‘oak’ + hryggr ‘ridge’), or any of the many places called Oakridge (from Old English āc + hrycg)... [more]
ALABASTEREnglish From the name of a whitish kind of gypsum used for vases, ornaments and busts, ultimately deriving from Greek alabastros, itself perhaps from Egyptian 'a-labaste "vessel of the goddess Bast"... [more]
ALBANYScottish, English (American) From the title of the Dukes of Albany (House of Stuart), hence a name borne by their retainers. It is an infrequent surname in England and Scotland. The city of Albany, NY (formerly the Dutch settlement of Beverwijck or Fort Orange) was named for James Stuart, Duke of York and Albany; he was the brother of King Charles II and later king in his own right as James II... [more]
ALBRIGHTAmerican This name was originally Albrecht. It was changed by German imigrants to America in the 1600s.
ALCOCKEnglish From a diminutive of given names starting with Al-.
ALCOTTEnglish English: ostensibly a topographic name containing Middle English cott, cote ‘cottage’ (see COATES). In fact, however, it is generally if not always an alteration of ALCOCK, in part at least for euphemistic reasons.
ALDERMANEnglish Status name from Middle English alderman, Old English ealdorman, "elder". In medieval England an alderman was a member of the governing body of a city or borough; also the head of a guild.
ALDOUSEnglish Aldous is one of the thousands of new names that the Norman Conquest of 1066 brought to England. It comes from the Old English female given name Aldus. Ald, the first part of the name, means old.
ALDRIDGEEnglish habitational name from a place in the West Midlands called Aldridge; it is recorded in Domesday Book as Alrewic, from Old English alor ‘alder’ + wīc ‘dwelling’, ‘farmstead’.
ALFORDEnglish, Scottish Habitation name found in Lincolnshire, Surrey and Somerset, England and Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The name can be derived by combining the Old English female personal name Ealdg- and -ford meaning "water crossing" or can mean "from the alder tree ford".
ALLINEnglish Variant spelling of ALLEN. Also a derivative of the Norman female name ADELINA, based on Germanic adal, 'noble'.
ALLISEnglish From the Middle English and Old French female personal name Alis (Alice), which, together with its diminutive Alison, was extremely popular in England in the Middle Ages. The personal name is of Germanic origin, brought to England from France by the Normans; it is a contracted form of Germanic Adalhaid(is), which is composed of the elements adal "noble" and haid "brilliance, beauty".
ALLOWAYEnglish Means (i) "person from Alloway, Alloa or Alva", the name of various places in Scotland ("rocky plain"); or (ii) from the medieval male personal name Ailwi (from Old English Æthelwīg, literally "noble battle").
ALLREDEnglish From the Middle English personal name Alured, a form of ALFRED, which was sometimes written Alvred, especially in Old French texts.
ALMONDEnglish From the Middle English personal name Almund, from Old English Æ{dh}elmund, "noble protection" and variant of ALLMAN, assimilated by folk etymology to the vocabulary word denoting the tree.
ALSOPEnglish Habitational name, now chiefly found in the Midlands, for a person from Alsop-en-le-Dale, a chapelry in the parish of Ashborne, Derbyshire. The place name itself meant "Ælle's valley" from the genitive of the Old English personal name ÆLLE and Old English hōp meaning "enclosed valley" (compare HOPE).
ALSTONEnglish A locational surname, derived from the many townships in England of the same name, meaning 'of the old manor or of the hillside'
AMESEnglish, German English: 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.... [more]
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]
AMORYEnglish, Norman English from a Germanic personal name, Aimeri, composed of the elements haim ‘home’ + ric ‘power’... [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]
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).
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’.
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.
APLINEnglish Probably a patronymic of the popular medieval English given name ABEL. See also Appling.
APPLEGARTHEnglish, Scottish Topographic name from northern Middle English applegarth meaning "apple orchard" (Old Norse apaldr meaning "apple tree" + gar{dh}r meaning "enclosure"), or a habitational name from a place so named, of which there are examples in Cumbria and North and East Yorkshire, as well as in the county of Dumfries.
APPLEGATEEnglish Extremely common variant of APPLEGARTH, in which the less familiar final element has been assimilated to the northern Middle English word gate meaning "road" or to modern English gate.
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]
ARDELLAAfrican American Derivative of ARDEN, popularized by the poem of the same name by Langston Hughes, the most well-known Black poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Meaning is "garden dweller."... [more]
ARDENEnglish From various English place names, which were derived from a Celtic word meaning "high".... [more]
ARIESEnglish, French The name means either a person who worked in a fashion of the "Arras" cloth, as in the quotation "one bede Coveringe of Aries" (1562), or someone who was a former inhabitant of Arras in France, or Arras in Yorkshire; the latter being a particularly popular source of the name.
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". 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]
ARLENAmerican Of uncertain origin. Possibly a form of the German name Erlen or a Gaelic name meaning "pledge" or "oath".
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.
ARROWSMITHEnglish Given to someone who made arrows with the element smith.
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.
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 English location name with the elements as- meaning "east" or "ash tree" and -bury meaning "fortified settlement."
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.
ASELTONAmerican Asel being a variant of Asil meaning ""noble"" and ton meaning ""town"".
ASHBEEnglish Derived from one of the several places in England called Ashby.
ASHBYEnglish English: habitational name from any of the numerous places in northern and eastern England called Ashby, from Old Norse askr ‘ash’ or the Old Norse personal name ASKI + býr ‘farm’.
ASHCROFTEnglish English (chiefly Lancashire) topographic name from Middle English asche ‘ash tree’ + croft ‘enclosure’, or a habitational name from a minor place named with these elements.
ASHEREnglish Name for someone who dwelled by an ash tree, from Middle English asche or asshe meaning "ash tree".
ASHFIELDEnglish From the English words ASH, referring to the "Ash Tree", and "Field".
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 From Middle English Asheman, a byname meaning "pirate, seaman". It can also be made up of English ash referring to the "ash tree", and man. In that case, it could refer to someone who lived by ash trees... [more]
ASHMOREEnglish English locational name, from either "Aisemare", (from Old English pre 7th Century "aesc" meaning ash plus "mere" a lake; hence "lake where ash-trees grow), or from any of several minor places composed of the Old English elements "aesc" ash plus "mor" a marsh or fen.
ASSELBROUGHEnglish pronouncec assel brudd the origin of the name id unknown but the family were first fiund in heworth .george asselbrough married sarah keatlie in heworth.they had george b1752-1833 alston,srag 17154c nicholas 1757 - 1813 felling pit disaster.peter 1760 james 1762,... [more]
ASTLEYEnglish Derived from an English surname and place name meaning "eastern woodland clearing" in Old English. A famous bearer of the surname is British singer, songwriter, and radio personality Rick Astley (1966-pres.).
ATHERTONEnglish Habitational name from a place near Manchester named Atherton, from the Old English personal name Æ{dh}elhere + Old English tūn meaning "settlement".
ATLEEEnglish English: topographic name for someone whose dwelling was ‘by the clearing or meadow’, Middle English atte lee. The word lea or lee (Old English leah) originally meant ‘wood’, thence ‘clearing in a wood’, and, by the Middle English period, ‘grassy meadow’.
ATMOREEnglish Locational surname derived from Middle English atte more meaning "at the marsh".
ATTENBOROUGHEnglish (British) Derived from the name of a village and a suburb called Attenborough, located in the Broxtowe borough of Nottinghamshire, England.
AUDENEnglish This surname is derived from the Germanic given name Aldwin, of which the Old English equivalent is Ealdwine... [more]
AUDISHEnglish (British) Audish was first found in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire in the south of England, people who had the surname 'Audish' were wealthy landowners, thus held in high esteem.
AUSLEYEnglish (Modern) Rare surname which was from an English place name in which the second element is Old English leah "wood, clearing". The first element may be hors "horse" (in which case the name likely referred to a place where horses were put out to pasture) or the river name Ouse (ultimately from the ancient British root ud- "water").
AUSTENEnglish A variant of the surname AUSTIN. This exact spelling is also on the first name site.
AUTRYEnglish, French A habitational name from any of the places in France named Autrey or Autry. French: from the Old French personal name Audry, from Germanic Aldric ‘ancient power’.
AXFORDEnglish Derived from Axford, which is the name of two villages in England (one is located in the county of Hampshire, the other in Wiltshire). Both villages derive their name from Old English æsc(e) "ash tree(s)" and Old English ford "ford", which gives their name the meaning of "ford by the ash trees" or "a ford with ash trees"... [more]
AYDENEnglish, Scottish From a Scottish surname which was derived from Gaelic caol meaning "narrows, channel, strait".
AYKROYDEnglish Variant of ACKROYD. A famous bearer is Canadian actor and comedian Dan Aykroyd (1952-).