Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. The accuracy of these name definitions cannot be guaranteed.
LudlamEnglish Derived from the old English word hlud "loud, roaring" (compare germanic hlud), which gave the name to the river Hlude and ham "water meadow"
LudlowEnglish Habitational name from a place in Shropshire, so named from the Old English river name Hlude (from hlud 'loud', 'roaring') referring to the Teme river + hlaw 'hill'.
LudwellEnglish From the Old English elements hlud meaning "famous, loud" and well meaning "well, spring, water hole"
LuggEnglish English (Devon) probably from a local vernacular derivative of Lucas. However, Reaney posits an Old English personal name, Lugga, from which this name could be derived.
LukeEnglish From a derivative of Lucas. This was (and is) the common vernacular form of the name, being the one by which the author of the fourth Gospel is known in English.
LundyEnglish Either (i) "person from Lundie", the name of various places in Scotland (meaning "place by a marsh"); or (ii) a different form of Mcalinden.
LunnNorwegian, English Derived from Lund, which in turn comes from the Old Norse lundr, meaning "grove of trees".
LuterEnglish From Middle English leuter "lute player", or else from Old French lutre "otter", either a nickname or a metonymic name for someone who hunted otters.
LuttrellEnglish From a diminutive of Old French loutre, meaning "otter" (from Latin lutra), applied as a nickname for someone thought to resemble an otter or a metonymic occupational name for someone who hunted otters (for their pelts).
LuxtonEnglish English habitational name from a minor place, probably one of two in Devon, so called from the possessive form of the Middle English personal name or surname Lugg (from Old English Lugga) + Middle English tune, tone ‘settlement’ (Old English tun).
MabbettEnglish From a pet-form of the medieval female personal name Mabbe, a shortened form of Amabel (ultimately from Latin amābilis "lovable")... [more]
MaceEnglish, French English: from a medieval personal name, a survival of Old English Mæssa, which came to be taken as a pet form of Matthew.... [more]
MadeleyEnglish English: habitational name from places so named in Shropshire and Staffordshire, named in Old English with the personal name Mada + leah ‘woodland clearing’.
MagnumEnglish Possibly derived from the given name Magnus. It is borne by the fictional character Thomas Magnum, the protagonist on the American television series Magnum, P.I. (1980-1988).
MahloyEnglish (American) Mahloy is a misspelling of Malloy by Charles Malloy's (b. 1898, Scotland) elementary school teacher in the Ireland. The surname Malloy is derived from the pre 10th century Old Gaelic name O'Maolmhuidh, meaning the descendant of the Great Chief.
MaidesEnglish Maides is an almost extinct surname which has decreased significantly in popularity since the 19th century, though has always been relatively uncommon. The surname is today most popular in Leicestershire but the family bearing the surname from that area seem to have originated from the south of Warwickshire... [more]
MaidmentEnglish Occupational name for a servant of maidens (such as nuns), from Middle English maiden (ultimately from Old English mægden) meaning "young girl, virgin, maiden" and man ending with an excrescent -t.
MaitlandEnglish, Scottish Possibly from Mautalant, the name of a place in Pontorson, France meaning "inhospitable" or "bad temper" in Norman French (ultimately from Late Latin malum "bad" and talentum "inclination, disposition"), which was so named because of its unproductive soil; or perhaps it was originally a nickname for an ungracious individual, derived from the same source.
MallardEnglish Either (i) from the Old French male personal name Malhard, brought into England by the Normans but ultimately of Germanic origin and meaning literally "council-brave"; or (ii) from a medieval nickname for someone thought to resemble a male wild duck.
MallettEnglish Possible origins Malet a medieval diminutive of Mal(le) being a pet form of and name Mary, could also be of Norman origin from the Old French personal name Malhard.
MalloryEnglish, Anglo-Norman The more common variant of the surname Malory. Originally an Anglo-Norman byname for an unfortunate or unhappy person, from the Old French word "maleuré" meaning "unfortunate", "wretched" "wicked"... [more]
MallowsEnglish From Anglo-Saxon origins, meaning "The cross or mark on the hill". This surname is taken from the location 'Mallows Green' in England.
MaloryAnglo-Norman, English The older variant of the surname Mallory. Originally an Anglo-Norman byname for an unfortunate or unhappy person, from the Old French word "maleuré" meaning "unfortunate", "wretched" "wicked"... [more]
MalpassEnglish, Scottish, French Habitational name from any of various places named Malpas, because of the difficulty of the terrain, from Old French mal pas "bad passage" (Latin malus passus). It is a common French minor place name, and places in Cheshire, Cornwall, Gwent, and elsewhere in England were given this name by Norman settlers... [more]
ManchesterEnglish Habitational name from the city in northwestern England, formerly part of Lancashire. This is so called from Mamucio (an ancient British name containing the element mammā "breast", and meaning "breast-shaped hill") combined with Old English ceaster "Roman fort or walled city" (Latin castra "legionary camp").
ManfordEnglish Place name for "Munda's ford" from an Old English personal name Munda, the same element in the second syllable of Edmund and ford meaning a waterway crossing.
ManhattanEnglish From the name of the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City, in the U.S. state of New York. Derived from the Munsee Lenape language term manaháhtaan (where manah- means "gather", -aht- means "bow" and -aan is an abstract element used to form verb stems), meaning "the place where we get bows" or "place for gathering the (wood to make) bows"... [more]
ManleyEnglish Habitational name from places in Devon and Cheshire, named in Old English as "common wood or clearing", from (ge)mǣne "common, shared" and lēah "woodland clearing". The surname is still chiefly found in the regions around these villages.
MansellEnglish (Canadian), Norman Of Norman origin, a habitational or regional name from Old French mansel ‘inhabitant of Le Mans or the surrounding area of Maine’. The place was originally named in Latin (ad) Ceromannos, from the name of the Gaulish tribe living there, the Ceromanni... [more]
MansfieldEnglish Means "open land by the River Maun", from the Celtic river name combined with the Old English word feld "field".
MantelEnglish, German, French, Dutch nickname for someone who wore a cloak in a particularly conspicuous way or with a striking design, from Middle English, Middle High German, Old French, and Middle Dutch mantel "cloak, coat" (from Late Latin mantellus)... [more]
MappEnglish From a variant of the medieval female personal name Mabbe, a shortened form of Amabel. A fictional bearer is Elizabeth Mapp, busybodyish spinster in the 'Mapp and Lucia' novels of E.F. Benson.
MarableFrench, English From the feminine personal name Mirabel, equated in medieval records with Latin mirabilis "marvelous", "wonderful" (in the sense "extraordinary").
MarchEnglish From the English word meaning, "to walk stiffly and proudly" or possibly from the month.
MarchantFrench, English, Spanish Variant of Marchand, from French marchand meaning "merchant, mercantile". Though it is of French origin, it was transferred into the Spanish-speaking world, especially Chile, by French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
MarcusEnglish Marcus is a surname derived from the given name of Ancient Roman pre-Christian origin derived either from Etruscan Marce of unknown meaning (possibly from the Etruscan "mar" which means "to harvest"), or referring to the god Mars... [more]
MarinerEnglish, Catalan Occupational name from Middle English mariner "sailor seaman boatman" (Anglo-Norman French mariner Old French mariniermarniermerinier) Catalan mariner (from Late Latin marinarius a derivative of marinus "marine").
MarkEnglish, German, Dutch Topographic name for someone who lived on a boundary between two districts, from Old High German marka "border, boundary, march". The German term also denotes an area of fenced-off land (see Marker) and, like the English word, is embodied in various place names which have given rise to habitational names.
MarkellEnglish Habitational name from various locations in England containing the Old English element mearc (from Old Germanic markō) meaning "border, boundary".
MarkhamEnglish English name from a place in Nottinghamshire, named in Old English as 'homestead at a (district) boundary', from mearc 'boundary' + ham 'homestead'. English surname used as an equivalent of Gaelic Ó Marcacháin 'descendant of Marcachán', a diminutive of Marcach (see Markey).
MarklandEnglish From Old English mearc meaning "boundary" and lanu meaning "lane", it is a habitational name from a place in the town of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. It can also be a topographic name for someone who lived by a stretch of border or boundary land, or a status name for someone who held land with an annual value of one mark.
MarkleyEnglish From Old English mearc meaning "border, mark" combined with leah meaning "clearing, grove."
MarksEnglish This surname is derived either from the name Mark or from Old English mearc meaning "border, mark."
MarksmanEnglish An occupational surname indicating a person who was a hunter, especially a skilled one.
MarlboroughEnglish From the name of the market town and civil parish of Marlborough in Wiltshire, England, derived from the Old English given name Mǣrla and beorg meaning "hill, mound".
MarlerEnglish (British) The name Marler might be loosely tied to marl, the type of crumbly clay made up of sand, silt, or clay. The name Marler likely means to mine marl, so they were called Marlers.
MarmionEnglish, French, Irish 1. English (of Norman origin) and French: nickname from old French marmion “monkey”, “brat”. ... [more]
MarnerEnglish, German Occupational name for a sailor from Anglo-Norman French mariner Middle, High German marnære "seaman". English variant of Mariner.
MarpleEnglish Means "boundary stream" from Old English maere (boundary), and pyll (stream).
MarquisFrench, English for someone who behaved like a marquis or an occupational name for a servant in the household of a marquis, from Old Northern French marquis... [more]
MarschallGerman, English occupational name for a man in the service of a member of the nobility originally one who looked after the horses derived from Middle High German marschalc from Latin mariscalcus, ultimately from Old High German marah "horse" and scalc "servant"... [more]
MarslandEnglish Probably derived from some place named as being a boggy place, from Old English mersc meaning "marsh" and land meaning "land". Alternatively, it may be a variant of Markland.
MarvelEnglish Either (i) from a medieval nickname (often ironic) for someone regarded as a prodigy; or (ii) "person from Merville", the name of two places in northern France ("smaller settlement" and "settlement belonging to a man with a Germanic name beginning with Meri-, literally 'famous'")... [more]
MarwoodEnglish From the name of two places named Marwood in England, or a nickname for a person who "casts an evil eye", derived from Norman French malreward meaning "evil eye, glance".
MaseyEnglish, Scottish, French, Norman English and Scottish (of Norman origin) and French: habitational name from any of various places in northern France which get their names from the Gallo-Roman personal name Maccius + the locative suffix -acum.... [more]
MaslinEnglish Derived from the Middle English and Old French given names Mazelin and Mazelin, double diminutives of names containing the Germanic element mahal "meeting, assembly; speech, court"... [more]
MasseterEnglish Perhaps means "brewery worker" (from Middle English mash "fermentable mixture of hot water and grain" + rudder "rudder-shaped stirrer").
MassingberdEnglish Perhaps from a medieval nickname for someone with an auburn or reddish beard (from Middle English massing "brass" + berd "beard").
MassinghamEnglish From the name of either of two villages in Norfolk, England, meaning "Mæssa’s village", composed of the personal name Mæssa and possessive suffix ing combined with ham "home, settlement".
MastermanEnglish occupational name meaning "servant of the master" from Middle English maister "master" (Latin magister "teacher, master, leader") and mann "man".
MatlockEnglish From the name of a town in Derbyshire, England, meaning "moot oak, oak where meetings were held", derived from Old English mæðel "meeting, gathering, council" (see mahal) and ac "oak (tree)".
MatontiEnglish My grandfathers last name from Italy . He grew up in Naples but the name is from a small country village by Tuscany named Matonti. That's all we know so far.
MattinglyEnglish (British) This name dates all the way back to the 1200s and research shows that Mattingly families began immigrating to the United States in the 1600s and continued until the 1900s. However, the place name (Mattingley, England) dates back to the year 1086, but spelled as Matingelege... [more]