Family History

German and French: variant of Bastian. German French (Alsace and Lorraine of German origin) and Spanish (Asturias): from a short form of the personal name Sebastian. English (Cornwall): from the Middle English personal name Bastian, a pet form of Sebastian.

English, Scottish, and Irish: generally a nickname referring to the color of the hair or complexion, Middle English br(o)un, from Old English brun or Old French brun. This word is occasionally found in Old English and Old Norse as a personal name or byname. Brun was also a Germanic name-forming element. Some instances of Old English Brun as a personal name may therefore be short forms of compound names such as Brungar, Brunwine, etc. As a Scottish and Irish name, it sometimes represents a translation of Gaelic Donn. As an American family name, it has absorbed numerous surnames from other languages with the same meaning.

English (West Midlands): nickname for a swarthy person, from Old English colig ‘dark’, ‘black’ (a derivative of col ‘(char)coal’). English: possibly a habitational name from Coaley in Gloucestershire, named in Old English as ‘woodland clearing (leah) with a hut or shelter (cofa)’. Probably an Americanized form of Swiss German Kohli or Kohler.

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Coileáin and Mac Coileáin (see Cullen 1). English: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Col(l)in, a pet form of Coll, itself a short form of Nicholas. Americanized form of French Colin.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Deargáin ‘descendant of Deargán’, a byname from a diminutive of dearg ‘red’.

English and French: from the Germanic personal name Dillo (of uncertain origin, perhaps a byname from the root dil ‘destroy’), introduced to Britain from France by the Normans. English: habitational name from Dilwyn near Hereford, recorded in 1138 as Dilun, probably from Old English diglum, dative plural of digle ‘recess’, ‘retreat’, i.e. ‘at the shady or secret places’. Irish (of Norman origin): altered form of de Leon (see Lyon). Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duilleáin ‘descendant of Duilleán’, a personal name, a variant of Dallán meaning ‘little blind one’. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): of uncertain origin; either an ornamental name from the Biblical place name Dilon (Joshua 15:38), or an altered form of Sephardic de León (see Lyon).

Scottish and Irish (of Scottish origin): from the Gaelic personal name Donnchadh, composed of the elements donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + a derivative of cath ‘battle’, Anglicized in Ireland as Donagh or Donaghue. Compare Donahue. Irish (Sligo): used as an Anglicized equivalent of Gaelic Ó Duinnchinn ‘descendant of Donncheann’, a byname composed of the elements donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + ceann ‘head’.

Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duinn, Ó Doinn ‘descendant of Donn’, a byname meaning ‘brown-haired’ or ‘chieftain’. English: nickname for a man with dark hair or a swarthy complexion, from Middle English dunn ‘dark-colored’. Scottish: habitational name from Dun in Angus, named with Gaelic dùn ‘fort’. Scottish: nickname from Gaelic donn ‘brown’.

English: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements eber ‘wild boar’ + hard ‘brave’, ‘hardy’, ‘strong’. The surname was at first found mainly in East Anglia (still one of the principal locations of the variant Everett), which was an area of heavy Norman and Breton settlement after the Conquest. This suggests that the personal name may be of Continental (Norman) origin, but it is also possible that it swallowed up an unattested Old English cognate, Eoforheard.

English: occupational name for someone who kept and trained falcons (a common feudal service). Falconry was a tremendously popular sport among the aristocracy in medieval Europe, and most great houses had their falconers. The surname could also have arisen as a metonymic occupational name for someone who operated the siege gun known as a falcon.

English: variant of Free. Irish: Anglicized (‘translated’) form of Gaelic Ó Saoraidhe (see Seery). In New England, an English equivalent of French Foissy (see Foisy). Translation of German Freimann (see Freiman).

Scottish: variant of Halkett, which is probably a habitational name from the lands of Halkhead in Renfrewshire, named with Middle English hauk, halk ‘hawk’ + wude ‘wood’. English (mainly central England): from a pet form of the medieval personal name Hack, Hake. English: from Middle English haket, a kind of fish, hence perhaps a nickname for someone supposed to resemble such a fish, or a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman or fish seller. Irish: when it is not the English name, this may also be an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eachaidh (see Caughey, McGaffey).

Scottish and northern English: variant spelling of Hale 1. English: variant spelling of Hail.

Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from what is now a deserted village in the parish of Barkby, Leicestershire. This is named from Old English hamel ‘crooked’ + dun ‘hill’. Hamilton near Glasgow was founded by the Hamiltons and named after them. In Ireland, this name may have replaced Hamill in a few cases. It has also been used as the equivalent of the Irish (Cork) name Ó hUrmholtaigh.

English: patronymic from the Middle English personal name Hawkin, a diminutive of Hawk 1 with the Anglo-Norman French hypocoristic suffix -in. English: in the case of one family, this is a variant of Hawkinge, a habitational name from a place in Kent, so called from Old English Hafocing ‘hawk place’. Irish: sometimes used as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó hEacháin (see Haughn).

English and French: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements haim, heim ‘home’ + ric ‘power’, ‘ruler’, introduced to England by the Normans in the form Henri. During the Middle Ages this name became enormously popular in England and was borne by eight kings. Continental forms of the personal name were equally popular throughout Europe (German Heinrich, French Henri, Italian Enrico and Arrigo, Czech Jindrich, etc.). As an American family name, the English form Henry has absorbed patronymics and many other derivatives of this ancient name in continental European languages. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hInnéirghe ‘descendant of Innéirghe’, a byname based on éirghe ‘arising’. Also Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Éinrí or Mac Einri, patronymics from the personal names Éinrí, Einri, Irish forms of Henry. Jewish (American): Americanized form of various like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish names.

English and Scottish: patronymic from the personal name John. As an American family name, Johnson has absorbed patronymics and many other derivatives of this name in continental European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, etc.: from the Latin personal name Lucas (Greek Loukas) ‘man from Lucania’. Lucania is a region of southern Italy thought to have been named in ancient times with a word meaning ‘bright’ or ‘shining’. The Christian name owed its enormous popularity throughout Europe in the Middle Ages to St. Luke the Evangelist, hence the development of this surname and many vernacular derivatives in most of the languages of Europe. Scottish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Lùcais (see McLucas).

Spanish (Martínez): patronymic from the personal name Martin.

English (Yorkshire): of uncertain origin, probably from Middle English metecalf ‘food calf’, i.e. a calf being fattened up for eating at the end of the summer. It is thus either an occupational name for a herdsman or slaughterer, or a nickname for a sleek and plump individual, from the same word in a transferred sense. The variants in med- appear early, and suggest that the first element was associated by folk etymology with Middle English mead ‘meadow’, ‘pasture’.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a miller. The standard modern vocabulary word represents the northern Middle English term, an agent derivative of mille ‘mill’, reinforced by Old Norse mylnari (see Milner). In southern, western, and central England Millward (literally, ‘mill keeper’) was the usual term. The American surname has absorbed many cognate surnames from other European languages, for example French Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin; German Mueller; Dutch Molenaar; Italian Molinaro; Spanish Molinero; Hungarian Molnár; Slavic Mlinar, etc. Southwestern and Swiss German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Müller (see Mueller).

English (Yorkshire): habitational name, probably from Mosbrough in South Yorkshire, recorded in Domesday Book as Moresburh, from Old English mores, genitive singular of mor ‘marsh’, ‘fen’, ‘moor’ + burh ‘fortress’. Norwegian: habitational name from any of several farmsteads in southern Norway, so named from Old Norse mós (genitive case of mór ‘sandy plain’) + býr ‘farm’.

English (mainly Yorkshire): patronymic from Mayer 1, i.e. ‘son of the mayor’. English: patronymic from mire ‘physician’ (see Myer 1). Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Midhir, probably a variant of Ó Meidhir ‘mayor’ (see Mayer 1).

English: nickname for a newcomer to a place, from Middle English newe ‘new’ + man ‘man’. This form has also absorbed several European cognates with the same meaning, for example Neumann. (For other forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

German: habitational name from any of numerous places named Rossbach or Rosbach.

Irish: simplified form of Mulryan. Irish: reduced form of O’Ryan, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Riagháin (modern Irish Ó Riain) ‘descendant of Rian’; Ó Maoilriain ‘descendant of Maoilriaghain’, or Ó Ruaidhín ‘descendant of the little red one’. Ryan is one of the commonest surnames in Ireland; there has been considerable confusion with Regan. Americanized spelling of German Rein.

English: habitational name from a place in North Yorkshire, so named from Old English setl ‘seat’, ‘dwelling’.

English: nickname denoting someone with very white hair or an exceptionally pale complexion, from Old English snaw ‘snow’. Americanized and shortened form of any of the Jewish ornamental names composed with German Schnee, Schnei, Schneu ‘snow’ as the first element.

English: from Middle English stapel ‘post’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a boundary post, or a habitational name from some place named with this word (Old English stapel), as for example Staple in Kent or Staple Fitzpaine in Somerset. Americanized spelling of German Stapel.

English and Scottish: occupational name for a maker of objects of wood, metal, or bone by turning on a lathe, from Anglo-Norman French torner (Old French tornier, Latin tornarius, a derivative of tornus ‘lathe’). The surname may also derive from any of various other senses of Middle English turn, for example a turnspit, a translator or interpreter, or a tumbler. English: nickname for a fast runner, from Middle English turnen ‘to turn’ + ‘hare’. English: occupational name for an official in charge of a tournament. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from a place called Turno or Turna, in Poland and Belarus, or from the city of Tarnów (Yiddish Turne) in Poland. South German (T(h)ürner): occupational name for a guard in a tower or a topographic name from Middle High German turn ‘tower’.

English (mainly North and Midlands) and Scottish: occupational name for a fuller from Middle English walker, Old English wealcere (an agent derivative of wealcan ‘to walk, tread’) ‘one who trampled cloth in a bath of lye or kneaded it in order to strengthen it’. This was the regular term for the occupation during the Middle Ages in western and northern England. Compare Fuller and Tucker. As a Scottish surname it has also been used as a translation of Gaelic Mac an Fhucadair ‘son of the fuller’. This surname is also very common among African Americans.

English: from the Norman form of an Old French personal name composed of the Germanic elements wil ‘will’, ‘desire’ + helm ‘helmet’, ‘protection’. This was introduced into England at the time of the Conquest, and within a very short period it became the most popular personal name in England, mainly no doubt in honor of the Conqueror himself.