English Surnames
English last names: more than meets the eye.- Expect a response within hours.
Looking for answers? Let's talk about the world's most primordial question: Who am I?
- Just listen.
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The English term "surname" originates from the same patriarchal institution that gave rise to the British monarchy. The predominant naming tradition throughout the whole wide world — whereby names are passed down from father to son, and women give up their names at marriage — although unquestionably sexist, reveals the cultural and religious perspective that upon marriage, God unites a heterogeneous couple in the holy sacrament of matrimony to better reflect God's eternal love towards humanity.
The best example of this type of thinking would be the surname Adams, which comes from the Semitic word for "drawn from the earth" where in the Old Testament, on the sixth day God made the first man, Adam.
Hence, most English surnames can be traced back to one of five groups:
- formed from the given name of the sire (common in English-speaking countries);
- arising from physical characteristics or dispositions;
- derived from locality or place of residence;
- derived from occupation (crafts and trades common during medieval times); or
- invented for their pleasing sound, as a nickname, or simply out of necessity.
Over time, some countries developed specific rules, publishing 'Naming Systems' for use in developing surnames. These systems, for example, promoted the use of suffixes like I, II, or III, which when used, the eldest son's name could be the same as that of the father. The Normans also introduced the Sr. and Jr. suffixes to distinguish father and son.
Regionally there are commonalties among the way heritable surnames were derived. The English terminated names with 'son', 'ing', and 'kin', which are comparable to names prefixed with the Gaelic 'Mac', the Norman 'Fitz', the Irish '0', and the Welsh 'ap'. There are also German, Dutch, Scandinavian, and other European surnames of similar formation, such as the Scandinavian names ending in 'sen'. In the Slavic countries, the 'sky' and 'ski' played the same role.
The Italians used a variety of prefixes for their naming practices. The prefix 'di' (meaning 'of') was often attached to an otherwise ordinary Christian name to form a patronym; 'da' and 'di' (meaning 'from') often associated a place of origin; and 'la' and 'lo' (meaning 'the') often derived from nicknames.
While these are examples of a structured approach to naming descendants, all too often other circumstances existed and our ancestors opted for (or were forced into) an alternate approach.
Abbott
Adams
Adams
English (very common in England, especially in the south Midlands, and in Wales) and German (especially northwestern Germany): patronymic from the personal name Adam. In the U.S. this form has absorbed many patronymics and other derivatives of Adam in languages other than English. Derived from Adam, which means ‘man’ in Hebrew. The origins of this last name date back to the pre-medieval period. In the Old Testament, Adam is also referred to as ‘the earth’ from where God created man.
Alexander
Allen
Allen
English and Scottish: from a Celtic personal name of great antiquity and obscurity. In England the personal name is now usually spelled Alan, the surname Allen; in Scotland the surname is more often Allan. Various suggestions have been put forward regarding its origin; the most plausible is that it originally meant ‘little rock’. Compare Gaelic ailín, diminutive of ail ‘rock’. The present-day frequency of the surname Allen in England and Ireland is partly accounted for by the popularity of the personal name among Breton followers of William the Conqueror, by whom it was imported first to Britain and then to Ireland. St. Alan(us) was a 5th-century bishop of Quimper, who was a cult figure in medieval Brittany. Another St. Al(l)an was a Cornish or Breton saint of the 6th century, to whom a church in Cornwall is dedicated.
Allison
Anderson
Andrews
Armstrong
Arnold
Atkinson
Austin
Bailey
Baker
Ball
Barker
Barnes
Bennett
Booth
Bradley
Brooks
Brown
Burton
Butler
Campbell
Carlson
Carter
Clarke
Cohen
Cole
Collins
Coleman
Cook
Cooper
Cox
Crawford
Daniels
Davidson
Davies
Davis
Dawson
Day
Dean
Dixon
Douglas
Doyle
Duncan
Dunn
Eaton
Edwards
Elder
Elliott
Ellis
Ellison
Emerson
English
Erickson
Evans
Everett
Ewing
Ferguson
Fields
Fisher
Fleming
Fletcher
Ford
Foster
Fowler
Fox
Frank
Franklin
Freeman
Fuller
Gardner
Garrett
George
Gibson
Gilbert
Gordon
Graham
Grant
Gray
Green
Griffin
Hall
Hamilton
Harris
Harrison
Harvey
Hayes
Henderson
Hill
Holmes
Howard
Hughes
Hunt
Ingle
Ingram
Inman
Ireland
Ivey
Irvin
Irving
Irwin
Isaac
Isaacs
Iverson
Ivy
Jackson
Jacobs
Jacobson
James
Jenkins
Jennings
Jensen
Johns
Johnson
Johnston
Jones
Jordan
Kane
Keller
Kelley
Kelly
Kennedy
King
Kirby
Kirk
Klein
Kline
Knight
Kramer
Lane
Larson
Lawrence
Lawson
Lee
Leonard
Lewis
Little
Long
Lowe
Lucas
Lynch
MacIntyre
Marshall
Martin
McDonald
Meyer
Miller
Mitchell
Monroe
Moore
Morgan
Morris
Murphy
Murray
Myers
Nash
Neal
Nelson
Newman
Newton
Nichols
Nicholson
Noble
Nolan
Norman
Norris
Norton
O'Brien
O'Connor
Oliver
Olsen
Olson
Orr
Osborn
Osborne
Ott
Owen
Owens
Palmer
Parker
Patterson
Payne
Perry
Peters
Peterson
Phillips
Pierce
Porter
Powell
Price
Quakenbush
Qualls
Quarles
Queen
Quick
Quigley
Quillen
Quimby
Quinlan
Quinn
Quirk
Reed
Reynolds
Rice
Richardson
Roberts
Robertson
Robinson
Rogers
Rose
Ross
Russell
Ryan
Sanders
Schmidt
Scott
Shaw
Simmons
Simpson
Smith
Snyder
Stevens
Stewart
Stone
Sullivan
Tanner
Tate
Taylor
Terry
Thomas
Thompson
Thornton
Todd
Townsend
Tucker
Turner
Tyler
Uhl
Ulmer
Ulrich
Underhill
Underwood
Unger
Upchurch
Upshaw
Upton
Urban
Usher
Utley
Valentine
Vance
Vaughan
Vaughn
Vernon
Vickers
Vincent
Vinson
Vogel
Vogt
Voss
Wagner
Walker
Wallace
Ward
Watson
West
Williams
Wilson
Wood
Woods
Wright
Xander
Xanders
Xanthos
Xaver
Xavier
Xenakis
Xenos
Ximenes
Xinos
Xiques
Xuereb
Xydias