tykki's Personal Name List

Variant of Adams.

From a place name: either Annesley in Nottinghamshire or Ansley in Warwickshire. The place names themselves derive from Old English anne "alone, solitary" or ansetl "hermitage" and leah "woodland, clearing".

From Basque aitz meaning "rock, stone".

From Japanese 秋 (aki) meaning "autumn" and 山 (yama) meaning "mountain, hill".

From Spanish alamillo meaning "poplar, aspen".

Means "son of Ale 2", the suffix -ma indicating that it is of Frisian origin.

Possibly derived from a medieval given name of Germanic origin.

Derived from Occitan astur meaning "hawk". The wealthy and influential Astor family, prominent in British and American society, originated in the Italian Alps.

From Chinese 白 (bái) meaning "white".

From French place names derived from beau "beautiful" and mont "mountain".

From various place names in Italy and Spain meaning "beautiful mountain".

Derived from a place name, which was derived from Old English burh "fortification".

From any one of several places of this name in Scotland, which derive from Gaelic blàr meaning "plain, field, battlefield".

Derived from the given name Blanchard.

From Old English meaning "happy, joyous, blithe".

Occupational name for a maker of bottles, from Galician bottela meaning "bottle".

From Welsh ap Owain meaning "son of Owain".

Means "castle" in Spanish and Portuguese, referring to one who lived near a castle. A famous bearer was Fidel Castro (1926-2016), revolutionary and president of Cuba.

Cantonese romanization of Chen.

From a nickname for a lucky person or a gambler.

Means "seagull" in Ukrainian.

Either from Italian colomba "dove" indicating a dove keeper, or from the given name Colombo, which is derived from the same word. This was the Italian surname of the 15th-century explorer Christopher Columbus.

Variant of Colombo.

Created from the English words copper and field by the author Charles Dickens, who used it for the title character in his novel David Copperfield (1850).

From the name of the town of Corleone in Sicily, which is of uncertain meaning. This surname is well known from the novel The Godfather (1969) by Mario Puzo, as well as the films based on his characters. The story tells how Vito Andolini comes to America from Sicily, receiving the new surname Corleone at Ellis Island, and starts a criminal empire based in New York.

Ethnic name for someone from Cornwall.

From a diminutive form of David.

Means "son of Fiore".

Means "of the cross" in French. It denoted one who lived near a cross symbol or near a crossroads. A notable bearer was the French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863).

Spanish cognate of Delacroix.

A rare Welsh surname, believed to be of Cornish origin. This surname is made up of two elements. ‘Ed’ is not a shortened form of Edward, but derives from the ancient (Old English?) ‘ead’ meaning ‘prosperity’ and/or ‘happiness’. This also gave rise to names like Edmund (‘prosperity protector’), Edward, (meaning ‘prosperity guardian’) and Edwin (‘prosperity friend’). The second element, ‘vean’ or ‘vane’ means ‘little’ or ‘the younger’. The Cornish ‘byghan’ became mutated in the same way as the Welsh ‘bychan’ became ‘fychan’ (i.e. ‘vychan’) when added to a personal name, and performed the same service of distinguishing between father and son where they had the same name. In Wales, this ultimately led to the well-known surname Vaughan. Edevane and variants, therefore, would seem to have the sense ‘the younger happy one’ or ‘the younger prosperous one’.

From the name of the bird, from Old English finc. It was used by Harper Lee for the surname of lawyer Atticus Finch and his children in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960).

Anglicized form of Irish Ó Flannghaile meaning "descendant of Flannghal", a given name meaning "red valour".

Means "son of Floro" in Spanish.

Anglicized form of Irish Ó Floinn meaning "descendant of Flann".

From the name of the animal. It was originally a nickname for a person with red hair or a crafty person.

From any of the various minor places by this name in Germany, meaning "stone of the Franks" in German. It was used by the author Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein (1818) for the character of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who creates a monster and brings it to life. The monster, nameless in the novel, is sometimes informally or erroneously called Frankenstein in modern speech.

Rare variant of Gadsby. This name was used by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald for the central character in his novel The Great Gatsby (1925). In the book, James Gatz renames himself as Jay Gatsby at age 17 because he believes it sounds more sophisticated.

Means "field of feast," from the Cornish gol-erewy.

Vietnamese form of He, from Sino-Vietnamese 何 (hà).

Vietnamese form of He, from Sino-Vietnamese 賀 (hạ).

From Japanese 萩 (hagi) meaning "bush clover" and 原 (hara) meaning "field, plain".

Habitational name derived from a number of locations named Harlow, from Old English hær "rock, heap of stones" or here "army", combined with hlaw "hill".

Originally belonged to a person who played the harp or who made harps.

Matronymic name derived from the given name Chaya.

From northern English place names meaning "high burial mound" in Old English. It was borne by Mary Queen of Scot's infamous third husband, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwall. Other famous bearers include the actresses Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) and Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).

Hokkien form of Hua 2.

From the name of various English places, derived from Old English hol "hollow, sunken, deep" and weg "path, way".

Means "dove, pigeon" in Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian.

From Japanese 星 (hoshi) meaning "star" and 野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".

From the Welsh given name Hywel.

From Chinese 黄 (huáng) meaning "yellow".

Means "garden, orchard" in Spanish, ultimately from Latin hortus.

Variant of Hunter.

From Middle English hide, a unit of land, approximately the size necessary to support a household.

From the given name Jenkin, a diminutive of Jen, itself a Middle English form of John.

From Japanese 神 (kami) meaning "god" and 谷 (ya) meaning "valley".

The Okinawan language reading of its kanji, meaning "golden castle".

From Japanese 金 (kane) meaning "gold, metal, money" and 子 (ko) meaning "child".

Created by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky for his novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879), about three brothers and their murdered father. Dostoyevsky may have based it on Tartar/Turkic кара (kara) meaning "black" and Russian мазать (mazat) meaning "stain" [1]. The connection to black is implied in the novel when one of the brothers is accidentally addressed as Mr. Черномазов (Chernomazov), as if based on Russian чёрный meaning "black" [2].

From the Irish name Ó Cinnéidigh meaning "descendant of Cennétig". This surname was borne by assassinated American president John F. Kennedy (1917-1963).

Means "glass" in Khmer.

Kuro means "Black" and Miya means "Shrine".

A notable bearer is Kiyoshi Kuromiya (1943-200), an author and human rights activist.

Derived from Lassy, the name of a town in Normandy. The name of the town was Gaulish in origin, perhaps deriving from a personal name that was Latinized as Lascius.

Cantonese romanization of Lin.

From Chinese 林 (lín) meaning "forest".

From various places in Spain meaning "moon".

Vietnamese form of Liang, from Sino-Vietnamese 梁 (lương).

Vietnamese form of Li 1, from Sino-Vietnamese 李 (lý).

Means "happiness" in Danish.

Unaccented variant of Martínez.

Referred to one who lived in a meadow, from Old English mædwe.

English (Devon; of Cornish origin): topographic name for someone who lived by a menhir, i.e. a tall standing stone erected in prehistoric times (Cornish men ‘stone’ + hir ‘long’). In the United States, it is a common surname in Pennsylvania & West Virginia.

Vietnamese form of Ming, from Sino-Vietnamese 明 (minh).

Anglicized (typically American) form of Munro. It was borne by the American actress Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962).

Originally indicated a person from the town of Moyon in Normandy.

Nickname for a person of dark complexion, from Old French more, Latin maurus, meaning "Moorish".

From Japanese 森 (mori) meaning "forest".

Scottish form of Murdock.

Means "person from Nancarrow", Cornwall (either "valley frequented by deer" or "rough valley"). It was borne by US composer Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997).

Americanization of Nachtigall.

From Japanese 小 (o) meaning "small" and 野 (no) meaning "field, wilderness".

From the medieval personal name Oppy or Obby, a diminutive of such names as Osbert, Osborn, and Osbald. Bearers of this surname include British portrait and history painter John Opie (1761-1807) and British authors and folklorists Peter Opie (1918-82) and his wife Iona Opie (née Archibald; 1923-).

English: topographic name for someone who lived by an orchard, or a metonymic occupational name for a fruit grower, from Middle English orchard.
English: habitational name from any of the places called Orchard. Those in Devon and Somerset are named from Old English ortgeard, orceard (a compound of wort, wyrt ‘plant’ (later associated with Latin hortus ‘garden’) + geard ‘yard’, ‘enclosure’), while East and West Orchard near Shaftesbury in Dorset have a different origin, ‘(place) beside the wood’, from Celtic ar + ced.
Scottish: English surname adopted as equivalent of Urquhart.

From the Japanese 親 (oya) "parent" and 川 (kawa) "river."

Cornish form of Pascal, meaning "easter", with the Cornish patronymic suffix, -o.

A surname with somewhat uncertain origins, though many agree it is locational. Potentially from pen-lyn, the head of a pond or pool.

Originally meant "person from Penhaligon", Cornwall ("willow-tree hill"). It is borne by Susan Penhaligon (1950-), a British actress.

Means "small, little" derived from Old French and Catalan petit. It was perhaps used for a short, small person or to denote the younger of two individuals.

Derived from Spanish romero meaning "pilgrim to Rome".

Italian and Catalan form of Rose 1.

Means "row" in Middle English, indicating a dweller by a row of hedges or houses.

Derived from a Norman French town called "Saint Clair".

From Sanskrit सिंह (siṃha) meaning "lion". In 1699 Guru Gobind Singh gave all his Sikh male followers the surname Singh and all females Kaur. It is among the most common surnames in India.

Means "garden" in Khmer.

From Romanian stoic meaning "stoic, impassive".

From Middle English sum(m)er, Middle High German sumer "summer", hence a nickname for someone of a warm or sunny disposition, or for someone associated with the season of summer in some other way.

Originally indicated the bearer was from a town of this name, derived from Old English sumor "summer" and feld "field".

Variant of Sumner.

A habitational surname that originated in Cornwall.

Variant of Tremayne. A famous fictional bearer is Lady Tremaine, the main antagonist of Disney's Cinderella (1950).

Variant of Vaughan.

From a nickname meaning "truth", perhaps given originally to a truthful person.

A royal Vietnamese surname created by the Nguyen Dynasty.

Means "from the area cleared by fire", from Middle High German brant.

Vietnamese form of Wu 2, from Sino-Vietnamese 武 (vũ).

Vietnamese form of Wang 1, from Sino-Vietnamese 王 (vương).

From Japanese 渡 (wata) meaning "cross, ferry" and 辺 (nabe) meaning "area, place".

From Thai วัฒน (wathan) meaning "culture".

From Old English winter or Old High German wintar meaning "winter". This was a nickname for a person with a cold personality.

From Chinese 蕭 (xiāo) referring to the fiefdom or territory of Xiao (in present-day Anhui province) that existed during the Zhou dynasty.

From Chinese 谢 (xiè) referring to the minor state of Xie, which existed in what is now Hubei province.

Habitational name from Zamora, a city in northwestern Spain, of uncertain etymology. Possibly derived from Berber azemur "wild olive tree".

From Chinese 周 (zhōu) referring to the Zhou dynasty, which held power from 1046 to 771 BC, continuing for a few more centuries as figureheads.

From Chinese 朱 (zhū) meaning "vermilion red, cinnabar" and also referring to the ancient state of Zhu, which existed in what is now Shandong province. This was the surname of the emperors of the Ming dynasty.