THE INTERESTED AMERICAN

600 Most Common Surnames in the USA

Smith: English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smitan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).

Johnson: 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.

Williams: English (also very common in Wales): patronymic from William.
Jones
Brown
Davis: Southern English: patronymic from David.
Miller
Wilson: English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from the personal name Will, a very common medieval short form of William.
Moore: English: from Middle English more ‘moor’, ‘marsh’, ‘fen’, ‘area of uncultivated land’ (Old English mor), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in such a place or a habitational name from any of the various places named with this word, as for example Moore in Cheshire or More in Shropshire.English: from Old French more ‘Moor’ (Latin maurus). The Latin term denoted a native of northwestern Africa, but in medieval England the word came to be used informally as a nickname for any swarthy or dark-skinned person.English: from a personal name (Latin Maurus ‘Moor’). This name was borne by various early Christian saints. The personal name was introduced to England by the Normans, but it was never as popular in England as it was on the Continent.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mórdha ‘descendant of Mórdha’, a byname meaning ‘great’, ‘proud’, or ‘stately’.Scottish: see Muir.Welsh: from Welsh mawr ‘big’, applied as a nickname or distinguishing epithet.
Taylor: English and Scottish: occupational name for a tailor, from Old French tailleur (Late Latin taliator, from taliare ‘to cut’). The surname is extremely common in Britain and Ireland, and its numbers have been swelled by its adoption as an Americanized form of the numerous equivalent European names, most of which are also very common among Ashkenazic Jews, for example Schneider, Szabó, and Portnov.

Anderson: Scottish and northern English: very common patronymic from the personal name Ander(s), a northern Middle English form of Andrew. See also Andreas. The frequency of the surname in Scotland is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, so the personal name has long enjoyed great popularity there. Legend has it that the saint’s relics were taken to Scotland in the 4th century by a certain St. Regulus. The surname was brought independently to North America by many different bearers and was particularly common among 18th-century Scotch-Irish settlers in PA and VA. In the United States, it has absorbed many cognate or like-sounding names in other European languages, notably Swedish Andersson, Norwegian and Danish Andersen, but also Ukrainian Andreychyn, Hungarian Andrásfi, etc.

Thomas: nglish, French, German, Dutch, Danish, and South Indian: from the medieval personal name, of Biblical origin, from Aramaic t’om’a, a byname meaning ‘twin’. It was borne by one of the disciples of Christ, best known for his scepticism about Christ’s resurrection (John 20:24–29). The th- spelling is organic, the initial letter of the name in the Greek New Testament being a theta. The English pronunciation as t rather than th- is the result of French influence from an early date. In Britain the surname is widely distributed throughout the country, but especially common in Wales and Cornwall. The Ukrainian form is Choma. HH, GT. ANCHOR NAME. Not Catalan - RS It is found as a personal name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. is used as a family name among families from southern India.

Jackson: English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from Jack 1. As an American surname this has absorbed other patronymics beginning with J- in various European languages.

White: English, Scottish, and Irish: from Middle English whit ‘white’, hence a nickname for someone with white hair or an unnaturally pale complexion. In some cases it represents a Middle English personal name, from an Old English byname, Hwit(a), of this origin. As a Scottish and Irish surname it has been widely used as a translation of the many Gaelic names based on bán ‘white’ (see Bain 1) or fionn ‘fair’ (see Finn 1). There has also been some confusion with Wight.Translated form of cognate and equivalent names in other languages, such as German Weiss, French Blanc, Polish Bialas (see Bialas), etc.

Harris: English and Welsh (very common in southern England and South Wales): patronymic from the medieval English personal name Harry, pet form of Henry.This name is also well established in Ireland, taken there principally during the Plantation of Ulster. In some cases, particularly in families coming from County Mayo, both Harris and Harrison can be Anglicized forms of Gaelic Ó hEarchadha.Greek: reduced form of the Greek personal name Kharalambos, composed of the elements khara ‘joy’ + lambein ‘to shine’.Jewish: Americanized form of any of various like-sounding Jewish names.

Martin: English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch, German, Czech, Slovak, Spanish (Martín), Italian (Venice), etc.: from a personal name (Latin Martinus, a derivative of Mars, genitive Martis, the Roman god of fertility and war, whose name may derive ultimately from a root mar ‘gleam’). This was borne by a famous 4th-century saint, Martin of Tours, and consequently became extremely popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. As a North American surname, this form has absorbed many cognates from other European forms.English: habitational name from any of several places so called, principally in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, and Worcestershire, named in Old English as ‘settlement by a lake’ (from mere or mær ‘pool’, ‘lake’ + tun ‘settlement’) or as ‘settlement by a boundary’ (from (ge)mære ‘boundary’ + tun ‘settlement’). The place name has been charged from Marton under the influence of the personal name Martin.

Thompson: English: patronymic from Thomas. Thompson is widely distributed throughout Britain, but is most common in northern England and northern Ireland.Americanized form of Thomsen.

Garcia: Spanish (García) and Portuguese: from a medieval personal name of uncertain origin. It is normally found in medieval records in the Latin form Garsea, and may well be of pre-Roman origin, perhaps akin to Basque (h)artz ‘bear’.

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

Robinson: Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Robin.

Clark: English: occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally a member of a minor religious order who undertook such duties. The word clerc denoted a member of a religious order, from Old English cler(e)c ‘priest’, reinforced by Old French clerc. Both are from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klerikos, a derivative of kleros ‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’, with reference to the priestly tribe of Levites (see Levy) ‘whose inheritance was the Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members of religious orders who learned to read and write, so that the term clerk came to denote any literate man.

Rodriguez: Spanish (Rodríguez) and Portuguese: patronymic from the personal name Rodrigo.

Lewis: English (but most common in Wales): from Lowis, Lodovicus, a Norman personal name composed of the Germanic elements hlod ‘fame’ + wig ‘war’. This was the name of the founder of the Frankish dynasty, recorded in Latin chronicles as Ludovicus and Chlodovechus (the latter form becoming Old French Clovis, Clouis, Louis, the former developing into German Ludwig). The name was popular throughout France in the Middle Ages and was introduced to England by the Normans. In Wales it became inextricably confused with 2.Welsh: from an Anglicized form of the personal name Llywelyn (see Llewellyn).Irish and Scottish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Lughaidh ‘son of Lughaidh’. This is one of the most common Old Irish personal names. It is derived from Lugh ‘brightness’, which was the name of a Celtic god.Americanized form of any of various like-sounding Jewish surnames.

Lee: English: topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or a patch of arable land, Middle English lee, lea, from Old English lea, dative case (used after a preposition) of leah, which originally meant ‘wood’ or ‘glade’.English: habitational name from any of the many places named with Old English leah ‘wood’, ‘glade’, as for example Lee in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, and Shropshire, and Lea in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and Wiltshire.Irish: reduced Americanized form of Ó Laoidhigh ‘descendant of Laoidheach’, a personal name derived from laoidh ‘poem’, ‘song’ (originally a byname for a poet).Americanized spelling of Norwegian Li or Lie.Chinese : variant of Li 1.Chinese : variant of Li 2.Chinese : variant of Li 3.Korean: variant of Yi.

Walker: English (especially Yorkshire) and Scottish: occupational name for a fuller, Middle English walkere, Old English wealcere, an agent derivative of wealcan ‘to walk, tread’. This was the regular term for the occupation during the Middle Ages in western and northern England. Compare Fuller and Tucker. PWH As a Scottish surname it has also been used as a translation of Gaelic Mac an Fhucadair ‘son of the fuller’.

Hall: English, Scottish, Irish, German, and Scandinavian: from Middle English hall (Old English heall), Middle High German halle, Old Norse holl all meaning ‘hall’ (a spacious residence), hence a topographic name for someone who lived in or near a hall or an occupational name for a servant employed at a hall. In some cases it may be a habitational name from places named with this word, which in some parts of Germany and Austria in the Middle Ages also denoted a salt mine. The English name has been established in Ireland since the Middle Ages, and, according to MacLysaght, has become numerous in Ulster since the 17th century.

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.

Young: English, Scottish, and northern Irish: distinguishing name (Middle English yunge, yonge ‘young’), for the younger of two bearers of the same personal name, usually distinguishing a younger brother or a son. In Middle English this name is often found with the Anglo-Norman French definite article, for example Robert le Yunge.Americanization of a cognate, equivalent, or like-sounding surname in some other language, notably German Jung and Junk, Dutch (De) Jong(h) and Jong, and French Lejeune and LaJeunesse.assimilated form of French Dion or Guyon.Chinese: see Yang.

Hernandez: Spanish (Hernández) and Jewish (Sephardic): patronymic from the personal name Hernando (see Fernando). This surname also became established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.

King: English and Scottish: nickname from Middle English king, Old English cyning ‘king’ (originally merely a tribal leader, from Old English cyn(n) ‘tribe’, ‘race’ + the Germanic suffix -ing). The word was already used as a byname before the Norman Conquest, and the nickname was common in the Middle Ages, being used to refer to someone who conducted himself in a kingly manner, or one who had played the part of a king in a pageant, or one who had won the title in a tournament. In other cases it may actually have referred to someone who served in the king’s household. The American surname has absorbed several European cognates and equivalents with the same meaning, for example German König (see Koenig), Swiss German Küng, French Leroy. It is also found as an Ashkenazic Jewish surname, of ornamental origin.Chinese : variant of Jin 1.Chinese: see Jing.

Wright: English, Scottish, and northern Irish: occupational name for a maker of machinery, mostly in wood, of any of a wide range of kinds, from Old English wyrhta, wryhta ‘craftsman’ (a derivative of wyrcan ‘to work or make’). The term is found in various combinations (for example, Cartwright and Wainwright), but when used in isolation it generally referred to a builder of windmills or watermills. Common New England Americanized form of French Le Droit, a nickname for an upright person, a man of probity, from Old French droit ‘right’, in which there has been confusion between the homophones right and wright.
Lopez
Hill
Scott
Green
Adams
Baker
Gonzalez: Spanish (González): patronymic from the personal name Gonzalo, a personal name of Visigothic origin, based on the Germanic element gunþ ‘battle’. Compare Portuguese Gonçalves (see Goncalves).
Nelson
Carter
Mitchell
Perez
Roberts
Turner
Phillips
Campbell
Parker
Evans
Edwards
Collins: 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.
Stewart: Scottish: originally an occupational name for an administrative official of an estate, from Middle English stiward, Old English stigweard, stiweard, a compound of stig ‘house(hold)’ + weard ‘guardian’. In Old English times this title was used of an officer controlling the domestic affairs of a household, especially of the royal household; after the Conquest it was also used more widely as the native equivalent of Seneschal for the steward of a manor or manager of an estate.
Sanchez: Spanish (Sánchez): patronymic from the personal name Sancho.
Rogers: English: patronymic from the personal name Roger.
Reed: English: variant spelling of Read 1.
Cook: English: occupational name for a cook, a seller of cooked meats, or a keeper of an eating house, from Old English coc (Latin coquus). There has been some confusion with Cocke.Irish and Scottish: usually identical in origin with the English name, but in some cases a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cúg ‘son of Hugo’ (see McCook).In North America Cook has absorbed examples of cognate and semantically equivalent names from other languages, such as German and Jewish Koch.Erroneous translation of French Lécuyer (see Lecuyer).
Morgan: Welsh: from the Old Welsh personal name Morcant, which is of uncertain but ancient etymology.Irish: importation of the Welsh surname, to which has been assimilated more than one Gaelic surname, notably Ó Muireagáin (see Merrigan).Scottish: of uncertain origin; probably from a Gaelic personal name cognate with Welsh Morcant.
Bell: Scottish and northern English: from Middle English belle ‘bell’, in various applications; most probably a metonymic occupational name for a bell ringer or bell maker, or a topographic name for someone living ‘at the bell’ (as attested by 14th-century forms such as John atte Belle). This indicates either residence by an actual bell (e.g. a town’s bell in a bell tower, centrally placed to summon meetings, sound the alarm, etc.) or ‘at the sign of the bell’, i.e. a house or inn sign (although surnames derived from house and inn signs are rare in Scots and English).Scottish and northern English: from the medieval personal name Bel. As a man’s name this is from Old French beu, bel ‘handsome’, which was also used as a nickname. As a female name it represents a short form of Isobel, a form of Elizabeth.Scottish: Americanized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Mhaoil ‘son of the servant of the devotee’ (see Mullen 1).Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead in western Norway named Bell, the origin of which is unexplained.Scandinavian: of English or German origin; in German as a habitational name for someone from Bell in Rhineland, Germany, or possibly from Belle in Westphalia.Americanized spelling of German Böhl or Böll (see Boehle, Boll).
Murphy: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Murchadha ‘descendant of Murchadh’, a personal name composed of the elements muir ‘sea’ + cath ‘battle’, i.e. ‘sea-warrior’. This was an important family in Tyrone.
Bailey: status name for a steward or official, Middle English bail(l)i (Old French baillis, from Late Latin baiulivus, an adjectival derivative of baiulus ‘attendant’, ‘carrier’ ‘porter’).topographic name for someone who lived by the outer wall of a castle, Middle English bail(l)y, baile ‘outer courtyard of a castle’, from Old French bail(le) ‘enclosure’, a derivative of bailer ‘to enclose’, a word of unknown origin. This term became a place name in its own right, denoting a district beside a fortification or wall, as in the case of the Old Bailey in London, which formed part of the early medieval outer wall of the city.habitational name from Bailey in Lancashire, named with Old English beg ‘berry’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.Anglicized form of French Bailly.
Rivera: Spanish: habitational name from any of the places named Rivera, a variant of Ribera.Italian: northern variant of the southern (especially Sicily) topographic name Ribera.Catalan: in some cases, variant of Catalan Ribera.
Cooper: English: occupational name for a maker and repairer of wooden vessels such as barrels, tubs, buckets, casks, and vats, from Middle English couper, cowper (apparently from Middle Dutch kuper, a derivative of kup ‘tub’, ‘container’, which was borrowed independently into English as coop). The prevalence of the surname, its cognates, and equivalents bears witness to the fact that this was one of the chief specialist trades in the Middle Ages throughout Europe. In America, the English name has absorbed some cases of like-sounding cognates and words with similar meaning in other European languages, for example Dutch Kuiper.Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of Kupfer and Kupper (see Kuper).Dutch: occupational name for a buyer or merchant, Middle Dutch coper.
Richardson: English: patronymic from the personal name Richard. This has undoubtedly also assimilated like-sounding cognates from other languages, such as Swedish Richardsson.
Cox: English: from Cocke in any the senses described + the suffix -s denoting ‘son of’ or ‘servant of’.Irish (Ulster): mistranslation of Mac Con Coille (‘son of Cú Choille’, a personal name meaning ‘hound of the wood’), as if formed with coileach ‘cock’, ‘rooster’.
Howard: English: from the Norman personal name Huard, Heward, composed of the Germanic elements hug ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘spirit’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.English: from the Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Haward, composed of the Old Norse elements há ‘high’ + varðr ‘guardian’, ‘warden’.English: variant of Ewart 2.Irish: see Fogarty.Irish (County Clare) surname adopted as an equivalent of Gaelic Ó hÍomhair, which was formerly Anglicized as O’Hure.
Ward
Torres
Peterson
Gray
Ramirez: Spanish (Ramírez): patronymic from the personal name Ramiro, composed of the Germanic elements ragin ‘counsel’ + mari, meri ‘fame’.
James: English: from a personal name that has the same origin as Jacob. However, among English speakers, it is now felt to be a separate name in its own right. This is largely because in the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611) the form James is used in the New Testament as the name of two of Christ’s apostles (James the brother of John and James the brother of Andrew), whereas in the Old Testament the brother of Esau is called Jacob. The form James comes from Latin Jacobus via Late Latin Jac(o)mus, which also gave rise to Jaime, the regular form of the name in Spanish (as opposed to the learned Jacobo). See also Jack and Jackman. This is a common surname throughout the British Isles, particularly in South Wales.
Watson
Brooks: English: from the possessive case of Brook (i.e. ‘of the brook’).Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.Americanized spelling of German Brucks.
Kelly
Sanders
Price
Bennett
Wood
Barnes
Ross: Scottish and English (of Norman origin): habitational name for someone from Rots near Caen in Normandy, probably named with the Germanic element rod ‘clearing’. Compare Rhodes. This was the original home of a family de Ros, who were established in Kent in 1130.Scottish and English: habitational name from any of various places called Ross or Roos(e), deriving the name from Welsh rhós ‘upland’ or moorland, or from a British ancestor of this word, which also had the sense ‘promontory’. This is the sense of the cognate Gaelic word ros. Known sources of the surname include Roos in Humberside (formerly in East Yorkshire) and the region of northern Scotland known as Ross.English and German: from the Germanic personal name Rozzo, a short form of the various compound names with the first element hrod ‘renown’, introduced into England by the Normans in the form Roce.German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a breeder or keeper of horses, from Middle High German ros, German Ross ‘horse’; perhaps also a nickname for someone thought to resemble a horse or a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a horse.Jewish: Americanized form of Rose 3.

Henderson: Scottish and northern Irish: patronymic from Hendry, a chiefly Scottish variant of the personal name Henry 1. Some Scottish families with this name have ancestors whose name was Henryson.

Coleman: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Colmáin ‘descendant of Colmán’. This was the name of an Irish missionary to Europe, generally known as St. Columban (c.540–615), who founded the monastery of Bobbio in northern Italy in 614. With his companion St. Gall, he enjoyed a considerable cult throughout central Europe, so that forms of his name were adopted as personal names in Italian (Columbano), French (Colombain), Czech (Kollman), and Hungarian (Kálmán). From all of these surnames are derived. In Irish and English, the name of this saint is identical with diminutives of the name of the 6th-century missionary known in English as St. Columba (521–97), who converted the Picts to Christianity, and who was known in Scandinavian languages as Kalman.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Clumháin ‘descendant of Clumhán’, a personal name from the diminutive of clúmh ‘down’, ‘feathers’.English: occupational name for a burner of charcoal or a gatherer of coal, Middle English coleman, from Old English col ‘(char)coal’ + mann ‘man’.English: occupational name for the servant of a man named Cole.Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of Kalman.Americanized form of German Kohlmann or Kuhlmann.

Jenkins: English: patronymic from Jenkin. Jenkins is one of the most common names in England, especially southwestern England, but is also especially associated with Wales.

Perry: Welsh: Anglicized form of Welsh ap Herry ‘son of Herry’, a variant of Harry (see Harris).English: topographic name for someone who lived near a pear tree, Middle English per(r)ie (Old English pyrige, a derivative of pere ‘pear’). This surname and a number of variants have been established in Ireland since the 17th century.

Powell: English (of Welsh origin): Anglicized form of Welsh ap Hywel ‘son of Hywel’, a personal name meaning ‘eminent’ (see Howell).Irish: mainly of Welsh origin as in 1 above, but sometimes a surname adopted as equivalent of Gaelic Mac Giolla Phóil ‘son of the servant of St. Paul’ (see Guilfoyle).

Long: English and French: nickname for a tall person, from Old English lang, long, Old French long ‘long’, ‘tall’ (equivalent to Latin longus).Irish (Ulster (Armagh) and Munster): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Longáin (see Langan).Chinese : from the name of an official treasurer called Long, who lived during the reign of the model emperor Shun (2257–2205 bc). his descendants adopted this name as their surname. Additionally, a branch of the Liu clan (see Lau 1), descendants of Liu Lei, who supposedly had the ability to handle dragons, was granted the name Yu-Long (meaning roughly ‘resistor of dragons’) by the Xia emperor Kong Jia (1879–1849 bc). Some descendants later simplified Yu-Long to Long and adopted it as their surname.Chinese : there are two sources for this name. One was a place in the state of Lu in Shandong province during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc). The other source is the Xiongnu nationality, a non-Han Chinese people.Chinese : variant of Lang.Cambodian: unexplained.

Patterson: Scottish and northern English: patronymic from a pet form of Pate, a short form of Patrick.Irish: in Ulster of English or Scottish origin; in County Galway, a surname taken by bearers of Gaelic Ó Caisín ‘descendant of the little curly-headed one’ (from Gaelic casán), which is usually Anglicized as Cussane.

Hughes: English (also common in Wales): patronymic from the Middle English and Anglo-Norman French personal name Hugh.Welsh: variant of Howells.Irish and Scottish: variant Anglicization of Gaelic Mac Aodha (see McCoy).

Flores: Spanish: from the plural of flor ‘flower’.

Washington: English: habitational name from either of the places called Washington, in Tyne and Wear and West Sussex. The latter is from Old English Wassingatun ‘settlement (Old English tun) of the people of Wassa’, a personal name that is probably a short form of some compound name such as Waðsige, composed of the elements wað ‘hunt’ + sige ‘victory’. Washington in Tyne and Wear is from Old English Wassingtun ‘settlement associated with Wassa’.
Butler: English and Irish: from a word that originally denoted a wine steward, usually the chief servant of a medieval household, from Norman French butuiller (Old French bouteillier, Latin buticularius, from buticula ‘bottle’). In the large households of royalty and the most powerful nobility, the title came to denote an officer of high rank and responsibility, only nominally concerned with the supply of wine, if at all.Anglicized form of French Boutilier.Jewish (from Poland and Ukraine): occupational name for a bottle maker, from Yiddish butl ‘bottle’ + the agent suffix -er.

Simmons: English (southern): patronymic either from the personal name Simon (see Simon) or, as Reaney and Wilson suggest, from the medieval personal name Simund (composed of Old Norse sig ‘victory’ + mundr ‘protection’), which after the Norman Conquest was taken as an equivalent Simon, with the result that the two names became confused.

Foster: English: reduced form of Forster.English: nickname from Middle English foster ‘foster parent’ (Old English fostre, a derivative of fostrian ‘to nourish or rear’).Jewish: probably an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames, such as Forster.

Gonzales: Spanish (González): patronymic from the personal name Gonzalo, a personal name of Visigothic origin, based on the Germanic element gunþ ‘battle’. Compare Portuguese Gonçalves (see Goncalves).

Bryant: English (mainly southwestern England): variant of Bryan.

Alexander: cottish, English, German, Dutch; also found in many other cultures: from the personal name Alexander, classical Greek Alexandros, which probably originally meant ‘repulser of men (i.e. of the enemy)’, from alexein ‘to repel’ + andros, genitive of aner ‘man’. Its popularity in the Middle Ages was due mainly to the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great (356–323 bc)—or rather to the hero of the mythical versions of his exploits that gained currency in the so-called Alexander Romances. The name was also borne by various early Christian saints, including a patriarch of Alexandria (adc.250–326), whose main achievement was condemning the Arian heresy. The Gaelic form of the personal name is Alasdair, which has given rise to a number of Scottish and Irish patronymic surnames, for example McAllister. Alexander is a common forename in Scotland, often representing an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name. In North America the form Alexander has absorbed many cases of cognate names from other languages, for example Spanish Alejandro, Italian Alessandro, Greek Alexandropoulos, Russian Aleksandr, etc. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) It has also been adopted as a Jewish name.

Russell: English, Scottish, and Irish: from Rousel, a common Anglo-Norman French nickname for someone with red hair, a diminutive of Rouse with the hypocoristic suffix -el.Americanized spelling of German Rüssel, from a pet form of any of the various personal names formed with the Old High German element hrod ‘renown’.

Griffin: Welsh: from a medieval Latinized form, Griffinus, of the Welsh personal name Gruffudd (see Griffith).English: nickname for a fierce or dangerous person, from Middle English griffin ‘gryphon’ (from Latin gryphus, Greek gryps, of Assyrian origin).Irish: Anglicized (part translated) form of Gaelic Ó Gríobhtha ‘descendant of Gríobhtha’, a personal name from gríobh ‘gryphon’.

Diaz: Spanish (Díaz): patronymic from the medieval personal name Didacus (see Diego).

Hayes: Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAodha ‘descendant of Aodh’, a personal name meaning ‘fire’ (compare McCoy). In some cases, especially in County Wexford, the surname is of English origin (see below), having been taken to Ireland by the Normans.English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Devon and Worcestershire, so called from the plural of Middle English hay ‘enclosure’ (see Hay 1), or a topographic name from the same word.English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Dorset, Greater London (formerly in Kent and Middlesex), and Worcestershire, so called from Old English h?se ‘brushwood’, or a topographic name from the same word.English: patronymic from Hay 3.French: variant (plural) of Haye 3.Jewish (Ashkenazic): metronymic from Yiddish name Khaye ‘life’ + the Yiddish possessive suffix -s.

Myers: 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).

Ford

Hamilton

Graham
Sullivan
Wallace
Woods
Cole
West
Jordan
Owens
Reynolds
Fisher
Ellis
Harrison
Gibson
McDonald
Cruz
Marshall
Ortiz
Gomez
Murray
Freeman
Wells
Webb
Simpson
Stevens
Tucker
Porter
Hunter
Hicks
Crawford: Scottish, English, and northern Irish: habitational name from any of the various places, for example in Lanarkshire (Scotland) and Dorset and Lancashire (England) called Crawford, named in Old English with crawe ‘crow’ + ford ‘ford’.English: variant of Crowfoot (see Crofoot).

Henry: 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. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.) In the period in which the majority of English surnames were formed, a common English vernacular form of the name was Harry, hence the surnames Harris (southern) and Harrison (northern). Official documents of the period normally used the Latinized form Henricus. In medieval times, English Henry absorbed an originally distinct Old English personal name that had hagan ‘hawthorn’. Compare Hain 2 as its first element, and there has also been confusion with Amery.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hInnéirghe ‘descendant of Innéirghe’, a byname based on éirghe ‘arising’.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Éinrí or Mac Einri, patronymics from the personal names Éinrí, Einri, Irish forms of Henry. It is also found as a variant of McEnery.Jewish (American): Americanized form of various like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish names.

Boyd: Scottish: habitational name from the island of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, the Gaelic name of which is Bód (genitive Bóid).

Mason: English and Scottish: occupational name for a stonemason, Middle English, Old French mas(s)on. Compare Machen. Stonemasonry was a hugely important craft in the Middle Ages.Italian (Veneto): from a short form of Masone.French: from a regional variant of maison ‘house’.

Morales: Spanish: topographic name from the plural of moral ‘mulberry tree’.

Kennedy: Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Ceannéidigh ‘descendant of Ceannéidigh’, a personal name derived from ceann ‘head’ + éidigh ‘ugly’.

Warren: English and Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name from La Varrenne in Seine-Maritime, France, named with a Gaulish element probably descriptive of alluvial land or sandy soil.English: topographic name for someone who lived by a game park, or an occupational name for someone employed in one, from Anglo-Norman French warrene or Middle English wareine ‘warren’, ‘piece of land for breeding game’.Irish: adopted as an Englsih form of Gaelic Ó Murnáin (see Murnane, Warner).
Dixon: Northern English: patronymic from the personal name Dick.

Ramos: Portugese and Spanish: habitational name from any of the towns called Ramos, in Portugal and Spain.Portuguese and Spanish: from the plural of ramo ‘branch’ (Latin ramus), a topographic name for someone who lived in a thickly wooded area.

Reyes: plural variant of Rey.Castilianized form of the Galician habitational name Reis.

Burns: Scottish and northern English: topographic name for someone who lived by a stream or streams, from the Middle English nominative plural or genitive singular of burn (see Bourne).Scottish: variant of Burnhouse, habitational name from a place named with burn ‘stream’ + house ‘house’.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Broin (see Byrne).Jewish (American): Americanized and shortened form of Bernstein.

Gordon

Shaw

Holmes

Rice
Robertson
Hunt
Black
Daniels
Palmer: English: from Middle English, Old French palmer, paumer (from palme, paume ‘palm tree’, Latin palma), a nickname for someone who had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Such pilgrims generally brought back a palm branch as proof that they had actually made the journey, but there was a vigorous trade in false souvenirs, and the term also came to be applied to a cleric who sold indulgences.Swedish (Palmér): ornamental name formed with palm ‘palm tree’ + the suffix -ér, from Latin -erius ‘descendant of’.Irish: when not truly of English origin (see 1 above), a surname adopted by bearers of Gaelic Ó Maolfhoghmhair (see Milford) perhaps because they were from an ecclesiastical family.German: topographic name for someone living among pussy willows (see Palm 2). EXG EG deled former sense 4.German: from the personal name Palm (see Palm 3).
Mills
Nichols
Grant
Knight
Ferguson
Rose

Stone

Hawkins: 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 (see note below), 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).

Dunn: 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’. Compare 1.

Perkins: English: patronymic from Perkin, also found throughout mid and south Wales.Dutch: patronymic from a pet form of Peer, a Dutch form of Peter.

Hudson: English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Hudde (see Hutt 1). This surname is particularly common in Yorkshire and is also well established in Ireland.

Spencer: English: occupational name for someone employed in the pantry of a great house or monastery, from Middle English spense ‘larder’ + the agent suffix -er.

Gardner: English: reduced form of Gardener.Probably a translated form of German Gärtner (see Gartner).

Stephens

Payne: English: variant spelling of Paine. This is also a well-established surname in Ireland.

Pierce: English, Welsh, and Irish: from the personal name Piers, the usual Norman vernacular form of Peter. In Wales this represents a patronymic ap Piers. In Ireland it represents a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Piarais ‘son of Piaras’, a Gaelicized form of Piers.Americanized form of some similar-sounding Jewish surname.

Berry: Irish (Galway and Mayo): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Béara or Ó Beargha (see Barry 1).Scottish and northern Irish: variant spelling of Barrie.English: habitational name from any of several places named with Old English byrig, dative case of burh ‘fortified manor house’, ‘stronghold’, such as Berry in Devon or Bury in Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester, Suffolk, and West Sussex.French: regional name for someone from Berry, a former province of central France, so named with Latin Boiriacum, apparently a derivative of a Gaulish personal name, Boirius or Barius. In North America, this name has alternated with Berrien.Swiss German: pet form of a Germanic personal name formed with Old High German bero ‘bear’ (see Baer).

Matthews: English: patronymic from Matthew. In North America, this form has assimilated numerous vernacular derivatives in other languages of Latin Mat(t)hias and Matthaeus.Irish (Ulster and County Louth): used as an Americanized form of McMahon.

Arnold: English and German: from a very widely used personal name of Germanic origin, composed of the elements arn ‘eagle’ + wald ‘rule’. In addition, it has probably absorbed various European cognates and their derivatives (for the forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).English: habitational name from either of the two places called Arnold (see Arnall).Jewish (Ashkenazic): adoption of the German personal name, at least in part on account of its resemblance to the Jewish name Aaron.

Wagner: German (also Wägner) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a carter or cartwright, from an agent derivative of Middle High German wagen ‘cart’, ‘wagon’, German Wagen. The German surname is also well established in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, eastern Europe, and elsewhere as well as in German-speaking countries.

Willis: English: patronymic from the personal name Will.

Ray: English (of Norman origin): nickname denoting someone who behaved in a regal fashion or who had earned the title in some contest of skill or by presiding over festivities, from Old French rey, roy ‘king’. Occasionally this was used as a personal name.English: nickname for a timid person, from Middle English ray ‘female roe deer’ or northern Middle English ray ‘roebuck’.English: variant of Rye (1 and 2).English: habitational name, a variant spelling of Wray.Scottish: reduced and altered form of McRae.French: from a noun derivative of Old French raier ‘to gush, stream, or pour’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near a spring or rushing stream, or a habitational name from a place called Ray.Indian: variant of Rai.

Watkins: English (also frequent in Wales): patronymic from the personal name Watkin.

Olson: Americanized spelling of Swedish Olsson or Danish and Norwegian Olsen.

Carroll: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cearbhaill or Ó Cearbhaill ‘son (or descendant) of Cearbhall’, a personal name of uncertain origin, perhaps from cearbh ‘hacking’ and hence a byname for a butcher or nickname for a fierce warrior.

Duncan: 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’.

Snyder: Dutch: occupational name for a tailor, from an agent derivative of Middle Dutch sniden ‘to cut’.Americanized form of German Schneider.

Hart: English and North German: from a personal name or nickname meaning ‘stag’, Middle English hert, Middle Low German hërte, harte.German: variant spelling of Hardt 1 and 2.Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name or a nickname from German and Yiddish hart ‘hard’.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAirt ‘descendant of Art’, a byname meaning ‘bear’, ‘hero’. The English name became established in Ireland in the 17th century.French: from an Old French word meaning ‘rope’, hence possibly a metonymic occupational name for a rope maker or a hangman.Dutch: nickname from Middle Dutch hart, hert ‘hard’, ‘strong’, ‘ruthless’, ‘unruly’.

Cunningham: Scottish: habitational name from a district in Ayrshire, first recorded in 1153 in the form Cunegan, a Celtic name of uncertain origin. The spellings in -ham, first recorded in 1180, and in -ynghame, first recorded in 1227, represent a gradual assimilation to the English place-name element -ingham.Irish: surname adopted from Scottish by bearers of Gaelic Ó Cuinneagáin ‘descendant of Cuinneagán’, a personal name from a double diminutive of the Old Irish personal name Conn meaning ‘leader’, ‘chief’.

Bradley: English: habitational name from any of the many places throughout England named Bradley, from Old English brad ‘broad’ + leah ‘woodland clearing’.Scottish: habitational name from Braidlie in Roxburghshire.Irish (Ulster): adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Brolcháin.

Lane: English: topographic name for someone who lived in a lane, Middle English, Old English lane, originally a narrow way between fences or hedges, later used to denote any narrow pathway, including one between houses in a town.Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Laighin ‘descendant of Laighean’, a byname meaning ‘spear’, or ‘javelin’.Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Luain ‘descendant of Luan’, a byname meaning ‘warrior’.Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Liatháin (see Lehane).Southern French: variant of Laine.Possibly also a variant of Southern French Lande.

Andrews: English: patronymic from the personal name Andrew. This is the usual southern English patronymic form, also found in Wales; the Scottish and northern English form is Anderson. In North America this name has absorbed numerous cases of the various European cognates and their derivatives. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.

Ruiz: Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Ruy, a short form of Rodrigo.

Harper: English, Scottish, and Irish: occupational name for a player on the harp, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Middle Dutch harp ‘harp’. The harper was one of the most important figures of a medieval baronial hall, especially in Scotland and northern England, and the office of harper was sometimes hereditary. The Scottish surname is probably an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Chruiteir ‘son of the harper’ (from Gaelic cruit ‘harp’, ‘stringed instrument’). This surname has long been present in Ireland.

Fox: English: nickname from the animal, Middle English, Old English fox. It may have denoted a cunning individual or been given to someone with red hair or for some other anecdotal reason. This relatively common and readily understood surname seems to have absorbed some early examples of less transparent surnames derived from the Germanic personal names mentioned at Faulks and Foulks.Irish: part translation of Gaelic Mac an tSionnaigh ‘son of the fox’ (see Tinney).Jewish (American): translation of the Ashkenazic Jewish surname Fuchs.Americanized spelling of Focks, a North German patronymic from the personal name Fock (see Volk).Americanized spelling of Fochs, a North German variant of Fuchs, or in some cases no doubt a translation of Fuchs itself.

Riley: Irish: variant spelling of Reilly.English: habitational name from Ryley in Lancashire, so named from Old English ryge ‘rye’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’. There is a Riley with the same meaning in Devon, but it does not seem to have contributed to the surname, which is more common in northern England.

Armstrong: English (common in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders): Middle English nickname for someone who was strong in the arm.Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Labhradha Tréan ‘strong O’Lavery’ or Mac Thréinfhir, literally ‘son of the strong man’, both from Ulster.
Carpenter: English: occupational name for a worker in wood, Norman French carpentier (from Late Latin carpentarius ‘cartwright’).Translation of German Zimmermann, French Charpentier, Italian Carpentieri, or cognates and equivalents in various other languages.
Weaver: English: occupational name, from an agent derivative of Middle English weven ‘to weave’ (Old English wefan).English: habitational name from a place on the Weaver river in Cheshire, now called Weaver Hall but recorded simply as Weuere in the 13th and 14th centuries. The river name is from Old English wefer(e) ‘winding stream’.Translated form of German Weber.
Greene: Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó hUainín ‘descendant of Uainín’ (see Honan 2).variant spelling of Green as an English name or as an Americanized form of name of similar meaning in some other European language.
Lawrence: English: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Lorens, Laurence (Latin Laurentius ‘man from Laurentum’, a place in Italy probably named from its laurels or bay trees). The name was borne by a saint who was martyred at Rome in the 3rd century ad; he enjoyed a considerable cult throughout Europe, with consequent popularity of the personal name (French Laurent, Italian, Spanish Lorenzo, Catalan Llorenç, Portuguese Lourenço, German Laurenz; Polish Wawrzyniec (assimilated to the Polish word wawrzyn ‘laurel’), etc.). The surname is also borne by Jews among whom it is presumably an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Ashkenazic surnames.
Elliott: English: from a Middle English personal name, Elyat, Elyt. This represents at least two Old English personal names which have fallen together: the male name A{dh}elgeat (composed of the elements a{dh}el ‘noble’ + Geat, a tribal name; see Jocelyn), and the female personal name A{dh}elg¯{dh} (composed of the elements a{dh}el ‘noble’ + g¯{dh} ‘battle’). The Middle English name seems also to have absorbed various other personal names of Old English or Continental Germanic origin, as for example Old English Ælfweald (see Ellwood).English: from a pet form of Ellis.Scottish: Anglicized form of the originally distinct Gaelic surname Elloch, Eloth, a topographic name from Gaelic eileach ‘dam’, ‘mound’, ‘bank’. Compare Eliot.
Chavez

Sims: English: patronymic from Sim.

Austin: English, French, and German: from the personal name Austin, a vernacular form of Latin Augustinus, a derivative of Augustus. This was an extremely common personal name in every part of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, owing its popularity chiefly to St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430), whose influence on Christianity is generally considered to be second only to that of St. Paul. Various religious orders came to be formed following rules named in his honor, including the ‘Austin canons’, established in the 11th century, and the ‘Austin friars’, a mendicant order dating from the 13th century. The popularity of the personal name in England was further increased by the fact that it was borne by St. Augustine of Canterbury (died c. 605), an Italian Benedictine monk known as ‘the Apostle of the English’, who brought Christianity to England in 597 and founded the see of Canterbury.German: from a reduced form of the personal name Augustin.
Peters: English, Scottish, Dutch, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Peter.Irish: Anglicized form (translation) of Gaelic Mac Pheadair ‘son of Peter’.Americanized form of cognate surnames in other languages, for example Dutch and North German Pieters.
Kelley: Irish, Scottish, and English: variant spelling of Kelly.
Franklin: English: status name from Middle English frankelin ‘franklin’, a technical term of the feudal system, from Anglo-Norman French franc ‘free’ (see Frank 2) + the Germanic suffix -ling. The status of the franklin varied somewhat according to time and place in medieval England; in general, he was a free man and a holder of fairly extensive areas of land, a gentleman ranked above the main body of minor freeholders but below a knight or a member of the nobility.The surname is also borne by Jews, in which case it represents an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.In modern times, this has been used to Americanize François, the French form of Francis.
Lawson
Fields: English: topographic name from Middle English feldes, plural or possessive of feld ‘open country’. This name is also found as a translation of equivalent names in other languages, in particular French Deschamps, Duchamp.

Gutierrez: Spanish (Gutiérrez): patronymic from the medieval personal name Gutierre, from a Visigothic personal name of uncertain form and meaning, perhaps a compound of the elements gunþi ‘battle’ + hairus ‘sword’.

Ryan: 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.

Schmidt: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name from Middle High German smit, German Schmied ‘blacksmith’. The German surname is found in many other parts of Europe, from Slovenia to Sweden.
Carr: Northern English and Scottish: variant of Kerr.Irish (Ulster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Carra ‘descendant of Carra’, a byname meaning ‘spear’.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Chathair, a Donegal name meaning ‘son of the servant of Cathair’.
Vasquez: Galician and possibly also Spanish: patronymic from the personal name Vasco, reduced form of Spanish Velásquez (see Velasquez).
Castillo: Spanish: from castillo ‘castle’, ‘fortified building’ (Latin castellum), a habitational name from any of numerous places so named or named with this word.

Wheeler: English: occupational name for a maker of wheels (for vehicles or for use in spinning or various other manufacturing processes), from an agent derivative of Middle English whele ‘wheel’. The name is particularly common on the Isle of Wight; on the mainland it is concentrated in the neighboring region of central southern England.

Chapman: English: occupational name for a merchant or trader, Middle English chapman, Old English ceapmann, a compound of ceap ‘barter’, ‘bargain’, ‘price’, ‘property’ + mann ‘man’.

Oliver: English, Scottish, Welsh, and German: from the Old French personal name Olivier, which was taken to England by the Normans from France. It was popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages as having been borne by one of Charlemagne’s paladins, the faithful friend of Roland, about whose exploits there were many popular romances. The name ostensibly means ‘olive tree’ (see Oliveira), but this is almost certainly the result of folk etymology working on an unidentified Germanic personal name, perhaps a cognate of Alvaro. The surname is also borne by Jews, apparently as an adoption of the non-Jewish surname.Catalan and southern French (Occitan): generally a topographic name from oliver ‘olive tree’, but in some instances possibly related to the homonymous personal name (see 1 above).

Montgomery: English, Scottish, and northern Irish (of Norman origin): habitational name from a place in Calvados, France, so named from Old French mont ‘hill’ + a Germanic personal name composed of the elements guma ‘man’ + ric ‘power’. In Ireland this surname has been Gaelicized as Mac Iomaire and in Scotland as Mac Gumaraid.

Richards: English and German: patronymic from the personal name Richard. Richards is a frequent name in Wales.

Williamson: Northern English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from William.

Johnston: habitational name, deriving in most cases from the place so called in Annandale, in Dumfriesshire. This is derived from the genitive case of the personal name John + Middle English tone, toun ‘settlement’ (Old English tun). There are other places in Scotland so called, including the city of Perth, which used to be known as St. John’s Toun, and some of these may also be sources of the surname.variant of Johnson (see John), with intrusive -t-.

Banks: English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived on the slope of a hillside or by a riverbank, from northern Middle English banke (from Old Danish banke). The final -s may occasionally represent a plural form, but it is most commonly an arbitrary addition made after the main period of surname formation, perhaps under the influence of patronymic forms with a possessive -s.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Bruacháin ‘descendant of Bruachán’, a byname for a large-bellied person. The English form was chosen because of a mistaken association of the Gaelic name with bruach ‘bank’.

Meyer: German and Dutch: from Middle High German meier, a status name for a steward, bailiff, or overseer, which later came to be used also to denote a tenant farmer, which is normally the sense in the many compound surnames formed with this term as a second element. Originally it denoted a village headman (ultimately from Latin maior ‘greater’, ‘superior’).Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name Meyer (from Hebrew Meir ‘enlightener’, a derivative of Hebrew or ‘light’).Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Meidhir, from meidhir ‘mirth’.Danish: variant spelling of Meier 3.

Bishop: English: from Middle English biscop, Old English bisc(e)op ‘bishop’, which comes via Latin from Greek episkopos ‘overseer’. The Greek word was adopted early in the Christian era as a title for an overseer of a local community of Christians, and has yielded cognates in every European language: French évêque, Italian vescovo, Spanish obispo, Russian yepiskop, German Bischof, etc. The English surname has probably absorbed at least some of these continental European cognates. The word came to be applied as a surname for a variety of reasons, among them service in the household of a bishop, supposed resemblance in bearing or appearance to a bishop, and selection as the ‘boy bishop’ on St. Nicholas’s Day.

McCoy: Irish (Limerick): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Aodha ‘son of Aodh’, an ancient personal name meaning ‘fire’, originally the name of a pagan god. Thus it has the same origin as McGee, McKay and McKee.

Howell: Welsh: from the personal name Hywel ‘eminent’, popular since the Middle Ages in particular in honor of the great 10th-century law-giving Welsh king.English: habitational name from Howell in Lincolnshire, so named from an Old English hugol ‘mound’, ‘hillock’ or hune ‘hoarhound’.

Alvarez: Spanish (Álvarez): from a patronymic form of the personal name Álvaro (see Alvaro).

Morrison: Scottish: patronymic from the personal name Morris.

Hansen: Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Hans.

Fernandez: Spanish (Fernández): patronymic from the personal name Fernando. The surname (and to a lesser extent the variant Hernandez) has also been established in southern Italy, mainly in Naples and Palermo, since the period of Spanish dominance there, and as a result of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th century, many of whom moved to Italy.
Garza
Harvey

Little: English: nickname for a small man, or distinguishing epithet for the younger of two bearers of the same personal name, from Middle English littel, Old English l¯tel, originally a diminutive of l¯t (see Light 3).Irish: translation of Gaelic Ó Beagáin ‘descendant of Beagán’ (see Begin).Translation of French Petit and Lepetit; also used as an English form of names such as Jean-Petit ‘little John’.Translation of any of various other European name meaning ‘little’.

Burton: English: habitational name from a place name that is very common in central and northern England. The derivation in most cases is from Old English burh ‘fort’ (see Burke) + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

Stanley: English: habitational name from any of the various places, for example in Derbyshire, County Durham, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, and West Yorkshire, so named from Old English stan ‘stone’ + leah ‘wood’, ‘clearing’.Americanized form of any of various like-sounding names in other European languages, for example Polish Stanislawski and Greek Anastasiou.

Nguyen: Vietnamese (Nguy[ecirctilde]n): unexplained. This was the family name of a major Vietnamese royal dynasty.

George: English, Welsh, French, South Indian, etc.: from the personal name George, Greek Georgios, from an adjectival form, georgios ‘rustic’, of georgos ‘farmer’. This became established as a personal name in classical times through its association with the fashion for pastoral poetry. Its popularity in western Europe increased at the time of the Crusades, which brought greater contact with the Orthodox Church, in which several saints and martyrs of this name are venerated, in particular a saint believed to have been martyred at Nicomedia in ad 303, who, however, is at best a shadowy figure historically. Nevertheless, by the end of the Middle Ages St. George had become associated with an unhistorical legend of dragon-slaying exploits, which caught the popular imagination throughout Europe, and he came to be considered the patron saint of England among other places. HH, pwh As an American family name, this has absorbed cognates from other European languages, including German Georg and Greek patronymics such as Georgiou, Georgiadis, Georgopoulos, and the status name Papageorgiou ‘priest George’. In English-speaking countries, this surname is also found as an Anglicized form of Greek surnames such as Hatzigeorgiou ‘George the Pilgrim’ and patronymics such as Giorgopoulos ‘son of George’. JK, NN It is used as a given name among Christians in India, and in the U.S. has come to be used as a surname among families from southern India.

Jacobs:

Reid: nickname for a person with red hair or a ruddy complexion, from Older Scots reid ‘red’.topographic name for someone who lived in a clearing, from Old English r¯d ‘woodland clearing’. Compare English Read.

Kim: Korean: there is one Chinese character for the surname Kim. Kim is the most common Korean surname, comprising about 20 percent of the Korean population. According to some sources, there are over 600 different Kim clans, but only about 100 have been documented. Kims can be found in virtually every part of Korea. The two largest Kim clans, the Kim family of Kimhae and the Kim family of Kyongju, are descended from semi-mythological characters who lived two thousand years ago. According to legend, the Kimhae Kim family founder, Kim Suro, came in answer to a prayer offered by the nine elders of the ancient Karak Kingdom. In 42 ad, these elders met together to pray for a king. In answer to their prayer, they were sent a golden box containing six golden eggs. From the first egg emerged King Su-ro, Karak’s first king. The other five eggs became the five kings of Karak’s neighboring kingdom, Kaya. The founder of the Kim family of Kyongju, Kim Al-ji, had similar origins. In 65 ad the king of Shilla, T’alhae, heard a strange sound from a forest near the Shilla capital, Kyongju. On investigation he found a crowing white rooster standing next to a golden egg. From this egg emerged Al-ji, founder of the Kyongju Kim family and subsequent king of the Shilla Kingdom. Because Al-ji emerged from a golden egg, King T’alhae bestowed upon the child the surname Kim, which means ‘gold’. It is estimated that about half of the one hundred or so Kim clans of modern Korea are descended from the Kyongju Kim clan.Swiss German: unexplained.

Fuller: English: occupational name for a dresser of cloth, Old English fullere (from Latin fullo, with the addition of the English agent suffix). The Middle English successor of this word had also been reinforced by Old French fouleor, foleur, of similar origin. The work of the fuller was to scour and thicken the raw cloth by beating and trampling it in water. This surname is found mostly in southeast England and East Anglia. See also Tucker and Walker.In a few cases the name may be of German origin with the same form and meaning as 1 (from Latin fullare).Americanized version of French Fournier.

Lynch: Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Loingsigh ‘descendant of Loingseach’, a personal name meaning ‘mariner’ (from long ‘ship’). This is now a common surname in Ireland but of different local origins, for example chieftain families in counties Antrim and Tipperary, while in Ulster and Connacht there were families called Ó Loingseacháin who later shortened their name to Ó Loingsigh and also Anglicized it as Lynch.Irish (Anglo-Norman): Anglicized form of Gaelic Linseach, itself a Gaelicized form of Anglo-Norman French de Lench, the version found in old records. This seems to be a local name, but its origin is unknown. One family of bearers of this name was of Norman origin, but became one of the most important tribes of Galway.English: topographic name for someone who lived on a slope or hillside, Old English hlinc, or perhaps a habitational name from Lynch in Dorset or Somerset or Linch in Sussex, all named with this word.

Dean: English: topographic name from Middle English dene ‘valley’ (Old English denu), or a habitational name from any of several places in various parts of England named Dean, Deane, or Deen from this word. In Scotland this is a habitational name from Den in Aberdeenshire or Dean in Ayrshire.English: occupational name for the servant of a dean or nickname for someone thought to resemble a dean. A dean was an ecclesiastical official who was the head of a chapter of canons in a cathedral. The Middle English word deen is a borrowing of Old French d(e)ien, from Latin decanus (originally a leader of ten men, from decem ‘ten’), and thus is a cognate of Deacon.Irish: variant of Deane.Italian: occupational name cognate with 2, from Venetian dean ‘dean’, a dialect form of degan, from degano (Italian decano).

Gilbert

Garrett

Romero

Welch: English: ethnic name for someone of Welsh origin. This is the usual form of the surname in England; the usual form in Ireland is Walsh and in Scotland Welsh. German: variant of Welk. Perhaps an Americanized spelling of German Welsch.
Larson
Frazier
Burke
Hanson
Day

Mendoza: Basque: habitational name from several places in the provinces of Arava and Biscay called Mendoza, named with Basque mendi ‘mountain’ + otz ‘cold’ + the definite article -a.

Moreno: Spanish, Portuguese, and Jewish (Sephardic): nickname for someone with dark hair and a swarthy complexion, from Spanish and Portuguese moreno ‘dark-haired’, a word of uncertain origin, probably from Late Latin maurinus, a derivative of classical Latin Maurus ‘Moor’. Compare Moore 2.

Bowman: English and Scottish: occupational name for an archer, Middle English bow(e)man, bouman (from Old English boga ‘bow’ + mann ‘man’). This word was distinguished from Bowyer, which denoted a maker or seller of the articles. It is possible that in some cases the surname referred originally to someone who untangled wool with a bow. This process, which originated in Italy, became quite common in England in the 13th century. The vibrating string of a bow was worked into a pile of tangled wool, where its rapid vibrations separated the fibers, while still leaving them sufficiently entwined to produce a fine, soft yarn when spun.Americanized form of German Baumann (see Bauer) or the Dutch cognate Bouman.
Medina
Fowler: English: occupational name for a bird-catcher (a common medieval occupation), Middle English fogelere, foulere (Old English fugelere, a derivative of fugol ‘bird’).
Brewer
Hoffman: English: patronymic from Hopkin. The surname is widespread throughout southern and central England, but is at its most common in South Wales.Irish (County Longford and western Ireland): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Oibicín, itself a Gaelicized form of an Anglo-Norman name. In other parts of the country this name is generally of English origin.
Carlson
Silva: Portuguese, Galician, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of the many places called Silva, or a topographic name from silva ‘thicket’, ‘bramble’.
Pearson
Holland
Douglas
Fleming

Jensen: Danish, Norwegian, and North German: patronymic from the personal name Jens, a reduced form of Johannes (see John). This is Denmark’s most frequent surname.
Vargas
Byrd
Davidson
Hopkins: English: patronymic from Hopkin. The surname is widespread throughout southern and central England, but is at its most common in South Wales.Irish (County Longford and western Ireland): Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Oibicín, itself a Gaelicized form of an Anglo-Norman name. In other parts of the country this name is generally of English origin.
May
Terry
Herrera
Wade
Soto
Walters
Curtis
Neal
Caldwell
Lowe
Jennings
Barnett
Graves
Jimenez
Horton
Shelton
Barrett
O'Brien
Castro
Sutton
Gregory
McKinney
Lucas
Miles
Craig
Rodriquez
Chambers
Holt
Lambert
Fletcher
Watts
Bates
Hale
Rhodes
Pena
Beck: English: topographic name for someone who lived beside a stream, from northern Middle English bekke ‘stream’ (Old Norse bekkr).English (of Norman origin): habitational name from any of various places in northern France, for example Bec Hellouin in Eure, named with Old Norman French bec ‘stream’, from the same Old Norse root as in 1.English: probably a nickname for someone with a prominent nose, from Middle English beke ‘beak (of a bird)’ (Old French bec).English: metonymic occupational name for a maker, seller, or user of mattocks or pickaxes, from Old English becca. In some cases the name may represent a survival of an Old English byname derived from this word.German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a baker, a cognate of Baker, from (older) South German beck, West Yiddish bek. Some Jewish bearers of the name claim that it is an acronym of Hebrew ben-kedoshim ‘son of martyrs’, i.e. a name taken by one whose parents had been martyred for being Jews.North German: topographic name for someone who lived by a stream, from Low German Beke ‘stream’. Compare the High German form Bach 1.Scandinavian: habitational name for someone from a farmstead named Bekk, Bæk, or Bäck, or a topographic name for someone who lived by a stream.
Newman: 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.
Haynes: English (Shropshire): from the Welsh personal name Einws, a diminutive of Einion (of uncertain origin, popularly associated with einion ‘anvil’).English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Hain 2.English: habitational name from Haynes in Bedfordshire. This name first appears in Domesday Book as Hagenes, which Mills derives from the plural of Old English hægen, hagen ‘enclosure’.Irish: variant of Hines.
McDaniel: Altered form of Irish McDonnell ‘son of Donal’, from an incorrect association of the Gaelic patronymic with the personal name Daniel.
Mendez: Galician (Méndez): patronymic from the personal name Mendo (see Mendes, of which this is the Galician equivalent).
Bush: English: topographic name for someone who lived by a bushy area or thicket, from Middle English bush(e) ‘bush’ (probably from Old Norse buskr, or an unrecorded Old English busc); alternatively, it may derive from Old Norse Buski used as a personal name.Americanized spelling of German Busch.

Vaughn: Welsh: variant spelling of Vaughan.

Parks: English: patronymic from Park 2.

Dawson: English: patronymic from Daw 1.

Santiago: Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named for the dedication of their churches to St. James (Sant Iago). The apostle St. James the Greater is the patron saint of Spain; there is a medieval legend that, after the death of Christ, he did not meet a speedy end under Herod Agrippa, but visited and evangelized the Iberian peninsula. His alleged burial site at Compostela has been a place of pilgrimage from all over Europe for over a thousand years.

Norris: regional name for someone who had migrated from the North (i.e. further north in England, or from Scotland or Scandinavia), from Old French nor(r)eis ‘northerner’.topographic name for someone who lived in a house on the north side of a settlement or estate, from Middle English north ‘north’ + hous ‘house’.occupational name for a wet-nurse or foster mother, from Old French nurice, norrice (Latin nutrix, genitive nutricis).

Hardy: English, Scottish, and French: nickname for a brave or foolhardy man, from Old French, Middle English hardi ‘bold’, ‘courageous’ (of Germanic origin; compare Hard 1).Irish: in addition to being an importation of the English name, this is also found as an Anglicized form (by partial translation) of Gaelic Mac Giolla Deacair ‘son of the hard lad’.Scottish: variant spelling of Hardie 2.

Love: English: from a Middle English personal name derived from the Old English female personal name Lufu ‘love’, or the masculine equivalent Lufa. Compare Leaf 2.English and Scottish: nickname from Anglo-Norman French lo(u)ve ‘female wolf’ (a feminine form of lou). This nickname was fairly commonly used for men, in an approving sense. No doubt it was reinforced by crossing with post-Conquest survivals of the masculine version of 1.Scottish: see McKinnon.Dutch (de Love): respelling and reinterpretation of Delhove, a habitational name from Hove and L’Hoves in Hainault, for example.

Steele: English and Scottish: from Middle English stele ‘steel’, hence a nickname for someone considered as hard and durable as steel, or metonymic occupational name for a foundry worker.

Curry: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Comhraidhe, ‘descendant of Comhraidhe’, a personal name of uncertain meaning.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Corra (see Corr).Scottish and northern English: variant of Currie.

Powers: English: variant of Power.

Schultz: German: status name for a village headman, from a contracted form of Middle High German schultheize. The term originally denoted a man responsible for collecting dues and paying them to the lord of the manor; it is a compound of sculd(a) ‘debt’, ‘due’ + a derivative of heiz(z)an ‘to command’. The surname is also established in Scandinavia.Jewish (Ashkenazic): from German Schulze (see 1 above). The reason for adoption are uncertain, but may perhaps have referred to a rabbi, seen as the head of a Jewish community, or to a trustee of a synagogue.

Barker: English: occupational name for a tanner of leather, from Middle English bark(en) ‘to tan’, tree bark having been used as the tanning agent.English: occupational name for a shepherd, Anglo-Norman French bercher (Late Latin berbicarius, from berbex ‘ram’, genitive berbicis). With the change of -ar- to -er- in Middle English, this became indistinguishable from the preceding name.Altered spelling of German Barger or Berger.

Guzman: Spanish (Guzmán): of uncertain and disputed etymology, probably from a Germanic personal name.Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): variant of Gusman.

Page: English, Scottish, and French: status name for a young servant, Middle English and Old French page (from Italian paggio, ultimately from Greek paidion, diminutive of pais ‘boy’, ‘child’). The surname is also common in Ireland (especially Ulster and eastern Galway), having been established there since the 16th century.North German: metonymic occupational name for a horse dealer, from Middle Low German page ‘horse’.(Pagé): North American form of French Paget.

Munoz: Spanish (Muñoz): patronymic from the old personal name Muño.

Ball: English: nickname for a short, fat person, from Middle English bal(le) ‘ball’ (Old English ball, Old Norse b{o,}llr).English: topographic name for someone who lived on or by a knoll or rounded hill, from the same Middle English word, bal(le), used in this sense.English: from the Old Norse personal name Balle, derived either from ballr ‘dangerous’ or b{o,}llr ‘ball’.South German: from Middle High German bal ‘ball’, possibly applied as a metonymic occupational name for a juggler, or a habitational name from a place so named in the Rhine area.Dutch and German: short form of any of various Germanic personal names formed with the element bald (see Bald).

Keller: German: from Middle High German kellaere ‘cellarman’, ‘cellar master’ (Latin cellarius, denoting the keeper of the cella ‘store chamber’, ‘pantry’). Hence an occupational name for the overseer of the stores, accounts, or household in general in, for example, a monastery or castle. Kellers were important as trusted stewards in a great household, and in some cases were promoted to ministerial rank. The surname is widespread throughout central Europe.English: either an occupational name for a maker of caps or cauls, from Middle English kellere, or an occupational name for an executioner, from Old English cwellere.Irish: reduced form of Kelleher.Scottish: variant of Keillor.

Chandler: English: occupational name for a maker and seller of candles, from Middle English cha(u)ndeler (Old French chandelier, Late Latin candelarius, a derivative of candela ‘candle’). While a medieval chandler no doubt made and sold other articles beside candles, the extended sense of modern English chandler does not occur until the 16th century. The name may also, more rarely, have denoted someone who was responsible for the lighting arrangements in a large house, or else one who owed rent in the form of wax or candles.

Weber: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a weaver, Middle High German wëber, German Weber, an agent derivative of weben ‘to weave’. JXE, AB This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe, being found for example as a Czech, Polish, Slovenian, and Hungarian name.

Leonard: English and French (Léonard): from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements leo ‘lion’ (a late addition to the vocabulary of Germanic name elements, taken from Latin) + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’, which was taken to England by the Normans. A saint of this name, who is supposed to have lived in the 6th century, but about whom nothing is known except for a largely fictional life dating from half a millennium later, was popular throughout Europe in the early Middle Ages and was regarded as the patron of peasants and horses.Irish (Fermanagh): adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Mac Giolla Fhionáin or of Langan.Americanized form of Italian Leonardo or cognate forms in other European languages.

Walsh: Irish: Anglicized form (translation) of Breathnach ‘Briton’. It was used in particular to denote the Welshmen who arrived in Ireland in the wake of Strongbow’s Anglo-Norman invasion of 1170.

Lyons: English: variant of Lyon 3.Irish: variant of Lyon 4.

Ramsey: Scottish: habitational name from a place in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), so called from Old English hramsa ‘wild garlic’ + eg ‘island’, ‘low-lying land’. There are other places in England called Ramsey, but the one in Huntingdonshire is almost certainly the source of the surname. The usual spelling of the surname in Scotland is Ramsay.

Wolfe: Irish, English, and German: variant spelling of Wolf.

Schneider: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a tailor, literally ‘cutter’, from Middle High German snider, German Schneider, Yiddish shnayder. The same term was sometimes used to denote a woodcutter. JXE, AB This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.

Mullins

Benson

Sharp

Bowen

Daniel

Barber

Cummings: Irish: variant of Cumming, with the addition of English patronymic -s.

Hines: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEidhin ‘descendant of Eidhin’, a personal name or byname of uncertain origin. It may be a derivative of eidhean ‘ivy’, or it may represent an altered form of the place name Aidhne. The principal family of this name is descended from Guaire of Aidhne, King of Connacht. From the 7th century for over a thousand years they were chiefs of a territory in County Galway.English: patronymic from Hine.Americanized spelling of German Heins or Heinz.

Baldwin

Griffith

Valdez

Hubbard

Salazar

Reeves: patronymic from Reeve.topographic name for someone who lived on the margin of a wood, from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter eves ‘at the edge’ (Old English æt þære efese).
Warner: English (of Norman origin) and North German: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements war(in) ‘guard’ + heri, hari ‘army’. The name was introduced into England by the Normans in the form Warnier.English (of Norman origin): reduced form of Warrener (see Warren 2).Irish (Cork): Anglicization of Gaelic Ó Murnáin (see Murnane), found in medieval records as Iwarrynane, from a genitive or plural form of the name, in which m is lenited.
Stevenson: Scottish and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Steven. As a North American surname, it has assimilated some European cognates such as Stefan and Steffen and their derivatives.
Burgess: English and Scottish: status name from Middle English burge(i)s, Old French burgeis ‘inhabitant and (usually) freeman of a (fortified) town’ (see Burke), especially one with municipal rights and duties. Burgesses generally had tenure of land or buildings from a landlord by burgage. In medieval England burgage involved the payment of a fixed money rent (as opposed to payment in kind); in Scotland it involved payment in service, guarding the town. The -eis ending is from Latin -ensis (modern English -ese as in Portuguese). Compare Burger.
Santos: from a personal name, byname, or nickname, dos Santos (from Spanish Todos los Santos ‘All Saints’, Portuguese Todos os santos), typically bestowed on a child born on All Saints’ Day.in many cases, a habitational name from any of the places named Santos, from the dedication of a local church or shrine to all the saints. This is a very common Portuguese surname.
Tate: English: from the Old English personal name Tata, possibly a short form of various compound names with the obscure first element tat, or else a nursery formation. This surname is common and widespread in Britain; the chief area of concentration is northeastern England, followed by northern Ireland.
Cross: English: topographic name for someone who lived near a stone cross set up by the roadside or in a marketplace, from Old Norse kross (via Gaelic from Latin crux, genitive crucis), which in Middle English quickly and comprehensively displaced the Old English form cruc (see Crouch). In a few cases the surname may have been given originally to someone who lived by a crossroads, but this sense of the word seems to have been a comparatively late development. In other cases, the surname (and its European cognates) may have denoted someone who carried the cross in processions of the Christian Church, but in English at least the usual word for this sense was Crozier.Irish: reduced form of McCrossen.In North America this name has absorbed examples of cognate names from other languages, such as French Lacroix.
Garner: English: from Anglo-Norman French gerner ‘granary’ (Old French grenier, from Late Latin granarium, a derivative of granum ‘grain’). It may have been a topographic name for someone who lived near a barn or granary, or a metonymic occupational name for someone in charge of the stores kept in a granary.English: variant of Warner 1, from a central Old French form.English: reduced form of Gardener.South German: from an agent derivative of Middle High German garn ‘thread’; by extension, an occupational name for a fisherman.Altered spelling of Gerner.
Mann: English, German, Dutch (De Mann), and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a fierce or strong man, or for a man contrasted with a boy, from Middle English, Middle High German, Middle Dutch man. In some cases it may have arisen as an occupational name for a servant, from the medieval use of the term to describe a person of inferior social status. The Jewish surname can be ornamental.English and German: from a Germanic personal name, found in Old English as Manna. This originated either as a byname or else as a short form of a compound name containing this element, such as Hermann.Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish male personal name Man (cognate with 1).Indian (Panjab): Hindu (Jat) and Sikh name of unknown meaning.
Mack: Scottish (Berwickshire) and Irish: from the Old Norse personal name Makkr, a form of Magnus (Old Irish Maccus).North German, Dutch, and French (Alsace): from the Germanic personal name Macco, Makko, a pet form of a compound name with the initial element mag- ‘kinsman’.Shortened form of any of the many Scottish and Irish names beginning M(a)c-.
Moss: English and Welsh: from the personal name Moss, a Middle English vernacular form of the Biblical name Moses.English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived by a peat bog, Middle English, Old English mos, or a habitational name from a place named with this word. (It was not until later that the vocabulary word came to denote the class of plants characteristic of a peat-bog habitat, under the influence of the related Old Norse word mosi.Americanized form of Moses or some other like-sounding Jewish surname.Irish (Ulster): part translation of Gaelic Ó Maolmhóna ‘descendant of Maolmhóna’, a personal name composed of the elements maol ‘servant’, ‘tonsured one’, ‘devotee’ + a second element which was assumed to be móin (genitive móna) ‘moorland’, ‘peat bog’.
Thornton: English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the numerous places throughout England and Scotland so called, from Old English þorn ‘thorn bush’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.Irish: Anglicized (translated) form of Gaelic Mac Sceacháin ‘son of Sceachán’ (see Skehan).Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Draighneáin ‘descendant of Draighneán’ (see Drennan).Irish: possibly a translated form of Gaelic Ó Muineacháin (see Monahan).
Dennis: English: from the medieval personal name Den(n)is (Latin Dionysius, Greek Dionysios ‘(follower) of Dionysos’, an eastern god introduced to the classical pantheon at a relatively late date and bearing a name of probably Semitic origin). The name was borne by various early saints, including St Denis, the martyred 3rd-century bishop of Paris who became the patron of France; the popularity of the name in England from the 12th century onwards seems to have been largely due to French influence. The feminine form Dionysia (in the vernacular likewise Den(n)is) is also found, and some examples of the surname may represent a metronymic form.English: variant of Dench.Irish (mainly Dublin and Cork): of the same origin as 1 and 2, sometimes an alternative form to Donohue but more often to MacDonough, since the personal name Donnchadh was Anglicized as Donough or Denis.Irish (Ulster and Munster): Anglicized form of the rare Gaelic name Ó Donnghusa ‘descendant of Donnghus’, a personal name from donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + gus ‘vigor’.
McGee: Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Aodha ‘son of Aodh’ (see McCoy).
Farmer: English: occupational name from Middle English, Old French ferm(i)er (Late Latin firmarius). The term denoted in the first instance a tax farmer, one who undertook the collection of taxes, revenues, and imposts, paying a fixed (Latin firmus) sum for the proceeds, and only secondarily someone who rented land for the purpose of cultivation; it was not applied to an owner of cultivated land before the 17th century.Irish: Anglicized (part translated) form of Gaelic Mac an Scolóige ‘son of the husbandman’, a rare surname of northern and western Ireland.
Delgado: Spanish and Portuguese: nickname for a thin person, from Spanish, Portuguese delgado ‘slender’ (Latin delicatus ‘dainty’, ‘exquisite’, a derivative of deliciae ‘delight’, ‘joy’).
Aguilar: Spanish, Catalan, and Jewish (Sephardic): habitational name from any of numerous places called Aguilar, from Latin aquilare ‘haunt of eagles’ (a derivative of aquila ‘eagle’), for example Aguilar de Campo in Palencia, Aguilar de la Frontera in Córdoba, and Aguilar de Segarra in Catalonia. DK, RS.
Vega: Spanish: habitational name from any of the numerous places named Vega or La Vega, from vega ‘meadow’ (of pre-Roman origin, probably originally denoting irrigated land).
Glover: English: occupational name for a maker or seller of gloves, Middle English glovere, an agent noun from Old English glof ‘glove’.
Manning: English: patronymic from Mann 1 and 2.Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Mainnín ‘descendant of Mainnín’, probably an assimilated form of Mainchín, a diminutive of manach ‘monk’. This is the name of a chieftain family in Connacht. It is sometimes pronounced Ó Maingín and Anglicized as Mangan.
Cohen: Jewish: from Hebrew kohen ‘priest’. Priests are traditionally regarded as members of a hereditary caste descended from Aaron, brother of Moses. See also Kaplan. ABIrish deleted.
Harmon: Irish (mainly County Louth): generally of English origin (see 1); but sometimes also used as a variant of Harman or Hardiman, i.e. an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hArgadáin (see Hargadon).English: variant spelling of Harman 1.
Rodgers: Scottish, northern Irish, and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Roger 1.
Robbins: English: patronymic from Robin.
Newton: English: habitational name from any of the many places so named, from Old English neowe ‘new’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. According to Ekwall, this is the commonest English place name. For this reason, the surname has a highly fragmented origin.
Todd: English (mainly northern) and Scottish: nickname for someone thought to resemble a fox, for example in cunning or slyness, or perhaps more obviously in having red hair, from northern Middle English tod(de) ‘fox’ (of unknown origin).
Blair: Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from any of the numerous places in Scotland called Blair, named with Scottish Gaelic blàr (genitive blàir) ‘plain’, ‘field’, especially a battlefield (Irish blár).
Higgins: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUiginn ‘descendant of Uiginn’, a byname meaning ‘viking’, ‘sea-rover’ (from Old Norse víkingr).Irish: variant of Hagan.English: patronymic from the medieval personal name Higgin, a pet form of Hick.
Ingram: English: from a common Norman personal name, Ingram, of Germanic origin, composed of the elements Ing (the name of a Germanic god) + hraban ‘raven’.
Reese: Welsh: from one of the most common Welsh personal names, Rhys, Old Welsh Ris ‘ardor’. This was the name of the last ruler of an independent kingdom of Wales, Rhys ap Tewder, who died in 1093 unsuccessfully opposing the Norman advance.North German and Dutch: nickname for a very big man, from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch rese ‘giant’.German: habitational name from places called Rees or Reese, in Rhineland and Lower Saxony.
Cannon: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Canann or Ó Canann (Ulster), or Ó Canáin (County Galway) ‘son (Mac) or descendant (Ó) of Canán’, a personal name derived from cano ‘wolf cub’. In Ulster it may also be from Ó Canannáin ‘descendant of Canannán’, a diminutive of the personal name.English: from Middle English canun ‘canon’ (Old Norman French canonie, canoine, from Late Latin canonicus). In medieval England this term denoted a clergyman living with others in a clergy house; the surname is mostly an occupational name for a servant in a house of canons, although it could also be a nickname or even a patronymic.
Strickland: English: habitational name from a place in Cumbria, so called from Old English styr(i)c, steorc ‘bullock’ + land ‘land’, ‘pasture’.
Townsend: English: topographic name for someone who lived at the extremity of a village, from Middle English toun ‘village’, ‘settlement’ + ende ‘end’.
Potter: English, Dutch, and North German (Pötter): occupational name for a maker of drinking and storage vessels, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Middle Low German pot. In the Middle Ages the term covered workers in metal as well as earthenware and clay.
Goodwin: English: from the Middle English personal name Godewyn, Old English Godwine, composed of the elements god ‘good’ + wine ‘friend’.
Walton: English: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Walton. The first element in these names was variously Old English walh ‘foreigner’, ‘Briton’, genitive plural wala (see Wallace), w(e)ald ‘forest’, w(e)all ‘wall’, or wæll(a) ‘spring’, ‘stream’.
Rowe: topographic name for someone who lived by a hedgerow or in a row of houses built next to one another, from Middle English row (northern Middle English raw, from Old English raw).from the medieval personal name Row, a variant of Rou(l) (see Rollo, Rolf) or a short form of Rowland.English name adopted by bearers of French Baillargeon.
Hampton: English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the numerous places called Hampton, including the cities of Southampton and Northampton (both of which were originally simply Hamtun). These all share the final Old English element tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’, but the first is variously ham ‘homestead’, hamm ‘water meadow’, or hean, weak dative case (originally used after a preposition and article) of heah ‘high’. This name is also established in Ireland, having first been taken there in the medieval period.
Ortega: Spanish (from Galician): habitational name from Ortega in A Coruña province.Spanish: nickname from ortega ‘(female) black grouse’ (from Greek ortyx ‘quail’).Southern French (Occitan): topographic name from Occitan ortiga ‘nettle’ (Latin urtica, French ortie).
Patton: English, northern Irish, and Scottish: from a pet form of the personal name Pate.
Swanson: Americanized spelling of Swedish Svensson or Danish and Norwegian Svensen (see Svendsen).Scottish and northern English: patronymic from the personal name Swan.
Joseph: English, German, French, and Jewish: from the personal name, Hebrew Yosef ‘may He (God) add (another son)’. In medieval Europe this name was borne frequently but not exclusively by Jews; the usual medieval English vernacular form is represented by Jessup. In the Book of Genesis, Joseph is the favorite son of Jacob, who is sold into slavery by his brothers but rises to become a leading minister in Egypt (Genesis 37–50). In the New Testament Joseph is the husband of the Virgin Mary, which accounts for the popularity of the given name among Christians.
Francis: English: from the personal name Francis (Old French form Franceis, Latin Franciscus, Italian Francisco). This was originally an ethnic name meaning ‘Frank’ and hence ‘Frenchman’. The personal name owed much of its popularity during the Middle Ages to the fame of St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), whose baptismal name was actually Giovanni but who was nicknamed Francisco because his father was absent in France at the time of his birth. As an American family name this has absorbed cognates from several other European languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).Jewish (American): an Americanization of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames, or an adoption of the non-Jewish surname.
Goodman: English: status name from Middle English gode ‘good’ + man ‘man’, in part from use as a term for the master of a household. In Scotland the term denoted a landowner who held his land not directly from the crown but from a feudal vassal of the king.English: from the Middle English personal name Godeman, Old English Godmann, composed of the elements god ‘good’ or god ‘god’ + mann ‘man’.English: from the Old English personal name Guðmund, composed of the elements guð ‘battle’ + mund ‘protection’ , or the Old Norse cognate Guðmundr.Americanized form of Jewish Gutman or German Gutmann.
Maldonado: nickname for an ugly or stupid person, from Spanish mal donado ‘ill-favored’. The phrase is a compound of mal ‘badly’ + donado ‘given’, ‘endowed’, past participle of donare ‘to give’, ‘to bestow’.habitational name from Maldonado, a village in the province of Albacete.
Yates: English: from Middle English yates ‘gates’, plural of yate, Old English geat ‘gate’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived near the gates of a walled town, or a metonymic occupational name for a gatekeeper.
Becker: Dutch, German, Danish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a baker of bread, or brick and tiles, from backen ‘to bake’.English: occupational name for a maker or user of mattocks or pickaxes, from an agent derivative of Old English becca ‘mattock’.
Erickson: Respelling of a Scandinavian and North German patronymic derived from the Old Norse personal name Eiríkr, which is composed of ei ‘ever’, ‘always’ (or a reduced form of ein ‘one’, ‘only’) + rík ‘power’. The main forms are Erichsen, Eriksen, Ericsson, and Eriksson.
Hodges: English: patronymic from Hodge.
Rios: Galician and Spanish (Ríos): habitational name from any of the places called Ríos, predominantly in Galicia.Spanish (Ríós): habitational name from Ríós in Ourense, Galicia.
Conner: Irish: variant spelling of Connor, now common in Scotland.English: occupational name for an inspector of weights and measures, Middle English connere, cunnere ‘inspector’, an agent derivative of cun(nen) ‘to examine’.
Adkins: English: from the Middle English personal name Adkin, a pet form of Adam that was in use particularly in the English Midlands, + patronymic -s. Compare Atkins.
Webster
Norman
Malone
Hammond
Flowers
Cobb
Moody
Quinn
Blake
Maxwell
Pope
Floyd
Osborne
Paul
McCarthy
Guerrero
Lindsey
Estrada
Sandoval
Gibbs
Tyler
Gross
Fitzgerald
Stokes
Doyle
Sherman
Saunders
Wise
Colon
Gill
Alvarado
Greer
Padilla
Simon: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish (Simón), Czech and Slovak (Šimon), Slovenian, Hungarian, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the personal name, Hebrew Shim‘on, which is probably derived from the verb sham‘a ‘to hearken’. In the Vulgate and in many vernacular versions of the Old Testament, this is usually rendered Simeon. In the Greek New Testament, however, the name occurs as Simon, as a result of assimilation to the pre-existing Greek byname Simon (from simos ‘snub-nosed’). Both Simon and Simeon were in use as personal names in western Europe from the Middle Ages onward. In Christendom the former was always more popular, at least in part because of its associations with the apostle Simon Peter, the brother of Andrew. In Britain there was also confusion from an early date with Anglo-Scandinavian forms of Sigmund (see Siegmund), a name whose popularity was reinforced at the Conquest by the Norman form Simund.
Waters: English: patronymic from an altered form of the personal name Walter.English: variant of Water 2.Irish: when not the English surname, an Anglicized form of various Gaelic names taken to be derived from uisce ‘water’ (see for example Haskin, Hiskey, Tydings).
Nunez
Ballard
Schwartz
McBride
Houston
Christensen
Klein
Pratt: English: nickname for a clever trickster, from Old English prætt ‘trick’, ‘tricky’, ‘cunning’ (which is found in use as a byname in the 11th century). This surname is quite common in southeastern Ireland.
Briggs
Parsons
McLaughlin
Zimmerman
French
Buchanan
Moran
Copeland
Roy
Pittman
Brady
McCormick
Holloway: English: habitational name from any of the numerous minor places so called, from Old English hol ‘hollow’, ‘sunken’ + weg ‘way’, ‘path’. In Ireland, it has sometimes been Gaelicized as Ó hAilmhic (see Hulvey).
Brock: English, Scottish, and North German: variant of Brook.English, Scottish, and Scandinavian: nickname for a person supposedly resembling a badger, Middle English broc(k) (Old English brocc) and Danish brok (a word of Celtic origin; compare Welsh broch, Cornish brogh, Irish broc). In the Middle Ages badgers were regarded as unpleasant creatures.English: nickname from Old French broque, brock ‘young stag’.Dutch: from a personal name, a short form of Brockaert .South German: nickname for a stout and strong man from Middle High German brocke ‘lump’, ‘piece’.Jewish (Ashkenazic): probably an acronymic family name from Jewish Aramaic bar- or Hebrew ben- ‘son of’, and the first letter of each part of a Yiddish double male personal name. Compare Brill.Jewish (from Poland): habitational name from Brok, a place in Poland.
Poole
Frank
Logan
Owen: Welsh: from the Welsh personal name Owain, probably a borrowing in Roman times of Latin Eugenius (see Eugene), but possibly of more ancient Celtic origin, cognate with Gaelic Eoghan.Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Eoghain ‘son of Eoghan’ (see McEwen).

Bass: English: from Old French bas(se) ‘low’, ‘short’ (Latin bassus ‘thickset’; see Basso), either a descriptive nickname for a short person or a status name meaning ‘of humble origin’, not necessarily with derogatory connotations.English: in some instances, from Middle English bace ‘bass’ (the fish), hence a nickname for a person supposedly resembling this fish, or a metonymic occupational name for a fish seller or fisherman.Scottish: habitational name from a place in Aberdeenshire, of uncertain origin.Jewish (Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a maker or player of bass viols, from Polish, Ukrainian, and Yiddish bas ‘bass viol’.German: see Basse.

Marsh: English: topographic name for someone who lived by or in a marsh or fen, Middle English mershe (Old English mersc), or a habitational name from any of various minor places named with this word, for example in Shropshire and Sussex.

Drake: English: from the Old English byname Draca, meaning ‘snake’ or ‘dragon’, Middle English Drake, or sometimes from the Old Norse cognate Draki. Both are common bynames and, less frequently, personal names. Both the Old English and the Old Norse forms are from Latin draco ‘snake’, ‘monster’ (see Dragon).English and Dutch: from Middle English drake, Middle Dutch drake ‘male duck’ (from Middle Low German andrake), hence a nickname for someone with some fancied resemblance to a drake, or perhaps a habitational name for someone who lived at a house distinguished by the sign of a drake.North German: nickname from Low German drake ‘dragon’ (see Drach 1).

Wong: Chinese: variant of Wang.Chinese: variant of Huang.

Jefferson

Park: English: patronymic from Jeffrey.

Morton: English and Scottish: habitational name from any of the many places called Mor(e)ton, named in Old English as ‘settlement (tun) by or on a marsh or moor (mor)’.Swedish: variant of Martin.French: contracted form of Moreton 2.Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames or of various other non-English names bearing some kind of similarity to it.

Abbott: English and Scottish: from Middle English abbott ‘abbot’ (Old English abbod) or Old French abet ‘priest’. Both the Old English and the Old French term are derived from Late Latin abbas ‘priest’ (genitive abbatis), from Greek abbas, from Aramaic aba ‘father’. This was an occupational name for someone employed in the household of or on the lands of an abbot, and perhaps also a nickname for a sanctimonious person thought to resemble an abbot. In the U.S. this name is also sometimes a translation of a cognate or equivalent European name, e.g. Italian Abate, Spanish Abad, or German Abt.
Sparks: English: patronymic from Spark 1.
Patrick: Scottish and Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Phádraig ‘son of Patrick’, a personal name derived from Latin Patricius ‘son of a noble father’, ‘member of the patrician class’. This was the name of a 5th-century Romano-Briton who became the apostle and patron saint of Ireland, and it was largely as a result of his fame that the personal name was so popular from the Middle Ages onward. In Ireland the surname is usually Scottish in origin, but it is also found as a shortened form of Mulpatrick and Fitzpatrick.
Norton: English: habitational name from any of the many places so called, from Old English norð ‘north’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’. In some cases, it is a variant of Norrington.Irish: altered form of Naughton, assimilated to the English name.Jewish (American): adoption of the English name in place of some like-sounding Ashkenazic name.
Huff: English: topographic name for someone who lived by a spur of a hill, Old English hoh (literally, ‘heel’).German: from the Germanic personal name Hufo, a short form of a compound name formed with hug ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘spirit’ as the first element.
Clayton: English: habitational name from any of the numerous places, in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, and elsewhere, named Clayton, from Old English cl?g ‘clay’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.
Massey: 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.English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Marcy in La Manche. This surname is preserved in the English place name Stondon Massey.English: from a pet form of Matthew.Altered spelling of French Massé (see Masse 4).
Lloyd: Welsh: descriptive nickname from Welsh llwyd ‘gray’. In Welsh the color term llwyd also includes shades of brown, and it is likely that, when used with reference to younger men, llwyd denoted brown or mouse-colored hair.
Figueroa: Galician: habitational name from any of the places in Galicia named Figueroa, from a derivative of figueira ‘fig tree’.
Carson: Scottish and northern Irish: probably a variant of Curzon.
Bowers: English: variant of Bower.
Roberson: Northern English: variant of Robertson.
Barton: English: habitational name from any of the numerous places named with Old English bere or bær ‘barley’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’, i.e. an outlying grange. Compare Barwick.German and central European (e.g. Czech and Slovak Barton): from a pet form of the personal name Bartolomaeus (see Bartholomew).
Tran: Vietnamese: unexplained.Scottish: nickname from Old Norse trani ‘crane’. IGI.
Lamb: English: from Middle English lamb, a nickname for a meek and inoffensive person, or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper of lambs. See also Lamm.English: from a short form of the personal name Lambert.Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Luain (see Lane 3). MacLysaght comments: ‘The form Lamb(e), which results from a more than usually absurd pseudo-translation (uan ‘lamb’), is now much more numerous than O’Loan itself.Possibly also a translation of French agneau.
Harrington: English: habitational name from places in Cumbria, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire. The first gets its name from Old English Haferingtun ‘settlement (Old English tun) associated with someone called Hæfer’, a byname meaning ‘he-goat’. The second probably meant ‘settlement (Old English tun) of someone called Hæring’. Alternatively, the first element may have been Old English hæring ‘stony place’ or haring ‘gray wood’. The last, recorded in Domesday Book as Arintone and in 1184 as Hederingeton, is most probably named with an unattested Old English personal name, Heathuhere.Irish (County Kerry and the West): adopted as an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hArrachtáin ‘descendant of Arrachtán’, a personal name from a diminutive of arrachtach ‘mighty’, ‘powerful’.Irish (County Kerry): adopted as an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hIongardail, later Ó hUrdáil, ‘descendant of Iongardal’.Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hOireachtaigh ‘descendant of Oireachtach’, a byname meaning ‘member of the assembly’ or ‘frequenting assemblies’.
Casey: Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Cathasaigh ‘descendant of Cathasach’, a byname meaning ‘vigilant’ or ‘noisy’.
Boone: English (of Norman origin): from a nickname meaning ‘good’, from Old French bon ‘good’. Compare Bone 1.English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Bohon in La Manche, France, of obscure etymology.Dutch: from Middle Dutch bone, boene ‘bean’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a bean grower or a nickname for a man of little importance (broad beans having been an extremely common crop in the medieval period), or possibly for a tall thin man (with reference to the runner bean).
Cortez: Spanish: variant of Cortés (see Cortes).
Clarke: English: occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally a member of a minor religious order who undertook such duties. The word clerc denoted a member of a religious order, from Old English cler(e)c ‘priest’, reinforced by Old French clerc. Both are from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klerikos, a derivative of kleros ‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’, with reference to the priestly tribe of Levites (see Levy) ‘whose inheritance was the Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members of religious orders who learned to read and write, so that the term clerk came to denote any literate man.
Mathis: Dutch and French: from a variant of the personal name Mathias (see Matthew).English: patronymic from a pet form of Matthew.
Singleton: English: habitational name from places in Lancashire and Sussex. The former seems from the present-day distribution of the surname to be the major source, and is named from Old English scingel ‘shingle(s)’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’; the latter gets its name from Old English sengel ‘burnt clearing’ + tun.
Wilkins: English and Dutch: patronymic from Wilkin.
Cain: Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Iain, patronymic from Iain, one of the Gaelic forms of John. This name is found in many other spellings, including McCain, Kean, and McKean. In some cases it may also be a variant of Coyne.English: variant spelling of Cane.English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Caen in Calvados, France, named with the Gaulish elements catu ‘battle’ + magos ‘field’, ‘plain’.French (Caïn): from the Biblical name Cain (Hebrew Qayin), probably applied as a derogatory nickname for someone who was considered to be treacherous.Spanish (Caín): habitational name from a place called Caín in León.
Bryan: English (of Norman origin): habitational name (de Brionne) from either of two places called Brionne in northern France (in Eure and Creuse).Irish and English: from the Celtic personal name Brian (see O’Brien). Breton bearers of this name were among the Normans who invaded England in 1066, and they went on to invade and settle in Ireland in the 12th century, where the name mingled with the native Irish name Brian. This native Irish name had also been borrowed by Vikings, who introduced it independently into northwestern England before the Norman Conquest.
Underwood: English and Scottish: topographic name for someone who lived near or in a wood, from Middle English under + wude, wode ‘wood’, or a habitational name from any of various places so named, for example in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and the former county of Ayrshire (from Old English under + wudu).
Hogan: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÓgáin ‘descendant of Ógán’, a personal name from a diminutive of óg ‘young’, also ‘young warrior’. In the south, some bearers claim descent from an uncle of Brian Boru. In northern Ireland a surname of the same form was Anglicized as Hagan.
McKenzie: Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Coinnich, patronymic from the personal name Coinneach meaning ‘comely’. Compare Menzies.
Collier: English: occupational name for a burner of charcoal or a gatherer or seller of coal, from Middle English cole ‘(char)coal’ + the agent suffix -(i)er.
Luna: Spanish: habitational name from places called Luna in Zaragoza, Araba, and Lleón provinces.Jewish (Sephardic): from the female personal name Luna (Spanish luna ‘moon’).
Phelps: English (southwestern): patronymic from Philip.
McGuire: Irish and Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mag Uidhir ‘son of Odhar’, a byname meaning ‘sallow’. This was the name of the ruling family of Fermanagh from the 13th–17th centuries.
Allison: English and Scottish: patronymic from a Middle English male personal name: in most cases probably Allen, but other possibilities include a variant of Ellis or a short form of Alexander. In some instances, it may be from a female personal name, Alise or Alice (see Allis).
Bridges: English: variant of Bridge. The -s generally represents the genitive case, but may occasionally be a plural. In some cases this name denoted someone from the Flemish city of Bruges (Brugge), meaning ‘bridges’, which had extensive trading links with England in the Middle Ages.
Wilkerson: English: patronymic from Wilkin.
Nash: English: topographic name for someone who lived by an ash tree, a variant of Ash by misdivision of Middle English atten ash ‘at the ash’, or a habitational name from any of the many places in England and Wales named Nash, from this phrase, as for example Nash in Buckinghamshire, Herefordshire, or Shropshire. The name was established from an early date in Wales and Ireland.Jewish: of unknown origin, possibly an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.
Summers: English: patronymic from Summer 1.Irish (Sligo): adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Somacháin ‘descendant of Somachán’, a nickname meaning ‘gentle’, ‘innocent’.Americanized form of some like-sounding Ashkenazic Jewish name.
Atkins: English: patronymic from the personal name Atkin.
Wilcox: English: patronymic from Wilcock.
Pitts: English: variant of Pitt.Americanized spelling of German Pitz.
Conley: Irish: reduced form of Connolly.
Marquez: Spanish (Márquez): patronymic from the personal name Marcos.
Burnett: Scottish and English: descriptive nickname from Old French burnete, a diminutive of brun ‘brown’ (see Brown).
Richard: English, French, German, and Dutch: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements ric ‘power(ful)’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.
Cochran: Scottish: habitational name from lands in the parish of Paisley, near Glasgow. The place name is of uncertain derivation, perhaps from Welsh coch ‘red’, although this etymology is not supported by the early spelling Coueran.
Chase: English: metonymic occupational name for a huntsman, or rather a nickname for an exceptionally skilled huntsman, from Middle English chase ‘hunt’ (Old French chasse, from chasser ‘to hunt’, Latin captare).Southern French: topographic name for someone who lived in or by a house, probably the occupier of the most distinguished house in the village, from a southern derivative of Latin casa ‘hut’, ‘cottage’, ‘cabin’.
Davenport: English: habitational name from a place in Cheshire named Davenport, from the Dane river (apparently named with a Celtic cognate of Middle Welsh dafnu ‘to drop’, ‘to trickle’) + Old English port ‘market town’.Irish (County Tipperary): English surname adopted by bearers of Munster Gaelic Ó Donndubhartaigh ‘descendant of Donndubhartach’, a personal name composed of the elements donn ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + dubh ‘black’ + artach ‘nobleman’.

Hood: English and Scottish: metonymic occupational name for a maker of hoods or a nickname for someone who wore a distinctive hood, from Middle English hod(de), hood, hud ‘hood’. Some early examples with prepositions seem to be topographic names, referring to a place where there was a hood-shaped hill or a natural shelter or overhang, providing protection from the elements. In some cases the name may be habitational, from places called Hood, in Devon (possibly ‘hood-shaped hill’) and North Yorkshire (possibly ‘shelter’ or ‘fortification’).Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hUid ‘descendant of Ud’, a personal name of uncertain derivation. This was the name of an Ulster family who were bards to the O’Neills of Clandeboy. It was later altered to Mac hUid. Compare Mahood.

Gates: English: topographic name for someone who lived by the gates of a medieval walled town. The Middle English singular gate is from the Old English plural, gatu, of geat ‘gate’ (see Yates). Since medieval gates were normally arranged in pairs, fastened in the center, the Old English plural came to function as a singular, and a new Middle English plural ending in -s was formed. In some cases the name may refer specifically to the Sussex place Eastergate (i.e. ‘eastern gate’), known also as Gates in the 13th and 14th centuries, when surnames were being acquired.Americanized spelling of German Götz (see Goetz).Translated form of French Barrière (see Barriere).

Clay: English: from Old English cl?g ‘clay’, applied as a topographic name for someone who lived in an area of clay soil or as a metonymic occupational name for a worker in a clay pit (see Clayman).Americanized spelling of German Klee.

Ayala: Basque: habitational name or topographic name from Basque ai ‘slope’, ‘hillside’ + al(h)a ‘pasture’.

Sawyer: English: occupational name for someone who earned his living by sawing wood, Middle English saghier, an agent derivative of sagh(en) ‘to saw’.Americanized form of some like-sounding Jewish surname or a translation of Seger.

Roman: Catalan, French, English, German (also Romann), Polish, Hungarian (Román), Romanian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian: from the Latin personal name Romanus, which originally meant ‘Roman’. This name was borne by several saints, including a 7th-century bishop of Rouen.English, French, and Catalan: regional or ethnic name for someone from Rome or from Italy in general, or a nickname for someone who had some connection with Rome, as for example having been there on a pilgrimage. Compare Romero.

Vazquez: Galician and Spanish (Vázquez): variant of Vásquez (see Vasquez).

Dickerson: English (mainly East Anglia): patronymic from a pet form of Dick 1.

Hodge: from the medieval personal name Hodge, a short form of Roger. (For the change of initial, compare Hick.nickname from Middle English hodge ‘hog’, which occurs as a dialect variant of hogge, for example in Cheshire place names.

Acosta: Portuguese and Spanish: altered form (by misdivision) of Da Costa.

Flynn: Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Floinn ‘descendant of Flann’, a byname meaning ‘red(dish)’, ‘ruddy’. There were families of this name in various parts of Ireland.

Espinoza: South American spelling of Spanish Espinosa; the spelling with -z- represents a voiced pronunciation heard in some Latin-American countries, whereas in Castilian Spanish it now has an unvoiced -s-.

Nicholson: Northern English and Scottish: patronymic from Nichol.

Monroe: Scottish: according to tradition, this is a rare example of a Gaelic surname of topographic origin, the first element of which is probably Gaelic mun, a mutated form of bun ‘foot’, or British minit ‘hill’. In Ireland this name has sometimes been used as an equivalent of O’Mellan (see Mellon) and Milroy 2.

Wolf: English, Danish, and German: from a short form of the various Germanic compound names with a first element wolf ‘wolf’, or a byname or nickname with this meaning. The wolf was native throughout the forests of Europe, including Britain, until comparatively recently. In ancient and medieval times it played an important role in Germanic mythology, being regarded as one of the sacred beasts of Woden. This name is widespread throughout northern, central, and eastern Europe, as well as in Britain and German-speaking countries.German: habitational name for someone living at a house distinguished by the sign of a wolf, Middle High German wolf.Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish male personal name Volf meaning ‘wolf’, which is associated with the Hebrew personal name Binyamin (see Benjamin). This association stems from Jacob’s dying words ‘Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil’ (Genesis 49:27).Irish: variant spelling of Woulfe.
Morrow: Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Murchadha (see McMorrow)
Kirk: Scottish and northern English, and Danish: from northern Middle English, Danish kirk ‘church’ (Old Norse kirkja), a topographic name for someone who lived near a church.
Randall: English: from the Middle English personal name Randel, a diminutive of Rand with the Anglo-Norman French hypocoristic suffix -el.
Anthony: English: from the personal name Anthony, Latin Antonius. See also Anton. This, with its variants, cognates, and derivatives, is one of the commonest European personal names. Many of the European forms have been absorbed into this spelling as American family names; for the forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988. Spellings with -h-, which first appear in English in the 16th century and in French (as Anthoine) at about the same time, are due to the erroneous belief that the name derives from Greek anthos ‘flower’. The popularity of the personal name in Christendom is largely due to the cult of the Egyptian hermit St. Anthony (ad 251–356), who in his old age gathered a community of hermits around him, and for that reason is regarded by some as the founder of monasticism. It was further increased by the fame of St. Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), who long enjoyed a great popular cult and who is believed to help people find lost things.South Indian: this is only a given name in India, but has come to be used as a family name among Christians from South India in the U.S.
Whitaker: English: habitational name from any of various places named with Old English hwit ‘white’ or hw?te ‘wheat’ + æcer ‘cultivated land’, as for example Whitaker in Lancashire and Whitacre in Warwickshire (both ‘white field’) or Whiteacre in Kent and Wheatacre in Norfolk (both ‘wheat field’).

O'Connor: Irish (Derry, Connacht, Munster): Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Conchobhair ‘descendant of Conchobhar’, a personal name which is said to have begun as Cú Chobhair, from cú ‘hound’ (genitive con) + cobhar ‘desiring’, i.e. ‘hound of desire’. Present-day bearers of the surname claim descent from a 10th-century king of Connacht of this name. In Irish legend, Conchobhar was a king of Ulster who lived at around the time of Christ and who adopted the youthful Cú Chulainn.

Skinner: English: occupational name for someone who stripped the hide from animals, to be used in the production of fur garments or to be tanned for leather, from an agent derivative of Middle English skin ‘hide’, ‘pelt’ (Old Norse skinn).

Ware: topographic name for someone who lived by a dam or weir on a river (Old English wær, wer), or a habitational name from a place named with this word, such as Ware in Hertfordshire.nickname for a cautious person, from Middle English war(e) ‘wary’, ‘prudent’ (Old English (ge)wær).

Molina: Spanish and Catalan: habitational name from any of numerous places named Molina, in particular the one in Guadalajara province.

Kirby:English: habitational name from any of the numerous places in northern England called Kirby or Kirkby, from Old Norse kirkja ‘church’ + býr ‘settlement’.Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Garmhaic ‘descendant of Ciarmhac’, a personal name meaning ‘dark son’. Compare Kerwick.
Huffman: Altered spelling of Hoffmann.
Bradford: English: habitational name from any of the many places, large and small, called Bradford; in particular the city in West Yorkshire, which originally rose to prosperity as a wool town. There are others in Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Greater Manchester, Norfolk, Somerset, and elsewhere. They are all named with Old English brad ‘broad’ + ford ‘ford’.
Charles: French, Welsh, and English: from the French form of the Germanic personal name Carl ‘man’ (which was Latinized as Carolus). In France the personal name was popular from an early date, due to the fame of the Emperor Charlemagne (?742–814; Latin name Carolus Magnus, i.e. Charles the Great). The Old French form Charles was briefly introduced to England by the Normans, but was rare during the main period of surname formation. It was introduced more successfully to Scotland in the 16th century by the Stuarts, who had strong ties with France, and was brought by them to England in the 17th century. Its frequency as a Welsh surname is attributable to the late date of Welsh surname formation. Old English Ceorl ‘peasant’ is also found as a byname, but the resulting Middle English form, Charl, with a patronymic in -s, if it existed at all, would have been absorbed by the French form introduced by the Normans. Compare Carl. English variants pronounced with initial k- for the most part reflect the cognate Old Norse personal name Karl, Karli.Swedish: ornamental form of a Frenchified form of the Old Norse personal name Karl.
Gilmore: Scottish and Irish (Ulster): reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille Mhoire (Scots), Mac Giolla Mhuire (Irish), patronymics from personal names meaning ‘servant of (the Virgin) Mary’.Irish: in Armagh, reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Mhura ‘servant of St. Mura (of Fahan, Donegal)’ or, in Sligo, of Mac Giolla Mhir ‘son of the spirited lad’.
Dominguez: Spanish (Domínguez): patronymic from the personal name Domingo.
O'Neal: Irish: variant spelling of O’Neill.
Bruce: Scottish and English (of Norman origin): habitational name from a place in Normandy which has not been certainly identified. Traditionally, it is believed to be derived from Brix near Cherbourg, but Le Brus in Calvados and Briouze in Orne have also been proposed as candidates.
Lang: Scottish, English, Dutch, German, Danish, Swedish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a tall person, from Older Scots, Middle English, Middle Dutch, Middle German, and Danish lang ‘long’, Swedish lång.Hungarian: from láng ‘flame’, hence probably a nickname for a passionate person, or a man with a fighting spirit. Alternatively it may be an indirect occupational name for a smith or someone who worked with fire.Chinese : from the name of a place called Lang City in the state of Lu, founded during the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 bc) by a grandson of the ruler. His descendants lived there and adopted Lang as their surname.Vietnamese (Lãng): unexplained.
Combs: Northern Irish: reduced form of McCombs.English: variant of Coombs.
Kramer: German (also Krämer), Dutch, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a shopkeeper, peddler, or hawker, from an agent derivative of Middle High German, Middle Low German kram ‘trading post’, ‘tent’, ‘booth’. EG, AB This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.
Heath: English: topographic name for someone who lived on a heath (Middle English hethe, Old English h?ð) or a habitational name from any of the numerous places, for example in Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and West Yorkshire, named with this word. The same word also denoted heather, the characteristic plant of heathland areas. This surname has also been established in Dublin since the late 16th century.
Hancock: English: from the Middle English personal name Hann + the hypocoristic suffix -cok, which was commonly added to personal names (see Cocke).Dutch: from Middle Dutch hanecoc ‘winkle’, ‘periwinkle’ (a type of shellfish), probably a metonymic occupational name for someone who gathered and sold shellfish.
Gallagher: Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Gallchobhair ‘descendant of Gallchobhar’, a personal name from the elements gall ‘strange’, ‘foreign’ + cabhair ‘help’, ‘support’.
Gaines: English (of Norman origin): nickname for a crafty or ingenious person, from a reduced form of Old French engaine ‘ingenuity’, ‘trickery’ (Latin ingenium ‘native wit’). The word was also used in a concrete sense of a stratagem or device, particularly a trap.This surname has also assimilated reduced variants of Welsh Gurganus.
Shaffer: Americanized spelling of German Schaffer ‘steward’ or of Schaefer ‘shepherd’.
Short: English: nickname from Middle English schort ‘short’.Scottish and northern Irish: reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac an Gheairr, Mac an Ghirr ‘son of the short man’ (see McGirr).
Wiggins:English: patronymic from the personal name Wiggin.
Mathews: English: patronymic from Mathew; a variant spelling of Matthews. In the U.S., this form has absorbed some European cognates such as German Matthäus.
McClain
Fischer: German, Danish, and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a fisherman, from Fisch + the agent suffix -er. This name is widespread throughout central and eastern Europe.
Wall: English: topographic name for someone who lived by a stone-built wall, e.g. one used to fortify a town or to keep back the encroachment of the sea (Old English w(e)all, from Latin vallum ‘rampart’, ‘palisade’).Northern English: topographic name for someone who lived by a spring or stream, northern Middle English wall(e) (Old English (Mercian) wæll(a); compare Well).Irish: re-Anglicized form of de Bhál, a Gaelicized form of de Valle, the name of a Norman family established in Munster and Connacht.German: topographic name for someone who lived by a defensive wall, Middle High German wal.German: variant of Wahl 2.German: from a short form of the personal name Walther.Swedish: ornamental name from Swedish vall ‘grassy bank’, ‘pasture’, ‘grazing ground’, or in some cases a habitational name from a place named with this element.

Small: English: nickname for a person of slender build or diminutive stature, from Middle English smal ‘thin’, ‘narrow’.Translation of equivalents in other European languages, such as German Klein and Schmal, French Petit.

Melton: Northern English: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Yorkshire, all of which have the same origin as Middleton, with Old English middel replaced by its Old Norse equivalent meðal after the Scandinavian settlement of northern and eastern England.

Hensley: probably a habitational name from either of two places in Devon: Hensley in East Worlington, which is named with the Old English personal name Heahmund + Old English leah ‘(woodland) clearing’, or Hensleigh in Tiverton, which is named from Old English hengest ‘stallion’ (or the Old English personal name Hengest) + leah.possibly also a variant of Hemsley.

Bond: English: status name for a peasant farmer or husbandman, Middle English bonde (Old English bonda, bunda, reinforced by Old Norse bóndi). The Old Norse word was also in use as a personal name, and this has given rise to other English and Scandinavian surnames alongside those originating as status names. The status of the peasant farmer fluctuated considerably during the Middle Ages; moreover, the underlying Germanic word is of disputed origin and meaning. Among Germanic peoples who settled to an agricultural life, the term came to signify a farmer holding lands from, and bound by loyalty to, a lord; from this developed the sense of a free landholder as opposed to a serf. In England after the Norman Conquest the word sank in status and became associated with the notion of bound servitude.Swedish: variant of Bonde.

Dyer: English: occupational name for a dyer of cloth, Middle English dyer (from Old English deag ‘dye’; the verb is a back-formation from the agent noun). This surname also occurs in Scotland, but Lister is a more common equivalent there.Irish (Counties Sligo and Roscommon): usually a short form of MacDyer, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Duibhir ‘son of Duibhir’, a short form of a personal name composed of the elements dubh ‘dark’, ‘black’ + odhar ‘sallow’, ‘tawny’.

Cameron: as a Highland clan name it is from a nickname from Gaelic cam ‘crooked’, ‘bent’ + sròn ‘nose’.in the Lowlands it is also a habitational name from any of various places called Cameron, especially in Fife.

Grimes: English: patronymic from Grime.

Contreras: Spanish: habitational name from Conteraras, a place in the province of Burgos. The place name is derived from Late Latin contraria ‘surrounding area’, ‘region’ (from the preposition contra ‘opposite’, ‘against’, ‘hard by’).

Christian: English, German, and French: from the personal name Christian, a vernacular form of Latin Christianus ‘follower of Christ’ (see Christ). This personal name was introduced into England following the Norman conquest, especially by Breton settlers. It was also used in the same form as a female name.

Wyatt
Baxter
Snow
Mosley
Shepherd
Larsen
Hoover
Beasley
Glenn
Petersen
Whitehead
Meyers
Keith
Garrison
Vincent
Shields
Horn
Savage
Olsen
Schroeder
Hartman
Woodard: occupational name for a forester employed to look after the trees and game in a forest, Middle English woodward (from the Old English elements mentioned at 2).perhaps also from an Old English personal name Wuduweard, composed of the elements wudu ‘wood’ + weard ‘guardian’, ‘protector’.

Mueller: German (Müller) and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a miller, Middle High German müller, German Müller. In Germany Müller, Mueller is the most frequent of all surnames; in the U.S. it is often changed to Miller.

Kemp: English, Scottish, Dutch, and North German: status name for a champion, Middle English and Middle Low German kempe. In the Middle Ages a champion was a professional fighter on behalf of others; for example the King’s Champion, at the coronation, had the duty of issuing a general challenge to battle to anyone who denied the king’s right to the throne. The Middle English word corresponds to Old English cempa and Old Norse kempa ‘warrior’; both these go back to Germanic campo ‘warrior’, which is the source of the Dutch and North German name, corresponding to High German Kampf.Dutch: metonymic occupational name for someone who grew or processed hemp, from Middle Dutch canep ‘hemp’.

DeLeon: Spanish (De León): habitational name, variant of León, with the preposition de (see Leon).French (Deléon): patronymic from Léon (see Lyon 2). Not in DAUZAT OR JETTE. SW. Concentrated in TX; probably Cuban.

Booth

Patel: Indian (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka): Hindu and Parsi name which goes back to an official title meaning ‘village headman’, p??tel in Gujarati, Marathi, and Kannada (where it is pa?tela). It comes ultimately from Sanskrit pa?t?takila ‘tenant of royal land’. Among the Indians in the U.S, it is the most common family name.

Calhoun: Irish: variant of Scottish Colquhoun.

Wiley: Northern Irish and Scottish: variant of Wylie.Possibly also English, a habitational name from Wylye in Wiltshire, named for the Wylye river (see Wilton).English: possibly a variant of Willey.

Eaton: English: habitational name from any of the numerous places so named from Old English ea ‘river’ or eg ‘island’, ‘low-lying land’ + tun ‘enclosure’, ‘settlement’.

Cline: Americanized spelling of German Klein or a Jewish (Ashkenazic) variant of this name.Variant spelling of Scottish or Irish Clyne.

Navarro: Spanish, Italian, and Jewish (Sephardic) (of Basque origin): regional name denoting someone from Navarre (see Navarra).

Harrell: English: variant of Harold.Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hEarghail ‘descendant of Earghal’, a personal name with the same etymology as Fearghal (see Farrell).

Lester: English: habitational name from Leicester, named in Old English from the tribal name Ligore (itself adapted from a British river name) + Old English ceaster ‘Roman fort or walled city’ (Latin castra ‘legionary camp’).English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Lestre in Normandy.English and Scottish: variant of Lister.

Humphrey: English: from the Old French personal name Humfrey, introduced to Britain by the Normans. This is composed of the Germanic elements hun ‘bear cub’ + frid, fred ‘peace’. It was borne by a 9th-century saint, bishop of Therouanne, who had a certain following in England among Norman settlers.
Parrish: English (mainly southern): from the Old French habitational name and personal name Paris (see Paris 1). Parrish is the most common form of the name in English, and is the result of confusion between -s and -sh (compare Norris), reinforced by folk etymological association with the modern English word parish. In the 17th and 18th centuries the surname was occasionally bestowed on foundlings brought up at the expense of the parish.

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Friday, August 10, 2007

Almost Extinct Ferrets Make Remarkable Comeback

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Top 25 Countries for Property Rights

The Gettysburg Address

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

-- Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

List of the Enumerated Powers of Congress

Section 8: The Congress shall have power To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;—And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

A List of American Third Parties

* America First Party (2002) * American Party (1968) * America's Independent Party (2008) * Boston Tea Party (2006) * Communist Party of the United States of America (1919) * Constitution Party (1992) * Florida Whig Party (2006) * Green Party (1996) * Independence Party of America (2007) * Libertarian Party (1971) * Moderate Party (2006) * Modern Whig Party (2008) * National Socialist Movement (1959) * New American Independent Party (2004) * Objectivist Party (2008) * Party for Socialism and Liberation (2004) * Peace and Freedom Party (1967) * Pirate Party of the United States (2006) * Progressive Labor Party (1961) * Prohibition Party (1869) * Reform Party of the United States of America (1995) * Socialist Party USA (1973) * Socialist Workers Party (1938) * United States Marijuana Party (2002) * Unity Party of America (2004) * Workers Party (2003) * Working Families Party (1998) Source: Wikipedia

Speakers of the House

1st Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania, Apr 01, 1789

2nd Jonathan Trumbull, Connecticut, Oct 24, 1791

3rd Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania, Dec 02, 1793

4th, 5th Jonathan Dayton, New Jersey, Dec 07, 1795

6th Theodore Sedgwick, Massachusetts, Dec 02, 1799

7th-9th Nathaniel Macon, North Carolina, Dec 07, 1801

10th, 11th Joseph B. Varnum, Massachusetts, Oct 26, 1807

12th, 13th Henry Clay, Kentucky, Nov 04, 1811

13th Langdon Cheves, South Carolina, Jan 19, 1814

14th-16th Henry Clay, Kentucky, Dec 04, 1815

16th John W. Taylor, New York, Nov 15, 1820

17th Philip P. Barbour, Virginia, Dec 04, 1821

18th Henry Clay, Kentucky, Dec 01, 1823

19th John W. Taylor, New York, Dec 05, 1825

20th-22nd Andrew Stevenson, Virginia, Dec 03, 1827

23rd John Bell, Tennessee, Jun 02, 1834

24th, 25th James K. Polk, Tennessee, Dec 07, 1835

26th Robert M.T. Hunter, Virginia, Dec 16, 1839

27th John White, Kentucky, May 31, 1841

28th John W. Jones, Virginia, Dec 04, 1843

29th John W. Davis, Indiana, Dec 01, 1845

30th Robert C. Winthrop, Massachusetts, Dec 06, 1847

31st Howell Cobb, Georgia, Dec 22, 1849

32nd, 33rd Linn Boyd, Kentucky, Dec 01, 1851

34th Nathaniel P. Banks, Massachusetts, Feb 02, 1856

35th James L. Orr, South Carolina, Dec 07, 1857

36th William Pennington, New Jersey, Feb 01, 1860

37th Galusha A. Grow, Pennsylvania, Jul 04, 1861

38th-40th Schuyler Colfax, Indiana, Dec 07, 1863

40th Theodore M. Pomeroy,New York, Mar 03, 1869

41st-43rd James G. Blaine, Maine, Mar 04, 1869

44th Michael C. Kerr, Indiana, Dec 06, 1875

44th-46th Samuel J. Randall, Pennsylvania, Dec 04, 1876

47th J. Warren Keifer, Ohio, Dec 05, 1881

48th-50th John G. Carlisle, Kentucky, Dec 03, 1883

51st Thomas B. Reed, Maine, Dec 02, 1889

52nd, 53rd Charles F. Crisp, Georgia, Dec 08, 1891

54th, 55th Thomas B. Reed, Maine, Dec 02, 1895

56th, 57th David B. Henderson, Iowa, Dec 04, 1899

58th-61st Joseph G. Cannon, Illinois, Nov 09, 1903

62nd-65th James Beauchamp Clark, Missouri, Apr 04, 1911

66th-68th Frederick H. Gillett, Massachusetts, May 19, 1919

69th-71st Nicholas Longworth, Ohio, Dec 07, 1925

72nd John N. Garner, Texas, Dec 07, 1931

73rd Henry T. Rainey, Illinois, Mar 09, 1933

74th Joseph W. Byrns, Tennessee, Jan 03, 1935

74th-76th William B. Bankhead, Alabama, Jun 04, 1936

76th-79th Sam Rayburn, Texas, Sep 16, 1940

80th Joseph W. Martin, Jr., Massachusetts, Jan 03, 1947

81st, 82nd Sam Rayburn, Texas, Jan 03, 1949

83rd Joseph W. Martin, Jr., Massachusetts, Jan 03, 1953

84th-87th Sam Rayburn, Texas, Jan 05, 1955

87th-91st John W. McCormack, Massachusetts, Jan 10, 1962

92nd-94th Carl B. Albert, Oklahoma, Jan 21, 1971

95th-99th Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., Massachusetts, Jan 04, 1977

100th, 101st James C. Wright, Jr., Texas, Jan 06, 1987

101st-103rd Thomas S. Foley, Washington, Jun 06, 1989

104th, 105th Newt Gingrich, Georgia, Jan 04, 1995

106th-109th J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois, Jan 06, 1999

110th, 111th Nancy Pelosi, California, Jan 04, 2007

112th, 113th, 114th John Boehner, Ohio, Jan, 2011

Conservative, Republican & Libertarian Celebrities

Aaron Tippin
Adam Carolla
Adam Sandler
Al Leiter
Alabama
Alan Jackson
Alice Cooper
Amy Grant
Andy Garcia
Angie Harmon
Anita Louise
Ann Miller
Arnold Palmer
Avenged Sevenfold
Barret Swatek
Belinda Carlisle
Ben Stein
Bill Belichick
Billy Ray Cyrus
Bo Derek
Bobby Bowden
Bobby Steele
Brooks and Dunn
Bruce Boxleitner
Bruce Willis
Candace Bushnell
Candace Cameron Bure
Carrie Underwood
Catherine Hicks
Chad Sexton
Charlie Daniels
Charlton Heston
Chelsea Noble
Cheryl Ladd
Chris Evert
Chuck Norris
Cindy Williams
Clint Black
Clint Eastwood
Connie Stevens
Craig T. Nelson
Crystal Bernard
Curt Schilling
Daddy Yankee
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Danny Aiello
Darryl Worley
Dave Mustaine
Dave Smalley
David Lynch
Deanna Lund
Delta Burke
Dennis Franz
Dennis Miller
Dick Van Patten
Dina Merrill
Dixie Carter
Don Shula
Drew Carey
Eazy-E
Elisabeth Hasselbeck
Emma Caulfield
Ernie Banks
Ethel Merman
Eva Gabor
Frankie Avalon
Gail O'Grady
Gary Sinise
Gerald McRaney
Ginger Rogers
Gloria Estefan
Gretchen Wilson
Hank Williams
Hank Williams Jr.
Heather Locklear
Heather Whitestone
Hedda Hopper
Heidi Montag
Helen Hayes
Hilary Duff
India Allen
Jack Nicklaus
Jackie Mason
Jaclyn Smith
James Brown
James Caan
James Caviezel
James Woods
Jamie Farr
Jane Wyman
Janine Turner
Jason Sehorn
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeff Baxter
Jennifer Flavin
Jerry Bruckheimer
Jinx Falkenburg
Joan Rivers
Joe Escalante
Joe Perry
John Elway
John Malkovich
John Ratzenberger
John Rich
Johnny Ramone
Jon Cryer
Jon Voight
June Allyson
Kansas
Karl Malone
Kathie Lee Gifford
Kathy Ireland
Keith Morris
Kellie Pickler
Kelsey Grammar
Kenny Chesney
Kerri Strug
Kid Rock
Kim Alexis
Kirk Cameron
Lance Armstrong
Lara Flynn Boyle
Larry the Cable Guy
Laura Prepon
LeAnn Rimes
Lee Ann Womack
Lee Greenwood
Lee Ving
Leeann Tweeden
Lorenzo Lamas
Loretta Lynn
Lorrie Morgan
Lou Ferrigno
Louella Parsons
Lynard Skynard
Lynn Swann
Margaret Hamilton
Marie Osmond
Mark Chesnutt
Martina McBride
Mary Hart
Mary Lou Retton
Matt Hasselbeck
Maureen O'Hara
Meat Loaf
Mel Gibson
Merle Haggard
Michael W. Smith
Mike Ditka
Mike Love
Morgan Brittany
Naomi Judd
Nick Lachey
Nolan Ryan
Norm McDonald
Pat Sajak
Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Heaton
Paula Prentiss
Pete Sampras
R. Lee Ermey
Rachel Hunter
Randy Travis
Rebecca St. James
Ric Flair
Richard Petty
Rick Schroeder
Ricky Skaggs
Rip Torn
Robert Conrad
Robert Davi
Robert Duvall
Roger Penske
Ron Silver
Salvador Dali
Sam Shepard
Sammy Haggar
Sara Evans
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Scott Baio
Sela Ward
Shannen Doherty
Shawnee Smith
Shirley Jones
Shirley Temple
Skrewdriver
Stephen Baldwin
Styx
Susan Lucci
Tammy Grimes
Ted Nugent
Tim Tebow
Tippi Hedrin
Tom Clancy
Tom Selleck
Tony Danza
Trace Adkins
Tracy Scoggins
Travis Tritt
Type O Negative
Victoria Jackson
Vince Flynn
Vincent Gallo
Wayne Newton
Wilfred Brimley
Yaphet Kotto
Yvette Mimieux
Zig Ziglar

The Interested American Ranking of the Presidents of the United States of America

Abraham Lincoln
Ronald Reagan
James Madison
Thomas Jefferson
George Washington
John Adams
James K. Polk
William McKinley
Calvin Coolidge
William Taft
George W. Bush
Theodore Roosevelt
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Harry S. Truman
Benjamin Harrison
John F. Kennedy
Zachary Taylor
Benjamin Harrison
Ulysses Grant
Grover Cleveland
Chester Arthur
Martin Van Buren
John Tyler
William Henry Harrison
George HW Bush
John Q. Adams
Gerald Ford
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
Rutherford B. Hayes
Warren Harding
Andrew Johnson
James Buchanan
Herbert Hoover
Bill Clinton
Richard Nixon

Franklin D. Roosevelt
James Carter
Woodrow Wilson
Barack Hussein Obama
Lyndon Baines Johnson

45 Goals of the Communist Party (1963)

01. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
02. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
03. Develop the illustion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
04. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
05. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
06. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
07. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
08. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under the supervision of the U.N.
09. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

Ranking Countries by Economic Freedom

Hong Kong
Singapore
Australia
New Zealand
Ireland
Switzerland
Canada
United States
Denmark
Chile
United Kingdom
Mauritius
Bahrain
Luxembourg
The Netherlands
Estonia
Finland
Iceland
Japan
Macau
Sweden
Austria
Germany
Cyprus
Saint Lucia
Georgia
Botswana
Lithuania
Belgium
South Korea
El Salvador
Uruguay
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Spain
Norway
Armenia
Qatar
Barbados
Mexico
Kuwait
Oman
Israel
Peru
United Arab Emirates
The Bahamas
Malta
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Latvia
Hungary
Jordan
Albania
Costa Rica
Trinidad and Tobago
Macedonia
Jamaica
Colombia
Malaysia
Panama
Slovenia
Portugal
Romania
France
Saudi Arabia
Thailand
Turkey
Montenegro
Madagascar
Dominica
Poland
South Africa
Greece
Italy
Bulgaria
Uganda
Namibia
Cape Verde
Belize
Kyrgyz Republic
Paraguay
Kazakhstan
Guatemala
Samoa
Fiji
Dominican Republic
Ghana
Mongolia
Lebanon
Burkina Faso
Morocco
Croatia
Rwanda
Egypt
Tunisia
Azerbaijan
Tanzania
Nicaragua
Honduras
Zambia
Kenya
Swaziland
Bhutan
Serbia
Algeria
Nigeria
Cambodia
Vanuatu
Philippines
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mozambique
Mali
Brazil
Indonesia
Benin
Gabon
Pakistan
Gambia
Senegal
Sri Lanka
Yemen
Malawi
Cote d'Ivoire
India
Moldova
Papua New Guinea
Tonga
Tajikistan
Niger
Nepal
Suriname
Cameroon
Mauritania
Guinea
Argentina
Ethiopia
Bangladesh
Laos
Djibouti
China
Haiti
Micronesia
Russia
Vietnam
Syria
Bolivia
Ecuador
Maldives
Sao Tome and Principe
Belarus
Equatorial Guinea
Central African Republic
Guyana
Angola
Lesotho
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Uzbekistan
Chad
Burundi
Togo
Ukraine
Liberia
Timor-Leste
Comoros
Kiribati
Guinea-Bissau
Iran
Republic of Congo
Solomon Islands
Turkmenistan
Democratic Republic of Congo
Libya
Venezuela
Burma
Eritrea
Cuba
Zimbabwe
North Korea

Not Indexed:
Afghanistan
Iraq
Liechtenstein
Sudan

Source: 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Top Conservative Colleges in America

Ave Maria University, CONS
Benedictine College, CONS
Brighham Young University, PR08, CONS,
Calvin College, USN06,
Cedarville University, EHOW
Christendom College, YAF10, CONS,
College of the Ozarks, YAF10, PR08,
Evangel University, CONS
Franciscan University of Steubenville, YAF10, CONS, EHOW
Grove City College, YAF10, PR08, CONS,
Harding University, YAF10
Hampden-Sydney College, PR08,
Hillsdale College, YAF10, PR08, CONS
The King's College, YAF10, CONS,
Liberty University, YAF10, USN06, CONS,
Newberry College, CONS
Ohio Wesleyan University, EHOW
Patrick Henry College, YAF10, CONS,
Regent University, YAF10
Saint Vincent College, YAF10
Thomas Aquinas College, YAF10, CONS,
Thomas More College, YAF10
United States Airforce Academy, PR08
United States Coast Guard Academy, CONS
United States Merchant Marine Academy, PR08
United States Naval Academy, PR08
University of Dallas, PR08, CONS
Wheaton College, PR08
Wisconsin Lutheran College, YAF10

Sources:
CONS — Conservapedia
EHOW — eHow.com
PR08 — Princeton Review 2008.
YAF10 — Young America's Foundation 2009-2010.
USN06 — US News and World Report 2006.

The Worst Mass Murderers in History

1. Mao Tse Tung (China) Roughly 70 million murdered.
2. Josef Stalin (Soviet Union) Roughly 23 million murdered.
3. Adolf Hitler (Germany) Roughly 12 million murdered.
4. Ismail Enver (Turkey) Roughly 2.5 million murdered.
5. Pol Pot (Cambodia) Roughly 1.7 million murdered.

Hirohito (Japan)
Vladimir Lenin (Soviet Union)
Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam)
Kim Il Sung (North Korea)
Ion Antonescu (Romania)
Fidel Castro (Cuba)
Che Guevara (Argentina)
Robespierre (France)
Idi Amin (Uganda)
Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
Radovan Karadzic (Bosnia)
Francisco Franco (Spain)
Osama Bin Laden (Al-Qaeda)

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Almost Extinct Ferrets Make Remarkable Comeback

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Interested American Stat Counter

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Top 25 Countries for Property Rights

The Interested Archive

The Gettysburg Address

TOP SHELF STUFF

List of the Enumerated Powers of Congress

A List of American Third Parties

Best States for Business (2009)

Speakers of the House

Maps

BLOATED Bastids: List of US Government Departments and Agences

Conservative, Republican & Libertarian Celebrities

The Interested American Ranking of the Presidents of the United States of America

45 Goals of the Communist Party (1963)

List of All United States Supreme Court Justices

Ranking Countries by Economic Freedom

The Bill of Rights

Right to Work States

Top Conservative Colleges in America

The Worst Mass Murderers in History