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Shephard Name Meaning
English: variant of Shepherd .
Shepherd Name Meaning
English (Lancashire and Yorkshire): occupational name from Middle English schepeherde ‘shepherd’ (Old English scēaphyrde scēap‐weard). Americanized form (translation into English) of surnames meaning ‘shepherd’ for example German and Jewish Schäfer (see Schaefer ).
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Sheppard, Shepheard, Shepard, Shepherd, Sheperd, Shepperd, Shapard
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Gill Name Meaning
English and Scottish: in northern England and Scotland sometimes from Middle English Gille Old Norse Gilli which is of Irish (Gaelic) origin (see below) and pronounced with a hard g. As a personal name it is not found after c. 1200. English and Scottish: topographic name from Middle English gille ‘deep glen ravine’ (Old Norse (Norwegian) gil) pronounced with a hard g. The term is found mainly in northwestern England where Norwegian Vikings settled. English: from a short form of Middle English Gilliam a borrowing of Guillaume a Central French form of William (see Gilliam ) which is also attested in pet forms such as Gillot and Gilmin (see Gillett Gilman ). This name will have been pronounced with a hard g. English: from the Middle English personal name Gille a pet form of Gillian usually a female name but occasionally male. It also gave rise to the surnames Jill Gell and Jell and was pronounced with a soft g hence the spellings with J-. English: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Gille a variant of Giles Scottish Irish and Manx: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille (Scottish) Mac Giolla (Irish) patronymics from an occupational name for a servant or a short form of the various personal names formed by attaching this element to the name of a saint. See McGill . The Old Norse personal name Gilli is probably of this origin and may lie behind some examples of the name in northern England. It is also a Manx surname meaning ‘son of the lad (i.e. servant)’.7: Scottish and Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac An Ghoill (see Gall ).8: Norwegian: habitational name from any of the three farmsteads in western Norway named Gil from Old Norse gil ‘ravine’.9: Dutch: cognate of Giles .10: Jewish (Israeli): artificial name from Hebrew gil ‘joy’.1 German: from a vernacular short form of the medieval personal name Aegilius a later form of Latin Aegidius (see Giles ). This surname is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine).1 Polish and German: variant or a Germanized form of Polish Gil ‘bullfinch’.1 Indian (Punjab): Sikh name probably from Punjabi gil ‘moisture’ also meaning ‘prosperity’. There is a Jat tribe that bears this name; the Ramgarhia Sikhs also have a clan called Gill.
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Hill, Will, Bill, Mill, Dill, Gall, Guill, Brill, Pill, Zill
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Close Name Meaning
English: topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosure of some sort such as a courtyard set back from the main street or a farmyard from Middle English clos(e) (Old French clos from Late Latin clausum past participle of claudere ‘to close’). Possibly also a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked in such a place. English: from Middle English clos(e) ‘secret’ applied as a nickname for a reserved or secretive person. Dutch: variant of Cloos . German: variant of Klose and in North America (also) an altered form of this. It is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine).
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Clos, Crose, Clare, Grose, Clower, Closs, Lose, Klos, Loose, Clore
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Settle Name Meaning
English: habitational name from Settle (Yorkshire) from Old English setl ‘abode dwelling’.
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Nettle, Kettle, Suttle, Sette, Selle, Searle, Gentle, Tuttle, Bentle
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Wilks Name Meaning
English (Yorkshire Lancashire and West Midlands): variant of Wilkes
Wilkes Name Meaning
English (West Midlands): either a variant of Wilk with genitival or post-medieval excrescent -s or from the Middle English personal name Wilcus an uncommon pet form of a personal name in Wil-. The suffix is a double diminutive -k + -us the latter being used with Old English female names (compare Aldous ). So Wilcus may also be a pet form of an Old English female name such as Wilburg. Alternatively it may have been used with Norman personal names of either gender for example as a pet form of William . If Wilcus became an inherited surname it would quickly have become merged with Wilkes. Wilcus may also have been absorbed into Wildgoose . Dutch and North German: patronymic from the personal name Wilke a pet form of Will.
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Wilkes, Wicks, Wilk, Dilks, Wills, Wilms, Milks, Wilds, Wiles, Weeks
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Hare-Gill Name Meaning
Historically, surnames evolved as a way to sort people into groups - by occupation, place of origin, clan affiliation, patronage, parentage, adoption, and even physical characteristics (like red hair). Many of the modern surnames in the dictionary can be traced back to Britain and Ireland.
Similar surnames:
Cargill, Averill, Barnhill, Magill, Threadgill, Revill, Farewell
Hare Name Meaning
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hÍr or Ó hÉir ‘descendant of Ír’ a personal name possibly meaning ‘long-lasting’ borne by a legendary ancestor of the north of Ireland. This name was always monosyllabic. Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAichir ‘descendant of Aichear’ a personal name derived from the epithet aichear ‘fierce sharp’. The personal name on which this surname is based was originally disyllabic. Although the Anglicized forms O'Hehir and Hehir still exist particularly in Ireland pronunciation in later northern Irish has caused Ó hAichir to fall together with another surname based on a one-syllable personal name as in sense 1 above. English: nickname from Middle English hare harr here ‘hare’ (Old English hara sometimes influenced by Old Norse heri). It may have denoted someone who could run fast or was timorous or who bore some similarity to a hare in appearance such as bulging eyes. English: variant of Ayre with prosthetic H-. English: topographic name for someone who lived on stony ground (Old English hær ‘rock heap of stones tumulus’). English: possibly a variant of Hair .7: French: nickname for a huntsman from a medieval French call used to urge on the hounds or in the form Haré from the past participle of the verb harer ‘to excite stir up (hounds in pursuit of a quarry)’.8: Altered form of German Harr .
Similar surnames:
Hart, Hale, Hard, Hase, Haren, Harle, Harp, Haye, Ware, Harke
Gill Name Meaning
English and Scottish: in northern England and Scotland sometimes from Middle English Gille Old Norse Gilli which is of Irish (Gaelic) origin (see below) and pronounced with a hard g. As a personal name it is not found after c. 1200. English and Scottish: topographic name from Middle English gille ‘deep glen ravine’ (Old Norse (Norwegian) gil) pronounced with a hard g. The term is found mainly in northwestern England where Norwegian Vikings settled. English: from a short form of Middle English Gilliam a borrowing of Guillaume a Central French form of William (see Gilliam ) which is also attested in pet forms such as Gillot and Gilmin (see Gillett Gilman ). This name will have been pronounced with a hard g. English: from the Middle English personal name Gille a pet form of Gillian usually a female name but occasionally male. It also gave rise to the surnames Jill Gell and Jell and was pronounced with a soft g hence the spellings with J-. English: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Gille a variant of Giles Scottish Irish and Manx: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gille (Scottish) Mac Giolla (Irish) patronymics from an occupational name for a servant or a short form of the various personal names formed by attaching this element to the name of a saint. See McGill . The Old Norse personal name Gilli is probably of this origin and may lie behind some examples of the name in northern England. It is also a Manx surname meaning ‘son of the lad (i.e. servant)’.7: Scottish and Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac An Ghoill (see Gall ).8: Norwegian: habitational name from any of the three farmsteads in western Norway named Gil from Old Norse gil ‘ravine’.9: Dutch: cognate of Giles .10: Jewish (Israeli): artificial name from Hebrew gil ‘joy’.1 German: from a vernacular short form of the medieval personal name Aegilius a later form of Latin Aegidius (see Giles ). This surname is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine).1 Polish and German: variant or a Germanized form of Polish Gil ‘bullfinch’.1 Indian (Punjab): Sikh name probably from Punjabi gil ‘moisture’ also meaning ‘prosperity’. There is a Jat tribe that bears this name; the Ramgarhia Sikhs also have a clan called Gill.
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Hill, Will, Bill, Mill, Dill, Gall, Guill, Brill, Pill, Zill
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Woodhouse Name Meaning
English:: habitational name from any of various places (in Derbyshire Nottinghamshire Yorkshire Northumberland Shropshire and elsewhere) called Woodhouse or a topographic name for someone who lived at a ‘house in the wood’ (Middle English wode hous Old English wudu hūs). variant of Woodiwiss from Middle English wodewose which by the 16th century was sometimes written as wodowes woodose and wodehouse. The confusion with woodhouse probably arose because both words (and both names) were pronounced /wudus/ or /wudǝs/ in local dialect.
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Morehouse, Woodhead, Newhouse, Woodford, Woodburn, Woodhull, Woodside
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Dobbie Name Meaning
Scottish: from a pet form of the personal name Dobb (see Dobbe ) a pet form of the personal name Robert .
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Hobbie, Robbie, Dobbin, Dobbe, Dobie, Dobkin, Gebbie, Nobbe, Robbe
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Jeffray Name Meaning
See Jeffrey .
Jeffrey Name Meaning
English and Scottish: from the common Middle English and Older Scots personal name Geffrey a borrowing of Old French Geuffrei Jeufrei Jefrei Gosfrei Jofrei. The principal source of the Old French forms was probably ancient Germanic Gautfrid from an ethnic name + frithu ‘peace’. It was commonly Latinized in early documents as Gaufridus or Galfridus but also as Goisfridus or Gosfridus. Anglo-Norman French Jofreith Jofrei lies behind the English surnames Joffrey and Joffray which are recorded in the late nineteenth century but may now be extinct.
Source:
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Jeffrey, Jeffreys, Jeffres, Jeffery, De Gray, Jerry, Fray, Leray
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Wilson Name Meaning
English: from the Middle English personal name Will + patronymic -son ‘son of Will’. Will was a very common medieval short form of William . This surname is also very common among African Americans.
Willson Name Meaning
English (eastern): variant of Wilson
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Tilson, Gilson, Ritson, Hilson, Watson, Sisson, Wilmot, Dillon
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts