Search articles

Waite Name Meaning
English (of Norman origin): occupational name for a watchman either in a town or castle from Anglo-Norman French waite ‘watchman member of the watch’ (of ancient Germanic origin; compare Wachter ). In the Middle Ages the town waits typically combined the functions of watchmen and musicians through being trumpeters or pipers. There may also have been some late confusion with White or Wheat .
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
White, Waithe, Tite, Wait, Waits, Waitt, Maire, Waites, Tarte, Walter
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Foster Name Meaning
English: variant of Forster ‘worker in a forest’. English: perhaps a nickname from Middle English foster ‘foster parent’ (Old English fōstre a derivative of fōstrian ‘to nourish or rear’). But other explanations are equally or more likely. English: from Old French forcetier ‘maker of scissors’; see Forster English: variant of Fewster from Anglo-Norman French Middle English fu(y)ster ‘maker of saddletrees’ (compare Foister ). Probably an Americanized form of one or more similar (like-sounding) Jewish surnames such as Forster .
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Forster, Oster, Easter, Hoster, Fester, Fosse, Bolter, Koster, Osmer
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Finney Name Meaning
English: habitational name from any of several places called from Old English and Old Norse finn ‘coarse grass’ + Old English (ge)hæg ‘enclosure’ or ēg ‘island land partly surrounded by water’ such as the lost place Fynney in Cheddleton Staffordshire (recorded as Fyneye in 1320) Fenay in Almondbury (Yorkshire) Finney in Croston (Lancashire) Finney Hill in Kingsley (Cheshire) and perhaps also Fenny Rough in Chaddesley Corbett (Worcestershire). Compare Feeney . English: habitational name perhaps also from Vinals Farm in Cuckfield or Vinehall in Mountfield (both in Sussex) or Viney's Wood in Crundale (Kent); or from some other place described in Middle English as a fin-haw (Old English fīn-haga) ‘wood-heap enclosure’. Irish: from Ó Fidhne see Feeney
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Binney, Finne, Sidney, Finley, Linney, Finner, Winney, Hanney, Finn
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Brot 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:
Brow, Brott, Boot, Broz, Bro, Brost, Broe, Brom, Brotz, Brod
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Silversides Name Meaning
Variant of Silverside with post-medieval excrescent -s.
Silverside Name Meaning
From Middle English silver ‘silver’ + side ‘side (of the body ?head)’. Compare Richard Silvereghe (‘silver eye’) 1414–15 in Inquisitiones post Mortem (Yorks); Adam Siluermouth (‘silver mouth’) 1379 in Yorks Poll Tax; John Silvertop (‘silver hair’) 1478 in York Freemen's Register. Some early bearers may belong with sense from Silver Side in Farlam (Cumb) so recorded in 1485. The place-name appears to derive from Old English seolfor ‘silver’ + sīde ‘long side of a slope or hill hill side’.
Source:
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, 2016
Similar surnames:
Silverstone, Silverio, Silvestre, Silvester, Silverstein, Silveria
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Ross Name Meaning
Scottish: habitational name from one or other of a number of Scottish and English places called Ross or Roos(e) especially Roose (Lancashire) and Roos (East Yorkshire). The placenames derive from a British ancestor of Welsh rhos ‘moor heath plain’ which is the sense of the cognate Gaelic word ros. The Scottish surname has at least three origins. First the Anglo-Norman family from Roos (East Yorkshire) was introduced to Scotland when Robert of Roos lord of Wark Castle (Northumberland) married Isabella an illegitimate daughter of King William the Lion. Second various families took the name from the province of Ross in northern Scotland and other places of that name. Third there were Norman families in Scotland by the 13th century who probably derived their name from Rots in Normandy (see 2 below). The descendants of Godfrey de Ros tenant of the de Morville lords of Cunninghame were major landholders in Ayrshire and almost certainly took their name from Rots. The Rose family of Kilravock (Nairnshire) may take their name from either of these three (see Rose ). The lairds of Balnagown adopted the surname Ross after the earldom of Ross (to which they considered themselves rightful heirs) had passed into other hands through the female line. English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Rots in Calvados (France) probably named with the ancient Germanic element rod ‘clearing’ (compare Rhodes ). This was the original home of a family de Ros who were established in Kent in 1130 and had major estates in Kent until well into the 13th century. English: habitational name from Wrose in Shipley near Bradford (Yorkshire) with re-spelling of Wr- as R- due to the loss of /w/ before /r/ in early modern English pronunciation. The spelling Wrose is no longer current. The placename derives from Old English wrāse ‘knot something twisted’ referring to the steep-sided hill on which the settlement stands with the sense ‘broken or twisting hill’. English and German: from the ancient Germanic personal name Rozzo a short form of various compound names with the first element hrōd ‘fame renown’ introduced into England by the Normans in the form Roce Rosce Rozo. Compare Rossell . Cornish: habitational name from one or other of a number of minor places in Cornwall called Rose Roose or Rowse (see Rouse ) named with Middle Cornish ros ‘promontory hill spur moor’. 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 topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a horse.7: Americanized form of Jewish Rose 9.
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Rose, Roos, Moss, Oss, Cross, Russ, Gross, Rosa, Koss, Boss
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Moon Name Meaning
Irish: variant of Mohan . English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Moyon in La Manche. Compare Mounce . Americanized form of German Mohn or of some other similar (like-sounding) surname. Korean: variant of Mun Chinese: variant Romanization of the surnames 文 (see Wen ) 萬 (see Wan ) and 滿 (see Man ). Chinese: possibly from a Cantonese pronunciation of the Chinese name 滿 (meaning ‘full complete’) a monosyllabic personal name or part of a disyllabic personal name of some early Chinese immigrants in the US.
Mohan Name Meaning
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Mocháin ‘descendant of Mochán’ a personal name from a diminutive of moch ‘early timely’. In Connacht this name was changed to Mahon ; it is also found translated into English as Early . It has been used to represent the Norman habitational name de Mohun. Indian (Punjab; also southern states): from a personal name based on Sanskrit mohana ‘fascinating enchanting’ an epithet of the god Krishna. In the Punjab it is a Brahmin name borne by a clan in the Mohyal subgroup of Saraswat Brahmins; it probably evolved from an ancestral personal name.
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Moron, Noon, Moxon, Moen, Mon, Mohn, Moya, Mock, Moan, Woon
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

Forrest Name Meaning
English: topographic name for someone who lived in or near a royal forest or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper or worker in one. Middle English forest was not as today a near-synonym of wood but referred specifically to a large area of woodland reserved by law for the purposes of hunting by the king and his nobles. The same applied to the European cognates both ancient Germanic and Romance. The English word is from Middle English forest ‘forest’ Old French forest Late Latin forestis (silva). This is generally taken to be a derivative of foris ‘outside’; the reference was probably to woods lying outside a settlement. On the other hand Middle High German for(e)st has been held to be a derivative of Old High German foraha ‘fir’ (see Forster ) with the addition of a collective suffix. Irish: this name is also frequently attested in Ireland where it may be a variant of Forrestal .
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Foret, Forst, Norris, Forbes, Gorrell, Fornes, Fries, Ferrett
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts

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 .
Source:
Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022
Similar surnames:
Hart, Hale, Hard, Hase, Haren, Harle, Harp, Haye, Ware, Harke
From: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts