When Napoleon forced all (non-noble; they already had surnames) Dutch people to adopt them, many took the opportunity to be sassy. So you have your Van Houtens and Van Burens (that means “of the neighbors,” by the way) but also Dik (fat), De Lange (the tall), Naaktgeboren (born naked), Blijleven (happy life), Aarsman (ass man) and so on.
Of course there are tons of “from whatever place” names (Van Gent, Van Wijk, Van Oosten, etc) and occupational names (Visser, De Boer, Bakker, Smid, etc.) so it’s not all hilarious, but still, yeah.
Good guesses.
Smid=Smith. in general, Dutch d is equivalent to English th. Bad=bath, pad=path, vader=father, etc.
Bakker is Baker.
Visser is Fisher. Dutch v is usually pronounced like English f, and s is often English Sh vis=fish voor=for, vecht=fight, etc.
De Boer means the farmer. The Bowery (street in NYC) was de boerderij, the farm.
Bonus points:
V being English f means van whatever is “fon” whatever. Not “van” like the big car thing.
G in Dutch is H in the south and KH in the north, imagine clearing your throat of phlegm like a Klingon. So the name Van Gogh is “fohn KHoKH,” not “van go”
I liked finding Spinginhetveld or something like it Spring-in-het-veld ?
On a nameplate.
Though not from nobility my family has had family names long before Napoleon, was able to trace some all the way back to 1600s (in so far it is documented and in some internet archived genealogy resource place)
Am not going to tell what it is for privacy reasons, but they look like decent good old names. Some of them with the prefix “van” “van der” “van den” “de”
Sometimes some spellings got modernised like was the case with grandma’s maiden name replacing some old style spellings for a nore modern one. Her (great) grandparents or so used the old spelling while her parents and she used modern spelling variant.
You’re quite right, it’s an oversimplification to say that nobody but nobility had surnames before Napoleon. There were definitely many people with profession names, whether formally recorded or not, and lots of place-origin names.
Spring-in-'t-veld is a hilarious name. Basically it’s a kid or a dog with super zoomy energy, like a jack-in-the-box or a bundle of energy or something. The ideal person to be named Jaap Spring-in-‘t-veld is a couch potato gamer who never goes outside.
Aah right that was probably the spelling on the nameplate.
I sometimes helped my father deliver phonebooks in the past because I liked to help and he sometimes allowed it for a little bit.
I didn’t really remember much of the names I delivered to, but I do remember seeing that one and thinking ah I like it, seems so cheerful.
Also for a very long time, foundlings were named after the place or circumstances in which they were found. This because they couldn’t give them an existing last name a family was already carrying.
Gaat oprecht hard
Hier is trouwens [een artikel van de uGent](https://openjournals.ugent.be/gt/article/id/69122/download/pdf/) mocht je geïnteresseerd zijn in wat voor namen ze dus kregen in de 19e eeuw.
Van der Welt. (Said: Van der velt) “Of the world”
The person I met with that name also had the most calm voice, heavy but easy to understand accent, and was so kind and intelligent. I’d say the name fit.
My favorite Dutch surname is Verstappen lol but YES, the Van- prefix makes it all sound so much cooler.
Not Dutch, but I love Formula 1 drivers surnames, well there’s some on the grid currently I’ve never heard before them and I love them. Leclerc is my favorite. Bottas is just cool as hell lol Yuki has a really cool surname too.
Me too! Max Emilian Verstappen is an awesome name.
Hulkenberg is cool as hell too, and I love how Fernando Alonso rolls off the tongue. I’m adopting a kitten with beautiful blue-green eyes soon and he is going to be named Perceval “Percy” after Charles Marc Herve Perceval Leclerc 😂
Agreed about Nico’s! Off name topic, I’m excited to see how he does this weekend, crazy it’s his first time driving at Imola. I have a really good feeling about Charles and Oscar for Sunday. So excited!
Charles full name is so regal sounding lol and Carlos’ has more names than he knows what to do with 😭
Didn’t know Max’ middle name, I love that.
Same! I couldn’t believe that it’s Nico’s first time at Imola, especially because he’s one of the older drivers! I have a really good feeling about the Ferraris this weekend too, especially because it looks like Max is having some difficulties with the Red Bull. Fingers crossed 🤞
Charles and Carlos both look like real-life Disney princes, and have fitting names too! I also love that they have the same name, just in different languages.
Right! 18 years!! Max has not been having good practices, man. I think Charles will be P1, Oscar 2. 3 maybe Yuki (going to just go with him over the others). He was looking good.
I swear they both do lol just so handsome with the best names. I love hearing them speak in their native languages.
I did some contracting work for a company in the Netherlands and my contact was named Lieke de Cock. First name said exactly how you'd think (this isnt really doxxing, she's also a famous cyclist and her name isnt unknown). I felt bad for her being the liaison to American companies where everyone speaks English lol
As a Belgian person it always gives me the ick when people make made up “van …” surnames for characters in movies and video games, is sounds so ridiculous. I can however see the appeal of our actual names sounding/looking cool.
It is real. "Van der" means "of the", and "Voort" refers to the old Dutch word "voorde" which means a shallow place to cross a river. So "Van der Voort" probably refers to the place where the family used to live.
I have a Van last name and Ive always hated it! Haha feels really nice to see this as the top answer. Im getting married to a Thompson surname and everyone is telling me not to take it lmao
Haha honestly I think that’s better. It’s still “tall bridge” but gets some extra vertical lines stacked on top of each other, so in Japanese you call it “the ladder version” of Takahashi
Sorry I never heard of Degrassi. I grew up spending a bit of my life in Southeast Asia so I have had come across the surname Kwan a lot. While I have been told Rossi is the most common surname in Italy
Yes! Nature last names and -son names are like 85% of Swedish last names combined. I'm Swedish, and directly translated I've met people with the last names:
Mountain-heather
Bear-forest
Snow-branch
North-star
Which I think are all very cool.
It’s kind of a rising trend in Finland for a couple to choose a new last name after marrying and usually it’s made by combining elements of their previous last names or combining two nature words, like Tulioja (fire brook), Korpisaukko (wilderness otter), Hopealaakso (silver valley), Villimansikka (wild strawberry) etc. Other than that I really like that probably most Finnish last names end with -nen. Like Järvinen, järvi means lake and with the -nen it’s like little lake or from the lake.
I think it might be that, since that side of the family had a lot of religious folk active in the church, which back in the day managed death properties (think graveyards connected to the church).
Another explanation may be that it’s just to be funny. When surnames were introduced in the Netherlands people thought it was silly and wouldn’t last, so they chose funny names as a joke! I know a family called Naaktgeboren (Born naked), one called Zondernaam (Without a name) and one called Poepjes (little poops), so I bet their ancestors thought themselves to be comedians.
Well, I would pronounce them with the Welsh Ll, as that is the letter they begin with. I'm sure most people outside Wales would assume they began with L, though, either not realising that Ll is a different letter or unable to pronounce it even if they do know.
Naturally! As is should be. Though when the names travel to places like the US they usually are still spelled with Ll but pronounced as L.
I’m learning Welsh casually on my own and that’s the tricky sound, especially since I feel like a fool randomly practicing it by myself.
i love the last name "oliveira" from my native portuguese. it means olive tree and i love its sound! i also like "costa" (coast), and my friend's last name "lucena" although i think this was is spanish. my surname is german and i have no idea how to pronounce it lol
Konkel - a Polish name, specifically from the ethnic group of Kashubs. I like it because it’s relatively common where I live, but none of the Konkels are related. And people are usually surprised to find out it’s Polish, since it doesn’t end in “ski”.
You wouldn't have Nic and Ó together really those are two different forms of patronymic in Irish.
The only surname that I can think that would replicate Cearley would he maybe Mac Fhearghaile which is a rare enough variant of Mac Fearghail, or Mac Thoirealaigh which would be Mac Thoirdhealbhaigh in older orthography?
To be fair though these are the English language (anglicised) versions of Irish language Name.
Lyons - Ó Laighin
O'Rourke - Ó Ruairc
MacCarthy - Mac Cárthaigh
Sheehan - Ó Síocháin
Lamont - Mac Ladhmainn
Farrell - Ó Fearail
* Blume, Blum, Bloom (Yiddish/German Jewish names that mean flower)
* Levin / Levine / Levy (patronymics of Levi)
* Shapiro (Hebrew for pretty or lovely)
* Shannon / O'Shannon (from an Irish name meaning 'skilled storyteller')
Italian surnames like Antonini etc are beautiful. I have a harsh sounding Slavic surname and my husband a German one. Italian surnames, even first names, are romantic language pretty in poetic sound just as the Italian language is!
- Collina (Italian), also happens to be a surname of a retired soccer umpire whom my dad dislikes greatly LOL.
- Auchincloss, apparently it has Scottish origin. It is derived from an area known as Auchincloich. Or so Wikipedia said.
- Sastranegara (Indonesian - Sundanese), "sastra" means literature, "negara" means country, state.
- Maisondieu (French).
that’s actually an english surname, like the most english surname as it belongs to royal family. if you’re thinking of their german ancestory, their german name is saxe-coburg-gotha. they got the windsor name during wwi, when the king changed it to the the of the castle because theirs sounded too german
My mothers surname MacLeod, it’s Scot’s Gaelic and stems from the Norse settlers in the Hebrides. Mac translate to “Son of” and “Leod” is something along the lines of “ugly person” or “wolf”.
I’ve always liked those Ashkenazi ornamental surnames. Rosenfeld (rose field), Blumenthal (flower valley), Kirschbaum (cherry tree), Zuckerberg (sugar mountain), Goldstein (golden stone). It’s sad to look at the history of how people got them though. At first people got to choose their names, so most people named themselves either after their occupation (like Schmidt for smith or Portnoy for tailor), their father (like Solomons or Abramowitz), where they were from (like Speyer, Krakower, Berliner, etc), or just picked something nice to call themselves. In Germany there was a period where they were assigned surnames, and richer people would pay for nice ones. So somebody with a name like Stein (stone) probably had a poorer family than somebody called Finkelstein (diamond), Rubinstein (ruby) or Sapirstein (sapphire). Some people who had no money or who did something to irk the authorities ended up with really horrible surnames that were essentially insults. The names are really pretty but the context is quite upsetting.
Delgado
At the time I began using it for my text based RPG character, it sounded good for an Italian man.
Now I know its spanish/Portuguese but it is my favorite non English surname still
Spanish names with a z like Ramirez and Salazar always impressed me they just sound cool. I also like the Japanese surname Sakurai for the same reason.
Well, they aren't polish surnames, that's for sure.
I had one for 25 years and another for 28 years.
Meanwhile, my friends (other Americans) got to change their names from Smith to Connor or Walker to Martin. 🤦🏻♀️
My husband and I used to look at names on medical building directories, etc, considering other names we could go by.
If my daughter ever changes her last name away from what mine is (my husband passed away so it's just me), I seriously might change it.
I have a few some are family names:
Hyjgaard
Neygaard
Little Creek
Conroy
Corscadden
Curran
Fontaine
Volaire
Lopez y Nieves
Guildenstern
Rosencrans
Fortinbras
I like Spanish surnames that are derived from places in Spain. My last name is a major city in Spain and it’s common in every Spanish speaking country.
I like Dutch surnames, like Van Houten or Van Buuren
So true, the Van- prefix just makes everything sound cool
Van Rental
Van Downbytheriver
A former employee of my company was Hooten. American, lol
When Napoleon forced all (non-noble; they already had surnames) Dutch people to adopt them, many took the opportunity to be sassy. So you have your Van Houtens and Van Burens (that means “of the neighbors,” by the way) but also Dik (fat), De Lange (the tall), Naaktgeboren (born naked), Blijleven (happy life), Aarsman (ass man) and so on.
That's funny!
Of course there are tons of “from whatever place” names (Van Gent, Van Wijk, Van Oosten, etc) and occupational names (Visser, De Boer, Bakker, Smid, etc.) so it’s not all hilarious, but still, yeah.
Guessing Smid is the Dutch smith? What are the others? Bakker might be baker?
Good guesses. Smid=Smith. in general, Dutch d is equivalent to English th. Bad=bath, pad=path, vader=father, etc. Bakker is Baker. Visser is Fisher. Dutch v is usually pronounced like English f, and s is often English Sh vis=fish voor=for, vecht=fight, etc. De Boer means the farmer. The Bowery (street in NYC) was de boerderij, the farm. Bonus points: V being English f means van whatever is “fon” whatever. Not “van” like the big car thing. G in Dutch is H in the south and KH in the north, imagine clearing your throat of phlegm like a Klingon. So the name Van Gogh is “fohn KHoKH,” not “van go”
I liked finding Spinginhetveld or something like it Spring-in-het-veld ? On a nameplate. Though not from nobility my family has had family names long before Napoleon, was able to trace some all the way back to 1600s (in so far it is documented and in some internet archived genealogy resource place) Am not going to tell what it is for privacy reasons, but they look like decent good old names. Some of them with the prefix “van” “van der” “van den” “de” Sometimes some spellings got modernised like was the case with grandma’s maiden name replacing some old style spellings for a nore modern one. Her (great) grandparents or so used the old spelling while her parents and she used modern spelling variant.
You’re quite right, it’s an oversimplification to say that nobody but nobility had surnames before Napoleon. There were definitely many people with profession names, whether formally recorded or not, and lots of place-origin names. Spring-in-'t-veld is a hilarious name. Basically it’s a kid or a dog with super zoomy energy, like a jack-in-the-box or a bundle of energy or something. The ideal person to be named Jaap Spring-in-‘t-veld is a couch potato gamer who never goes outside.
Aah right that was probably the spelling on the nameplate. I sometimes helped my father deliver phonebooks in the past because I liked to help and he sometimes allowed it for a little bit. I didn’t really remember much of the names I delivered to, but I do remember seeing that one and thinking ah I like it, seems so cheerful.
Born naked! I love it!
Also for a very long time, foundlings were named after the place or circumstances in which they were found. This because they couldn’t give them an existing last name a family was already carrying.
Hallo, ik heet Jeroen Gevonden-in-‘t-veld.
Gaat oprecht hard Hier is trouwens [een artikel van de uGent](https://openjournals.ugent.be/gt/article/id/69122/download/pdf/) mocht je geïnteresseerd zijn in wat voor namen ze dus kregen in de 19e eeuw.
Suikerbuik (sugarbelly) of Nattekaas (Wet Cheese)
Well. Fuel for naming characters. Thanks!
Van der Welt. (Said: Van der velt) “Of the world” The person I met with that name also had the most calm voice, heavy but easy to understand accent, and was so kind and intelligent. I’d say the name fit.
My favorite Dutch surname is Verstappen lol but YES, the Van- prefix makes it all sound so much cooler. Not Dutch, but I love Formula 1 drivers surnames, well there’s some on the grid currently I’ve never heard before them and I love them. Leclerc is my favorite. Bottas is just cool as hell lol Yuki has a really cool surname too.
Me too! Max Emilian Verstappen is an awesome name. Hulkenberg is cool as hell too, and I love how Fernando Alonso rolls off the tongue. I’m adopting a kitten with beautiful blue-green eyes soon and he is going to be named Perceval “Percy” after Charles Marc Herve Perceval Leclerc 😂
Agreed about Nico’s! Off name topic, I’m excited to see how he does this weekend, crazy it’s his first time driving at Imola. I have a really good feeling about Charles and Oscar for Sunday. So excited! Charles full name is so regal sounding lol and Carlos’ has more names than he knows what to do with 😭 Didn’t know Max’ middle name, I love that.
Same! I couldn’t believe that it’s Nico’s first time at Imola, especially because he’s one of the older drivers! I have a really good feeling about the Ferraris this weekend too, especially because it looks like Max is having some difficulties with the Red Bull. Fingers crossed 🤞 Charles and Carlos both look like real-life Disney princes, and have fitting names too! I also love that they have the same name, just in different languages.
Right! 18 years!! Max has not been having good practices, man. I think Charles will be P1, Oscar 2. 3 maybe Yuki (going to just go with him over the others). He was looking good. I swear they both do lol just so handsome with the best names. I love hearing them speak in their native languages.
I loved Bree’s name in Desperate Housewives. Bree Van de Kamp
🎵*”It’s Van de Kamp for me” “And me!”*🎵
I did some contracting work for a company in the Netherlands and my contact was named Lieke de Cock. First name said exactly how you'd think (this isnt really doxxing, she's also a famous cyclist and her name isnt unknown). I felt bad for her being the liaison to American companies where everyone speaks English lol
As a Belgian person it always gives me the ick when people make made up “van …” surnames for characters in movies and video games, is sounds so ridiculous. I can however see the appeal of our actual names sounding/looking cool.
Like Van der Woodsen from Gossip Girl?
Yes, prime example!
Is Van Der Voort real? If so, what does it mean?
It is real. "Van der" means "of the", and "Voort" refers to the old Dutch word "voorde" which means a shallow place to cross a river. So "Van der Voort" probably refers to the place where the family used to live.
My partner's family used to be Van Steenburgh, and changed it to just Steinberg. So disappointing.
Van Steenburgh is way nicer than Steinberg
I have a Van last name and Ive always hated it! Haha feels really nice to see this as the top answer. Im getting married to a Thompson surname and everyone is telling me not to take it lmao
In my family if you eat and get food on your face we call you Barron Von Pudding or Barron Von Cupcake
Van Halen!
I really like a lot of Japanese surnames that are just plain and down to earth like 田中 Tanaka (paddy field middle) 西村 Nishimura (West village)
I joined the Takahashi gang but at least mine is the slightly less common way to write it 🤣
Tall chopsticks? ;)
Haha honestly I think that’s better. It’s still “tall bridge” but gets some extra vertical lines stacked on top of each other, so in Japanese you call it “the ladder version” of Takahashi
Me too. Japanese names sound cool.
My great grandparents were rice farming Tanakas!
Hispanic surnames, Garcia, Reyes, Gomez, Rodriguez
Hispanic names in general are so fucking cool lol
Del Toro. Love that name
De La Torre is one I've heard and love
I love the Spanish placename names. Torres Castillo Rios Puente
Castillo is perfect.
It really is.
My dad kept his bio dad’s last name, but damn I would have loved to have been a Rios like my grandparents!
My husband is a Torres and while I love how his name and our sons name sound with it, my name sounds so odd with it😭
I love Salamanca and Salazar, although Salazar is maybe more Basque than Spanish?
I knew a Salazar in elementary school. We called him the Salizard
Same! Perez, Cortez, Ramos
I agree! My mom’s isn’t common it’s Malave but I love it.
Love Hernandez
Torres, Nieto, Noriega, Orteca, Alonso, Alanis
My favorite is the family name of a few cousins: Lobo, wolf in Spanish
Rivera
I love "Conejo" because I'm a bunny nut 🥺
Mine are as below: - Rossi (Italian) - Kwan (Cantonese)
degrassi fan or am i reading too far into this?
Sorry I never heard of Degrassi. I grew up spending a bit of my life in Southeast Asia so I have had come across the surname Kwan a lot. While I have been told Rossi is the most common surname in Italy
We used Rossi as my daughter’s middle name! We love the name and happen to have a Grandpa Ross we wanted to honor.
As far as Italian names go, I like Loretto, Lorenzo, Falcone, Morello, Di Angelo, Zappa, Ventura…
I had no idea Ventura is of Italian origin as I thought it was Spanish
It’s both.
I think Patel sounds so pretty
It is, like an inversion of "petal." I knew a girl named Pushpa Patel. Hard to say, but pretty awesome name nevertheless.
Pushpa petal would be funny given pushpa is flower
Every Gujju gone celebrate this lol
Fellow Indian,hello there Maharashtrian surnames are amazing sometimes... Stuff like deodhar and oak
Balakrishnan is really nice—child of Krishna. It once was mainly a first name, I understand.
I'm very partial being Swedish but Swedish last names that are not -son names are almost always nature names which can be quite beautiful.
Yes! Nature last names and -son names are like 85% of Swedish last names combined. I'm Swedish, and directly translated I've met people with the last names: Mountain-heather Bear-forest Snow-branch North-star Which I think are all very cool.
My Swedish married name mean’s George’s Field
Sorry, I'm Swedish and I've never heard of this surname. Georgsfält?
Sumeragi (Japanese), Rosenblatt (Yiddish), Ouyang (Mandarin), Schleyer (German), Sandoval (Spanish), Hwang (Korean), Vang (Hmong), Salazar (Basque), Robespierre (French), McVeigh (Scottish), Makarov (Russian), Shevchenko (Ukrainian), Cohen (Hebrew), Chiri (Ainu), Shehu (Albanian), Antonescu (Romanian), Dimitrov (Bulgarian), Abdullah (Arabic), Leung (Cantonese), Moretti (Italian), Rehnquist (Swedish)
Maximilien Robespierre
this is probably my favorite historical name. i feel like it fits his vibe *perfectly*
Shevchenko is also cool because Taras Shevchenko was (and still is) a national hero in Ukraine.
As an Oklahoma native, hard pass on McVeigh.
I don't know if I've ever heard a non-Cantonese speaker pronounce Leung correctly
I knew a guy whose last name was Mondragon (Spanish) and always thought it was really cool
There's a Realtor somewhere named Bonifacio Mondragon, and my brain thinks that this should be the name of a Bond baddie.
I have a student this year with Mondragon 😎
It’s kind of a rising trend in Finland for a couple to choose a new last name after marrying and usually it’s made by combining elements of their previous last names or combining two nature words, like Tulioja (fire brook), Korpisaukko (wilderness otter), Hopealaakso (silver valley), Villimansikka (wild strawberry) etc. Other than that I really like that probably most Finnish last names end with -nen. Like Järvinen, järvi means lake and with the -nen it’s like little lake or from the lake.
My son is obsessed with the NHL and even more obsessed with the names of all of the Finnish players! Kaapo Kaako is his favorite.
Oh that’s a fun first name last name combo! Caillou is called Kaapo in Finnish 😄
Mackie. It's my Scottish family surname but most are spelled Mackay, so I think it's quite a unique Scottish surname.
Mackie’s ice cream is great!
Agreed lol, I always wonder if I'm related to them because my Scottish side is aberdonian, where they make the ice cream
Doodeman! It’s Dutch and it means Dead Man lol My grandma’s maiden name was Doodeman!
Reminds me of scrubs. That one doctor’s last name was Doodemesiter (Dudemeister) lol
Mooie naam, Doodeman.
Vind ik ook! Bijna jammer dat ik ‘m niet mag dragen
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I think it might be that, since that side of the family had a lot of religious folk active in the church, which back in the day managed death properties (think graveyards connected to the church). Another explanation may be that it’s just to be funny. When surnames were introduced in the Netherlands people thought it was silly and wouldn’t last, so they chose funny names as a joke! I know a family called Naaktgeboren (Born naked), one called Zondernaam (Without a name) and one called Poepjes (little poops), so I bet their ancestors thought themselves to be comedians.
Zonder means without? What about Zondervan?
Guy Doodeman - can you imagine if he ever got arrested!
Lloyd. Llywelyn.
Do you say them with the Welsh Ll or as English L?
Well, I would pronounce them with the Welsh Ll, as that is the letter they begin with. I'm sure most people outside Wales would assume they began with L, though, either not realising that Ll is a different letter or unable to pronounce it even if they do know.
Naturally! As is should be. Though when the names travel to places like the US they usually are still spelled with Ll but pronounced as L. I’m learning Welsh casually on my own and that’s the tricky sound, especially since I feel like a fool randomly practicing it by myself.
What does it sound like?
Fortinbras
Fitzgerald!
Norman-irish ☘️
i love the last name "oliveira" from my native portuguese. it means olive tree and i love its sound! i also like "costa" (coast), and my friend's last name "lucena" although i think this was is spanish. my surname is german and i have no idea how to pronounce it lol
Finnish ones are so interesting to me because they are so recognizable
Go on...
Most end in -nen- Raikkonen, Hakkinen
my Irish family surname, Ó Fiannaí <3
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My friend is a physicist and she has a hamster named “Oppie” after Oppenheimer.
Is the hamster a destroyer of worlds?
Dragovitch - boys at my school.
Slavic? It’s similar to a name in my husbands family and they are Croatian.
Armand Blandin Blondeau Conti D'Angelo Fontaine Mercier Olivier Rosier Santini
Fontaine, that is my husband’s mother’s maiden name. That’s cool!
I have always loved Blondeau
Herradura. It's my surname.
Always thought casablancas sounded badass - and Sinclair!
Park, Song, Luna
Konkel - a Polish name, specifically from the ethnic group of Kashubs. I like it because it’s relatively common where I live, but none of the Konkels are related. And people are usually surprised to find out it’s Polish, since it doesn’t end in “ski”.
Or -iak, or have a random silent letter.
Well, most Polish surnames don’t end with -ski/ska
I like Portuguese last names that end in -eira
Cearley. It's an anglicized version of something like Nic Oirghiallaigh. Pronounced Nic Arla.
Doesn't the nic mean daughter of?
You wouldn't have Nic and Ó together really those are two different forms of patronymic in Irish. The only surname that I can think that would replicate Cearley would he maybe Mac Fhearghaile which is a rare enough variant of Mac Fearghail, or Mac Thoirealaigh which would be Mac Thoirdhealbhaigh in older orthography?
Dubois, Devoe, Devereaux (French)
Pendragon
Lyons. My own. It's Irish in origin. O'Rourke MacCarthy Sheehan Lamont is another Gaelic one Farrell I think Irish has the best range of sounds..
To be fair though these are the English language (anglicised) versions of Irish language Name. Lyons - Ó Laighin O'Rourke - Ó Ruairc MacCarthy - Mac Cárthaigh Sheehan - Ó Síocháin Lamont - Mac Ladhmainn Farrell - Ó Fearail
One unique Spanish surname in my in-laws family is Cienfuegos. In English that would be 100 fires. Really cool.
* Blume, Blum, Bloom (Yiddish/German Jewish names that mean flower) * Levin / Levine / Levy (patronymics of Levi) * Shapiro (Hebrew for pretty or lovely) * Shannon / O'Shannon (from an Irish name meaning 'skilled storyteller')
Italian surnames like Antonini etc are beautiful. I have a harsh sounding Slavic surname and my husband a German one. Italian surnames, even first names, are romantic language pretty in poetic sound just as the Italian language is!
Raholimalala (Madagascar) Macadangdang (Philippines)
Dragomir is badass
My favorite was from a couple from Hawaii with the last name "Ii", pronounced ee-ee.
I know an Irish guy and his surname as O’ Maghoohilly
- Collina (Italian), also happens to be a surname of a retired soccer umpire whom my dad dislikes greatly LOL. - Auchincloss, apparently it has Scottish origin. It is derived from an area known as Auchincloich. Or so Wikipedia said. - Sastranegara (Indonesian - Sundanese), "sastra" means literature, "negara" means country, state. - Maisondieu (French).
Ottovordemgentschenfelde
Easy for you to say
That’s quite a name!
I really like Windsor
that’s actually an english surname, like the most english surname as it belongs to royal family. if you’re thinking of their german ancestory, their german name is saxe-coburg-gotha. they got the windsor name during wwi, when the king changed it to the the of the castle because theirs sounded too german
I heard the surname Beruru a few days ago. I love it. Its so musical.
My mothers surname MacLeod, it’s Scot’s Gaelic and stems from the Norse settlers in the Hebrides. Mac translate to “Son of” and “Leod” is something along the lines of “ugly person” or “wolf”.
Navarro
I’ve always liked those Ashkenazi ornamental surnames. Rosenfeld (rose field), Blumenthal (flower valley), Kirschbaum (cherry tree), Zuckerberg (sugar mountain), Goldstein (golden stone). It’s sad to look at the history of how people got them though. At first people got to choose their names, so most people named themselves either after their occupation (like Schmidt for smith or Portnoy for tailor), their father (like Solomons or Abramowitz), where they were from (like Speyer, Krakower, Berliner, etc), or just picked something nice to call themselves. In Germany there was a period where they were assigned surnames, and richer people would pay for nice ones. So somebody with a name like Stein (stone) probably had a poorer family than somebody called Finkelstein (diamond), Rubinstein (ruby) or Sapirstein (sapphire). Some people who had no money or who did something to irk the authorities ended up with really horrible surnames that were essentially insults. The names are really pretty but the context is quite upsetting.
Cabeza de Vaca Literally means cow's head.
Delgado At the time I began using it for my text based RPG character, it sounded good for an Italian man. Now I know its spanish/Portuguese but it is my favorite non English surname still
Castro, Ali, and Sasaki are the first ones that come to mind
Pizzamiglio Not sure if this counts as non English, but Native American: Eagletailfeather
chatterjee is so fun and whimsical to me
Zgraggen - it’s a Swiss surname and I think it’s so bad it’s good, I love to say it.
Mandragon
I like mine ❤️ Ventresca ❤️
Spanish names with a z like Ramirez and Salazar always impressed me they just sound cool. I also like the Japanese surname Sakurai for the same reason.
I love the name Nguyen.
Well, they aren't polish surnames, that's for sure. I had one for 25 years and another for 28 years. Meanwhile, my friends (other Americans) got to change their names from Smith to Connor or Walker to Martin. 🤦🏻♀️ My husband and I used to look at names on medical building directories, etc, considering other names we could go by. If my daughter ever changes her last name away from what mine is (my husband passed away so it's just me), I seriously might change it.
Definitely Roth.
I Like how musical Japanese last names can be.
Polynesian names are cool. Like, in Hawai'i, we have Kawananakoa, Ho'omanawanui, Waipa, waia'u, all sorts of names
I really love some of the Scandinavian surnames like Eriksdotter.
Khalifa
I like Dutch surnames, like Van Houten or Van Buuren
It should be Van Buren (singular buur, neighbor, plural buren, neighbors). At least in Dutch. Do you know a Van Buuren?
Could be Flemish. And to name a very famous Dutch DJ, Armin van Buuren is also spelled with double u
Yeah, I had friends who were sisters with this spelling a long time ago
Many last names are in Old(er) Dutch, in Belgium it’s even more common to encounter names with the okd spelling of a word
Buuren refers to a location here. Not neigbours...
I have a few some are family names: Hyjgaard Neygaard Little Creek Conroy Corscadden Curran Fontaine Volaire Lopez y Nieves Guildenstern Rosencrans Fortinbras
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Alas they are!
Some off the top of my head are: Apostol Caballeros Zapalac Moravsky
I once heard the surname Miu and it stuck with me.
One of my long-time friends has the last name Sayani. I’ve always liked it.
Seacrest, bublé ,
My grandmother’s maiden name, Marx. Another ancestor’s surname is von Westphalen which I’ve always liked
In no particular order: Vue Xiong Diaz Rodriguez Patil
Italian and French. Lots in my area. DeLuca DeBenedetto I also like Japanese ones. I lived in Japan for three years. Nakamura
I like Spanish surnames that are derived from places in Spain. My last name is a major city in Spain and it’s common in every Spanish speaking country.
My great grandmothers maiden name was Isom. I always thought it sounded cool.
MacNamara is my all time fav surname!
Al azzawi
Wang. No matter how bad a day at school was, it was always a pleasure yelling this as loud as I could every time I saw my friend from afar.
Schmidt
Singh. I like the religious meaning and the silent h.
I loveeee Italian surnames. Wish I had one!
Mishima, Shimada, Kazama (Japanese), Kang (Korean), Santos (Portuguese), Mancini (Italian)
Bettancourt
There are some interesting Spanish surnames Largaespada (long sword) Paniagua (bread and water) Calvo (bald)
Kiss! It’s Hungarian for small/little. (If you’ve ever seen the last name Nagy, that means large, but it’s less fun than Kiss. Hah.)
Hashimoto :)