Geneanet > Resources > Family Names > GREEN

Origin and popularity of the name GREEN

Origin

Green : 1: English: either a nickname for someone who was fond of dressing in this color (Old English grēne) or was young or immature or who had played the part of the ‘Green Man’ in the May Day celebrations or a topographic name for someone who lived near a village green (Middle English grene a transferred use of the color term). This is one of the most common and widespread of English surnames. In North America it has assimilated cognates from other languages notably German Grün (see Gruen) and Dutch Groen; compare 7 below. This surname is also very common among African Americans.2: English: alternatively from a Middle English personal name Grene.3: Irish: adopted for Ó hUainín ‘descendant of Uainín’ a personal name from a pet form of uaine ‘green’ see Honan.4: Irish: adopted for Ó Fathaidh or Ó Fathaigh through erroneous association with faithche ‘lawn’ see Fahey.5: German: habitational name from Green (Rhineland-Palatinate) or Greene (Lower Saxony) or a topographic name from Middle Low Saxon grēn ‘grain sand’ for someone living in a sandy place.6: Danish: habitational name from placenames beginning with Gre(e)n- like Greene Grenbole (compare 5 above).7: Americanized form of Jewish (Ashkenazic) Grün (see Gruen 2) or Grin artificial names meaning ‘green’ in German and Yiddish respectively or a short form of any of numerous compound names with this element.

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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
FANBI : The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain, ©2021, University of the West of England

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 337,052 individuals with the name GREEN on Geneanet.

 

Most found places for the name GREEN:

    This last name in the family trees

    See below the Geneanet members' family trees which contain the last name GREEN

    wbuchanan
    (10,759 individuals)
    keepsakes51
    (1,752 individuals)
    cartercousins2022
    (1,689 individuals)
    richard0911
    (1,333 individuals)

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    Variants of name GREEN

    GRAIN de SAINT MARSAULT