Popularity of the last name by country

Australia

All countries

Origine of last name

GEORGE : 1: English Welsh French and Romanian: from the personal name George Latin Georgius Greek Geōrgios from an adjectival form geōrgios ‘rustic’ of Greek geōrgos ‘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 Christian martyrs and saints 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 Saint 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. In North America the English form of the surname has absorbed many cognates from other languages e.g. German <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Georg">Georg</a> Assyrian/Chaldean Giwargis <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Gewargis">Gewargis</a> or <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Georgis">Georgis</a> and Albanian <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Gjergji">Gjergji</a> and also their patronymics and other derivatives e.g. Greek <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Georgiadis">Georgiadis</a> <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Georgopoulos">Georgopoulos</a> Hatzigeorgiou ‘George the Pilgrim’ and <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Papageorgiou">Papageorgiou</a> Romanian <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Georgescu">Georgescu</a> or Gheorghescu Serbian <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Djordjevic">Djordjevic</a>. The name George is also found among Christians in southern India (compare <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Geevarghese">Geevarghese</a> and <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Varghese">Varghese</a>) but since South Indians traditionally do not have hereditary surnames the southern Indian name was in most cases registered as such only after immigration of its bearers to the US.2: German: variant of <a href="https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/Georg">Georg</a>.3: Native American (e.g. Navajo): adoption of the English personal name George (see 1 above) as a surname.

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