Origin and popularity of the name CARDINAL

Origin

Cardinal : 1: French and English: from Old French Middle English cardinal ‘cardinal’ the church dignitary (Latin cardinalis originally an adjective meaning ‘crucial’). The surname was probably bestowed as a nickname on someone who habitually dressed in red or who had played the part of a cardinal in a pageant or who acted in a lordly and patronizing manner.2: English: possibly also an altered form of Carbonell. Reaney notes that Cardinal's Farm in Foxearth (Essex) is recorded as Carbonels in 1381 and Cardynals in 1577.

Cardinale : Italian: from cardinale ‘cardinal’ (see Cardinal) a nickname for a haughty individual or a metonymic occupational name for the servant of a cardinal.

Gaetano : Italian: from the personal name Gaetano medieval Latin Caietanus originally a Latin ethnic name denoting someone from Caieta in Latium (now Gaeta). According to legend the place was named after the elderly nurse of Aeneas who died there after fleeing with him from the ruins of Troy. The name persisted among early Christians and was popular in the Middle Ages. The religious reformer Saint Gaetano (1480–1547) was born in Vicenza a member of a Venetian noble family. He is not to be confused with his contemporary Cardinal Gaetano an active opponent of Martin Luther.

Woolsey : English (Norfolk): from the Middle English personal name Wulsy (Old English Wulfsige from wulf ‘wolf’ + sige ‘victory’). The personal name was common in Suffolk where it gave rise to the surname of Henry VIII's minister Cardinal Wolsey.

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Last name frequency

Geographic distribution of the 105,622 individuals with the name CARDINAL on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

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