Origin
Flood : 1: English: topographic name from Middle English flod flud(e) ‘stream’ (Old English flōd) or ‘channel gutter’ (Old English flōde) for someone who lived beside such a feature or who lived at a place so called such as Flood in Drewsteignton and Fludda in Hennock both in Devon.2: Welsh: variant of Floyd an Anglicized form of the Welsh personal name Llwyd (see Lloyd).3: Irish: translation into English of various names correctly or erroneously associated with Gaelic tuile ‘flood’ (see Toole and Tully).
Brock : 1: English Scottish and North German: variant of Brook.2: English and Scandinavian: nickname for a person supposedly resembling a badger from Middle English brok(ke) ‘badger’ (Old English brocc) and Danish brok (a word of Celtic origin; compare Welsh broch Cornish brogh Irish broc). In the Middle Ages badgers were regarded as unpleasant creatures.3: Dutch and Flemish: from a personal name a short form of Brockert.4: Dutch and Flemish: topographic name a variant of Broek ‘water meadow flood plain’ (see Vandenbroek).5: South German: nickname for a stout and strong man from Middle High German brocke ‘lump piece’.6: North German: topographic name for someone who lived near a marsh (compare standard German Bruch) from Middle Low German brōk ‘swamp moor’ or a habitational name from any of various places called Broch and Brock. This surname is also found in Denmark.7: Jewish (Ashkenazic): probably an acronymic surname from the first letters of Hebrew ben rabi ‘son of rabbi’ and of each part of a Yiddish double male personal name; see also Brill.8: Jewish (from Poland): habitational name from Brok a place in Poland.
Gietzen : German: probably a topographic name for someone living by a stream or flood plain from Middle High German gieze ‘torrent flood’. Compare Giesen.
Guss : 1: English (Kent): from the Old Swedish personal name Guse Gusse.2: South German (Güss): topographic name for someone who lived near a torrent or on a flood plain from Middle High German güsse ‘flood flooding’. Compare Guess.
Ham : 1: English (mainly southwestern) and German: variant of Hamm.2: Dutch: topographic name from ham ‘land in a river bend’ ‘enclosed meadow’ or a habitational name from any of several country houses and places called De(n) Ham. Compare Van Ham and Vanderham.3: French: habitational name from any of various places in northern France (Ardennes Pas-de-Calais Somme Moselle) named with the ancient Germanic word ham ‘meadow in the bend of a river water meadow flood plain’.4: Hungarian (Hám) Slovak (also Hám) and Croatian: nickname or occupational name from Hungarian hám (Croatian ham) ‘harness’. Alternatively it may be of German origin (see Hamm).5: Slovenian: perhaps a nickname from the interjection ham ‘bite grab’. Alternatively it may be from dialect ham ‘harness’ (see 4 above) or of German origin (see Hamm).6: Czech (also Hám): from a short form of the personal name Abraham.7: Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the Ham surname. Some sources report that there are sixty different Ham clans but only the Kangnŭng Ham clan can be documented. Although some records have been lost and a few generations are unaccounted for it is known that the founding ancestor of the Ham clan is Ham Kyu a Koryŏ general who fought against the Mongol invaders in the thirteenth century. His ancestor Ham Hyŏk was a Tang Chinese general who stayed in Korea after Tang China helped Shilla unify the peninsula during the seventh century. Another of Ham Hyŏk's ancestors Ham Shin accompanied Kim Chu-wŏn the founding ancestor of the Kangnŭng Kim family to the Kangnŭng area and hence the Ham clan became the Kangnŭng Ham clan. The first prominent ancestor from Kangnŭng whose genealogy can be verified is Ham Kyu the Koryŏ general. Accordingly he is regarded as the Kangnŭng Ham clan's founding ancestor. Compare Hahm 2.8: Chinese: Cantonese form of the surname 咸 see Xian 2.9: Chinese: Cantonese form of the surname 闞 see Kan 1.10: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 范 see Fan 1.11: Chinese: variant Romanization of the surname 譚 see Tan 1.12: Chinese: possibly from Cantonese form of the Chinese name 涵 (meaning ‘contain’) a monosyllabic personal name or part of a disyllabic personal name of some early Chinese immigrants in the US.
Hamstra : West Frisian and Dutch: topographic name for someone who lived on a flood plain or land in a river bend from Dutch ham ‘land in a river bend flood plain’ + the suffix -stra from Old Frisian sittera ‘inhabitant of’.
Noe : 1: German Dutch and English (London); French and Spanish (Noé); Catalan (Noè): from the Biblical personal name Noach ‘Noah’ which means ‘comfort’ in Hebrew. According to the Book of Genesis Noah having been forewarned by God built an ark into which he took his family and representatives of every species of animal and so was saved from the flood that God sent to destroy the world because of human wickedness. The personal name was not common among non-Jews in the Middle Ages but the Biblical story was an extremely popular subject for miracle plays. In many cases therefore the surname probably derives from a nickname referring to someone who had played the part of Noah in a miracle play or pageant rather than from a personal name. The usual English form of the surname is Noy.2: French (Noë): habitational name from La Noë the name of several places in the northern part of France derived from the Gaulish word nauda ‘water meadow boggy place’; it is a cognate of Noue (see Lanoue) and in North America possibly also an altered form of this.3: French (Noé): variant of Noël (see Noel).4: French (Noé): habitational name from any of several places so named ultimately from Latin nucarius ‘walnut tree’.
Vandenbroek : Dutch and Flemish (Van den Broek): topographic name for someone who lived by a flood plain or a stream that frequently flooded from broek ‘water meadow flood plain’ or a habitational name for someone from any of several places called with this word for example Den Broek in North Holland Groningen North Brabant and elsewhere.
Zalewski : Polish: topographic name for someone who lived by a flood plain or a bay Polish zalew or a habitational name for someone from a place called with this word in particular Zalew in Łódź Voivodeship or Zalewo in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Compare Zaleski 4.
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
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