Origin
Hand : 1: English German and Dutch: nickname for someone with a peculiarity or deformity of the hand or perhaps to skill in its use from Middle English hond(e) hand(e) Middle High German hant found in such appellations as Johan metter hant (Rijkhoven 1284) Liebhard mit der Hand (Augsburg 1383).4: Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from German Hand ‘hand’ (see 1 above).2: Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Fhlaithimh (see Guthrie) as a result of association with the Gaelic word lámh ‘hand’. It is used as an English equivalent for several other names of Gaelic origin too such as Claffey Glavin and McClave.3: English: perhaps from a Middle English personal name Hand a possible rhyming pet form of Randall though it could also be a variant of Han (a pet form of Johan John and of Hanry Henry) with excrescent -d.
Adeleke : West African (Nigeria): from the Yoruba personal name Adélékè from adé l'ékè ‘the crown gains the upper hand triumphs’ with ‘crown’ understood as a metaphor for ‘child’.
Baghurst : from Baughurst (Hants) which is recorded as Baggeherst in 1175 but has been influenced by the minor name Haughurst (Hauekehurst in 1256) in the same parish giving rise to strains of the surname with -au- or -o- on the one hand and -a- on the other. The place-name may include Old English *bagga a word for an animal not certainly identified perhaps the badger or a male given name *Beagga + hyrst ‘wooded hill’.
Bear : 1: English: variant of Beer 1.2: English: from the Middle English nickname Bere meaning ‘bear’ (Old English bera which is also found as a byname) or from a personal name derived from a short form of the various ancient Germanic compound names with this as the first element (compare e.g. Bernhard). The bear has generally been regarded with a mixture of fear and amusement because of its strength and unpredictable temper on the one hand and its clumsy gait on the other and in the medieval period it was also thought to typify the sins of sloth and gluttony. All these characteristics are no doubt reflected in the nickname. Throughout the Middle Ages the bear was a familiar figure in popular entertainments such as bear baiting and dancing bears. Compare Beer 2.3: Native American: translation into English (and shortening) of a personal name based on a word such as Lakota and Dakota Sioux mato and Meskwaki (Fox) makwa meaning ‘bear’. The great cultural significance of the bear to Native Americans is reflected in their traditional personal names many of which were adopted as surnames (translated into English) e.g. Black Bear (see Blackbear) Little Bear (see Littlebear) Standing Bear (see Standingbear) and Young Bear (see Youngbear).4: Americanized form (translation into English) of cognates of 2 above in other languages for example German Baer and Slovenian Croatian Ukrainian and other Slavic Medved and also an Americanized form of German Bahr.
Beres : 1: Hungarian (Béres): occupational name for a farm laborer or casual harvest hand béres a derivative of bér ‘wage payment’. Compare Beresh and Berish.2: Slovak and Rusyn (from Slovakia) (Béreš and Bereš); Croatian and Serbian (Bereš): occupational name from a Slavicized form of Hungarian béres (see 1 above). Compare Bires.3: Jewish (from Lithuania and Ukraine): variant of Berez.
Beresh : 1: Ukrainian and Rusyn: occupational name for a farm laborer or casual harvest hand from Hungarian béres (see Beres 1).2: Americanized form of Hungarian Béres (see Beres 1) Slovak and Rusyn (from Slovakia) Béreš or Bereš Croatian and Serbian Bereš (see Beres 2) cognates of 1. Compare Berish.
Birtles : 1: from Birtles (in Prestbury Cheshire) Birchill Farm (in Hassop Derbys) or possibly Birchills (in Walsall Staffs). The place-names are from the plural of Old English *bircel ‘small birch’ with occasional confusion of the final syllable with Middle English hill hull ‘hill’ and hale ‘corner of land’ (etc.). Pronunciation of /ʧ/ in Birch- has been simplified to /t/ before the following /l/ whence modern Birtles but the -th- spellings in the medieval forms are probably misreadings of -ch-; the letters c and t are commonly indistinguishable in medieval court hand.post-medieval variant of Birtle with excrescent -s. 2: perhaps a post-medieval variant of Birchall + excrescent -s and the sound change from /ʧ/ to /t/ noted in (1) above but Birchall itself could be a variant of Birtles in which case the following bearers belong at (1).
Blackmore : English:: 1: habitational name from any of various places so named with Old English blæc ‘black dark’ + mōr ‘moor marsh’ or mere ‘lake’. Mōr is the second element of places called Blackmore in Essex Wiltshire and Worcestershire as well as Blackmoor in Dorset; mere on the other hand is the second element of Blackmore in Hertfordshire and Blackmoor in Hampshire the early forms of which are Blachemere Blakemere.2: from Middle English blak blakke ‘black’ + Mor ‘Moor’ signifying someone with a dark complexion.
Bonning : 1: English (Somerset): perhaps an altered form of the rare surname Bonnan from Middle English bon ‘bone’ + Middle English hand ‘hand’ or with Old French bon ‘good’ as the first element.2: North German (Bönning): habitational name from a place called Bönnien near Hildesheim (Lower Saxony).3: North German (Bönning): variant of Böhning (see Bohning 2) a patronymic from the personal name Bohn 1.
Bracero : Spanish: from bracero an occupational name most likely for a day laborer or farm hand although the term could also mean ‘brewer’ and ‘sure-armed man’ (i.e. one with a good aim in throwing or shooting) and these senses cannot be excluded.
Branca : 1: Italian: from branca ‘claw hand’ hence a nickname for someone with a deformity of the hand or possibly for a grasping person.2: Italian: from a short form of a compound personal name such as Brancaleone (‘lion's paw’).3: Portuguese: habitational name from any of the places called Branca or possibly a nickname from the feminine form of Portuguese branco ‘white’. See Branco.
Brennand : 1: from the Middle English phrase brenne hand ‘burn hand’ denoting the official who carried out this medieval legal punishment. Some of the early bearers may belong under (2). 2: from Middle English brend hand ‘burnt hand’ given to someone whose hand had been burnt as a legal punishment. 3: perhaps from Brennand (Fell House) in Bowland Forest (WR Yorks). The place-name is from Old Scandinavian brennandi ‘(the) burning one’ of uncertain application but structurally like a river-name. Some of the bearers in (1) may alternatively belong here. 4: variant of Brennan with excrescent -d.
Bunning : 1: German (Bünning): patronymic from the personal name Buno. Compare Buenning.2: English (Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire): variant of Bonning perhaps an adaptation of the now rare surname Bonnan from Middle English bon ‘bone’ + Middle English hand ‘hand’ or with Old French bon ‘good’ as the first element.
Cade : 1: English: possibly from a Middle English form of the Old English personal name Cada itself probably of Brittonic origin from any of a number of names beginning with catu- ‘battle’.2: English: perhaps a nickname for a gentle or inoffensive person from Middle English cade ‘young animal left by its mother and brought up by hand as a domestic pet’. In southern England cad is found in dialects meaning ‘youngest and smallest of a family of any kind’.3: French (also Cadé): topographic name from cade ‘juniper’ (from Latin catanus).
Cloke : English (southern):: 1: from Middle English cloke clucke cloche clouche (from an unattested Old English clūc(e)) ‘claw’ (as an uncomplementary word for ‘hand’) later ‘grasp clutch’ perhaps given to someone with a mis-shapen hand or to a grasping or miserly person. The range of spellings of the name in southern medieval English records point more frequently to this etymology than that in sense 2 but the two names will easily have been confused.2: from Middle English cloke ‘cloak’ (Old French cloche cloke) metonymic nickname for a habitual or distinctive cloak wearer or perhaps for a cloak maker.
Corn : 1: English: nickname from Old English corn a metathesized form of cran ‘crane’ (see Crane).2: English: metonymic occupational name for a maker or user of hand mills Old English cweorn.3: Americanized form of German Dutch Czech or Jewish Korn or a shortened form of any of the composite names formed with this element.4: Slovenian: from a Slovenized form of the Middle High German zorn ‘wrath anger’ (see German Zorn compare Coren).
Crocco : Italian: probably from Sicilian croccu ‘hook’ hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of hooks crooks and the like or possibly a nickname for someone who wore a hook in place of a lost hand or arm.
Currey : 1: Irish: variant of Curry.2: English: habiational name from Curry in Somerset so named after a stream possibly meaning ‘border river’ (compare Welsh cwr ‘corner border’ or Cornish cor ‘hedge boundary’).3: English (of Norman origin): from Old French curie ‘kitchen’ and probably an occupational name for a cook or kitchen hand.4: Scottish: variant of Currie.
Faust : 1: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): from Middle High German fūst ‘fist’ presumably a nickname for a strong or pugnacious person or for someone with a club hand or other deformity of the hand. It is also found in France (Alsace and Lorraine).2: German and French: from a personal name from Latin Faustus meaning ‘fortunate lucky’ (a derivative of favere ‘to favor’). This name was borne by at least one Christian martyr.
Flett : Scottish: probably a habitational name from a place in the parish of Delting Shetland named with an Old Norse term denoting a strip of arable land or pasture. On the other hand it may be from the Old Norse byname Fljótr ‘swift speedy’. Compare Fleet 2. The surname is now most common in Banffshire and Orkney.
Forrest : 1: English: topographic name for someone who lived in or near a royal forest or a metonymic occupational name for a keeper or worker in one. Middle English forest was not as today a near-synonym of wood but referred specifically to a large area of woodland reserved by law for the purposes of hunting by the king and his nobles. The same applied to the European cognates both ancient Germanic and Romance. The English word is from Middle English forest ‘forest’ Old French forest Late Latin forestis (silva). This is generally taken to be a derivative of foris ‘outside’; the reference was probably to woods lying outside a settlement. On the other hand Middle High German for(e)st has been held to be a derivative of Old High German foraha ‘fir’ (see Forster) with the addition of a collective suffix.2: Irish: this name is also frequently attested in Ireland where it may be a variant of Forrestal.
Glavin : Irish:: 1: (Munster): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Mag Láimhín formerly Mag Fhlaithimhín from flaitheamh ‘ruler’. Mag Láimhín has sometimes been ‘translated’ as Hand from the similarity of the shortened form to lámh ‘hand’.2: alternatively a shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Gláimhín ‘descendant of Glámhín’ a diminutive byname which appears to mean ‘satirist’ or ‘satirical one’ from glám ‘satire lampoon’.
Goodhand : from Middle English god(e) ‘good skilled' + hand. Compare Henry Goudenhond (probably ‘golden hand’) 1332 in Subsidy Rolls (Sussex).
Handsaker : English: habitational name from Handsacre (Staffordshire). The placename derives from the Old English personal name Hand (genitive Handes) + Old English æcer ‘plot of arable or cultivated land’.
Hankin : 1: English: from the Middle English personal name Hankin a pet form of Hann which in English usage was usually a short form of Hanry (Henry) and occasionally perhaps a rhyming pet form of Randal (Randolph). In Middle Dutch Hankin was a pet form of Johan (John) a usage which may have been brought to England by Flemings after the Norman Conquest but no examples have yet been found in Middle English where a man named John was also called Hankin. Compare Henkin Hanks and Hancock.2: English: from Middle English Handekin a pet form of the personal name Hand Hond (see Hand).3: English: from the Middle English personal name Hamekin a pet form of Hame (Hamo). See Haimes and Hammond.4: Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): metronymic from Khanke (a pet form of the Yiddish female personal name Khane from Hebrew Ḥanna; see Hanna) with the Slavic possessive suffix -in.
Hanson : 1: English (Yorkshire and Lancashire): from the Middle English personal name Hann or Hand + son; see Hand 5.2: Irish: variant of Hampson.3: Americanized form (and a rare Swedish variant) of Swedish Hansson.4: Americanized form of Norwegian Danish Dutch or North German Hansen and Hanssen.5: Jewish (Ashkenazic): metronymic from the female personal name Hanna 6.
Heuer : German:: 1: variant of Hauer.2: occupational name from Middle High German höuwer ‘mower hay-maker’. Presumably the name also referred to a hired hand or tenant in general a day laborer mainly in northern Germany (from Middle Low German huren ‘to hire rent’).
Heuermann : German: occupational name for a hired hand a day laborer from Middle High German hūren ‘to hire’ + man ‘man’.
Karnik : 1: Czech (Kárník): occupational name for a user or maker of hand carts (see Kara). Alternatively it may be a nickname for a convicted offender from kárat ‘to punish or scold’.2: Indian (Karnataka Maharashtra): Brahmin Kayastha and Prabhu name ultimately from Sanskrit karaṇa ‘writer scribe’. This name is found among the Havyaka Brahmins in Karnataka and the Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra.
Khattab : Muslim (mainly Egypt and the Levant): from Arabic khaṭṭāb ‘orator’ specifically denoting a man who acts as intermediary asking a woman's hand in marriage.
Kleinknecht : German: occupational name for a secondary hired hand a Kleinknecht as opposed to a Grossknecht. Compare Kleindienst.
Kleinschmidt : German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a maker of small forged items and metal hand tools literally ‘small smith’.
Koler : 1: German: variant of Kohler.2: Slovenian: variant of Kolar ‘wheelwright cartwright’. The surname Koler may in part also be from German Koller (which is on the other hand also a Germanized form of Slovenian Kolar).
Kron : 1: German and Swedish: from Middle High German krōn(e) ‘garland chaplet diadem’ Swedish krona (from Latin corona). As a German surname it may have been a topographic or habitational name referring to a house with this sign or a nickname for a bald or tonsured man. The Swedish surname on the other hand is probably an ornamental name.2: Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Krone.3: Jewish (Ashkenazic): from the Yiddish personal name Kroyne a derivative of Yiddish kroyn ‘crown’. Compare Cron and Cronn.
Leventis : Greek:: 1: from Italian levanti ‘Levantine people from the East’ i.e. the eastern Mediterranean in particular pirates and other armed sailors during the Middle Ages. In Italian the word took on a negative connotation and came to mean not only ‘pirate’ but also ‘rowdy youth’. In Greek on the other hand the term has positive connotations of fearlessness and gallantry. It is also a shortened form of surnames with Levento- as a prefix e.g. Leventogiannis ‘John the gallant’.2: from Ottoman Turkish levent ‘marine’ i.e. a soldier serving in the Ottoman navy.
Marchal : 1: French and Walloon: status name or occupational name from Old French maresc(h)al ‘marshal’. The term is of ancient Germanic origin (from marah ‘horse mare’ + scalc ‘servant’) and was originally applied to a man who looked after horses. In the Middle Ages it also came to be used on the one hand as an occupational name for a farrier and on the other as a status name for an officer of state in particular a member of a royal household with military responsibilities. Compare English Marshall and 2 below.2: English: variant of Marshall. This form of the surname is rare in Britain and Ireland and is found mainly in Glamorgan Wales.
Plimsoll : uncertain; perhaps a locative name from Plounévézel in Finistère Brittany. The place-name may be either Breton for ‘new village parish’ with a French diminutive suffix or a dissimilated form of Breton *Plou-nevezenn ‘village at newly-cleared land’. On the other hand the first element of the name resembles that in Plymouth Plymstock and others in Devon but no local place-name of exactly this form has been found whilst the connection with Protestant immigrants is assured.
Quarrington : 1: from Quarrington Farm in Mersham (Kent) which is recorded as Gwederyngton in 1381. The place-name appears to derive from an uncertain first element + Old English connective -ing- + tūn ‘farmstead estate’. Some of the early bearers cited here may belong to (2). 2: from Quarrington (Lincs) which is recorded as Querentonam in a late 13th century copy of a document from 1051 Cornintone in 1086 and Querington(e) from 1219–1346. The place-name derives from Old English cweorn ‘quern hand mill mill’ + tūn ‘farmstead estate’.
Rader : 1: German (also Räder): occupational name for a wheelwright from an agent derivative of Middle High German rat ‘wheel’.2: German (Räder): metonymic occupational name for a flour sifter or mill hand from Middle High German reder ‘sieve’.3: German: occasionally an occupational name from Middle Low German rader ‘adviser’.4: German: from a personal name composed of the ancient Germanic elements rād rāt ‘advice counsel’ + heri ‘army’.5: Americanized form of German Röder (see Roeder).
Seller : 1: English and Scottish: occupational name from Middle English seller ‘saddler’ (Old French seller selier Latin sellarius a derivative of sella ‘seat saddle’).2: English and Scottish: occupational name for a tradesman or merchant from an agent derivative of Middle English sellen ‘to sell’ (Old English sellan ‘to hand over deliver’).3: English and Scottish: occupational name or nickname for the officer in a monastery or great household charged with the storage and distribution of provisions from a shortened form of Middle English celerer selerer ‘cellarer’ (Old French celerer medieval Latin cellerarius).4: North German: occupational name for a small retailer or peddler from Middle Low German sellen ‘to sell (small items)’.5: German: habitational name for someone from any of the places called Selle Sellen Sella.
Striegel : South German: from Middle High German strigel ‘curry comb’ a metonymic occupational name for a groom or stable hand possibly applied as a nickname for a rough person.
Whitehand : from Middle English whit ‘white’ + hand hond ‘hand.’
Zarnowski : Polish (Żarnowski): habitational name for someone from any of various places called Żarnowo or Żarnów named with Polish żarna ‘quern hand mill’.
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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
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