I mean surnames that may mean something like “people from country/region/city”
in Italy there are quite a few that are very common surnames:
**country level**: Italiano, Tedesco, Greco, Spagnolo/Spagnuolo, Catalano, Albanese, Russo (although this possibly doesn’t refer at all to Russia but to color Red)
**region level**: Romagnoli, Pugliese, Calabrese, Lombardo/i
**city level**: Romano, Napolitano, Di Napoli, Milanese, Veronese/i, Sorrentino, Capuano, Parisi
PS: [exemple of diffusion of Greco in Italy map](https://www.mappadeicognomi.it/index.php?sur=GRECO&s=Genera)
46 comments
No, besides our -sson names, nature is our biggest inspiration for surnames. Any combination of mountains, lakes, trees, fields and so on is very common.
It’s not very common for countries or counties, but I have come across people with the surnames England, Welsh, French, and German.
For smaller towns, obviously yes it’s very common and it’s one of the main ways of creating a surname. Jack London was a very famous author (I think he wrote The Call of the Wild?), and George Washington was named after the small town of Washington in the North East of England
They’re not common in Scotland. Surnames here are commonly based on jobs (Smith, Stewart, Taylor, Clark, etc.) or physical characteristics (Brown, Young, etc.) or patronymics (Thomson, Robertson, Anderson, MacDonald, etc.). The only ones I can think of that refer to specific places are Johnston and Sutherland. There are also others that are named after generic geographic features, such as Burns, Wood, Muir, etc.
Our last names often come from rivers, towns and professions
We have lots of names based on geographical features without specific given names. ‘Van der’, meaning ‘from the’, followed by Woud for forest, Zand(t) for sand/beach, Zee for sea, Broek for swamp, Veen for swamp, Berg for mountain, Heuvel for hill, etc.
They are somewhat common, but we also have a different kind of geographical name, where it’s about a type of place:
Dubois: From the Wood
Dumonceau(x): From the small hill
Duvivier: Fish pond
…
Country level: Ruotsalainen (Ruotsi/Sweden), Venäläinen (Venäjä/Russia), Virolainen (Viro/Estonia)
Region level: Hämäläinen (Häme), Savolainen (Savo), Karjalainen (Karjala/Karelia), Pohjalainen (Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia), Lappalainen (Lappi/Lapland)
City level: Doesn’t exist as far as I know. We don’t really have old cities.
A teacher of nine had the surname of Balgarinova (Българинова), referring to Bulgaria of course
Yes. English, Welsh/Walsh, Fleming are common. French, Spain and even Ireland less so.
From regions:
León, from lion but also the Kingdom of León
Gallego, demonym from Galicia
And describing geographical features:
Montero, from “monte” (mountain) and the suffix -ero
Ríos, from the plural of “río” (river)
Many surnames are the patronymic ones formed with a name and the suffix -ez, like Fernández, Álvarez, González, Ramírez, etc or the ones belonging to occupations, like Pastor, Guerrero, Jurado or Zapatero.
Yes very common, especially German regional level like Schwab(e), Bayer, Sachs(e), Hess(e), Rheinländer, Schlesier, Westphal, Preuß, Böhm.
Countries and cities are not so common I think
There are definitly some, but all other types of surnames seem to be much more common.
I don’t think they are as common as names related to nature and patronymics but city names are common, such as Almeida, Gouveia, Braga and Mourão.
Surnames related to regions and countries are rarer. I can think of Portugal, Montenegro and Madeira, but you won’t see a lot of people with those names
Yes, mostly on tribal level, i.e. Frank, Bayer, Schwab, Sachs, Hess, Preuß etc.
There are also some people named after villages, but as the villages themselves are more often than not named after the natural surroundings, those names are practically the same as the ones directly named after natural sights.
Yes, quite so, but more in the Alamannic parts than the French-, Italian- and Rumantsch-speaking parts, and they seem to reflect a migration from the countryside into the city and between villages, but less so from one city to the other.
I can think of Zürcher, Berner and Basler as surnames referring to the big cities, but most that come to my mind refer to small villages and settlements (which are often again named after people, either a saint or the Allamannic settler who happened to build his first homestead here) or even solitary homesteads. These homesteads are often named after their location. Think Schwarzenegger “from the homestead on the black peak”.
Rumantsch and Italian names more often reflect a person’s appeareance or are a patronymic of some sort, but I know of examples for surnames derived from settlements and homesteads.
For French, I really don’t know. Swiss French surnames are very opaque to me, especially when they are preserved in a Francoprovençal form.
Basque surnames are usually a description of a house or the place where a house is.
Etxeberria (New house)
Goikoetxea (upper house)
Elizondo (next to the church)
Ibarra (Valley)
Zubiondo (Next to the bridge)
I’m from a region in mexico where a lot of the Spanish last names are basque. After doing some research on my own last names and those of friends with long continued ancestry in the region I’ve found most last names are just places in the basque country or geographical descriptors.
Yes and yes, we have minority/foreign family names like “Tóth” (Slovak) “Horváth” (Croat) “Sváb” (Swabic) “Rác” (Serbian) “Török” (Turk)
And internal regional names like “Pesti” “Komáromy” “Váczi” “Debreczeni”
I’d say they are fairly common, here are some common examples (-i endings mean “from [somewhere]”):
* **Countries/nationalities:** Tóth (old word for Slovaks), Horváth (Croatian), Németh (German), Oláh (Wallachian/Southern Romanian), Rácz (old word for Serbian), Török (Turkish), Magyar (Hungarian), Orosz (Russian), Lengyel (Polish)
* **Regions:** Szilágyi, Somogyi, Hajdu, Alföldi, Bakonyi
* **Cities:** Váradi, Budai, Újlaki, Almási, Sárközi, Böszörményi
my surname is the name of a village on a greek mountain. 😀
Our last names usually come from professions, but the first example that came to my mind that fits this is my great grandma’s maiden last name – Drina. It comes from river Drina.
Another example would be Bošnjak (means Bosniak), but I’ve never met a Bosniak with that last name its usually Croats that have it, ironically.
Oh yes, very common. Most famous example is footballer Hans Vanaken whose surname literally means ‘from Aachen’.
Other than that you have tons of ‘Van (x)’ surnames or names that refer to geographical features like ‘Van De Velde’ which means ‘from the fields’.
Yes. **Geographical areas, provinces or villages/towns.** The ending “eanu” “anu” denotes that the surname derives from a place. some examples: Munteanu (from Muntenia but also from the mountains), Moldoveanu (from Moldova), Ardeleanu and Ungureanu(both from Transylvania), Campeanu (from plains), Valeanu (from a valley) Craioveanu (from Craiova city), Barladeanu (from Barlad town), Brasoveanu (from Brasov city), and so on.
**Ethnicities**:Turcu (Turkish), Tataru (Tartar),Bulgaru (Bulgarian), Sarbu (Serbian), Arnautu (Albanian), Grecu (Greek) etc, .
We have Nemec (German), Čeh (Czech), Horvat (Croatian).
Very common to have the last name of the place one of you ancestors were from. One of them (no. 20th most popular), though not a concrete place, is the surname Dahl. Which is another (older) way of writing Dal, which means Valley. This indicates that when surnames were needed, these people have roots from one of the many valleys in Norway. Other examples are like Berg (mountain/hill), Haugen (the mound/heap), Lund (old Norwegian for small forest), etc.
More concrete surnames from actual places/towns are:
Solberg, Nygaard/Nygård, Solheim, Bjørnstad
But when it comes to surnames, you may have guessed correctly that a patronymic surname is the most common, the most common being Hansen.
[https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_over_norske_etternavn](https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_over_norske_etternavn)
Shapiro, Spira and other related forms are Jiddisch Names and derived from the town Speyer.
Other town names among mostly Jewish families are Frankfurter, Friedländer or Berliner, to name just a few.
For Albanians (not just in Albania) they’re very common.
Edit: There is two main ways Albanian surnames were created:
– When people moved, then they usually got their village/city of origin as their surname. Eg. there are many Albanians in Kosovo, but also elsewhere, whose surnames are villages that were once inhabited with Albanians, but were ethnically cleansed by Serbians in 1878. Those villages (around 700) are now in Serbia.
There are also people with surnames that tell of their tribal origin (tribes had/have the same name as the regions they were living in). Those Albanians usually fled from wars with Montenegrins. And those once Albanian inhabited lands lay today in Montenegro and have almost no Albanians left. A vast majority of Albanians there were also assimilated and now identify as Bosniaks.
– The second most common way that our surnames were created was taking the name of the father/grandfather as a surname.
oh yes, most surnames ending in -ski/-ska are adjectives derived from place names: Pułaski from Puławy, Zamojski from Zamość, Jabłoński from Jabłonów or Jabłonna, Komorowski from Komorowo/Komorów
Not that common but they exist: I heard of Lallemand (The German), Langlais (The English)…
Of course there are also nobility names (de +…) but they are rare and are actually related to smaller places than cities, regions, or countries. The vast majority of names with (de+…) are actually related to common places in a medieval village: Dupont (of the Bridge), Deschamps (of the fields), Dufour (of the furnace), Dujardin (of the garden), Dubois (of the woods), Dumas (of the farm), Duval (of the valley), Dumont (of the mountain), Dupuy (also of the mountain)….
Edit: I just added other examples of De+… Names
Country level – quite common, though only for selected countries (Szwed, Turek, Rusin, Czech, Niemiec, Litwin probably most common, there are two footballers called Angielski (English) and Hiszpański (Spanish) but these are not common at all)
Region level – uncommon, except for Mazur and arguably Góral.
City level – common for small towns/villages, originally associated with the nobility owning this settlements but these days can be pretty random. Names related to big cities (Warszawski, Krakowski, Poznański) were common for Polish Jews, nowadays practically extinct for obvious reasons.
The most common geographical family name is Поляков (Pole), it’s the 57th most common one. And then Kazakov at 91. The vast majority of our surnames are professions, patronymics and (mostly animal) nicknames.
Yes for country and region level
country level: Slovák, Horvát (Croat in Hungarian), Tóth (Slovak in Hungarian), Poliak/Polák (Polish), Nemec (German), Turek (Turk), …
region level: Oravec (Orava region), Spišiak (Spiš region), Šarišský (Šariš region), …
Not many on city level though, I’m sure there are some but there is only one that comes to my mind – Viedenský (Vienna)
No.
Traditionally pretty much all Welsh surnames were patronymic (e.g. ap Rhys = son of Rhys, ap Tomos = Son of Tomos, ab Owen = Son of Owen, ferch Gruffydd = daughter of Gruffydd etc.). Now most are anglicised versions of Welsh patronymic names (e.g. ap Rhys became Price, ab Owen became Bowen, ap Hywel became Powell etc), or they just added an -s to the end of the patronymic name (e.g. ap Siôn became Jones, ab Owen became Owens, ap Hywel became Howells etc.)
Any geographical surnames in Wales are most likely of English origin.
Yes, many, the ones I’ve seen the most are Navarro, Gallego, and Castellano. Some Spanish surnames even refer to places in Italy such as Romano or Pavía.
They are either from places (Morawiecki), professions (Kowalski) or other (like animals or general stuff, many from when serfs had to get surnames).
There are some demonyms, like Anglès, Alemany, Genovès, Català, Aragonès, Francès… There’s a Rus but it probably meant red/blonde and not Russian like for OP.
Also some surnames that are just the name of the place, these tend to be towns in Catalonia (like Ripoll or Torregrossa), but there are others like Castella or Terol.
Scott (two ts mind), Welsh, English, Ireland and Fleming are surnames you’ll find here. Crawford is also a surname that comes from a village. Probably the most interesting one is Bruce which comes from Brix in Normandy, this will be linked to the Norman king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce.
I have seen French, Welsh, English and German but whether it means the families *actually* came from such places at one point, not really sure. I think “Welsh” can just mean “foreigner”. Plenty of surnames are place names within the UK, probably too many to list.
They’re quite common:
– Navarro: from Navarre
– Gallego: from Galicia
– Aragón
– León
– Burgos
– Soria
– Zamora
– Catalán: from Catalonia
– Toledano: from Toledo
– Segovia
– Sevilla
– Oviedo
– Calatayud
– … the list is long, most towns and regions will have surnames named after them.
Galician: plenty, same as you, but more related to smaller places in our tiny world.
**Women inherited property and passed the family name**, which normally includes the description or particularity of place where the house is.
Most notably:
Franco: Frankish settlers along *St. James Way* in the Middle Ages (yes, like the dictator)
Castro: of the Hill-Fort (yes, also like the dictator)
Andrade: same, but with Celtic root instead of Latin.
Ferreira: of the smithy (akin to Smith, Schmidt, Ferrari, Lefebvre, Kovacs,…)
​
Specific places of the landscape where you originated from are the majority (both Celtic and Latin roots, as well as Germanic):
Fraga, Queiroga, Carballo, Maceda, Oliveira, Pinheiro, Souto… (different tree names for specific areas)
Hermida, Eiras, Bouzas, Fontes, Lamas, Laje, Silva, Vilar…(different agrarian places)
Němec (German) is the 10th most common surname. Polák (Pole), Moravec (Moravian) and Čech (Czech) are in the top 100 but overall surnames derived from professions, first names, animals or (physical) attributes are much more common. Names derived from cities are rather rare.
Sezzese fratè, te li sei mai mangiati i carciofi si? :))
Also in Romania, it works exactly like in Italia for such surnames.
I was told as a child that surnames relating to a place meant your ancestors were posh, surnames relating to a job meant your ancestors were peasants. I have nothing whatsoever to back that up with!
> Russo (although this possibly doesn’t refer at all to Russia but to color Red)
This has nothing to do with the country, it’s the Southern equivalent of Rossi (and just about as common, in fact).
My name has been changed and respelled frequently over history, but tracing its back to its origins it describes a kind of grass.
Looking at a C16th map that included the house my ancestors lived in I noticed that the whole area was built in a large meadow of this kind of grass. It was rather spooky seeing my name written there on an old map describing a natural feature.
I thought Russo was basically an orphan/bastard name.
Like John Snow. Giovanni Russo.