Norris is an English surname. In some cases it is derived from the Middle English norreis, noreis, norais; and the Anglo-Norman French noreis. In such cases the surname derived from elements meaning "northerner", and referred to people from somewhere to the north, or more generally northern England and Scotland or Northern Europe. In other cases, the surname is derived from the Middle English personal name Norreis, which is in turn derived from norreis. [1] In other cases the surname is derived from the Middle English norice, nurice; and the Old French norrice, nurrice. In such cases, the surname is derived from elements meaning "nurse", "foster parent". [2]
Gordon is a surname with multiple origins, especially Scottish. The masculine given name Gordon is derived from the surname.
Doyle is a surname of Irish origin. The name is a back-formation from O'Doyle, which is an Anglicisation of the Irish Ó Dubhghaill, meaning "descendant of Dubhghall". There is another possible etymology: the Anglo-Norman surname D'Oyley with agglutination of the French article de. It means 'from Ouilly', the name of a knight who originated from one of the places named Ouilly in Normandy, such as Ouilly-le-Tesson, Ouilly-le-Vicomte, etc. The relationship with the family D'Oyly is unknown.
Blair is a Scots-English-language name of Scottish Gaelic origin.
Holmes is an English-language surname with several origins.
Brady is a surname derived from the Irish surname Ó Brádaigh or Mac Brádaigh, meaning "spirited; broad".
The surname Ray has several origins.
Melville is a surname and a given name.
The surname Collins has a variety of likely origins in Britain and Ireland:
Browne is a variant of the English surname Brown, meaning "brown-haired" or "brown-skinned". It may sometimes be derived from French le Brun with similar meaning. The Mac an Bhreitheamhnaigh clan of County Donegal have anglicized as Browne since about 1800. The name has also been used throughout North America as an anglicization of the Spanish surname Pardo.
Graves is a surname of English origin. Its distribution within England is centered on Lincolnshire, followed in concentration by Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, and East Anglia. The surname is likely a variant of Grave with genitival or post-medieval excrescent -s. The surname Grave seems to have its possible origins in: 1. "Occupational name from Middle English greyve, grayve, greve 'steward bailif, manorial officer who managed the lord's demense farm, headman of a town or village', a borrowing from Old Scandinavian greifi 'earl, count". 2. "Locative name from Middle English grave "pit" ". 3. "Relationship name, possibly from the rare Middle English personal name Gre(y)vy, Gre(i)ve, Old Scandinavian Greifi, *Grefe, originally a nickname meaning 'earl, count".
Crane is a surname. The name is a derivative of "Cron" in Old English or is the English translation of the German "Krahn" or "Kranich." According to The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain & Ireland, "Cron," "Krahn" and "Kranich" all mean "crown" in both Old English and German respectively. According to the same source, "Crone" is also compared with "Crane", "Crown", "Cron" and "Crowne". In some places in Britain, "Crane", when used as a name, can also be a reference to a tall, slender man, similar to the bird, "Crane" or to someone with long legs. Both the modern English version of "Crane" and modern German versions of "Krahn" or "Kranich" are more commonly associated with the tall bird than with a crown and the Old English and Old German translations have become less common.
Paul is a common Latin masculine given name in countries and ethnicities with a Christian heritage and, beyond Europe, in Christian religious communities throughout the world. Paul – or its variations – can be a given name or surname.
Barry is both a given name and an Irish and West African surname. The given name can be an Anglicised form of some Irish personal names or shortened form of Barrington or Finbarr, while the surname has numerous etymological origins, and is derived from both place names and personal names.
The surname Burns has several origins. In some cases, it derived from the Middle English or Scots burn, and originated as a topographic name for an individual who lived by a stream. In other cases the surname is a variant form of the surname Burnhouse, which originated as a habitational name, derived from a place name made up of the word elements burn and house. In other cases the surname Burns originated as a nickname meaning "burn house". In other cases, the surname Burns is an Anglicised form of the Irish Ó Broin, which means "descendant of Bran". In some cases the surname Burns is an Americanized form of the Jewish surname Bernstein, which is derived from the German bernstein ("amber").
Hunt is an occupational surname related with hunting, originating in England and Ireland. In Estonia, the surname Hunt is also very common, meaning wolf in the Estonian language.
Russell, also Rosel, Rousel, Roussel, Russel or Rossell. The origin of the name has historically been subject to disagreement, with two distinct origins proposed. Early genealogists traced the Russel/Russell family of Kingston Russel from Anglo-Norman landholders bearing the toponymic surname 'de Rosel' or 'du Rozel', deriving from Rosel, Calvados, Normandy. However, J. Horace Round observed that these flawed pedigrees erroneously linked toponymic-bearing men with unrelated men who instead bore the Anglo-Norman nickname rus[s]el, given to men with red hair. This nickname was a diminutive of the Norman-French rus, meaning 'red', and was also an archaic name for the red fox, which in turn borrowed from Old Norse rossel, "red-haired", from Old Norse ros "red hair color" and the suffix -el. Round concluded "there is no reason to suppose that the surname Russell was territorial at all," and surname dictionaries have preferred to derive the surname from the nickname. Dictionaries also state that the English name Rufus originally meant "red haired".
Fox is a surname originating in England and Ireland. Variants include Foxe and Foxx.
Maxwell is a Scottish surname, a habitational name derived from a location near Melrose, in Roxburghshire, Scotland. This name was first recorded in 1144, as Mackeswell, meaning "Mack's spring ". The surname Maxwell is also common in Ulster, where it has, in some cases, been adopted as alternate form of the surname Miskell. The surname Maxwell is represented in Scottish Gaelic as MacSuail.
Day is an English and Irish surname. Notable people and characters with the surname Day include:
Pollock is a surname. In some cases, it originates as a locative name derived from Upper Pollock, Renfrewshire, Scotland. An early bearer of a form of this surname is Peter de Pollok, in about 1172–1178. In other cases, the surname is derived from the Middle English personal name *Pollok. An early bearer of a form of this surname is Roger Pollok, in 1332.