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surname

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: sur-name

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle English surname, a partial calque of Old French surnum, surnoun (“surname; nickname”) (whence Middle English surnoun), from Late Latin supernōmen, suprānōmen (“surname”), from super- (“over, above, beyond”) and nōmen (“name”),[1] equivalent to sur- +‎ name.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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surname (plural surnames)

  2. The portion of a person's name that is generally hereditary or treated as an indicator of a person's family, which may be shared with other members of the family, or otherwise derived from their names in some fashion; distinguished from that person's given name(s).
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:surname
    James is my first name, and Smith is my surname.
    • 1605, William Camden, Remaines, I 32:
      In late yeeres Surnames have beene given for Christian names among vs, and no where else in Christendom.
    • 1876, E. A. Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest, V xxv 563:
      The Norman Conquest...brought with it the novelty of family nomenclature, that is to say, the use of hereditary surnames.
  3. (obsolete) Synonym of epithet, an additional name, particularly those derived from a birthplace, quality, or achievement.
  4. (obsolete) Synonym of nickname, an additional name given to a person, place, or thing, a byname.
    • 1638, Abraham Cowley, Davideis, section IV:
      I have before declared that Baal was the Sun, and Baal Peor, a sirname, from a particular place of his worship.
  5. (Classical studies) The cognomen of Roman names.

Usage notes

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  • The term surname may be used to translate terms from non-English names which carry additional shades of meaning; most notably in the case of Roman cognomens.
  • Both surname and last name are extremely common in all dialects of English, the former being somewhat more preferred in the UK and the latter in the US. However, because of the cultural and gendered associations involved with both terms, the use of family name is increasingly preferred in multicultural contexts.

Synonyms

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Hypernyms

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Hyponyms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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surname (third-person singular simple present surnames, present participle surnaming, simple past and past participle surnamed)

  1. (transitive) To give a surname to.
  2. (transitive) To call by a surname.
    • 1905, Howard Pyle, “The Story of Launcelot”, in The Story of the Champions of the Round Table‎[1], New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 66:
      “Lord,” said Sir Launcelot, “I am hight Launcelot, and am surnamed ‘He of the Lake.’”
    • 2025 March 2, “Taxi driver arrested after seven dead cats are found”, in Taipei Times‎[2], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 March 2025, Taiwan News, page 3‎[3]:
      The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was arrested in the city’s Jhonghe District (中和) on Friday afternoon, after investigators combed through surveillance video footage a day earlier, police said.

Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. "surnoun, n."

Anagrams

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Middle English

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FWOTD – 20 June 2024

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Partial calque of Old French surnoun, from Late Latin supernōmen, suprānōmen; equivalent to sur- +‎ name. Forms beginning with sir-, syr-, etc. represent reanalysis of the first element as sire.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈsurnaːm(ə)/, /ˈsirnaːm(ə)/

Noun

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surname (plural surnames)

  1. epithet, nickname
    • c. 1330, Arthour and Merlin, section 5488:
      Þe .xxxix. Osoman, cert, His surname was: hardi of hert.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • c. 1400, "St. John Baptist", 928 in W. M. Metcalfe, Legends of the saints: in the Scottish dialect of the fourteenth century (1896), II 249:
      Þe thred herrod had alsua til his suornome agrippa.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. surname, family name
  3. alias, appellation

Descendants

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  • English: surname

References

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Scots

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Noun

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surname (plural surnames)

  1. clan
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