Word.ws English Dictionary

family names

family names is the plural of family name.

Meaning of family name

Noun

family name (plural family names)

  1. Synonym of surname: a name designating a person as a member of a family.
    • In the Chinese name Mao Zedong, Mao is the family name and Zedong is the given name.
    Synonyms:
    surname
  2. A family’s honor or reputation.
    • He says, however, that he is sure he is happier, even in this situation, than are some of his cousins at this instant, who are struggling in poverty to be genteel, or to keep up a family name, and he would not change places with those who are in a state of idle and opprobrious dependance.1814, Maria Edgeworth, chapter VI, in Patronage. […], volume I, London: […] [J. M‘Creery] for J[oseph] Johnson and Co., […], →OCLC, page 199
  3. (uncommon) A given name common within a family or given because of another family member.
    • Yeah, we named her Mildred. It's an old family name. Don't worry, though. She also has four middle names to choose from.

Questions about family names

What is family names the plural of?
Family names is the plural of family name.

Words near family names in the dictionary

  1. family medicine
  2. family member
  3. family members
  4. family men
  5. family name
  6. family names
  7. family newspaper
  8. family of orientation
  9. family of procreation
  10. family office
  11. family offices

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: family names (page history and authors); family name (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “family names.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/family_names. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.