surname
/ˈsɜːˌneɪm//ˈsɝˌneɪm/
surname noun: 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).
Noun
surname (plural surnames)
- 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).
- James is my first name, and Smith is my surname.
- In late yeeres Surnames have beene given for Christian names among vs, and no where else in Christendom.1605, William Camden, Remaines, I 32
- Synonym of epithet, an additional name, particularly those derived from a birthplace, quality, or achievement.
- Barsabas (whose syrname was Iustus).1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts j:[23]
- My sirname is Peace-Maker, one that is but poorely regarded in England.1590, Richard Harvey, Plaine Percevall the peace-maker of England, Sweetly indeuoring with his blunt persuasions to botch vp a reconciliation between Mar-ton and Mar-tother, B3
- Synonyms:
- epithet
- Synonym of nickname, an additional name given to a person, place, or thing, a byname.
- I have before declared that Baal was the Sun, and Baal Peor, a sirname, from a particular place of his worship.1638, Abraham Cowley, Davideis, section IV
- Synonyms:
- nickname
- The cognomen of Roman names.
Verb
surname (third-person singular simple present surnames, present participle surnaming, simple past and past participle surnamed)
- To give a surname to.
- To call by a surname.
- “Lord,” said Sir Launcelot, “I am hight Launcelot, and am surnamed ‘He of the Lake.’”1905, Howard Pyle, “The Story of Launcelot”, in The Story of the Champions of the Round Table, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 66
- 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.2025 March 2, “Taxi driver arrested after seven dead cats are found”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Mar 2025, Taiwan News, page 3
surname meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
surname in Hindi
- name that indicates family
- कुलनाम kulnām, कुल नाम kul nām, उपनाम upnām
surname in Tamil
- name that indicates family
- குடும்பப்பெயர் kuṭumpappeyar
surname in Marathi
- name that indicates family
- आडनाव āḍnāv
surname in Urdu
- name that indicates family
- خانْدانی نام xāndānī nām, کُل نام kul nām, اُپ نام up nām, لَقَب laqab
More languagesFewer languages
- surname in Bengali
- উপাধি upadhi
- surname in Telugu
- ఇంటిపేరు iṇṭipēru
- surname in Malayalam
- കുലനാമം kulanāmaṁ
- surname in Kannada
- ಉಪನಾಮ upanāma
- surname in Punjabi
- ਉਪਨਾਮ upanām
- surname in Gujarati
- અટક aṭak, ઉપનામ upanām
- surname in Odia
- ଉପନାମ upanāma
- surname in Sinhala
- වාසගම wāsagama
- surname in Nepali
- थर thar
- surname in Pashto
- لقب laqab, کورنی نوم koranay num, تخلص taxalos
- surname in Tagalog
- apelyido
- surname in Arabic
- لَقَب laqab, كُنْيَة kunya, اِسْم الْعَائِلَة ism al-ʕāʔila
- surname in Malay
- nama keluarga
- surname in Indonesian
- marga, nama keluarga
- surname in Thai
- นามสกุล naam-sà-gun, แซ่ sɛ̂ɛ
- surname in Vietnamese
- họ, tên họ
- surname in Myanmar
- ရိုးရာအမည် rui:raa.many
- Kashmiri
- کرٛام krām
Examples of surname in a sentence
- He had the same surname as me, but we were unrelated.
- The books were sorted by title, but I'm going to reorder them by author's surname.
- It was almost impossible to locate specific books in the library until we had alphabetized them by the authors' surnames.
Synonyms of surname
Forms of surname
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | surnames |
| alternative form | sirname |
| alternative form (obsolete) | sur-name |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | surnames |
| present participle | surnaming |
| past participle | surnamed |
| past | surnamed |
Origin of surname
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”), equivalent to sur- + name.
Words formed from surname
Questions about surname
- What does surname mean?
- Surname means 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).
- What is surname in Hindi?
- Surname in Hindi is कुलनाम (kulnām), कुल नाम (kul nām), उपनाम (upnām). See Surname meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is surname?
- Surname can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce surname?
- Surname is pronounced /ˈsɜːˌneɪm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of surname?
- The plural of surname is surnames.
Words near surname in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: surname (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-surname.ogg, En-us-surname.ogg.
Cite this entry: “surname.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/surname. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.