Surname

Pronunciation

• enPR: sûr'nām, IPA: /ˈsɜː(ɹ)neɪm/

Origin

From a variety of spellings in Middle English, from Norman and Old French surnom ("surname"), formed from Old French sur- ("super-"; earlier sor-, sour-, &c.) + nom ("name"),

Oxford English Dictionary. "surname, n."

a calque of late Latin supernōmen and suprānōmen ("surname"), from Latin super- ("over, above, beyond") and nōmen ("name").

Oxford English Dictionary. "surnoun, n."

Full definition of surname

Noun

1. (obsolete) An additional name, particularly those derived from a birthplace, quality, or achievement; an epithet
• 'circa 1330, Arthour and Merlin'', 5488Þe .xxxix. Osoman, cert, His surname was: hardi of hert.
• 1526, Tyndale's Bible, Acts I 23Barsabas (whose syrname was Iustus).
• 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, B3My sirname is Peace-Maker, one that is but poorely regarded in England.
• circa 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, V iii 171To his sur-name Coriolanus longs more pride
  Then pitty to our Prayers.
2. (obsolete) An additional name given to a person, place, or thing; a byname or nickname
• circa 1395, Wycliff's Bible, Ecclus. XLVII 19In the name of the Lord, to whom the surname in the 1382 ed. is God of Israel.
• 1638, Abraham Cowley, Davideis, IVI have before declared that Baal was the Sun, and Baal Peor, a sirname, from a particular place of his worship.
3. The name a person shares with other members of that person's family, distinguished from that person's given name or names; a family name
• 1393, William Langland, Piers Plowman, C iv 369Þat is noȝt reisonable...to refusy my syres sorname.
• 1605, William Camden, Remaines, I 32In 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 563The Norman Conquest...brought with it the novelty of family nomenclature, that is to say, the use of hereditary surnames.
4. (Classical studies) The cognomen of Roman names.
• circa 1400, "St. John Baptist", 928 in W. M. Metcalfe, Legends of the saints: in the Scottish dialect of the fourteenth century (1896), II 249Þe thred herrod had alsua til his suornome agrippa.
5. (Scottish, obsolete) A clan.
• 1455 in J. D. Marwick, Charters of Edinburgh (1871), 79The surnam and nerrest of blude to the said Williame.

Usage notes

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. In fact, the nomen was the surname as the word is commonly understood today but the terms were first applied when surname was still used in the sense of "additional" or "added" name: the cognomen was added to the nomen to show the branch of the family involved. (The modern translation of a similar distinction in ancient Chinese names customarily uses ancestral name and clan name instead and typically speaks of surnames only once the two merged into a single and commonly-employed family name.)

Synonyms

• epithet (additional descriptive name)
• nickname, sobriquet, byname (additional name)
• family name, last name, to-name (hereditary name denoting one's family)

Verb

1. To give a surname.
2. To call by a surname.

Anagrams

• manures