SURNAME • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Surname

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/sˈərnˌeɪm/ Listen

noun

Surname n.

A name or appellation which is added to, or over and above, the baptismal or Christian name, and becomes a family name. Note: Surnames originally designated occupation, estate, place of residence, or some particular thing or event that related to the person; thus, Edmund Ironsides; Robert Smith, or the smith; William Turner. Surnames are often also patronymics; as, John Johnson.

An appellation added to the original name; an agnomen. "My surname, Coriolanus." Note: This word has been sometimes written sirname, as if it signified sire-name, or the name derived from one's father.

verb

Surname v. t. (past & past part. surnamed; pres. part. surnaming) To name or call by an appellation added to the original name; to give a surname to. "Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." "And Simon he surnamed Peter."

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Etymology of 'Surname'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Surname" Quotes from Famous Books

... abandon my father's name. I have been obliged in honour to resign it; and in honour I abstain from mentioning it here. Accordingly, at the head of these pages, I have only placed my Christian name—not considering it of any importance to add the surname which I have assumed; and which I may, perhaps, be obliged to change for some other, at no very distant period. It will now, I hope, be understood from the outset, why I never mention my brother and sister but by their ...

— Basil • Wilkie Collins

... hauing made his abode therin not past a sixtene daies, he departed and came backe againe to Rome with victorie in the sixt month after his setting [Sidenote: Suetonius] foorth from thence, giuing after his returne, to his sonne, the surname of Britannicus. This warre he finished in maner as before is said, in the fourth yeere of his reigne, which fell in the yeere of the world 4011, after the birth of our Sauiour 44, and after the building ...

— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (4 of 8) - The Fovrth Booke Of The Historie Of England • Raphael Holinshed

... the command of Major Malley, who from his appearance ought never to have dropped the "O" before his surname. He and his officers were some of the best; but the atmosphere of South China had robbed them of some of their native energy. He informed me that his destination was a point on the railway near the borders of North-West ...

— With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia • John Ward

... accepted the respect paid him as his due, and was hurt if he did not get it. In the jurymen's room his feelings were hurt by disrespectful treatment. Among the jury there happened to be a man whom he knew, a former teacher of his sister's children, Peter Gerasimovitch. Nekhludoff never knew his surname, and even bragged a bit about this. This man was now a master at a public school. Nekhludoff could not stand his familiarity, his self-satisfied ...

— Resurrection • Count Leo Tolstoy

... good flier," said Phil, contemptuously, with a shadowy smile for Ruth. "Still, he's no better than Aaron Solomons, and he isn't half so great a flier as that chap with the same surname as your own, Hawk Ericson, whom I myself saw coming up the Jersey coast when he won that big race to New York.... You see, I've been following this ...

— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis

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