Names

Given names and surnames from around the world — what they mean, how they are written, and where they come from.

• French Female NamesFrench given names range from names with centuries of use to the names currently most popular on French birth certificates. Below are common names given to girls in France, with their origins and meanings.
• French Last NamesFrench surnames generally fall into a few families: names built from a place, an ancestor's trade, a father's first name, or a physical nickname that stuck. Below are the most common ones, with their original meanings.
• French Male NamesThe same range of origins shapes French names for boys — saints' names, nature words, and names carried by French nobility for generations. Below are common ones, with their origins and meanings.
• Italian First NamesItalian given names often come from saints, from Latin or Greek roots, or from a regional tradition specific to one part of Italy. Below are common ones for both men and women, with their origins and meanings.
• Italian Last NamesMost Italian surnames trace back to an ancestor's occupation, birthplace, a father's name, or a defining personal trait — a naming system that settled into its modern form by the late Middle Ages. Below are the most common ones in Italy today, with what each one actually means.
• Japanese First NamesJapanese given names are usually written in kanji chosen for their meaning as much as their sound, and the same spoken name can be written several different ways. Below are common names for both boys and girls, with their kanji and meanings.
• Japanese Last NamesJapanese surnames are almost all compounds of two kanji, and most of them describe a place or a landscape feature — a mountain, a rice field, a river, a forest. Below are the most common ones, with what each one literally means.
• Korean Female NamesKorean given names are usually two syllables, each carrying its own meaning, and are often chosen to combine well as a pair. Below are common names given to girls in Korea, with what each syllable means.
• Korean Last NamesA small number of surnames cover most of the Korean population — Kim, Lee, and Park alone account for nearly half of it. Below are the most common ones, with their hanja origins and literal meanings.
• Korean Male NamesLike Korean female names, male given names are typically two syllables chosen as much for their combined meaning as for how they sound together. Below are common names given to boys in Korea, with what each syllable means.
• Spanish Last NamesSpanish surnames commonly come from a father's first name with an "-ez" ending, from a place, or from an ancestor's occupation — a pattern shared across Spain and much of Latin America. Below are the most common ones, with what each one means.