from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A name shared in common to identify the members of a family, as distinguished from each member's given name. Also called family name, last name.
- n. A nickname or epithet added to a person's name.
- transitive v. To give a surname to.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A name that indicates to which family a person belongs, normally following that person’s given name(s) in Western culture, and preceding it in Eastern.
- v. To give a surname.
- v. To call by a surname.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A name or appellation which is added to, or over and above, the baptismal or Christian name, and becomes a family name.
- n. An appellation added to the original name; an agnomen.
- transitive v. To name or call by an appellation added to the original name; to give a surname to.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To name or call by an additional name; give a surname to. See name.
- n. An additional name, frequently descriptive, as in Harold Harefoot; specifically, a name or appellation added to the baptismal or Christian name, and becoming a family name. See to-name.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. the name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name)
His small stature was a bitter irony for someone whose surname translates as "Tall."
To this day Quisling's surname is shorthand for a politician willing to sell out his own country to the worst predators, if it looks like that might save his own interests.
The 20-year-old Christophe Lemaitre (whose surname translates as 'The Master') recently became the first white sprinter to break the 10-second barrier with 9.98 sec in Valence.
The Central Election Commission also registered as a presidential candidate a resident of Ivano-Frankivsk region, Vasyl Protyvsikh (whose surname translates as "Against Everybody"), who changed his surname from Humeniuk in early October 2009.
Even Bev Perdue, whose friggin 'surname is French for "lost," probably won't.
John may be the reason that their surname is a brand name among political junkies, but "when he and I travel to the Middle East together, I'm cognizant of the fact that I'm traveling with royalty," John says.
(15-16 January 2010, Part 2) * In both instances, the surname is an anglicized derivation of the Irish surname Ó Tighearnaigh.
* In both instances, the surname is an anglicized derivation of the Irish surname Ó Tighearnaigh.
Wei, Ts'ai, Ts'ao, and T'êng, all of the imperial family name, or, as we say in English, "surname," and all lying between the Hwai and the Sz systems (T'êng was a "belonging state" of Lu).
Sunshine and Calm (While our surname is legally Smith, we have adopted Hope-Sunshine and Paz Lake as love-names because we believe this more accurately describes our sons 'dispositions.)