Word
surname
Phoneticssur·name
US/ˈsɝˌneɪm/
UK/sˈɜːneɪm/
Definitions
01family name
n. the name you share with your family members.
n. the portion of a person's name that is hereditary or indicates family membership.
“Please write your first name and your surname on the top of the form.”
“In many Western cultures, the surname traditionally follows the given name, whereas in several East Asian cultures, the family name is placed first.”
Pitfall
My surname is John.
My first name is John; my surname is Smith.
A surname is your family name, not the name your parents chose specifically for you.
Synonyms
Antonyms
02an epithet or title
n. an extra name or title given to someone because of what they did or where they are from.
n. an additional name or epithet, often derived from a quality, achievement, or place of origin.
“King Richard was given the surname 'the Lionheart' because of his courage.”
“The historian noted that the monarch's surname was not a family designation but an honorific title bestowed after the successful campaign.”
Archaic · Literary
03to give a name
v. to give someone a surname or to call them by one.
v. to bestow a surname upon an individual or to address them by such a name.
“The prince was surnamed 'the Just' by his people.”
“Though born into a common family, he was later surnamed after the estate he had managed so faithfully for decades.”
Formal · Literary
Usage
This verb is transitive and requires a direct object.
Etymology
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/surname