Names by Origin

Where a name comes from is usually the most interesting thing about it, and usually the worst explained. Every name behind these headings has a researched page, so the counts are of names we have actually written up rather than of everything that could be filed here.

An origin says which language a name settled in, which isn't always the one it started in. Most names have both, and where they differ each name's own page names every layer — Quincy is an English name on a Norman French root on a Roman one, and calling it any single thing would be wrong three ways.

Britain & Ireland

Classical & Romance

Germanic & Norse

Hebrew, Arabic & Aramaic

Further Afield

Modern & Made-Up

Why Two Sites Give You Two Different Origins

Because they're answering different questions. A name can be Hebrew by root, Greek by the translation that carried it, Latin by the church that spread it and English by the spelling you know — and every one of those is defensible on its own. The disagreement between reference works is usually not a disagreement about facts at all.

So we say which layer we mean. Each name page carries an origin and an origin language separately, and where the sources genuinely conflict rather than merely differing in emphasis, the page sets out both and says which is better supported. Names where nothing is settled are filed under Disputed rather than given a tidy answer.