Someone on the Straight Dope message board inquires about the surnames which begin with "Mal-", like Malfara and Malatesta. He was told that the "mal" indicates that somewhere along the line, there was an orphan whose name was imposed by nuns because that means "bad."

I'm thinking that some people might have acquired a name that way, but that most are more ordinary descriptions of some ancestor or an association with that ancestor. Opinions?

And what about "Buon-" names, such as in Buonfiglio.

My family's names include Herzberg, which means Heart Mountain and McDonald, which means son of Donald. Other family names, regarding which I don't know the meanings, include Martin and Ingersol. Is "Ingersol" something like son of Inger?

What about your family names?

Well, Norwegian names are easy. They often end in "sen" (=son of) or "dottir" (= daughter of). So Tollefsen, my husband's (and now my) last name, supposedly means Son of Tollef, I guess. I've read papers by Norwegians and they're full of "sens" and "dottirs" with names preceding them!

Here's someone who lives up to his name: Bernardo Buontalenti (Good Talents?) was a Florentine who lived in the 16th century. He both was a wonderful artist who built an amazing grotto (with both stalagtites and sheep!) in the Giardino Boboli in Florence and invented gelato -- the wonderful Italian version of ice cream, one flavor of which still bears his name.

I don't know which came first, his name, or his accomplishments!

Many family names come from "son of" etc. The "O'" in Irish names supposedly came from "grandson of". My surname is "Ward", apparantly from "Mac an Bhaird" (Though I'm not sure how it got from the long form to the short form. I do know that Gaelic pronunciation is a [to me anyway] strange art.) And my mother's (Oh blast I'm going have to change the security on all my bank accounts now e) is "Bowen" from "Ap Owen", son of Owen. Price from Ap Rhys is another of this form.
I have searched back a way and found some fun names. Tylcoat is my grandmother's name which means either the man who tiled roofs/rooves or who lived in one (when it was a rarity). I once dined with another Tylcoat where our family branches met in 1520.
And we have traced the Dubois branch of our tree back to a Jacquet du Boz who emigrated to Switzerland from France about 1450.
But the name I would like to find out more about is Scheichelbauer (sp?) who apparently emigrated to London from Belgium about 1830. I haven't found any other instances of this yet.
Rod

Icelanders have no family names like ours. Everyone is the "son" or "dottir" of his/her father. Thus if a man named Olaf had sons named Sven and Olaf and a daughter named Ingrid, they are known as Sven Olafson, Olaf Olafson, and Ingrid Olafsdottir (which she keeps when married). If Sven Olafson marries Sigrid Petersdottir, they would have children known as Peter Svenson and Anna Svensdottir. Since there are not a huge number of names in use, a lot of people have the same name, and you can't tell who is related to whom without knowing the people and their families. Apparently the Iceland telephone book is a real bitch.

Our version of ‘son of’ is -ez as in Lopez, Gomez, Rodriguez, etc.
A curious and not uncommon name here is Expósito that was the name given long time ago to orphan or abandoned children.
We have also lots of toponymic names: España, Córdoba, París even Japón that is Spanish for Japan. I have heard that toponymic names are usually of Jewish origin. Does anybody know if this is true?.

There was a French movie, "Les Visiteurs" a few years back wherein the main character, played by Jean Reno, used the archaic French version of my name, i.e. Godefois. His squire was called Jacquille, a pun on Jackass AND Jack- Ass. Not quite on topic, but very funny for those of us of the lower classes who like puerile, sophomoric, gutter humor. There is a new version of the movie, called "Just Visiting," with English dialog, which has none of the punning of the French original. Oh, well, it was aimed at an American audience...

My surname, Kinraid, is a Manx variation of Kincaid, I'm told. I'm sure there's a Gaelic or Erse meaning back in the mists of time, but I haven't been able to find anything authoritative to back any claims up.

However, my mother always used to say of my father's family that "raiding Kin was an appropriate meaning, they were all a pack of bludgers ..." So there's a meaning of a kind, if you like!

A curious and not uncommon name here is Expósito that was the name given long time ago to orphan
or abandoned children.
Also in Itay Esposito was used for abandonned children: the reason was that they were usually left somewhere near a church - we call this 'esporre' = to put out .
There are also other names :
Proietti ( from latin , thown away)
Innocenti (obvious)
Diodati (given by God)
Diotallevi ( let God grow you).

Emanuela

Diodati (given by God)

Amazing, we have the name “Diosdado” and until now I didn’t figure its origins.
BTW, do Italian women use their husband name when married?, and do you use your mother name?.
We use our first name, our father surname and our mother surname, that they keep using after married, only lately we can decide the order of our children second and third names.
Mine is an extreme case because my father is Juan Gil , my mother Maria Alexandres and me Juan Maria Gil Alexandres.