surname
The portion of a person's name that is generally hereditary or treated as an indicator of a person's family, which may be shared with other members of the family, or otherwise derived from their names in some fashion; distinguished from that person's given name(s).
Example
“James is my first name, and Smith is my surname.”
Other meanings
The cognomen of Roman names.
an additional name, particularly those derived from a birthplace, quality, or achievement.
Synonyms
- last name
- family name
Related words
- surnamey
- occupational surname
- surnominal
- surnameless
Word history
From Old French "surnum".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “surname” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.