English Last Names

Still heavily associated with journalist Barbara Walters, whose Jewish family changed their name from Warmwater (Warmwasser) upon emigrating to the UK from Poland.

More familiar from TV -- Rake, Leave It To Beaver -- than real life, and perhaps likely to stay that way, given the gruesome association with a butcher's knife. Cleaver was, for instance, the title of the violent mob movie Christopher wrote in the world of The Sopranos.

This English surname offers an interesting mix of images: it sounds upper-crusty yet macho, and also conjures up the coziness of a wintery ski lodge. As a surname it is associated with the Massachusetts Republican Senate Minority Leader in the Woodrow Wilson era, Henry Cabot Lodge, who was the father of poet George Cabot Lodge and grandfather of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., who was ambassador to the UN and Richard Nixon's 1960 presidential running mate.

This occupational choice is less appealing than such brethren as Baker and Baxter.

Common surname in the US and UK. Stephens is notably the legal last name of John Legend.

A pretty alternative to Hadley, but perhaps a little too close to sound distinctive. Hedy would be a cool nickname, after legendary actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr.

Marks is a surname that independently arose in several languages, most all of them as a patronymic form of Mark. Among Jewish families, Marks is typically a variation of Marx. Marx was a given name derived from Marcus that Ashkenazi Jews used as a Germanized form of Mordechai.

Likable English surname that is occasionally heard as a first name.

Top 100 surname in the US and UK.

You might consider Hedges for a first name if you find the surname on your family tree.

An original way to honor an ancestral Robert. Hobson is outside the Top 1000 but is among the fastest-rising names for boys.

As a given name, Wheelock has been passed down to generations of the Whitney family — descendants of Eli Whitney, creator of the cotton gin. The first Wheelock Whitney — known as Wheels — was named after his mother, Alice Wheelock. His son, Wheelock Whitney Jr. went by Whee, and Wheelock Whitney III is called Lock.

Simmons is one of the S-ending popular American last names that are starting to be used as firsts.

Family name best used in the middle, especially since it was seen as the portly postman in Seinfeld.

As surname names for girls become more popular, we could see Catesby catching on among style-conscious parents. Bonus: it easily shortens to the girlish nickname Cate.