SURNAME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does surname mean? 

• SURNAME (noun)
  The noun SURNAME has 1 sense:

1. the name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name)

  Familiarity information: SURNAME used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SURNAME (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

cognomen; family name; last name; surname

Hypernyms ("surname" is a kind of...):

name (a language unit by which a person or thing is known)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "surname"):

maiden name (a woman's surname before marriage)

 Context examples 

A word or group of words indicating a person's first (personal or given) name; the name that precedes the surname.

(First Name, NCI Thesaurus)

Nothing could be objected against his surname, Littimer, by which he was known.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She left it to himself to recollect, that Mrs Smith was not the only widow in Bath between thirty and forty, with little to live on, and no surname of dignity.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Even in that obscure position, Miss Scatcherd continued to make her an object of constant notice: she was continually addressing to her such phrases as the following:—Burns (such it seems was her name: the girls here were all called by their surnames, as boys are elsewhere), Burns, you are standing on the side of your shoe; turn your toes out immediately.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Do you mean to say, child, that any human being has gone into a Christian church, and got herself named Peggotty?” “It's her surname,” said my mother, faintly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She lives with a relative; Christian name, unknown; surname, Peggotty; occupation, seafaring; also of this town.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The promise of which my friend has spoken, is made and entered into with her cousin; Christian name, Ham; surname, Peggotty; occupation, boat-builder; also of this town.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She hinted in a murmur that the surname of the balancing girl was Baker. (I've heard it said that Daisy's murmur was only to make people lean toward her; an irrelevant criticism that made it no less charming.)

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)