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Family name affixes

Family name affixes are a clue for family name etymology and determining ethnic origin of a person. This is a list of typical affixes.

Prefixes

• ap -- "son of", Welsh
• Da -- "from", Italian
• De -- "the", Dutch; "of", French, Italian
• Degli -- "of the", Italian
• Della -- "of the", Italian
• Di -- "of", Italian
• Du -- "of the", French
• Nic- -- "Daughter of", Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic
• Mac- -- "Son of", Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic
• Mc- -- abbreviation of Mac
• O'- -- "Descendant of", Irish Gaelic
• Ter -- "from", Dutch
• Van -- Dutch
• von -- "of", German

Suffixes

(Sorted from right to left)

• -ić -- Serbs, Bosniak, Croatian (diminutive)
  • -ović/ević -- Serbs (diminutive possessive), little son of)
    • -begović -- Bosniak (diminutive posesive of a beg, i.e. beg's little son)
• -ič -- Slovene (deminutive)
• -nd -- French
• -rd -- French
• -ang -- Chinese, Korean
• -ski/-čki -- Russian, Polish, Macedonian, Serbs (adjective)
• -ak -- Polish, Ukrainian
• -ák -- Czech
• -ek -- Czech, Polish
• -ik -- Polish
• -yk -- Polish
• -chuk -- Ukrainian
• -shyn -- Ukrainian
• -nen -- Finnish
• -sen -- Danish, Norwegian
  • -ssen -- Norwegian
• -son -- English, Swedish
  • -sson -- Swedish, Icelandic
• -er -- French, German
• -is -- Greek
• -ems -- Flemish
• -ens -- Flemish
• -opulos -- Greek
• -ers -- Flemish
• -nko -- Ukrainian
• -to -- Japanese
• -escu -- Romanian
• -ov/-ev -- Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian (posessive
• -ný -- Czech
• -es -- Portuguese, Brazilian
• -ez -- Spanish (including Spanish-speaking countries)

See also

• List of most popular family names