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Etymology — The Origins of English Words

Where do words come from? Trace the origin and history of any English word, from its Latin, Greek or Old English roots through to its modern meaning. Every etymology is sourced.

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As a Japanese surname, from Ishii (石井); also independently found as a Hopi surname.

Borrowed from Japanese 浅野 (Asano).

Borrowed from Japanese はるこ (Haruko).

Borrowed from Japanese はなこ (Hanako).

From Japanese Michiko.

Borrowed from Japanese 松平 (Matsudaira).

Borrowed from Japanese 松田 (Matsuda).

From Japanese 中川 (Nakagawa), combining characters for "middle" and "river."

Borrowed from Japanese 佐々木 (Sasaki).

From Japanese 清水 (Shimizu), literally "clear water."

From Japanese Minami, meaning "south."

From Hawaiian "Waikīkī".

A clipped, informal form of "Travis."

Borrowed from German Morgenstern, literally "morning star," a poetic name for the spiked weapon.

A German surname, a variant of Gehring.

Unknown, perhaps a variant of Theobald.

From Old English lang (“long, tall”) + stan (“stone”).

A variant of Lubeck/Lübeck.

From Serbo-Croatian Rab, ultimately derived from a substrate root *Arb-, as apparent in Ancient Greek Ἄρβα (Árba), Latin Arba and Italian Arbe.

From the Armenian name Ռաֆֆի (Raffi).

From French Valéry, from Latin Valerius. Doublet of Valerius.

Borrowed from Japanese かすみ (Kasumi), meaning "mist" — similar in spirit to the English name Misty.

From Japanese なおこ (Naoko).

Borrowed from Japanese ひろこ (Hiroko).