Dictionary of American Family Names

Most of the names looked up were present, so this three-volume dictionary cannot be far off its claim to have 85% of American surnames. Entries provide frequency of occurrence in the population, an explanation or definition of the name, language of origin, original spelling, region, typology (i.e. derived from a place, nickname, forbear's personal name, occupation, etc.), etymology, cross references, given names that often accompany the surname, and if applicable, important forebears of the name. A strength is the encyclopedic prefatory material: the editor's general introduction, D. Kenneth Tucker's "Surnames, Forenames, and Correlations," and the introductions to surnames of particular languages and cultures the British Isles, Western Europe, Scandinavia and Finland, Southern Europe, Jewish, the Slavs and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent, and East Asia. Hanks is the author of Dictionary of Surnames and A Dictionary of First Names and is professor at Brandeis University. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Patrick Hanks is a consultant in corpus-based lexicography and phraseology at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He was formerly Chief Editor of Current English Dictionaries at Oxford University Press, and a research fellow in lexical computing at Brimingham University. He has been researching the geographical distribution, meaning, and origin of surnames for over 30 years.