Thesaurus results for FAMILY NAMES

family names

noun

plural of family name

as in surnames

a name shared by members of a family searched for their family name on a popular genealogy website

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of family names There’s no rule banning an heir from naming their child after a color or city, but using oft-traditional family names lends historical weight to a future ruler from the day they’re born. — Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 16 Aug. 2026 Others have kept family names with local ties, like Wade Ford and Curry Honda. — Sean Tucker, AJC.com, 7 Aug. 2026 Commercial viticulture first developed here in the 1970s, led by family names such as Husch, Navarro and Scharffenberger; Husch planted the valley's first Pinot Noir in 1971. — Paul Caputo, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026 The estate has a long, storied history under many family names, but in 1575, the Essenault family rechristened it by contracting their family name to Issan. — Mike Desimone, Robb Report, 17 June 2026 However, unlike similar programs, these folks have to stay true to their Southern roots and family names, a difficult feat in today’s modern world. — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 16 Feb. 2026 Everyone on both sides of my family has always used family names, which has been really important to me to continue only using family names with my children. — Hannah Sacks, PEOPLE, 4 Nov. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for family names

Noun

This insularity causes the same surnames to show up over and over in public records from Followers communities in Idaho, and, just as happened in the faith’s earlier generations, the sprawling Followers families tend to intermarry.

— Audrey Dutton, ProPublica, 25 Aug. 2026
In 2019, his great-nephews Albert and Lawrence Lewitinn (their surnames are spelled differently than the artist’s) inherited about 1,000 of the artist’s works.

— R. Daniel Foster, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of surnames

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family names

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“Family names.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/family%20names. Accessed 3 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of family names

noun

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