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. Here the is a masculine plural object starting with either 'sp', 'sc', 'ps', 'z', 'gn' or 'st'.
• Della -- "of the", Italian Here the is a feminine singular object.
• Di -- "of", Italian
• Du -- "of the", French Here, 'the' is a masculine object, as 'de la' would be feminine and 'de' would be plural.
• Fitz -- "Son of" (often meaning illegitimate son), Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic
• Nic- -- "Daughter of", Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic
• Mac- -- "Son of", Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic
• Mc- -- assumed to be an abbreviation of Mac, but often claimed to be particular to Irish Gaelic. Sometimes spelt with a superscript 'c'.
• O'- -- "Descendant of", Irish Gaelic
• ter -- "at the", Dutch
• Tre -- "farm of", Cornish
• van -- "of" Dutch
• von -- "of", German

Suffixes

(Sorted from right to left)

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

See also

• List of most popular family names
• Patronymic