Dober comes from a Slavic word meaning “good”; it’s the name of a settlement (also spelled Dobër and Dobre) in northern Albania. Dober is also a surname of English origin (with various spellings of Dauber, Dawber, Daber, and Doberer), an occupational surname for someone who was a plasterer from Middle English daubere via Old French daubier (whitewash, plasterer).
Origin: Slavic, Old French
Trip comes from a word referring to a journey or a voyage, or it refers to someone who stumbles and falls. It comes from Old French tripper (strike with the feet, tread or skip lightly) which comes from a Germanic source; or it could be from Middle Dutch trippen meaning “to skip, hop, trot, stamp, trample”. Tri- is also a Latin root word meaning “three”, used in conjection with other words such as triple and trisect, so Trip could be used with that in mind, or it could also be used as nickname for someone who is the third (III) generation of the same name.
Origin: Old French Middle Dutch, Latin
Neville comes from a surname via a place name in Normandy, France. It comes from Old French neu (new) and ville (town) meaning “new town”.
Origin: Old French
- Nevel (English)
- Nevil (English)
Perry is a nickname for Peregrine, from Latin Peregrinus meaning “traveler”, or Percival, likely based on Welsh Peredur meaning “hard spear” though the spelling of the name was altered to resemble Old French percer val “to pierce the valley”. Perry is also an English surname which comes from Middle English perrie meaning “pear tree”, referring to someone who lived near a pear tree. As a Welsh patrynomic surname it comes from ap Herry meaning “son of Herry”, the latter a medieval English form of Henry meaning “home ruler”. Spelled Perri, it’s an Italian surname derived from given name Peter meaning “stone”.
Origin: Latin, Welsh, Old French, Greek
- Perri (u)
- Peri (u)
- Perrie (u)
Russ is a short form of Russell, an English male name which comes from a surname meaning “little red one” from Old French rousel. It was originally given as a nickname for someone who had red hair or a reddish complexion.
Russ is also an archaic word for Russian.
Origin: Old French
- Russell (English)
- Russel (English)
- Rusty (English)
- Russett (English; unisex)
Beck is an English surname derived from German surname Bach meaning “brook, stream”, a cognate of Old Norse bekkr (stream, brook). It could also be a short form of Becker, another Germanic surname meaning “baker”.
Beck could also be a short form of Beckett, another English surname that comes from the same source as Bach.
It also comes from Middle English beke by way of Old French bec meaning “beak”. It was used as a nickname for someone who had a prominent nose, or which resembled the beak of a bird.
Beck is also a word, used in the idiom “at someone’s beck and call”, referring to someone ready to obey someone’s orders or subject to their slightest whims.
Origin: German, Old Norse, Old French
Brandon is from an English surname derived from a place name meaning “hill covered with broom” from Old English brom (broom, gorse) and dun (hill), likely referring to someone who lived near a place covered with gorse or broom shrubs.
However, Brandon could also be derived from Old French brandon from Frankish *brand meaning “firebrand, torch, sword” which ultimately comes from Proto-Germanic *brandaz, a cognate of Old Norse brandr.
It could also be a various form of Brendan, an Irish name derived from Welsh brenin meaning “prince” from Celtic brigantinos meaning “king, prince”, “lord” or “high one”.
Origin: Old English, Proto-Germanic, Old Norse, Celtic
- Branden (English)
- Brendan (Irish, English)
Origin: Germanic, Greek, Welsh
Meaning: Carolyn is a variant of Caroline, itself the feminine form of Charles which ultimately comes from Karl, a Germanic masculine name meaning “man”, used to refer to men who were not thralls or servants but who still lived at the bottom of society so it connotes the idea of a “free man”.
Carolyn could also be a combination of names Carol (from Old French carole referring to a kind of dance accompanied by singers from Latin choraula via Greek khoraules meaning “one who accompanies a chorus on a flute” from Greek khoros “dance, choir” and aulos “flute”) and Lyn, a variant of Welsh llyn meaning “lake”.
- Carolynn (English)
- Carolynne (English)
- Caroline (French, English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch)
- Carolina (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Swedish)
- Karolyn (English)
- Karolynne (English)
- Karoline (Danish, German, Norwegian)
- Karolina (Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Hungarian, Slovene, Croatian, Macedonian, Lithuanian, German)
- Carola (Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish)
- Carla (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, English, German, Dutch)
- Carol (English, Romanian)
Meaning: originally a surname which comes from Middle English frankeleyn meaning “free man” from Old French fraunclein referring to someone who owned land but was not of noble birth.
Nicknames include: Frank and Franky/Frankie