The Dictionary of American Family Names contains more than 70,000 of the most commonly occurring surnames in the United States, giving their comparative frequencies, linguistic and historical explanations, selected associated forenames, and occasional genealogical notes. The product of a ten-year research project gathering the contributions of thirty linguistic consultants led by Editor in Chief Patrick Hanks, it explains the meanings some intuitive, some amusing, and some quite surprising of the family names for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population.

The Wikipedia surname database contains information on surname origins and meanings. It also lists many famous or well-known people with that surname. Entries were contributed to Wikipedia by various sources.