Frequency: (684)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
1. Spanish: nickname from abad ‘priest’ (from Late Latin abbas ‘priest’, genitive abbatis, from the Aramaic word meaning ‘father’). The application is uncertain: it could be a nickname, an occupational name for the servant of a priest, or denote an (illegitimate) son of a priest.
2. Muslim: from a personal name based on Arabic ῾Abbād ‘devoted worshiper’ or ‘servant’. The banu (tribe) ῾Abbād claims descent from the ancient Lakhmid kings of al-Ḥirah. The founder of the ῾Abbadids of Seville was Muhammad bin ῾Abbād (1023-42), whose son ῾Abbād succeeded his father as chamberlain to the pretended khalif, but was soon ruling in his own right under the honorific title al-Muta῾id ‘petitioner for justice (from Allah)’.
GIVEN NAMES: Spanish 39%. Jose (13), Manuel (12), Luis (9), Miguel (6), Ramon (6), Ricardo (6), Ernesto (5), Jorge (5), Armando (4), Augusto (4), Carlos (4), Juan (4); Antonio (8), Filiberto (2), Gino (2), Lucio (2), Carlo, Cecilio, Eliseo, Enrico, Heriberto, Lirio, Marco, Romeo.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
