Ambrose
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Frequency: (6153)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
English: from the English form of the medieval personal name, Latin Ambrosius, from Greek ambrosios ‘immortal’, which was popular throughout Christendom in medieval Europe. Its popularity was due in part to the fame of St. Ambrose (c.340-397), one of the four Latin Fathers of the Church, the teacher of St. Augustine. In North America this surname has absorbed Dutch Ambroos and probably other cognates from other European languages. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
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Copyrights:
Oxford Dictionary of Family Names
Dictionary of American Family Names. Copyright © 2006 Patrick Hanks. All rights reserved.
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