Explore the Family Name Ajax

The meaning of Ajax

Welsh (Glamorgan, Cardigans, and Carmarthens), Swedish, French, and West Indian (Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti): from the Latin personal name Ajax, from Greek Aias, the name of two Greek heroes who fought in the Trojan War. The name is traditionally interpreted as coming from Old Greek aietos ‘eagle’. The choice of a classically inspired forename was an occasional practice among well-educated European families from the Renaissance onwards. In Wales, where many families did not adopt a hereditary surname until the 18th century or later, it led to the formation of new patronymics, such as this one. By the 1740s it had become the fixed surname of a family in Carmarthens, which later ramified in Glamorgan and Cardigans. This surname is very rare in France.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.