Explore the Family Name Pallas

The meaning of Pallas

1. Greek: ornamental name or nickname derived from Albanian pallë ‘sword’ or the Turkish cognate pala (see Pala). 2. German: from an East Central German Slavic-influenced pet form of the personal name Paul (compare 3 below). 3. Czech: variant of Palas, in part a derivative of the personal name Pavel ‘Paul’. 4. Irish: MacLysaght ascribes the origin of this surname in Ireland to the arrival there in the 15th century of a Lombard family of bankers named de Palatio, i.e. ‘from the palace’. The name has been Gaelicized as Pailís, which means ‘palisade’ in Irish. 5. English: in many cases of Irish origin (see above). Alternatively, perhaps: (a) from Old French palis, paleis ‘palisade, fence’, hence a topographic name for someone who lived by a palisade or a metonymic occupational name for a maker of fences; (b) metonymic occupational name for someone who worked at a palace (bishop’s, archbishop’s, or royal), from Old French, Middle English palais, paleis; (c) metonymic occupational name for a worker at a straw stack, from Old French paille ‘straw’ + Middle English hous ‘house’. Compare Pallis. 6. French: habitational name from a place so called in Hérault. 7. Catalan (Pallàs): habitational name from the Catalan district of Pallars, in the Pyrenees. 8. Galician: habitational name from a place called As Pallas in A Coruña province, Galicia (Spain), from the plural of palla ‘straw’.

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