(male) New Testament name, borne by one of Christ's twelve apostles, referred to as ‘Thomas, called Didymus’ (John 11:16; 20:24). Didymos is the Greek word for ‘twin’, and the name is the Greek form of an Aramaic byname meaning ‘twin’. The given name has always been popular throughout Christendom, in part because St Thomas's doubts have made him seem a very human character.
Short form: Tom.
Pet form: Tommy.
Cognates: Irish: Tomás. Scottish Gaelic: Tòmas; Tàmhas. Welsh: Tomos. German, Dutch, Scandinavian: Thomas. French: Thomas. Spanish: Tomás. Portuguese: Tomás. Italian: Tommaso. Russian: Foma. Polish: Tomasz. Czech: Tomáš. Croatian: Toma. Slovenian: Tomaz. Finnish: Tuomo. Latvian: Toms. Lithuanian: Tomas.
English and Scottish: occupational name for a maker of objects of wood, metal, or bone by turning on a lathe, from Anglo-Norman French torner (Old French tornier, Latin tornarius, a derivative of tornus ‘lathe’). The surname may also derive from any of various other senses of Middle English turn, for example a turnspit, a translator or interpreter, or a tumbler.
English: nickname for a fast runner, from Middle English turnen ‘to turn’ + ‘hare’.
English: occupational name for an official in charge of a tournament, Old French tornei (in origin akin to 1).
Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): habitational name from a place called Turno or Turna, in Poland and Belarus, or from the city of Tarnów (Yiddish Turne) in Poland.
Translated or Americanized form of any of various other like-meaning or likesounding Jewish surnames.
South German (T(h)ürner): occupational name for a guard in a tower or a topographic name from Middle High German turn ‘tower’, or a habitational name for someone from any of various places named Thurn, for example in Austria.
