Abbas
A name from the word for “abbot” or “father,” later used both as a given name and a surname in several traditions.
The #6,781 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 62,072 Americans shares it.
Etymology
In the sources, Abbas is tied to the old Semitic word for “father” and to the ecclesiastical title “abbot.” The line of borrowing runs through Syriac and Greek into Latin, where abbas means “abbot.” In some cases the surname may reflect a religious title or a byname connected with a father-figure; in Gaelic material, a related form appears in patronymic constructions meaning “son of the abbot.”
History
The name appears in medieval records in several different settings, including Norman and English forms, and may sometimes have been attached to clerics or families associated with churches or abbeys. In the British Isles it also turns up in Gaelic patronymic phrases, showing that the same-looking surname could arise through more than one tradition. Modern bearers may therefore have unrelated family lines behind the same spelling.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Medieval record forms show Abbas used both as a standalone name and in place-name-style bynames such as “de Tavistock,” reflecting how fluid surnames could be in the Middle Ages.
From the historical record
“mac,son+an, oi the+aba(,dh, genit. of db, abbot — Lat. abbas, Gr. d/S/Soj, Syr. abbd, a father] Cp. Mac Cabe. ' Abair tri uairean Mac-an-Aba gun do”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)