Kallas
A surname of Baltic and eastern European use, most likely tied to a word for a shore, bank, or slope.
The #8,706 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 81,895 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Kallas is best understood as a surname built from a Baltic-area word meaning a shore, bank, or steep slope. In Estonian and Finnish especially, kallas means a riverbank or shore, so the name likely began as a topographic byname for someone who lived by such a place. In some cases it may also reflect related place names or parallel forms in neighboring Baltic and Slavic languages.
History
The surname is most familiar in Estonia and in Baltic diaspora communities, but it also appears more widely in eastern Europe and among emigrant families in North America. Because it is short and place-based, it could arise independently in more than one language area. The name is also known from the famous Estonian statesman Kaarel Eenpalu, who used Kallas as a family name, and from modern public figures such as Kaja Kallas.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
In Estonian, kallas is a common everyday word for a shore or bank, which makes the surname especially transparent to native speakers.