South

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

South is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French surname6.1K records spelled South12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Mexico, Colombia, Spain

  Languages: French, Spanish

  Also written Sud, Sùd, Sûd, Súd, Sūd

58 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

South is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, ‘man from the south’; first attested William de la Sothe 1273 RH (D).

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, The direction towards the pole to the right-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 180°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the southern side of the invariable plane.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name●

• James Southb. 1785GBBritish astronomer (1785-1867)
• John Flint Southb. 1797English surgeon
• Charles L. Southb. 1892USAmerican politician (1892-1965)
• Leonard J. Southb. 1913USAmerican cinematographer (1913-2006)
• Harry Southb. 1929GBEnglish jazz pianist, composer, and arranger (1929–1990)
• Alex Southb. 1931GBEnglish footballer (born 1931)
• Graham Robin Southb. 1940botanist
• Stephen Southb. 1952GBBritish racing driver
• Mike Southb. 1957USAmerican pornographic actor, director, blogger and pornography gossip columnist
• Melanie Southb. 1986GBBritish female tennis player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 29 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name South?

Our records include 39,346,429 bearers of South across 5 countries — a sample of the full distribution.

In which country does South have the most bearers?

South is most frequently recorded in the United States, where it is most often spelled south.

What does the name South mean?

Recorded meaning: person who lives in the southern part of a settlement, or who has come from a southerly place.