Estonian Last Name Generator

500 Estonian surnames, one per entry: nature names like Tamm, Mägi and Rebane, trade names like Sepp and Kingsepp, compounds like Kivimägi, Soosaar and Laanemets, -ste and -son forms like Kaljuste and Peterson, and a small share of German and Russian names carried in Estonia.

About Estonian last names

Most Estonian surnames are everyday words. Tamm is an oak, Saar an island or an ash tree, Mägi a hill, Kask a birch, Rebane a fox and Ilves a lynx, and these short nature names lead the country's lists together with trades such as Sepp (smith), Rätsep (tailor) and Kangur (weaver). Estonian farming families received hereditary surnames only in the 1820s and 1830s, after serfdom ended, and many were handed out by Baltic German landlords and pastors. That is why German names such as Rosenberg and Freimann sit among the Estonian ones.

The list also holds compounds built on mägi (hill), saar, mets (forest), puu (tree), salu (grove) and maa (land), such as Kivimägi, Soosaar, Laanemets and Õunapuu, grove names in -ik such as Lepik and Kaasik, -ste forms such as Kaljuste and Tammiste, and patronymics in -son such as Peterson and Tõnisson. In the 1920s and 1930s a national campaign encouraged families to replace a foreign-sounding name with an Estonian one, and names built on kalju (cliff), such as Kaljurand, were popular choices in those years.

A small share of the list is German or Russian in origin, because those names are part of Estonia too. Russian surnames appear once each, in their Estonian spelling, as in Vassiljev and Mihhailov.

How to choose Estonian last names

• Keep the dotted and wavy letters. Õ, ä, ö and ü are letters of their own in Estonian, so Põder, Mägi, Sööt and Kütt should be written exactly as they appear here.
• Doubled letters are long sounds and part of the name. Saar, Kuusk, Sepp and Kukk keep both letters, and the stress falls on the first syllable.
• Let the period guide your choice. A farmer in a story set in 1900 can plausibly carry a German-sounding name such as Rosenberg, while Kaljurand or Kaljuste suits a family that chose a new Estonian name in the 1930s.
• Pair the surname with an Estonian given name such as Jaan, Mart, Liis or Kadri, with the given name first and the surname second.
• For family history, search older records under German-style spellings as well. W for V is common in old church books, so Weski and Veski can be one family.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most common Estonian last names?

Tamm is the most common Estonian surname, and Saar, Sepp, Mägi, Kask, Kukk, Rebane, Ilves, Pärn and Koppel are all near the top. Ivanov is also among the most frequent names in the country, because of its large Russian-speaking community. This page gives the names only and no counts.

What do Estonian surnames mean?

Most are plain Estonian words for a tree, an animal, a landscape feature or a trade. Kuusk is a spruce, Luik a swan, Oja a brook, Raudsepp a blacksmith and Kingsepp a shoemaker. Compounds join two words, so Kivimägi is "stone hill", Õunapuu "apple tree" and Soosaar "bog island".

Why do some Estonians have German last names?

Surnames were assigned to Estonian farming families in the 1820s and 1830s, often by the Baltic German landlords and pastors who kept the records, so German names became Estonian family names. Many families took an Estonian name in the 1920s and 1930s. Others kept names such as Rosenberg, Feldmann and Treumann, which are in this list.

Do Estonian surnames have male and female forms?

No. An Estonian surname has one form for everyone, so a brother and a sister are both Tamm or both Kallas. Russian surnames used in Estonia keep their usual pair, such as Ivanov and Ivanova, and this list gives each of them once, in the form without the final a.

Related generators

All 500 Estonian last names