Pallas Family History

Greek: ornamental name or nickname derived from Albanian pallë ‘sword’ or the Turkish cognate pala (see Pala). German: from an East Central German Slavic-influenced pet form of the personal name Paul (compare 3 below). Czech: variant of Palas in part a derivative of the personal name Pavel ‘Paul’.

Irish: MacLysaght ascribes the origin of this surname in Ireland to the arrival there in the 15th century of a Lombard family of bankers named de Palatio i.e. ‘from the palace’. The name has been Gaelicized as Pailís which means ‘palisade’ in Irish.

English: in many cases of Irish origin (see above). Alternatively perhaps: a) from Old French palis paleis ‘palisade fence’ hence a topographic name for someone who lived by a palisade or a metonymic occupational name for a maker of fences; b) metonymic occupational name for someone who worked at a palace (bishop's archbishop's or royal) from Old French Middle English palais paleis; c) metonymic occupational name for a worker at a straw stack from Old French paille ‘straw’ + Middle English hous ‘house’. Compare Pallis.

French: habitational name from a place so called in Hérault.

Catalan (Pallàs): habitational name from the Catalan district of Pallars in the Pyrenees. Galician: habitational name from a place called As Pallas in A Coruña province Galicia (Spain) from the plural of palla ‘straw’.