Pallas Family History

German (of Slavic origin): from a pet form of the personal name Pavel or Pawel, respectively the Czech and Polish forms of Paul, or from a Sorbian cognate. German (of Slavic origin): nickname for a small man, from Slavic palac ‘thumb’. 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. English: 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. English: possibly a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked at a palace (bishop’s, archbishop’s, or royal), from Old French, Middle English palais, paleis. English: metonymic occupational name for a worker at a straw stack, from Old French paille ‘straw’ + Middle English hous ‘house’. Greek: ornamental name or nickname from Albanian pallë ‘sword’. Catalan (Pallàs): variant spelling of Pallars, a regional name from the Catalan district of Pallars, in the Pyrenees.

Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press