Where Surnames Come From (From Bill Bryson

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Where Surnames Come From(From Bill Brysons
Mother Tongue)

• Alan D. DeSantis

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No Last Name Needed

• For most of history, there was no need for
  surnames/last names
• Two Peters living in the same town would be
  given second names to distinguish them

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Bureaucracy Changes Everything!

• Two events in England led to the creation and use
  of last names
• 1)
• 2)
• These two pieces of medieval bureaucracy meant

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Four Sources

• British surnames (family names) have four main
  sources
• 1)
• 2)
• 3)
• 4)

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I. Many were identified by their occupations
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I. Occupations

• Name Meaning
• Archer
• Barber
• Brewer
• Bowman
• Bishop
• Butcher
• Baker
• Carpenter
• Fletcher
• Clark
• Wright

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I. Occupations

• Name Meaning
• Hall
• Forrester
• Fuller
• Miller
• Shepherd
• Smith
• Taylor
• Turner
• King
• Bush-

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What about Church names?

• Keeping in mind that Catholic priests took
  pledges of celibacy, how did names like Bishop,
  Monk, Priest, Pope, or Prior survive?

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The Same Throughout Europe

• Tracing non-English names is not so easy, but
  with a little translation, they too make sense.

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II. Others were named for where they lived or a
geographical landmark identified with them
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II. Places

• Name Meaning
• Devon
• Allen
• Atwater
• French
• Lincoln
• Kent
• Preston

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II. Places

• Name Meaning
• Scott
• Underwood
• Moore
• Wood
• Ash or Oak
• Walsh
• Street or Lane

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Why not more Londons?(or Farmers)

• If everyone from London was known as London,
  surnames would be useless
• Consequently, only people who left London were
  named for the city
• Peter from London or Peter London

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III. Some were named after a distinguishing
characteristic
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Nicknames

• Name Meaning
• Armstrong
• Boyd
• Campbell
• Goldwater
• Cox
• Brown
• Kennedy
• Morgan
• Russell
• Whistler
• Whitehead
• Tolstoy
• Machiavelli
• Cicero

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IV. Finally, many were identified by their family
relationships
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Relations

• Name Meaning
• Johnson
• Robinson
• MacDonald
• O'Connor
• Thompson
• Young
• Johansson
• Jackson
• Brothers

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First Names as Last Names

• If you have a first name as a last name, the
  son has probably been dropped.

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V. Difficulties in identifying some last names
and their origins
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A. What About Tracing African American Names?

• Question
• How do African Americans trace their African
  names?
• Answer
• They cant!
• African slaves were stripped of their surnames
• Last names come from 4 different sources
• 1)
• 2)
• 3)
• 4)

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B. What About Non-English Names?

• All of our accentors were immigrants
• Except full-blooded native Americans, of course
• Many (non-English) immigrants names were changed
  simplified at their Port of Entries
• Pfoersching to Pershing
• Wistinghausen to Westinghouse
• Pappadimitracoupolos to Pappas
• Niewhuis to Newhouse
• Kuiper to Cooper
• Krankheit to Cronkite

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C. Creative Spelling of Names

• Until the late 1600s, there were no codified
  rules for spelling
• Spelling was individualized, idiosyncratic, and
  creative
• Consequently, Hill was spelled Hull, Hall,
  Holl depending on ones dialect and
  pronunciation