History of surnames
Surname Meanings:
a-b
c-e
f-k
l-q
r-z
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A Brief History of Surnames
This
page will attempt to relate a brief history of surnames (or last names
as we call them today), focusing on those of Western Europe. It will also
discuss the categories of meanings that surnames come in. Originally, people
had no use for surnames. They lived in communities that were small enough
that it was unlikely people would have the same given name. Also, people
rarely traveled great distances so it was unlikely they would meet anyone
sharing the same name. As communities grew and people started traveling
more there became a need to differentiate between people sharing the same
given name. This caused surnames to come into existence.
Patronymics
The
earliest surnames were not inherited as they are today. They simply described
the person who bore the name. The most common early naming system of this
sort is called patronymics (patro=father, nymics=naming). This system of
surnames uses the name of a person’s father as that person’s surname. So,
if a village had two people named Thomas in it, then one Thomas might be
Thomas son of Robert and the other Thomas might be Thomas son of John.
The one major disadvantage of this system is that with each generation
surnames would change. For example, if you had Charles who was the father
of Patrick who was the father of Thomas, then the full names of Charles’
son and grandson would be Patrick Charles and Thomas Patrick. Despite the
lack of consistency that is found in a patronymic naming system, it was
very popular in many countries of Western Europe for centuries. The following
are examples of how several different groups of people used the patronymic
system to develop surnames.
Denmark: the ending –sen (for a son) and –datter
(for a daughter) was attached to the father’s name. e.g. Hansen, Sorensdatter
Sweden: similar to Denmark except –son and –dottir
were used. e.g. Anderson, Svensdottir
Netherlands: The endings –s, -se, and –sen were
used for son or daughter. e.g. Jansse or Dirks
Poland: For a son, -wicz was used. For a daughter,
-ovna was used.
French/Old English: Fitz- was used for a son or
a daughter, however people given surnames containing “Fitz” were often
illegitimate. e.g. FitzGerald, FitzAlan.
Scotland: Mac- and Mc- (For a son or daughter).
e.g. MacDonald, McLeod
Ireland: O’ and Mc- (for a son or daughter). The
“O’” can also be used for a grandson or granddaughter. e.g. O’Brien, McDermott
Spain/Portugal: -ez (Spain) or –es (Portugal)
e.g. Gonzales, Hernandez
Wales: In Wales, two patronymic systems existed.
In one, the surnames of the children were the unmodified father’s name,
so the son of Rees might be James Rees. In the second system the word “ap”
(son of) or “verch/ferch” (daughter of) were incorporated into the new
surname creating names like David ap Rhys or Maredudd ferch Llewelyn.
Place Surnames
In addition
to being named after their fathers, people were also named after places
where they lived, either past or present. Place names come in several different
categories. First, someone can be named after a village or town where they
were born or have lived. People are rarely named after the town in which
they are currently living, but after they leave that town and move to a
new place they can be named after the town where they used to live. So
someone named Ben who used to live in York came to be known as Ben of York
or more simply Ben York.
Another
form of a place surname occurs when people are name after a geographic
feature that they lived near or on. People who lived near a hill or a mountain
might have been called Hill (English), Maki (Finnish), Jurek (Poland),
etc. People who lived near a lake or stream might have been called Loch
(Scottish), Rio (Spanish) or Brooks (English). People were named after
woods, stones, fields, swamps, fenced places, valleys, etc. People could
be named after something simple like a place where grass grew (the -ley
at the end of many surnames means this) or they could have been named because
they lived on (or near) a field where barley was grown (Berland).
Place
Surnames can often be found with prepositions meaning "of" or "from" attached
to them. This can be seen in names like De Berry (of Berry) or Van Ness
(From Ness).
Personal Characteristics
A third
type of surname that is found is a surname that is given to someone because
of his or her personal characteristics. These characteristics could be
physical addressing a person’s hair color, height, complexion, weight,
etc. An example of a surname formed from a physical characteristic is the
surname red, given to a red-haired person. Variations of this surname can
be found in several countries and include: Reid (English), Russ (English),
Rousseau (French), Rossi (Italian) Cerveny (Czech), Roth (German) and Flynn
(Irish).
A second
type of surname given based on personal characteristics would be a surname
given on the basis of personality traits or abilities. Surnames can be
found that mean fast, slow, dumb, smart, etc. Surnames that are animal
names also fall into this category as they were usually assigned to people
who shared characteristics with the animal they were named after. So someone
called Fish might have been an excellent swimmer.
Occupations
The
forth and last general category of surnames might also be classified as
a subset of personal characteristics. This category of surname is surnames
that are given based on the surname bearer’s occupation. In this category,
people were identified by their occupation. In English, some obvious examples
of Occupational Surnames are: Taylor, Shepherd, Fisher, and Baker. These
common occupational surnames can be found translated into most languages
that had surnames. The topic of occupational surnames cannot be discussed
without mentioning what is arguably the most popular occupational surname
found, Smith. This surname was given to the worker of metals (often the
blacksmith). Its variations include Schmidt (German, Danish), Kovars (Hungarian),
Ferraro (Italian), Kowal (Polish), etc.
Surname Inheritance
As mentioned
above, surnames were originally given to a single person. These surnames
would change from generation to generation, making it difficult to keep
track of family relationship. As time moved on people stopped changing
surnames from generation to generation. The first people to do this were
often the nobility and royalty of an area. These permanent surnames seem
to appear first after the first crusades. They started in France at about
1000 and spread with the Norman Invasion to England and Scotland. Most
British surnames appear to have become fixed or permanent between 1250
and 1450. Places with strong ties to England developed a system of fixed
surnames faster then others. The following is an overview of when some
countries of Europe stopped using patronymics and developed an inherited
surname system. Most of Scotland had fixed surnames early on, but it was
not until the 18th century that people in the highlands stopped using a
patronymic system. In the Netherlands, fixed surnames were officially adopted
in 1811-1812, but it took a few decades for people to stop using a patronymic
system. Scandinavian countries continued using a patronymic system longer
then other countries even though laws were established by Napoleon and
others to stop this practice. It wasn’t until about 1860 that people in
Scandinavia started adopting fixed surnames.
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