Grapesoda

Many of us have surnames passed down to us from ancestors in England. Last names weren?t widely used until after the Norman conquest in 1066, but as the country?s population grew, people found it necessary to be more specific when they were talking about somebody else. Thus arose descriptions like Thomas the Baker, Norman son of Richard, Henry the Whitehead, Elizabeth of the Field, and Joan of York that, ultimately, led to many of our current surnames.

There are perhaps 45,000 different English surnames, but most had their origins as one of these seven types.

Occupational

Occupational names identified people based on their job or position in society. Calling a man ?Thomas Carpenter? indicated that he worked with wood for a living, while someone named Knight bore a sword. Other occupational names include Archer, Baker, Brewer, Butcher, Carter, Clark, Cooper, Cook, Dyer, Farmer, Faulkner, Fisher, Fuller, Gardener, Glover, Head, Hunt or Hunter, Judge, Mason, Page, Parker, Potter, Sawyer, Slater, Smith, Taylor, Thatcher, Turner, Weaver, Woodman, and Wright (or variations such as Cartwright and Wainwright) ? and there are many more.

This kind of name also gave a clue about whom a servant worked for. Someone named Vickers might have been a servant to Mr. Vicker, and someone named Williams might either have served a William or been adopted by him.

From the obscure fact department: In medieval England, before the time of professional theater, craft guilds put on ?mystery plays? (?mystery? meaning ?miracle?), which told Bible stories and had a call-and-response style of singing. A participant?s surname ? such as King, Lord, Virgin, or Death ? may have reflected his or her role, which some people played for life and passed down to their eldest son.

Describing a personal characteristic

Some names, often adjectives, were based on nicknames that described a person. They may have described a person?s size (Short, Long, Little), coloring (Black, White, Green, or Red, which could have evolved into ?Reed?), or another character trait (Stern, Strong, Swift). Someone named Peacock might have been considered vain.

From an English place name

A last name may have pointed to where a person was born, lived, worked, or owned land. It might be from the name of a house, farm, hamlet, town, or county. Some examples: Bedford, Burton, Hamilton, Hampshire, Sutton. Writer Jack London?s ancestor may have hailed from London.

From the name of an estate

Those descended from landowners may have taken as their surname the name of their holdings, castle, manor, or estate, such as Ernle or Staunton. Windsor is a famous example ? it was the surname George V adopted for the British royal family.

From a geographical feature of the landscape

Some examples are Bridge, Brooks, Bush, Camp, Fields, Forest, Greenwood, Grove, Hill, Knolles, Lake, Moore, Perry, Stone, Wold, Wood, and Woodruff. Author Margaret Atwood is probably descended from someone who lived ?at the wood.?

Patronymic, matronymic, or ancestral

Patronymic surnames (those that come from a male given name) include Benson (?the son of Ben?), Davis, Dawson, Evans, Harris, Harrison, Jackson, Jones (Welsh for John), Nicholson, Richardson, Robinson, Rogers, Simpson, Stephenson, Thompson, Watson, and Wilson.

Matronymic ones, surnames derived from a female given name, include Molson (from Moll, for Mary), Madison (from Maud), Emmott (from Emma), and Marriott (from Mary).

Scottish clan names make up one set of ancestral surnames. These include Armstrong, Cameron, Campbell, Crawford, Douglas, Forbes, Grant, Henderson, Hunter, MacDonald, and Stewart.

Signifying patronage

Some surnames honored a patron. Hickman was Hick?s man (Hick being a nickname for Richard). Kilpatrick was a follower of Patrick.

Wondering whether your family name is English? Try plugging your surname into the Ancestry.com Last Names Meanings and Origins widget. Type in the surname ?Duffield,? and you?ll see it?s English, a ?habitational name from places in Derbyshire and East Yorkshire, so named from Old English Dufe ?dove? + feld ?open country.??

ottopottomouse

You forgot the 8th - double-barrelled conjoined surnames - which used to be mainly for the toffs but are now on the increase due to women not taking their husbands surname in case nobody on Facebook knows who they are any more.

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danielpbarron

My last name is an Americanized version of the Armenian name "Baranian" (although I may be spelling that incorrectly). My dad's dad changed it because he thought it would help him further his career as a court stenographer and band leader (and maybe it worked -- he was pretty successful). This isn't a strange concept; the Irish did similar things during that era of of U.S. immigration. Same goes for the descendants of African slaves.

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Daniel P. Barron

iwantchixx

fuck, that's so true. I only noticed the increase in it once FB became popular.

Captain Kawaii

Sorry mate but Ancestry.com is crap.
Gave us totally wrong information.

clickity click

Mine either comes from a geographical feature of the landscape or from a place name. No idea which.

Bladewire

So I'll be the first brave enough ( or stupid enough ;) to give my name:

I am

Thomas Powers

Ancestors are Celtic from the British Isles

Maybe "Describing a personal characteristic"? I dunno

Grapesoda

my last name 'bradley' is a land feature...'Broad Leigh' i.e. big valley...

From Middle English legh, lege, lei (“clearing, open ground”) from Old English lēah (“clearing in a forest”) from Proto-Germanic *lauhō (“meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *louk- (“field, meadow”). Akin to Old Frisian lāch (“meadow”), Old Saxon lōh (“forest, grove”) (Middle Dutch loo (“forest, thicket”); Dutch -lo (“used in placenames”)), Old High German lōh (“covered clearing, low bushes”), Old Norse lō (“clearing, meadow”). More at Waterloo.

Thomas is a aramaic I believe..... masc. proper name, from Greek Thomas, of Aramaic origin and said to mean "a twin" (John's gospel refers to Thomas as ho legomenos didymos "called the twin;" compare Syriac toma "twin," Arabic tau'am "twin"). Before the Conquest, found only as the name of a priest, but after 1066, one of the most common given names in English. Also see Tom, Tommy. Doubting Thomas is from John xx:25; A Thomist (1530s, from Medieval Latin Thomista, mid-14c.) is a follower of 13c. scholastic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas.

Bladewire

Whoa very cool! ^

So that prompted me to look up the meaning of my last name:

Since 1172 and the Anglo/Norman invasion of Ireland, the family name of Powers has been synonymous with the history of the country and its people. The first record of the name Powers was found in Devonshire where the family was granted lands by Duke William of Normandy for their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. The name is found on a tablet at Battle Abbey listing prominent survivors of the battle of Hastings. ("Our Heritage: a Record of Information about the Hynes, Waite, Powers, Chenault, Maxey, Brewster, Starr and McIntosh Families," by Lee Powers Hynes, 1957, p. 59)

This now Irish family emerged as a distinguished group in Devon where they were recorded as a family seated as Lords of the manor and estates. Bartholomew De La Poher was granted lands in Devon and was Lord of Blackborough and father of Robert Poher who accompanied Strongbow in the Irish invasion in 1172. They were granted the county of Waterford by Strongbow and became active in the Government of both Waterford and the whole of Ireland.

The Powers family became the Barons Donhill, Viscounts Balentin, and the Earls of Tyrone. Their seats were at Kilmeadon, and they also branched to Kilbolande and Rosskean in county Cork. This branch became the Barons Power. Other branches in Waterford included Gurteen, Lapoer, Clashmore, and Gardenmorres. The original settler Robert was killed in 1178 in South Kildare but his many sons and grandchildren established a name which would eventually become as Irish as the natives of the land.

The recorded Powers surname has been listed as Power, Poer, Poher, and Powers and these changes in spelling frequently occurred, even between father and son. One thing can be sure, however, all of these Powers families originated from the same scion. ( more here )

Nice history lesson for the day Mr. Bradley thanks

aka123

Meloovlongtime. I guess it's the option number 2.

Grapesoda

it is important to know who you are

Grapesoda

I did in fact changed my name to 'Bradley' from 'Ogiyoustreachmeout'