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Tracing The Origin of Your Surname by Chris Krawczyk

Where did your last name come from? What does your name mean? Having this information can tell you alot about where your family lived, and what they did. By searching the origins of your surname you can learn about your ancestors.

The idea of hereditary surnames, passed down from father to child is a relatively new one In fact it's only being around for the last millennium or so. The reality is that last names weren't all that necessary 1000 years ago. People lived in small groups and lived and died within miles of where they were born. Everyone knew everyone else. One name was more than enough.

As the years passed families got larger, villages grew into towns, towns grew into cities. A means of differentiating between individuals (other than first names) became necessary, thus enter the last name or surname.

To find our what your name means, let's go back a thousand years and pretend you need to assign someone a last name. How will you do it? It's quite logical really. You can do it by where they live, what they do, or who their family is. This created the four popular forms of surname evolution: Occupation, Location, Description, and Lineage.

Occupation

Some people became known by their occupation. This is a very popular form of surname that usually evolved in towns and larger population centres. In these places residents needed to find goods or services. Tradesman needed to be found. John the tailor becomes John Taylor. John the cooper becomes John Cooper.

Enter the Smiths, Fishers, Coopers, Millers (blacksmiths, fishermen, barrel makers, mill workers) and many many other names. My own name Krawczyk is apparently loosely translated into "Taylor" or tailor (Polish).

Location

In more rural areas, with smaller populations, people were more likely to be known by the place name, or the geography of, where they lived. As families started to move around this became increasingly popular. The immigrants would be known by their prior home.

This is especially popular with French surnames many of which start with "de" - or "of" in English. Also you may find other French surnames starting with "ne" - derived from the French word for "born" - the second part of which will often be a place.

Some examples of geographic place names: Churchill - lived near a church on a hill, Templeton - lived near a temple (or came from a town named temple), De Mar - lived near the sea, Newton - was likely new in town (or born in town).

Understanding the meaning of your name often requires an understanding of old languages. Take my mothers side of the family: Finnamore. We believe it derived from Finmere around 1000 years ago. Finmere is still a little town in Plymouth. End of the bog we think it means.

That's another very important point: As centuries pass spelling changes. You need to remember that when searching for what your name means. We're dealing with a time when most people signed their name with an "X".... 90% of the population or more could not read or write. Names were phonetic and dialect shifted the spelling.

Description

Erik The Red was known for his red hair. Richard The Lion Hearted was a King known for his ferocity in battle - albeit a name he likely gave himself. These are examples of descriptive surnames. They are descriptive in that they are based on physical traits or personality characteristics of the individual. Many such names survive today. As a child my next door neighbours were the "Leblanc's" - literally translated "The White's". The french "le" or "la" is very common in many of these names, translating as "the".

Lineage

Especially popular in the British Isles and in Scandinavia. This method creates your last name by tying you to your father or family.

In Ireland O'Reilly means you're the son of Reilly - or a member of the Reilly family. In Scotland (from Gaelic) Mac Donald means you're the son of Donald. Fitzsimmons (from the Norman) would mean you're the son of Simmons or Simon. In Sweden, Alfredson would mean you're the son of Alfred. The French "de" (meaning "of") can also be applied here - although it more frequently applies to geography.

The End Result

Over time a modified form of the lineage method took hold and remained the dominate form of surnames in the western world for most of the last millennium. Simply put, children inherit their fathers surnames. A simple system victim only to the bastardization that occurs over centuries due to illiteracy and phonetics.

As we enter the 21st century that system seems to be holding. Although the large number of hyphen-named babies in the last decades added a neat twist to that rule. John Smith marries Alice Jones, and their child becomes Smith-Jones. Who knows if that trend will grow or decline... early results show it declining as we head into the new century.

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