Where did your name come from?
FAMILY NAMES: Although I'm an amateur at the study
of names (Onomastics) I do know a little bit about the origin of most European
names. In general, one could say that most family names are based on four areas:
- Locality: names such as Wood, Moore, Wells,
Poole, Lane, Meadows, Hill, Banks, Britton, Brook, Waters, Francis
(someone
from France) etc.
- Occupation: names such as Saddler, Cook, Archer,
Carpenter, Sawyer, Shepherd, Hunter, Smith, Mason, Porter, Knight, Fletcher
(someone who made arrows) etc.
- Personal Characteristic: names such as Longfellow,
Armstrong, Wilde, Ambler, Beard, Noble, Black, Swift, Read (someone with red
beard or hair) etc.
- Relationship: names that start or end with
the following indicate a relationship: ...vitch, ...sohn, Fitz..., Kin...,
O'..., Mc.... In other words, "Fitzgerald" would indicate a relative of Gerald.
Be aware that even if the above is true, it is not always
easy to tell what the occupation, location or characteristic was. For example,
The family name "Coffin" refers to someone who was bald; the family name "Hogg"
refers to a descendent of Roger. Further, you likely will not recognize that
the following family names: Kovar, Ferrari, Herrera, Kowalski, Lefevre, Gowan,
Haddad and Schmidt all refer to the same occupation--being a smith.
FIRST NAMES: Quite often the first name was also descriptive,
i.e., "Thomas" meant he was a twin. Among the Anglo-Saxons most first names were
made up of two elements, i.e., "Edward" was the joining together of "Ed" (fortunate)
and "Ward" (guard). After the Norman invasion of England, the habit of using names
from the Bible became quite popular. If interested in what your first name might
mean, visit this site concerning the origin
of first names and a few other interesting fact about names and etymology.
A FEW INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT NAMES:
- There are significantly more names used for girls
than boys.
- African Americans use more names than European Americans
- There were really no family names in England before
about 1000 years ago.
- Most common family names in America are: Smith, Clark,
Taylor (occupations)
- The wealthy Romans sometimes kept a slave with a
great memory. He was called a "nomenclator" and his job was to remember everyone's
name and whisper the correct name of anyone approaching. This was quite popular
with the politicians.
