Find The Origin Of Your Last Name

Surnames, or last names, have been in existence since the 13th century. They were adopted as a means to distinguish people for tax purposes, but have become a way to identify people by their family, country of origin, and in some cases, religion. Finding the origin of your last name requires understanding the types of last names, the components that different countries and cultures use to create surnames, and how last names have changed over time. The following steps cover the origins and evolution of last names, and provide help you find the origin of your last name.

Steps

Types of Last Name

  1. Give people from a given region a last name denoting their place of origin. Place-name-based last names, as a group, are the most popular source of last names for people in the United States, comprising about 43 percent of the population. These are of several types:
    • Country of origin. This class includes surnames taken from countries, such as LaFrance and Spain, and from residents of those countries, such as English, French, and German.
    • Region or province of origin. This class includes surnames such Fleming, meaning from the Flanders region of Belgium, and Westphal, meaning from the German province of Westphalia.
    • Geographic features. This class includes both names taken from general geographic features, such as Camp, Hill, Parks, or Woods, and names of specific geographic features, such as Shannon after the River Shannon in Ireland.
    • Estates. "Estates" here is used to mean residential property of any size, ranging from a small cottage to a manor surrounded by acres of land. These estates normally passed from father to son, as did the surnames. These surnames include last names such as Cheshire, Cunningham, Kent, and Preston.
    • Place-name-based surnames often begin with a prefix denoting "from" ("de" in French, "von" in German, "van" in Dutch), "of" (corrupted to "O'"), or "at" ("At" or "Atte," later corrupted to "a"), as well as the prefixes "By" (Bykirk means "by a church") and "Under" (Underwood). They may also have a suffix indicating a geographic feature, such as "-ley," "-legh," or "-leigh," meaning near a pasture, or "-ea," "-ey," or "-ney," meaning near water.
  2. Give a child a surname indicating who that child's father is. Called patronymic surnames, these last names, as a group, are second to place-name-based last names in popularity, making up about 32 percent of last names in the United States. Patronyms are usually found as either prefixes or suffixes in last names.
    • Common patronymic prefixes are "O'" in Irish last names and "Mac-" and "Mc-" in both Scottish and Irish surnames, meaning "son of." Other such prefixes are "Bar-" and "Ben-" in Hebrew, "Ibn-" in Arabic, and "Fitz-" in Irish surnames.
    • The most recognized patronymic suffixes are "-son," found in English, Scottish, and Swedish last names; and its variation "-sen," found in Norwegian and Danish names. Other patronymic suffixes are "-az," found in Portuguese last names; "-ez," found in Spanish last names; "-ovich," found in Russian last names; and "-wicz," found in Polish last names. The endings "-s" and "-es" in names of Welsh origin, such as Roberts and Hughes, also indicate descent from men with those first names.
    • While most patronymic prefixes and suffixes mean "son of," there have been patronyms for daughters as well. At one time, prefixes such as "Ni-" and "Nic-" were used in Gaelic to mean "daughter of," and Icelandic women are still given last names ending in the suffix "-dottir."
    • Originally, children each generation were given last names indicating their immediate parentage; thus Simon Johnson might be the son of John Frederickson, who was the son of Frederick Stephenson. However, most countries today carry the original patronym to successive generations, with some exceptions.
  3. Give a person a last name denoting his or her occupation. This form of surname is the third most common in the United States, comprising almost 16 percent of its residents' last names. Some last names obviously indicate the occupation, such as Baker, Miller, or Speakman, while others are less obvious: Barker derives from the Old English word for tanning (as leather), Cooper was a barrel-maker, and Wainwright made wagons.
  4. Give someone a last name based on a personal characteristic. Just as people are given nicknames today based on an aspect of their appearance or personality, such as calling a redhead "Carrot-Top" or someone with a sunny disposition "Sunshine," last names have been assigned based on some characteristic. This type of last name is least common in the United States, making up less than 10 percent of the population.
    • Some last names have neutral connotations, such as "Reid," "Roth," or "Russ" referring to a person who had red hair.
    • Some last names are mildly negative, such as "Peel" or "Peele" referring to someone who was bald.
    • Some last names may have been backhanded insults, such as giving the surname "Power" to someone who was poor, as opposed to being a forceful person.
    • Some last names were outright insults, such as giving the surname "Barrett" to a person known to be a liar.
    • Some such last names were given to suggest the characteristics of an animal, either real or imagined. Richard the Lionheart was so named for his courage, while someone with the last name Adler (German for "eagle") may have had the keen sight (or insight) of an eagle or perhaps a nose like an eagle's.

How Last Names Have Evolved

  1. Simplify the spelling. Many names have changed their spellings over the years, usually becoming simpler. There are several ways to simplify how a name is spelled:
    • Eliminate silent letters. This can be as simple as changing the spelling of "Hoffmann" to "Hoffman" or "Hofman" or as complicated as changing "Caesche" to "Cash."
    • Spell a name the way it's now pronounced. Over time, the pronunciation of the name "Cockbourne" changed to "KO-burn," so the spelling of the name became "Coburn." Sometimes, the spelling changes first and the pronunciation follows, as may have happened when shortening "Davies" to "Davis."
    • Respell using the letters closest to those in the original language. The German language puts umlauts (diaereses, two dots) over the letters "a," "o," and "u" to indicate a different vowel sound than for those letters without the umlaut. It also uses a letter similar to a "B" with an open bottom called an "ess-tsett" in place of a double-s. Because English doesn't use these letters, German names with umlauts are often written with an "e" after the altered letter, such as "Moench." (As the pronunciation changes, the spelling may also change as well, simplifying the name to "Munch.") German names using the ess-tsett are written in English with "ss."
  2. Complicate the spelling. In contrast to simplifying the spelling of a surname, some last names are made fancier with additional letters, such as changing "Johnson" to "Johnstone" or adding a second "t" to "Barret" to make it "Barrett."
  3. Conform the spelling to the language of where the name-bearer now lives. Certain words are similar, but not identical, among different languages. Occupation-based last names based on these words may change to match the word in the new language when the possessor of that name moves to a new country, such as the German "Mueller" becoming the American "Miller."
  4. Translate the last name into its equivalent. Some languages use entirely different words to mean the same thing. Last names based on occupations that have very different words in two languages may be translated directly into the new language, such as the Irish "Brehon" becoming the English "Judge" or the German "Schneider" becoming the English "Taylor."
  5. Change the last name to something else. Just as people can legally change their names today, people in the past have changed their names for one reason or another. A family with the last name of "Hallstrom" today may at one time have used the surname "Rasmussen."

Identifying The Origin of a Last Name

  1. Look at the suffix. Many times, the ending letters of a last name provided a clue to its nationality. A partial list of suffixes by country is given below:
    • English: "-brook," "-field," "-ford," "-ham," "-ley," "-ton"
    • French: "-eau," "-el," "-iau," "-on," "-ot"
    • German: "-au," "-baum," "-berg," "-dorf," "-heim," "-hof," "-stadt," "-stein"
    • Greek: "-is," "-os"
    • Italian: "-ello," "-etti," "-ucco," "-uzzo" (Sometimes, an "a" or "i" may be substituted for the "o.")
    • Polish: "-ski," "-wicz"
    • Portuguese: "-eira"
    • Russian: "-ev," "-in," "-ov," "-sky." (Add an "a" if the person is female.)
    • Swedish: "-blad," "-blom," "-dahl," "-ek," "-holm," "-strom"
  2. Look for a prefix. In addition to prefixes meaning "of" or "from," some surnames may include a prefix equivalent to the definite article "the."
    • Arabic: "Al-", "El-"
    • Belgian: "De-"
    • French: "Du-", "Le-"
  3. Look it up if in doubt. A number of resources exist to help you identify the origin of a specific last name if you can't figure it out from the information presented here.
    • Books such as Elsdon C. Smith's "The Story of Our Names" and "The Dictionary of American Family Names" can provide background information on a number of common and less-common surnames.
    • Genealogy websites, such as Ancestor Search, Ancestry.com, and Genealogy.com include search engines to find the origin and meaning of any last name in their database of surnames.
    • Wikipedia it if you have little clue or don't want to spend money on fees, it will typically tell you what region it is from and might tell you what it is derived from or who it is named after.

Tips

  • Some last names may be common to two groups of people but have completely different origins. The surname "Ruff," for instance, is both a British and German surname. The British origin of "Ruff," however, is based on the condition of the land inhabited by the people originally given that surname ("Rugh") and may also have described their personalities. The German origin of "Ruff," in contrast, comes from the German word for red, "rot," and gives it a common origin with such names as "Rolf," "Roth," "Rufus," and "Russell."

Warnings

  • Many genealogy websites charge a subscription fee to use their services from your personal computer. You may be able to use their services for free from a public library computer, however.

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