Where Does My Last Name Come From?

Where does my last name come from? Your last name is your surname. It is passed down through the generations to connect the members of a family. Surnames are a recent development in our history and their use started as a means to distinguish between people with the same first name.

Surnames fall into four types depending on what they were derived from.

• Some come from first name combined with "son" to show that the person was the son of a specific person, like Johnson, Peterson, or Richardson. Most of these were from a male member of the family, but not always.
• Some names refer to occupations, like Smith, Baker, or Potter.
• Names based in location include Woods, Brooks, and Hill.
• Some names are based on nicknames, like Young, Armstrong, or Short.

Surname Origins

Want to know the origin of a particular last name? There are several Internet databases which can be used at no cost to find the original and meaning of a particular last name:

• Surname Database - An easy-to-use database
• Family Education Name Lab - A very large database of family name history

These sites offer examples of surnames and their meanings. Here are some common US last names and their meanings:

• Washington - a parish in Durham, England, from a word meaning “homestead”
• Adams - derived from the first man created
• Jefferson - from the name Geoffrey meaning “a peaceful place”
• Lincoln - meaning “from the lake colony”
• Bailey - from the old French word, “bailiff,” a municipal officer
• Parker - from the Old French for “keeper of the park”
• Lopez - meaning” son of Lope,” Lope comes from the word for “wolf”
• Ferguson - means “son of Fergus” and formerly “vigorous man”
• Grant - a form of “grand” meaning “big," or “senior”
• Lee - a person who “lives in a lea,” with “lea” meaning “clearing in the woods”

There are other meanings besides occupation, place, nickname or family name. Sometimes, when a person moves to another country, they will change their last name to make it easier to say or spell. Through history, the spelling of surnames has changed for many, so your name may not be spelled the way an ancestor spelled it. This may have been done deliberately to cover up transgressions of the family, so in that way, it could mean your ancestors may have been not upstanding members of society. 

Genealogy

You can also learn more about your surname by tracing your ancestry. Interest in genealogy has risen in recent times, and there are many websites that can start you on your journey.

Genealogy is the study of family ancestries and also refers to the record of an individual’s ancestry. Some people have traced their roots to improve their social standing or to see if there is any “royal” blood in them. Even today, some people in the United States search their family history to see if they are descendants of the original colonists, or other key figures in early American history. Many resources are available on the Internet to do just that.    

History of Surnames

The first civilization to use surnames were the Chinese about 5,000 years ago. Europeans started using them around the 10th to 11th century in Italy and eventually their use was widespread. 

In the 13th century, about one third of males were named Richard, John, or William, so there had to be a way of telling them apart. Sometimes a person would be referred to as John the son of William, John the cook, John from the meadow, John the brown-haired, and so on. Many of these descriptions became surnames, like Williamson, Cook, Meadows, or Brown. Soon, these names were handed down to the next generation.