Carolyn's Desk Drawer for Genealogy Stuff Author: Carolyn K Filer |
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| Index by Surnames |
| Index of Persons by Ranges |
| Archives of Records and Documents |
| The Origins of Surnames. |
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The Romans originally used only one name. Later in time, they adopted three to four names. As the Roman Empire began to decline, family names became confused and single names once again became customary.
During the early Middle Ages, people were referred to by a single given name. But gradually a custom developed of adding another name to help distinguish individuals. Sometimes this second name referred to the place of birth, a personal characteristic, or an occupation.
The inheritance of the surname down through the generations derived for a Venetian aristocracy practice in Italy about the 10th or 11th century. Crusaders returning from the Holy Land took note of this custom and soon spread its use throughout Europe. France, the British Isles, and then Germany and Span began applying the practice, as the need to distinguish individuals became more important.
By the 12th century, the use of a second name became very widespread. These second names became the source of the surnames used today. These second names that were used in the early Middle Ages did not apply to families, nor where they hereditary. Each new generation adopted a name that suited them as individuals. For example William's son John might be known as John Williamson, while his son William would be William Johnson.
Government reached a point where it needed to maintain records of taxation and military service. In order for it to be reliable, it became necessary to accurately identify individuals.
In some of the larger urban communities especially, personal names became useful for social purposes as well as government purposes. In the countryside, the hereditary succession to land meant that it became necessary to keep track of families and not just of individuals. Thus barons and landowners began to derived their names from their manors and fiefs. These names gradually became fixed through the hereditary nature of their lands.
The manorial use of the surnames, then trickled down to the merchants and commoners. For members of the working and middle classes seeking status, the practices of the nobility were imitated, leading to the widespread use of surnames.
By the 1370's the word "surname" was found in documents, and had come to acquire some emotive and dynastic significance. Men sometimes sought to keep their surname alive by encouraging a collateral to adopt it when they had no direct descendants of their own in the male line. The continuation of the surname became a matter of pride.
By 1450 at the latest, most people of whatever social rank had a fixed, hereditary surname. This surname identified the family, provided a link with the family's past, and would preserve its identity in the future. It is not surprising that the preservation of surnames became a matter of family pride.
Poland and Russia began to use family names beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Scandinavian customarily used the father's name as a second name, didn't begin using family surnames until the 19th century. Turkey waited until 1933, when the government forced the practice on its people.
Family names have come down to us in various ways. They may have grown out of a person's surroundings or job, or the name of an ancestor. Most surnames evolved from four general sources:
- Occupation: The local house builder, food preparer, grain grinder and suit maker, would be named respectively: John Carpenter, John Cook, John Miller, and John Taylor. The Millers in one town were not necessarily related to the Miller's in the next.
- Location: The John who lived over the hill became known as John Overhill: the one who dwelled near a stream might be dubbed John Brook. Names ending with -hill, -ford, -wood, -brook, -well and so on, probably originated from place names. -ton, -ham, - wick, -stead meant farm, small settlement. -don (hill), -bury (a fortification), -leigh or -ley (a clearing).
- Patronymic (father's name): Many of these names can be recognized by the termination -son, such as Williamson, Jackson, etc. Danes and Norwegians used -sen. Welsh used -ap. The Scots and Irish -Mac. The Normans used -fitz.
- Characteristic: An unusually small person might be labeled Small, Short, Little, Lytle. A large man might be named Longfellow, Large, Lang, or Long. People having characteristics of a certain animal would be given the animal's name such as Fox (sly person), Fish (good swimmer), Dove (quiet person).
Many historians believe that surnames derived from places (locational) were the first to become hereditary. Surnames evolved from nicknames or descriptive traits are also of early origin. Surnames taken from occupations came later, and those of patronymic origin were the last to become hereditary. Although patronymic names had been used a long time, they would change with every generation, and were not hereditry (i.e, Williamson, Johnson).
Different spellings of the same original surname were a common occurrence. Language changes, carelessness, and a high degree of illiteracy compounded the number of ways a name might have been spelled. Often the town clerk or census taker spelled the name the way it sounded to him.
When European immigrants first arrived in the new worlds, it was often the immigration inspectors who decided whether or not to change a new arrival's name. This was done for various reasons. Sometimes it was due to mispronunciation, misspelling, or the inability of the immigration officials to translate a Russian or Greek name into our Roman alphabet. Most of my ancestors probably escaped this problem, since they arrived before the big influx of immigrants to sites such as Ellis Island. But there is plenty of evidence of names being spelled differently by the county clerks, sometimes within the same document. Also there is some evidence that names evolved over time, becoming more Americanized.
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