GenealogyDNA.com

Our Genealogy surnames owe their origins to the Chinese who first adopted their use 5000 years ago. A surname, or last name, is a common name held by all members of a family to distinguish two or people with the same first name.

Though the Chinese found merit in surnames, the practice of handing a name down through the generations did not take hold in Europe until the 10th or 11th centuries. First this was done by aristocracy around Venice, but eventually all classes of Europeans used surnames to establish known members of a family.

Surname genealogy has roots in four distinct areas. Some last names were actually the first name of the father. This kind of surname is called patronymic. Some examples include Roberts – son of Robert or Michaels –son of Michael.

In Ireland, the placement of the single letter “O” before the father’s name created a surname like O’Dunn. In Old England, the name “Fitz” was placed before a father’s name such as Fitzpatrick.

The second kind of surname showed off social status or employment. One of the most common names among English-speaking peoples is Smith and it corresponds with a most common occupation of old, blacksmith. Wagner comes from wagon maker and Cooper comes from barrel maker.

The third origin of surname involved location. The Welsh word for church was “kirK’ and the name Kirkpatrick denoted the “church of St. Patrick”. Many last names match the location of towns and villages in Europe.

And lastly, personality had a role in the creation of surnames. A muscular individual took the name Armstrong. Reid might have had red hair and Sharp was likely an intelligent sort.

Record keeping was much like the old game of “telephone” and often, the spelling of the same surname got changed with subsequent generations.

Whatever your interest in genealogy surnames, a whole new world awaits you simply for typing in your last name in the blue box above and seeing where it takes you.