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In Scotland and Wales it was to determine land ownership, after the middle ages. That is why there are so many people with the surname "Lake" "Woods", "Field", or "Hill". And some occupations, like "Baker," "Carpenter," or "Cooper." I believe African Americans, following emancipation, chose their own, and many liked Washington, who freed his slaves on his deathbed.
One of the reasons 'smith' is such a common name. There were dozens of kinds of smiths but they didn't differenchiate when they took it as a name. Anyone with a place name as a last name was likely named as a property owner, John of Kent with the of dropped later.
The Dutch didn't have surnames until Spain occupied The Netherlands in the 16th century. The Spanish demanded they come up with names to help identify them (and count their property) so the Dutch provided them--often using the name of their town or coming up with ridiculous names that the Spanish didn't realize translated into things like Born Naked.
Hi Mightyqueen801,
I know this post was a few years ago now, but I'm wondering if you have a reference or website about the Dutch making up interesting surnames for the Spanish.
I'm interested because my surname goes back to meaning 'have not'. Which in the context of your comment would really start to make sense!
I know this post was a few years ago now, but I'm wondering if you have a reference or website about the Dutch making up interesting surnames for the Spanish.
I'm interested because my surname goes back to meaning 'have not'. Which in the context of your comment would really start to make sense!
Thanks for your time,
EngleDutch
My mother gave me a book some years ago called Delightfully Dutch. I read it in there. I don't have the book anymore--lost a bunch of books and pretty much everything else I owned in a house fire in 1997. It had recipes from The Netherlands (many of which sounded pretty disgusting, lol) and history about the Dutch in the U.S.
I love to do Google searches, though, so let me see what I can find...
ETA: Found this right away, which attributes the giving of surnames to Napolean, not the the Spanish.
My mother gave me a book some years ago called Delightfully Dutch. I read it in there. I don't have the book anymore--lost a bunch of books and pretty much everything else I owned in a house fire in 1997. It had recipes from The Netherlands (many of which sounded pretty disgusting, lol) and history about the Dutch in the U.S.
I love to do Google searches, though, so let me see what I can find...
ETA: Found this right away, which attributes the giving of surnames to Napolean, not the the Spanish.
Thank you so much for replying so quickly. I've found the book available on Amazon, so I've added it to my wishlist!
I'm sorry to hear about the house fire. I imagine it was devastating.
Thanks for doing the search - that was an interesting read. Napoleon is the most referenced example, but as proper surnames existed before him, I'm keen to know where they came from - I recently found a site that mentioned the English enforcing surnames during the time of their rule.
My mother gave me a book some years ago called Delightfully Dutch. I read it in there. I don't have the book anymore--lost a bunch of books and pretty much everything else I owned in a house fire in 1997. It had recipes from The Netherlands (many of which sounded pretty disgusting, lol) and history about the Dutch in the U.S.
I love to do Google searches, though, so let me see what I can find...
ETA: Found this right away, which attributes the giving of surnames to Napolean, not the the Spanish.
Ohhh, I'm adding that to my "books to buy" list! Thanks for mentioning it!!
I also noticed that there was an update to the book called Dutch Touches: Recipes & Traditions.
For anyone interested in Dutch surnames, I found these pages from the Meertens Institute the other day: Alles over familienamen « Naamkunde (links on the right.
I also noticed that there was an update to the book called Dutch Touches: Recipes & Traditions.
For anyone interested in Dutch surnames, I found these pages from the Meertens Institute the other day: Alles over familienamen « Naamkunde (links on the right.
I dont know if any of you in the States are aware of the historical novelist Bernard Cornwell, who is best known for his 'Sharpe' series of novels about a soldier fighting in the Napoleonic wars. It was made into a TV series here in the 90s and gave Sean Bean his first big break as Sharpe.
Cornwell was adopted as a child and after gaining some measure of fame for his writing, traced his birth father who was a Canadian WW2 soldier who had the unusual old Northern English surname of Oughtred .
Probably due to its relative rarity, he was able to trace the name all the way back to a 9th century Northumbrian Anglo Saxon warrior from Bamburgh castle called Uhtred, and has written a very good series of novels based on Uhtred called 'The Warrior Chronicles ' which I can happily recommend.
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