What's the origin of your surname?

[Drunken Irishman]

You don't have to post it, but you can look it up here:

http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp/sId./qx/default.htm

My surname is from Ireland, but it doesn't say what area. The surname had Mc attached to it, but they dropped the Mc when they moved over to the states from Ireland.

What is the origin of your surname?

[KatyMan]

1. While not asking you to post your surname

Most Irish names are pretty specific to an area. When we lived in Ireland and I mentioned my mother's maiden name, everyone went 'Oh, Donegal'. Probably wouldn't take too much googling to find out.

[Parche]

2. Ireland

Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :hi:

[billyskank]

3. Mine is not good.

[supernova]

13. Hard to imagine

:-)

[billyskank]

16. Choice quote:

"It is a name for a person who was a person of wild or undisciplined character."

[supernova]

18. So was John the Baptist

but I don't hear anybody complaining about him nowadays.

[Ava]

4. scottish

i guess it's appropriate that i'm a red head now then :rofl:

[many a good man]

5. Drinking buddy and wine steward to the king

Originally was the bastard son of a turncoat king conquered by the Normans. Name was changed to fit his new role. Derived from French word for bottle. Family name redeemed centuries later by a descendant who helped the good guys in the War of Independence. He let the rebels use his pad to store arms and plot against the Brits.

[Critters2]

6. It got mine wrong.

Said it was a variant of an English name. Indeed, my name is often misspelled as that English name, but they have no relationship. My surname denotes my family's German home region.

[SeattleGirl]

7. My surname is also from Ireland.

Found a lot of history about my ancestors, the Coat of Arms, etc.

Pretty interesting stuff.

[huskerlaw]

8. Dutch/German

Apparently. I thought it was only German. Interesting.

Other family names: Scotch, Irish, English...and they didn't recognize the one I know to be Danish.

[Flaxbee]

9. my maiden name is unmistakably German, though the site

couldn't find it.

Married name is either English or German - could be an anglicized German last name. We just have no idea b/c all my husband's family died when he was very young - no relatives to ask.

[philosophie_en_rose]

10. Scotland

[no name no slogan]

11. It's not listed there

but it's probably Slovak given my knowledge of my ancestry.

[supernova]

12. Scottish Border Family

"While I have breath, I have hope."

Soldier/Fighters who also love debate and the written word. Funny that. :D

[KatyMan]

15. I don't understand the motto on mine...

VIRTUTE INGENIOQUE VALEMUS, which an online latin translator says means: VALOR CLEVERLY BID FAREWELL. Not a shining example of a motto...

[supernova]

17. Virtue is the engineer of valor?

I'm no latin expert.

[evlbstrd]

14. I already knew this, but here it is.

With the arrival of the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 11th century came new naming traditions to the eastern region of Ireland. These new naming traditions actually meshed fairly well with the pre-existing Irish traditions. Both cultures made significant use of hereditary surnames. And like the native Irish, the Strongbownians often used prefixes to build patronymic surnames, which are names based on the given name of the initial bearer's father or another older relative. Strongbow's followers often created names that were built with the prefix Fitz-, which was derived from the French word fils, and ultimately from the Latin filius, both of which mean son. They also used diminutive suffixes such as -ot, -et, -un, -in, or -el, and occasionally even two suffixes combined to form a double diminutive such as -el-in, -el-ot, -in-ot, and -et-in, to build patronymic names. The surname ***** is derived from Breat(h)nach which literally means Welshman. Phillip Brenagh, known as "Phillip the Welshman" was likely the progenitor of the family. Phillip and his brother David arrived with Strongbow, in 1170.

[SPKrazy]

19. Most likely English

although it could be Norwegian :shrug:

[Burma Jones]

20. Scottish

So, I'm NOT crap!!!!!

My Family Motto is: "Fortune Favors the Bold" I was kind of hoping it was a typo and that Fortune Favors the Bald.....

[CottonBear]

21. English who fought at the Battle of Hastings and then years later moved to Scotland.

So they were English then became Scottish.

My family is Scots-Irish through and through. :)
We are Presbyterians with red and blonde hair and blue eyes!

My mom's maiden name is Irish.

My paternal grandfather came over from Northern Ireland in the late 1600s. His daughter, Elizabeth, married a very well known person in American history who famously died in battle. My grandfather was the executor of his estate.

[Drunken Irishman]

26. My grandfather on my mother's side has some Scots-Irish in him...

Along with Danish and Irish. One of his ancestors was a Presbyterian minister who was born in Ulster and emigrated to Pennsylvania. His surname was Huey, however his wife was from Cork.

[Ramsey]

22. English

My surname is English. It dates back to the Norman conquest, first heard in Derbyshire. First person with this surname in the US settled in Virginia in 1623.

Motto: Everywhere to remeber one's country

[deadparrot]

23. Prussian/German.

[Critters2]

24. This site is better....

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx

The site in the OP gave wrong info for my surname, my mother's maiden name, and my grandmother's maiden name. Made us all English, gave English place origins, even though none of my ancestors are English (my Scottish and Irish relatives are quite proud of this fact).

The ancestry.com site got all of my family's surname info right.

[Drunken Irishman]

27. Thanks for that link!

I'm sure there are some issues with that one site, but it's been pretty correct in my family line.

[Drunken Irishman]

30. Hm, that site has my surname as English, not Irish.

Even though I know it's both, like many Irish surnames.

err, never mind! I clicked name meaning instead of name origin. The name's origin is more common in Ireland than any where else in the world.

[nickinSTL]

46. eh, this one didn't have mine either...

:shrug:

It's not THAT rare.

[skygazer]

25. It's English which I knew

The motto on the crest translates as, "To suffer is best" which explains a lot about my life. :wtf:

For some reason, there are three ducks on the family crest. :rofl:

[bicentennial_baby]

28. Dutch

[Rob H.]

29. Hmm. German AND Scottish

I know my dad's ancestors emigrated to the US from Germany, though.

[Inchworm]

31. Very Neat!

I have always wondered.


The family saga is rooted in the people of the Pictish clan of ancient Scotland. The family lived in one of several places named after the family in the counties of Angus and Perth. The surname belongs to the category of habitation names, which are derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads.

Digging it! Didnt the Picts like wreck Rome when they came to visit?

:hi:

[sarge43]

32. Keep in mind a lot of surnames were Anglicized

A good friend's surname is Andrews. When her grandparents processed through Ellis Island it was changed from Andrejeski.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[LisaM]

34. If it's no Scottish, its Crrrrap

Need I say more?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

39. Give me back my kidney!

:rofl:

[JTG of the PRB]

35. Technically, MY last name doesn't have a clear origin...

...because it was altered when my Germanic relatives came to Ellis Island (or some other port-of-entry) in the early 20th Century. The closest guess is that the original family name was Gunter. That's on my father's side, and my father doesn't know where his grandparents kept all the information regarding his family tree.

There are family crests from all over my mother's side, on the other hand. Bradshaw, De La Cour, Chittenden, Hooper... Some old, OLD English and French family names. Yay history!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. When my father's side of the family came from Norway, they

still followed the old Scandinavian custom of taking one's father's name and adding -sen or -dotter to it. For that reason, all the cousins had different last names. My grandfather was Ole Trondsen, Ole son of Tronde, but when he and his cousins became American citizens, they decided to take the same last name.

All farms in Norway have names, usually based on the geographical features of the place. Like many other Norwegian immigrants (and people in Norway, once they were required to take on permanent last names), they adopted the name of their ancestral farm or town.

The name of this farm also happens to be the name of a town in Norway, so people who know Scandinavia always ask if my ancestors came from that town.

The answer is no, they didn't. In fact, they came from the other end of the country.

[Momgonepostal]

37. Poitou, France

Does this mean I hate America?

[femmocrat]

38. None of the original or phonetic spellings were recognized.

Although I know my family all came from an area that is now the Slovak Republic.

[greatauntoftriplets]

40. I already knew my family name history.....

and the site confirmed. It's originally French, then Norman Irish.

Then I searched my mother's maiden name, and they had never heard of her.

[Left Is Write]

41. My original name meant "son of so-and-so."

Yes, yes, my original name was Soandsoson. ;)

[billyskank]

62. Really?

That rules!

But for awesome names, I reckon you can't beat Magnus Magnusson. :D

[Left Is Write]

65. No, but the principle is the same. It's the name of someone's son.

Check your PM.

[BrotherBuzz]

42. Swiss

Dude who lives high on the mountain and digs deep holes into it for fortune. :shrug:

[Bunny]

43. "I drink, therefore I am".

Oh wait. That was Descartes. I'm just Irish - apparently we held the family seat in County Clare from very ancient times.

[NewWaveChick1981]

44. My maiden name is English and refers to non-indentured folks.

:P :rofl: My married name is of German origin.

[nickinSTL]

45. "Sorry the name Xxxxxx was not found."

I replaced my real last name with the X's, of course - but the site isn't very complete.

I also tried a number of variations on the name - all with the same results.

However, I do know that my name is German and comes from an area in northern Germany, not far from the current border with the Netherlands.

[jgraz]

47. I think I got it from my parents...

:P

[RushIsRot]

48. Well, I'll be dipped! Scottish! All this time I thought it was Irish.

[njdemocrat106]

49. Irish and Scottish

I know I'm Irish on my dad's side of the family (and Polish on my mom's), maybe I have a little Scotsman in me.

[Drunken Irishman]

57. Hopefully he pulls out.

Ok, REALLY bad joke, but I couldn't help it. :/

[Heidi]

50. Italian (Toscana region) but it's not listed there.

:(

[DarkTirade]

51. My surname is also from ireland

and under 'famous people with this last name' they listed the person I'm named after...

But ironically enough, I'm not irish. Nor do I have any irish blood in me (as far as I know). My surname is from my mom's first husband, before she became enough of a feminist to decide to keep her last name when she married my biological father. Then after he left when I was less than a year old, my brother and I just never used his last name, so we dropped the hyphen and everything after it. :) The only people I'm related to who share my last name are my brother and his daughter.

Also oddly enough, I have a welsh first name, an english middle name, and an irish last name... and as far as I know, I have no UK ancestry whatsoever. :) (although I MIGHT... I don't know my father's side of the family that well, but his last name was of english origin according to this site. All I know about the ancestry there is that my father was part, I think half, native american. I don't even know what tribe(s) though.)

[Solon]

52. Irish and Scottish...

My last name is a shortened variant version of McBeth, my first name is Gaelic for "King of the World" or "Ruler of the World", in addition, on my Mother's side, her maiden name is both Irish and French, and the family motto is "Like a Rock". I think I gave enough information for people to guess both.

[FloridaJudy]

53. Mine was changed

From something Eastern European (and hence difficult for Americans to pronounce/spell) to a common English one by a clerk in the immigration office. So I doubt very much that any of those family crests apply to me.

This happened to both my maiden and married names BTW. I gather it was commonplace back at the turn of the last century for immigration officers to write down the closest-sounding English name on immigration forms.

[Tektonik]

54. I have the last name of my mom

and it's a pretty rare (if someone has my last name, I'd surely be related to them) last name originating from the Loire département of France

[nuxvomica]

55. Huh. I didn't know my original Italian surname had a coat of arms

It includes two fleurs-de-lis so I wonder if it's originally from France.

[lizziegrace]

56. Originally, Greece

My grandfather came from Crete. I have no idea why, when he shortened the family name, he chose a German/Austrian surname. :shrug:

[China_cat]

58. Frisian

[hyphenate]

59. Did some researching on it some years ago

and have two separate possibilities, one Irish, the other English. They're incompatible with each other, though, so I'm not totally sure which is more likely.

The Irish version comes from the Waterford area of Ireland (O'Hairty), and the English version is from "hart tree" with a famous ancestor named Douglas Hartree.

So while my last name is not a popular one, it's got some history to it.

[FuzzySlippers]

60. Originated in Forfarshire, Scotland. n/t

[XemaSab]

61. Scots-Irish

We kept the Mc. ;)

[hippywife]

63. Italian but not listed on there. n/t

[mvd]

64. French Huguenot

Ancestors first came to upstate NY in the 1600s.

[libodem]

66. English

Dates back to the wave of migration that followed the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The family lived in Cheshire at the village of 'said name'. Motto: I will have Justice. Pretty cool, huh.

[MrSlayer]

67. German.

It means "The Storm".

[Dervill Crow]

68. England, carried there with the Norman invasion of 1066.

The motto is said to be, "This eagle is no fly-catcher." :rofl:

That's my bio-mom's last name. The houseofnames.com site gives my family name a choice of Dutch, English, German, Jewish, and Scottish.

My husband's surname and mine for the last 34 years is French.

[krispos42]

69. English, Scottish, a few others

I knew that already, though. I think everybody in the country does!

[achtung_circus]

70. It screwed up on mine.

It said it was English, although we have documented its metamorphosis from German, back to 1733.

[I Have A Dream]

Deleting (duplicate) n/t

[I Have A Dream]

71. None - I made mine up and went to court to legally change my name. n/t

[MysticalChicken]

72. Ireland. Woo!

I've always loved Ireland. I want to go there someday.

[EFerrari]

73. These guys want to sell me a family crest!

:rofl:

[u4ic]

74. It's Ukrainian, but it was not in their database n/t

[bonito]

75. I remain unvanquished. heh

Well, so far :)

[Skittles]

76. mine isn't in there

but it is Norwegian

[Zookeeper]

77. Scottish...

but, it was pretty obvious, anyway. :)