The origin of your surname?

[similar.squirrel]

Kenderesi..'Kender' means 'hemp' in Hungarian [yuck], so perhaps I contain PCP..

 

[cleverlymadeup]

My last name is very distinctive. Pretty much everyone in the US who has it is descended from a man who emigrated from Ulster, Ireland to the United States in the late 1700s. Everyone, that is, but my family. My grandfather came over from Ireland as a young man, with his brother, whose son was the only person with my name that I have ever met outside of my own family. It's strange to think that, despite the rarity of my name (in Ireland too) that I'm no more related to other people with my name than any person of Irish descent. Oh, here's a fun fact - there are more people of Irish descent in the US than there are in Ireland.

i have something similar to mine, i actually met someone who had the same last name as me and we weren't related at all. it was kinda odd

 

[Starnerf]

Tabor: metonymic occupational name for a drummer, from Middle English, Old French tabo(u)r ?drum?.

My last name is actually Taber, but the meaning is the same.

 

[ohellynot]

Unfortunately, I have an extremely boring surname which is Roman in origin and means "son of Rob"... See if you can guess what it is...

err.. robius

 

[ohellynot]

'Melville'
Look it up on wikipedia.
THAT'S RIGHT! MY name has it's own wikipedia page!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melville_family

Yes well my family have an entire village named after us
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lythe
HA
sorry for the double post

 

[Mr Fatherland]

My surname is Graham and it was first recorded in 1086 as either Graham or Grandham. Apparantly, it translates as "homestead", or in 7th century Olde english it can translate roughly as "gravel". My surname was taken to Scotland by the Norman Baron William de Graham, holder of the manor in Lincolnshire in the 12th century. The surname Graham has over 40 coats of arms for as many as 45 families.. I couldn't find mine. There you go, a history lesson on my surname. xD

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

My surname's Parker, and we have a family history up in the loft, which details as far back as a Norman invader, back in the 11th century, apparently.

I always thought it sounded a bit far-fetched, but its as good a beginning for a name as any.

 

[Biek]

My surname (Voorhout) is similair to a city in the Netherlands. So I assume my ancestors came from there. While googling it, I also found out there are some 16th century paintings of people with my last name. Not sure if their related though.

 

[Disaster Button]

Ooohhh
My surname is derived from the gaelic word for wolf.
And I'm a Pict.
That is the coolest thing ever.

Damn that is cool.

Mine's Shields, so until I can be bothered to check I'm going to assume it means sometihng like a shield maker, cos force shield would be far too cool for it's meaning.

 

[Disaster Button]

'Melville'
Look it up on wikipedia.
THAT'S RIGHT! MY name has it's own wikipedia page!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melville_family

Lol, I think Ima go change that.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

I think mine's french.

Hmm would you fancy that, but that information was lost to my family

 

[Kajin]

my last name is patterson. it means noble. which would explain why the name is so prolific in america. nobles tend to f*** like crazy.

 

[goatzilla8463]

I'm Chinese and my surname is Shao.

Seeing as there are so many Chinese people out there, it would take ages to find my true line of heritage.

 

[Macgyvercas]

My last name is Wiest. All I know is that it's German

 

[damselgaming]

My surname is Sawyer. It comes from the name of old time lumberjacks who, to saw through especially large tree trunks, used to dig a hole and have one man in the hole and one man above the hole. They would vertically hold the double handled saw and cut through the wood. The sawyer was the person at the top and the person in the pit was called the 'underdog'.
So there you have it.

 

[Awesometown]

Goldenthal,it was given to my family be a noble when he had no heirs
don't know what it means

 

[Player 2]

'Melville'
Look it up on wikipedia.
THAT'S RIGHT! MY name has it's own wikipedia page!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melville_family

Yes well my family have an entire village named after us
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lythe
HA
sorry for the double post

Yeah? well I have a city [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeddah], a town [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedburgh], a forest [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedforest], a river [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jed_Water], a text editor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JED_(text_editor)], and a religion [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jediism] named after me, beat that.

 

[Berethond]

I just looked up my surname, and found somehting interesting. My surname is thought to be one of the oldest in Scotland, and I may be related to MacBeth. My family motto is "Virtue under Strength". Anywho, turns out my last name has something to do with MacBeth pretending to be a tree in an attack. (Camoflage (sp?), not just for a game or something)

Anything you can find out about your surname that surprised you? Or a fact about your ancestry you'd like to share?

EDIT: My last name is Aikman, I'm Scottish, thought I should mention those things.

Spoiler: My Coat of Arms

I'm Scottish too. My last name is MacMillan. It means 'son who bears the tonsure'. My ancestors where priests who would shave the front part of their head instead of the middle like the stereotypical monk. But I guess the updated meaning would be son of a bald man. Edit: My clan motto is: I learn to help those that are in need.

My clan motto is

I meant well.

Mine's awesome.

 

[Corven]

My last name is derived from Basque Aretxuloeta which ultimately comes from the place name Arechavaleta (Basque: Aretxabaleta). The placename uses the Basque words "(h)aritz" (oak tree), "zabal" (wide) and "eta" (indicating plurality), with the combined meaning of "wide place where oak trees grow."

...cool.