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Origin of Surnames

A surname is part of a personal name that is passed from either or both parents to their offspring. Customs on the format of surnames change from region to region and their use has changed over time. In most Western nations, the surname occurs at the end of a personal name, after a given name or names. Conversely some East Asian counties and Hungary place the surname before given names.

In most regions and time periods, surnames were assumed based on descent from a male ancestor (usually the father), but in some cases were passed by the mother. Use of the mother's surname is usually due to extenuating circumstances (illegitimacy, posthumous birth, inheritance etc.), though in some regions culture dictated the use of the mother's surname. Many Spanish-speaking nations use both the mother and father's surname to create dual surnames. Historically some families used family or house names that are considered different from surnames. Some examples are the royal houses of Carolingian and Plantagenet. In some cases, those of a house may use a surname other than their house name, or no name at all.

Surnames and family names have arisen throughout history as civilisations advance and become increasingly useful to distinguish people when they are recorded in written records, particularly tax records.

The earliest surnames in Western Europe grew out of existing methods of distinguishing people. Thus, a noble ruling from Savoy may have been known as Umberto de Savoy, a blacksmith may have been known as John le Smith and a bald man may be known as William the Bald; much in the same way we refer to people in similar ways today, such as John the Gob or Rachel the Bean Counter.

These names were not necessarily hereditary, but were dictated by circumstance. The son of the noble, Umberto de Savoy, may rule at Lorraine and be known as Lothair de Lorraine, the son of John le Smith may be a cheese-maker and known as Dominic Cheeseman and the son of William the Bald may have a head shaped like an onion and known as Darren Onionhead. Surnames only arose when families decided they were going to stick to a 'pseudo-surname''.

This change occurred at different periods in different regions. For example, surnames were largely adopted between the 11th and 16th centuries in England, between the 16th and 19th centuries in Wales and between the 11th and 19th centuries in Scotland. Each family has to be taken on a case by case basis. Though it is not possible to prove the origin of most surnames, it is possible to make educated guesses in some cases.

Patronymic Surnames

The majority of surnames are derived from the name of a male ancestor. These evolved from pre-existing non-permanent naming customs whereby an individual was identified by reference to a male ancestor or ancestors. Some example are: Bedo ap Batho ap Heylin (Welsh: Bedo, son of Batho, son of Heylin), which would become Bedo Batho; Lars Andersen (Scandianvian), Andrew MacDonald (Scottish: Andrew son of Donald) and Henry fil. Grimbald (English: Henry son of Grimbald). Such names are essentially the name of the father, sometimes with a suffix or prefix to denote the name as a patronym. For example, Armenian patronyms typically end in -ian, Polish patronyms end in -ski and Irish patronyms begin with Fitz-.

Patronymic surnames are indistinguishable from clan surnames, which may be assumed by subjects of a clan leader.

Occupational Surnames

Surnames derived from the occupation of an ancestor are also common, with Smith being the most common surname in the UK. This category of surnames is divided into two groups: standard occupations and titular occupations, such as Stewart, derived from an ancient clan title in Scotland.

Topographical Surnames

Topographical surnames can be derived from features of a landscape (Hill, Ford) or from place names (London, Aston, Eaton, Molyneux). Those surnames derived from place names were initially adopted by families that held land. However, later such adoptions of surnames derived from place names occurred when people moved from one place to another.

Descriptive Surnames

Descriptive surnames are less common, partly as they were often derived from unflattering characteristics such as: stupidity, girth, baldness and sometimes outright insults like Blackinthemouth. Many of these surnames have disappeared. There is on the other hand good survival of surnames derived from positive or neutral characteristics; Trow & Triggs (meaning trustworthy), Young, White and Good.

Matronymic Surnames

Matronymic surnames are derived from the name of a female ancestor (usually the mother) and are uncommon in most parts of the world. Such names may arise due to illegitimate or posthumous births and occur amongst nobility when the mother was higher ranked than her spouse or 'bit on the side'.

http://forebears.io/Surnames

A surname's origin is influenced by the progenitor's social class and the culture they lived in. Those of higher social status often took surnames that are uncommon today; whereas people of lower social status often took what are today common surnames. It is also clear that people of lower social status had less control over their surnames, no doubt handed to them by aldermen, lords and other authorities. Thus we find numerous insulting surnames, such as 'Tew', Welsh for fat; Tardiff, meaning sluggish and Dullard, meaning a hard and conceited man.

There are a number of different origins of surnames. Tribal and more patriarchal societies often have surnames derived from male names, while more developed societies with trades and established rulers often have a large number of surnames derived from occupations and place names.

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"One school (of thought) leans toward being consistent in the spelling of a surname regardless of how it is spelled in the records where you find the individual.

The other school of thought suggests that you should record the surnames as you find them in the records.

The way these people get around this is to have a list of variant spellings they need to check when researching, but when they record the name in their database or on a given family group sheet or pedigree chart, they adhere to a standard spelling.
The other school of thought stems from trying to be as accurate as possible in the recording of the information.

By recording the spelling as it is found, they can see how the surname may have changed over a period of time, especially useful when working on immigrants.

The downside to this is what spelling do you take? In some research you may find a person's surname spelled three or four different ways in three or four different records. My rule of thumb here is to go with the spelling as I find it in the record closest to the birth of the individual."

http://www.genealogy.com/articles/over/heard120601.html

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What Constitutes Genealogical Proof...

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Mississippi Department of Archives & History

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DNA

A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages

(R-M269 just means your direct male line came from europe it doesn't mean that any of those males where not american indian you could be full blooded with a europe Haplogroup it only takes about 3 generations to be closed to full blooded.) (Bureau of Indian Affairs | Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood / Alaska Native Blood Instructions )

The relative contributions to modern European populations of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers from the Near East have been intensely debated. Haplogroup R1b1b2 (R-M269) is the commonest European Y-chromosomal lineage, increasing in frequency from east to west, and carried by 110 million European men.

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1000285
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21865258

Distribution of R-M269 in Europe increases in frequency from east to west.

It peaks at the [following] national levels...

92% in Wales

82% in Ireland

76% in Normandy

70% in Scotland

68% in Spain

60% in Portugal

60% in France

53% in Italy

50% in Germany

50% in the Netherlands

45% in Eastern England

43% in Denmark

42% in Iceland

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R-M269 reaches levels as high as 95% in parts of Ireland.

It has also been found at lower frequencies throughout central Eurasia, but with relatively high frequency among the Bashkirs of the Perm Region (84.%).

This marker is present in China and India at frequencies of less than one percent.

(According to the study Suslova et al. 2015: "The Bashkirs appear close to Mongoloids in allele and haplotype distribution. However, Bashkirs cannot be labelled either as typical Mongoloids or as Caucasoids. Thus, Bashkirs possess some alleles and haplotypes frequent in Mongoloids, which supports the Turkic impact on Bashkir ethnogenesis, but also possess the AH 8.1 haplotype, which could evidence an ancient Caucasoid population that took part in their ethnic formation... Bashkirs showed no features of populations with a substantial Finno-Ugric component, for example Chuvashes or Russian Saami. This disputes the commonly held belief of a Finno-Ugric origin for Bashkirs...)

Suslova, T. A.; Burmistrova, A. L.; Chernova, M. S.; Khromova, E. B.; Lupar, E. I.; Timofeeva, S. V.; Devald, I. V.; Vavilov, M. N.; Darke, C. (1 October 2012). "HLA gene and haplotype frequencies in Russians, Bashkirs and Tatars, living in the Chelyabinsk Region (Russian South Urals)". International Journal of Immunogenetics. 39(5): 394–408.

R-M269 appears to have been present since antiquity.

R-M269 has been found, for instance, at a rate of ~44% among remains dating from the 11th to 13th centuries at Punta Azul, in the Canary Islands.

These remains have been linked to the Bimbache (or Bimape), a subgroup of the Guanche.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440316301686

In living males, it peaks in parts of North Africa, especially Algeria, at a rate of 10%.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, R-M269 appears to peak in Namibia, at a rate of 8% among Herero males.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080626010918/http://hammerlab.biosci.arizona.edu/publications/Wood_2005_EUR.pdf

Apart from undiverged, basal R-M269*, there are (as of 2017) two primary branches of R-M269:

R-L23 (R1b1a1a2a; L23/PF6534/S141) and

R-PF7558 (R1b1a1a2b; PF7558/PF7562.)

R-L23* and its subclades are by far the most common forms of R-M269. R-PF7558 is now rare, but has been reported anecdotally at low levels throughout Western Eurasia (Europe and the Middle East)

R-L23 (Z2105/Z2103; a.k.a. R1b1a1a2a) has been reported among the peoples of the Idel-Ural (by Trofimova et al. 2015): 21 out of 58 (36.2%) of Burzyansky District Bashkirs, 11 out of 52 (21.2%) of Udmurts, 4 out of 50 (8%) of Komi, 4 out of 59 (6.8%) of Mordvins, 2 out of 53 (3.8%) of Besermyan and 1 out of 43 (2.3%) of Chuvash were R1b-L23.

Subclades within the paragroup R-M269(xL23) – that is, R-M269* and/or R-PF7558 – appear to be found at their highest frequency in the central Balkans, especially Kosovo with 7.9%, Macedonia 5.1% and Serbia 4.4%.[7] Unlike most other areas with significant percentages of R-L23, Kosovo, Poland and the Bashkirs of south-east Bashkortostan are notable in having a high percentage of R-L23(xM412) also known as R1b1a1a2a(xR1b1a1a2a1) – at rates of 11.4% (Kosovo), 2.4% (Poland) and 2.4% south-east Bashkortostan.[7] (This Bashkir population is also notable for its high level of R-M73 (R1b1a1a1), at 23.4%.[7]) Five individuals out of 110 tested in the Ararat Valley of Armenia belonged to R-M269(xL23) and 36 to R-L23*, with none belonging to known subclades of L23.

In 2009, DNA extracted from the femur bones of 6 skeletons in an early-medieval burial place in Ergolding (Bavaria, Germany) dated to around AD 670 yielded the following results: 4 were found to be haplogroup R1b with the closest matches in modern populations of Germany, Ireland and the USA while 2 were in Haplogroup G2a.

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excerpt from page 254

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