Goto http://www.surnamedb.com/ search for your last name and post details about it here, obviously leaving out any information that's personal (as I'm about to do). I've always been interested in genetics and human ancestry so I thought I'd spread the word around. You may even learn something!
I'll even do my last name first:
"This interesting Olde French Huguenot name, which is also found in America, is a medieval nickname surname 'for one with the expression or characteristics of a small baby!' This is the 20th Century interpretation, however, it would be interesting to know the precise 13th Century meaning - which presumably was complimentary or at least taken as such. The original family fled from France at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685."
This ancient and distinguished surname, with over fifty entries in the "Dictionary of National Biography", and having no less than sixty Coats of Arms, is of Anglo-Scottish origins. It is either an occupational name for a fuller, or a locational name from a place called [REDACTED] in Northumberland. If occupational it derives from the pre 7th Century word "wealcere", and describes the work of the fuller to scour and thicken raw cloth in a large vessel containing a water mixture by trampling on it. Job descriptive surnames denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and became hereditary when a son followed the father into the same skill or business. If locational, [REDACTED] in Northumberland is recorded as [REDACTED] in the "Inquisitiones post mortem", dated 1268 from the Old Scandinavian word "kiarr", and means "The wall by the marsh".
This surname is usually Spanish, but may also be Portuguese and Ashkenasic. From about the year 100 a.d. until the collapse of the Empire in the year 410 a.d., Spain was merely a province of Rome. The influence of the Romans was profound, and many present day Iberian surnames owe their roots to the Roman influence. The surname itself is much later, few surnames except those where the holder was associated with specific estates, were hereditary, although this was one of them. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
This medieval surname is a patronymic form of the given name Stephen or Steven. These in turn derive from the pre Christian Ancient Greek word "stephanos", meaning "crown"). Stephen was a popular first name in the Middle Ages, although prior to the Norman Invasion of 1066, it was used only by monks. It was also the name of the first Christian martyr. It recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 in the Latinized form of "Stefanus" . Greek and Hebrew names were given to the children of returning 11th and 12th century "crusaders", and these names, which included "Stephanus", became very popular gradually taking over from the surviving "native" names, many parts of Northern Europe. In Britain early examples of the surname recording include Alice Stevens, also spelt as Stephenes, who was recorded in the Hundred Rolls of the county of Huntingdonshire in 1279, whilst in the following century John Stephenson was a Freeman of York in 1395. George Stephenson (1781 - 1848) is perhaps the most notable bearer of the name, famous for his development of the railway engine, "The Rocket", and for being known as The founder of the Railways. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Adam Stevenson which was dated 1327, in the "Subsidy Rolls" of the county of Essex, during the reign of King Edward 111 of England, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377.
Fun fact, I actually have lineage traced back to these people.
This ancient and aristocratic English and Norman-Irish surname was first held by Burhred, the king of West Mercia, England, 852 - 874, and several centuries later by the original earls of Ulster and Clanricarde. The name was introduced into Ireland by William de Burgo, of Burgh in Suffolk, who accompanied Strongbow, the earl of Pembroke, in the Anglo-Norman Invasion of 1169 and 1170.
This is an occupational name deriving from the Olde French 'maresc(h)al' meaning 'marshal'. The term ultimately derives from the Olde High German 'marah', a horse, plus 'scalc', a servant, and was originally applied to a tender of horses. (A position of importance in royal and other households). The surname from this source is first recorded in the latter half of the 11th Century. Other early spellings of the surname have included - Marescald, (circa 1100) Mascherell (circa 1130) Maskerel (1166) he Marscal (1238) etc.
"Please accept our apologies but this surname has yet to be researched."
deletedabout 10 years
this is one of those things that isn't polite to people with ethnic names B(
although my sister did research and apparently the source of our last name is either a shortening of a spanish last name or a sephardic jewish last name
