Origin Of Surnames Essay Research Paper Origins

“Richardson.” In some countries they would use their mothers first name for a surname, such as

“Paige”, this being the a mothers name became her son or daughters surname. Jimmy Paige,

from the band Led Zeppelin, could say this of his name. Other origins of surnames came from

places and geographical names. The surname “England” or “Penn” have this quality, obviously

England is a country and Penn is shortened from Pennsylvania. Surnames like “Smith” ( as in

blacksmith ) and “Carpenter” ( one who works with wood ) come from the jobs that these people

held. Surname are also known to originate from description of a particular family. The surname

“Stern” would mean that they family was strong, this being something for them to owner. Alot

of surnames came from nature or their social status. Surnames like Byrd, Foxx, Winters, Spring

are names commonly objects found in nature. And surnames like Bachelor, Knight or, Squire

are based on their social standings. Many of theses surnames have changed over the centuries do

to the spread of the families.

Our current society is often unaware of their true original surnames. When coming to

America the individuals had no choice but to keep the surnames that the clerks at Ellis Island

had given them because of error. Almost all names changed for these people entering America.

“Bauch became Baugh”, “Siminowicz became Simmons.” Then there was the people who

wanted to be Americanized and they changed their own names. In this case their names

generally became shorter or totally different names. In this case “Mlynar became Miller”, and

“Shwarz became Black”…etc. Names are something that is important to people for many reason.

It is important to us to know what our surnames are so we can identify our past. Our past

is something, just like surnames, that say what we represent and what significance we have.

Many of you will find that particular surnames have cultural importance. Presidents or people

with high class social standing and their surnames are remembered because these people

changed our society. Famous surnames will always be remembered, but so will those surnames

that have no significant because each one of our past has something that has changed our culture.

The spellings of your surname, and the pronunciation of it has changed over centuries. In many

cases the change occurred so long ago that people in today’s society are not aware of what it

used to be. The topic of surnames and there origins are very interesting. We can find many

things out from studying our names, who we really are or where our names came from. If this all

interests you the resources are out there to be found, I am sure you will enjoy it!