Ever wonder what your last name means? The origins, meanings and age of your name? Whether it's ancient or modern, last names are intimate things that anchor us to our heritage. Here are the meanings and origins of some of the worlds most popular and not so popular last names. Your's maybe in here as well. Part 1. SMITH: Smith is an old English name given to those who worked with metal. It's probably related to a word that meant "to strike" or "to smite," which means it may have referred to a soldier or to the person hitting metal to form it into armor. SCHMIDT: Schmidt is basically the German version of Smith, which also derives from the word Smitan, which pre-dates written history. THOMAS: It's from an ancient Aramaic word meaning Twin. HILL: Hill is an English name referring to, you guessed it, someone living on a hill. Other people got the name not from location, but from the name Hildebrand or Hilliard. LYNCH: In parts of England, Lynch meant someone who lived by a hill. In Ireland, though, it may have meant seaman. MURPHY: Slightly different, Murphy comes from the Irish term for a sea warrior, which is basically a Lynch during war time. COOK: If your last name is Cook, you probably have some ancestors who did that for a living. BAKER: Dating back before the 8th century, Baker could have referred to someone baking bread, running a communal kitchen, or owning a kiln for firing pottery. BECKER: Becker is the German word for baker, and the name might have sprung up for the same reasons Baker and Baxter did in England, but it's also possible that the last name denoted someone living by a stream, or bach. HALL: They were the people who worked in a house or a hall. Or even if you just lived near one. ADAMS: Adams means "son of Adam" in England and Scotland. They borrowed the Adam part from Hebrew. ROGERS: Rogers means "son of Roger." The name comes from the legend of the Danish king Hrothgar, who can be found in Beowulf. Hrothgar, by the way, means "famous spear." THOMPSON: Thompson is Celtic, means either "son of Tom" or refers to a place called Thompson in Norfolk, sources tend to differ between the two. ROBINSON: You would be correct in assuming that Robinson means "son of Robin." Or Robert. ROBERTS: Roberts means "son of Robert," and Robert means "fame" and "bright." JACKSON: The name Jack is also derived from Yohanan. Jewish/Hebrew derived. PHILIPS: The Greek name Philippos, meaning "lover of horses", gave us the name Philip. MORTON: English and Scottish origin, a habitational name from any of the many places called Moreton, named in Old English as ‘settlement (tun) by or on a marsh or moor (mor)’. Swedish: variant of Martin. French: contracted form of Moreton. ALLISON: Allison is a surname of English and Scottish origin. When used as a given name it is traditionally masculine, as opposed to the feminine name Alison. Alison, variant form Alizon, is a surname of French origin. With the many variants of spelling through history, as well as the likelihood of phonetic spelling changes and variations through time; names such as Alison Allason, Ellison, Allyson, Alasoune, Allinson and in some cases McAllister have been found to be interchangeable and variants of the different families using the same family name of 'Allison'. The surname was first recorded in England in 1248, when a "William Alisun" is recorded in the Documents of the Abbey of Bee in Buckinghamshire. In Scotland, the earliest record dates from 1296, when "Patrick Alissone, Count of Berwick" paid homage to the ruling council of Scotland in the absence of a proclaimed king. CUE: The many generations and branches of the Cue family can all place the origins of their surname with the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture. Their name reveals that an early member worked as a person who worked as the cook. The surname was originally derived from the Old French terms queu, keu, kieu, cu, which denoted the cook or someone who operated an eating house. dU PLESSIS: French origin, meaning interwoven wooden fence. ROTHMAN: German (Rothmann) and Jewish (Ashkenazic); name for a person with red hair, from an elaborated form of Roth. German; topographic name for someone who lived on land that had been cleared. WALKER: Walker is an English and German surname derived from either a fuller, from the Middle High German walker, meaning "a fuller of cloth", or an officer whose duty consisted of walking or inspecting a certain part of a forest. The surname "Walker" was first found in Germany where records of the name date back to the thirteenth century. PISTORIOUS: Pistorius or Pistor (from Latin pistor meaning miller or baker) are Latinized surnames, corresponding to the Dutch Bakker or the German Becker. HARTLEY: This interesting surname, of Anglo-Saxon origin, is a locational name seen as early as the 7th Century, variations of heort, hart, leah meaning "wood", "clearing" or "hill." HENDRICKS: Recorded in Europe in some four hundred surnames spelling forms since the medieval times, this name is a derivative of the pre 7th century German personal name "Heim-ric", meaning "home rule". dU TOIT: du Toit is an Afrikaans surname, originally from Francois du Toit, a Huguenot who moved to South Africa in 1686. It translates as "of the roof". BOYCE: Scottish, Northern Irish, and English. Topographic name for someone who lived by a wood, from Old French bois 'wood'. English; From the Middle English nickname boy 'lad', 'servant'. DELPORT: “Of the Gate” in French. Derived from earlier settlers; the Huguenots of South Africa. BOSCH: Dutch and North German; another topographic name from Middle Dutch bussch, meaning 'wood' rather than 'bush', also found in place names, such as 's Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc). German (Bösch). MCALEER: The surname McAleer is found in County Tyrone, Ulster in Ireland, moving into western regions of Scotland. It is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Mac Giolla Uidhir or Mac Giolla Uír. It is thought to mean "son of the servant of Saint Odhar". Legend says that Saint Odhar was Saint Patrick's charioteer. The surname is most likely of Norse origin and is encountered frequently in Norway as Lier. It comes from la, a sloping grassy hillside at the foot of a mountain, a dale, a glen, the plural of which is lêr, pronounced leer. The name was transplanted to Ireland during the time of the Danish and Norwegian invasions, after which Mac was added to the name. SWART: Swart is an Afrikaans and Dutch surname meaning "black" (spelled zwart in modern Dutch). Variations on it are de Swart, Swarte, de Swarte, Swarts, Zwart, de Zwart, and Zwarts. FOX: The name Fox was taken from the animal's name. It's one of those last names that started out as a nickname. Usually, people who were called Fox were clever or else had red hair or both (probably just one or the other). End of part 01. Part 02: http://spectemuragendo.weebly.com/general/meanings-origins-of-last-names-part-2
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