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- Thread starter Mr.Deuce
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Polish surnames were usually words that best described that person or just totally random ones like adjectives from random words. For example my Polish surname means something similar to "famous" as it's some kind of adjective of word "fame". It most probably means that my grand grand grand. father was somewhat famous or something
in norway's history people have been named after their fathers or after the places they lived. either the name of the house, farm, etc. for example, i'm named after a valley. "kildal" (my last name) basically means "kil valley".
of course there's the "peterson" which comes from "son of peter" but this isn't exclusive to norway lol
and people with similar names don't necessarily have any relation.
of course there's the "peterson" which comes from "son of peter" but this isn't exclusive to norway lol
and people with similar names don't necessarily have any relation.
Surnames like Clark, Baker, Taylor, Smith etc. are occupational, so if your surname is Taylor then your ancestor was a tailor and that's how he got his surname.
Like Preach said, names like Thompson, Jefferson, Richardson come from the name of the father. Some names from from the name of the mother, like Madison (from Madeline), Emmett (from Emma) or Elliott (from Elias). My surname, Sanders, means "son of Alexander" as does Sanderson.
Mac in Scotland also means "son of" (MacDonald, Mackenzie etc.), as does Fitz in Ireland (Fitzpatrick, Fitzgerald). Fitzroy meant "son of the king", used for illegitimate children of royalty. A Irish surname like O'Sullivan or O'Brien come from the grandfather's name.
In Iberian countries, Rodrigues meant "son of Rodrigo", Hernández meant "son of Hernando", Fernández "son of Fernando" etc.
In Eastern Europe, vić or vich means son, and sometimes yevna, ovna or ichna is used for daughter. The name Milošević means "son of Miloš", Abramovic means "son of Abram".
Names like Brooke, Hill, Byfield are based on geographical locations, i.e. your family lived near a brooke or a hill or by a field.
Names like Little and Armstrong were nicknames based on physical appearance. Someone with strong arms might be named Armstrong, someone who was short (or very tall) would be given the name Little.
Like Preach said, names like Thompson, Jefferson, Richardson come from the name of the father. Some names from from the name of the mother, like Madison (from Madeline), Emmett (from Emma) or Elliott (from Elias). My surname, Sanders, means "son of Alexander" as does Sanderson.
Mac in Scotland also means "son of" (MacDonald, Mackenzie etc.), as does Fitz in Ireland (Fitzpatrick, Fitzgerald). Fitzroy meant "son of the king", used for illegitimate children of royalty. A Irish surname like O'Sullivan or O'Brien come from the grandfather's name.
In Iberian countries, Rodrigues meant "son of Rodrigo", Hernández meant "son of Hernando", Fernández "son of Fernando" etc.
In Eastern Europe, vić or vich means son, and sometimes yevna, ovna or ichna is used for daughter. The name Milošević means "son of Miloš", Abramovic means "son of Abram".
Names like Brooke, Hill, Byfield are based on geographical locations, i.e. your family lived near a brooke or a hill or by a field.
Names like Little and Armstrong were nicknames based on physical appearance. Someone with strong arms might be named Armstrong, someone who was short (or very tall) would be given the name Little.
In Chinese there are many origins. Names could come from occupation, places of origin, position in government, ancestors names, folk stories, decree by emperor, it's a giant list really. Take for example my last name, Yeung. Looking at the history of it, the original characters that made the name were a tree and a sun rising over a mountain. The tree represents an ancient tradition of measuring the height of the sun using a tree to establish the calender. The mountain represented a mythical mountain called Tanggu from where the Sun would rise from.
It may mean that we're somehow related but on the other hand there are many families that accidentally share their surnames.
For example most popular Polish surnames are "Nowak" and "Kowalski".
"Nowak" was probably formed from word "nowy" which means "new".
"Kowalski" from "Kowal" meaning blacksmith
etc.
similar with Czech and Slovak surnames but they share more of their culture with Russia and other eastern countries which means that they have surnames like "peterson"/ etc.
Polish culture is really special as we don't take basically anything from any other nations. We have our own closed culture with very little impact from other countries (except slavic roots and modern americanisation of culture of course)
For example most popular Polish surnames are "Nowak" and "Kowalski".
"Nowak" was probably formed from word "nowy" which means "new".
"Kowalski" from "Kowal" meaning blacksmith
etc.
similar with Czech and Slovak surnames but they share more of their culture with Russia and other eastern countries which means that they have surnames like "peterson"/ etc.
Polish culture is really special as we don't take basically anything from any other nations. We have our own closed culture with very little impact from other countries (except slavic roots and modern americanisation of culture of course)
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