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- Over time many names became corrupted and their original meaning is now not easily seen. After 1066, the Norman barons introduced surnames into England, and the practice gradually spread. Initially, the identifying names were changed or dropped at will, but eventually they began to stick and to get passed on.
www.bbc.co.uk › history › familyhistoryBBC - Family History - What's In a Name? Your Link to the Past
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Name - Surnames, Origins, Meanings: Family names came into use in the later Middle Ages (beginning roughly in the 11th century); the process was completed by the end of the 16th century. The use of family names seems to have originated in aristocratic families and in big cities, where they developed from original individual surnames when the ...
Jun 16, 2023 · In England, the Normans introduced surnames after 1066. At first, names were frequently changed or dropped, but eventually they began to stick and were passed down in a family — by the aristocracy to start with and eventually by the rest of the people.
- Illiteracy
- Simplification
- Necessity
- Desire to Fit in
- Desire to Break with The Past
- Dislike of Surname
- Fear of Discrimination
The further back we take our research, the more likely we are to encounter ancestors who couldn't read and write. Many didn't even know how their own names were spelled, only how to pronounce them. When they gave their names to clerks, census enumerators, clergymen, or other officials, that person wrote the name the way that it sounded to him. Even...
Immigrants, upon arrival in a new country, often found that their name was difficult for others to spell or pronounce. In order to better fit in, many chose to simplify the spelling or otherwise alter their name to relate it more closely to the language and pronunciations of their new country.
Immigrants from countries with alphabets other than Latin had to transliterate them, producing many variations on the same name.
Many immigrants changed their names in some way to assimilate into their new country and culture. A common choice was to translate the meaning of their surname into the new language.
Emigration was sometimes prompted in one way or another by a desire to break with or escape the past. For some immigrants, this included ridding themselves of anything, including their name, which reminded them of an unhappy life in the old country.
People forced by governments to adopt surnames that were not a part of their culture or were not of their choosing would often shed themselves of such names at the first opportunity.
Surname changes and modifications can sometimes be attributed to a desire to conceal nationality or religious orientation in fear of reprisal or discrimination. This motive constantly appears among Jewish people, who often faced anti-Semitism.
Oct 10, 2013 · If you keep tracing things back in time, your last name (or surname) had to start somewhere, right? Of course it did! In fact, people haven’t always had last names. China was one of the earliest civilizations to use surnames. People there reportedly took on family names over three thousand years ago to help improve their census.
Sep 16, 2021 · Figure 1. Some surnames and their origin from England and Wales. First names have likely existed since possibly soon after humans evolved into their modern forms. However, the origin and development of surnames (or last names) is far less known and is likely a more recent phenomenon.
Mar 6, 2023 · One of the most pervasive genealogical urban myths is that surnames were changed by immigration officials upon entry at Ellis Island and other large ports, but in fact, surnames were often altered by the immigrants themselves, frequently during the naturalization process.
Jul 22, 2019 · In a patronymic method, a person may have decided his last name would trace his family line by who his father was: Johnson (son of John) or Olson (son of Ole), for example. This name wouldn't be applied to the whole family, however. For a time, the surnames changed with each generation. In an example of such a system, Ben Johnson's son would ...
