Where Did Last Names Come From? - Big Questions (Ep. 8)

A weekly show where we endeavor to answer one of your big questions. This week, "Camryn Wiens" asks: "Where did last names come from ?"

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[almostnessie]

I’ll never find out my surname


-William Broomrape

[AtticusAmericanus]

 My full name is Caesar Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus. How fun signing contracts are!

[ItsCliffGaming]

So where did the last name "Dickinson" come from...

[cj-seejay-cj-seejay]

I read that in 1811, when the Netherlands came under French rule, the French took a census of Dutch citizens and made people report their surnames. But surnames were uncommon for Dutch people then, so a lot of them just made up stuff... and some of it was intentionally silly, as a sort of protest against the French. So now there are Dutch last names like Uiekruier (onion-crier), Suikerbuik (sugar-belly), Rotmensen (rotten people), Piest (piss), and Poepjes (little poop). BUT then again, some people argue that these names date back to before the 1800s, so maybe it's a myth??

[NikolajLepka]

White, Black and Green meant Silver Smith, Blacksmith, and Gardener respectively, and were given to people of those occupations, these too have stuck around as surnames

[vinnipolicastro]

I'm so glad that mental floss is expanding this is one of my favorite web series

[idnastalks]

"I can do what I want Smith" is SO what i'm naming my kid XD

[Ezullof]

A lot of surnames work like this: "name of a father"+ -son. That's how it worked in ancient Greece (instead of -son there is the genitive case but it means the same), and why there a lot of names like "Johnson" or "Fitzgerald". The kind of surnames is prevalent in germanic cultures but almost inexistant in France, for example.

[leemurdock]

Love you hosting this show - such a great channel!

[firestorm]

My last name means tall mountain. (Højbjerg)
My dads family is also pretty dang tall ^^

[ljmastertroll]

Seymour Butts really appreciated this episode.

[shirosenshiesq]

My family name is MacLeod, which means Son of Leod. Leod was originally called Leoid, which comes from Liotr, which came from Ljotr. which means 'Ugly Wolf' because Leod was as cunning as he was hideous to look at.

Also, here's my BIG QUESTION: What are the leading cultural/social theories on what the world would be like now if the 'Great Wars' (World Wars I and II) hadn't have happened? What would be different in the world now?

[tacoinspctor]

These are just getting better and better

[natalianatalia]

I am pretty baked and this was a question I asked myself .

[Marvls]

In Finland, where my ancestors came from, people took the name of their land (farms) as their last name until the mid-1800's.  My great grandfather (1839-1917) changed his last name when he married my great grandmother (1847-1917) since she had inherited the family farm. Their children did not follow that name rule.  I still carry the name of the farm for a last name, and the farm is still occupied by my cousins in Finland.

[gyqz]

Did you just call me Smith? Yes you did, because you can do what you want,

[antivanti]

Sweden used to have a patronymic system where your last name was dependent on your fathers name. Other common names used to be soldiers names that were given out to people employed by the army because the patronymic system created many duplicate names. These names were either adjectives describing positive qualities of the soldier (Rask, Villig, Frisk / Quick, Eager, Healthy) or military nouns (Dolk, Lantz, Sköld / Dagger, Lance, Shield) or nature related (Björk, Ask, Berg, Grahn / Birch, Ash, Mountain, Spruce). When family names were introduced many people exchanged the patronymic names and many used these nature themed soldier names as inspiration and combined them into new names. Many Swedish surnames are combinations of words.
Berg-man, Berg-kvist, Ö-berg, Ö-lund, Lund-mark, Mark-lund, Ö-kvist, Lund-kvist. Ö-man, Berg-lund, Lund-berg. (hyphens added for clarity)
Berg=Mountain, Ö=Island, Man=man, Kvist=Branch, Lund=type of forest, Mark=Ground/Land

[ryanlesko]

Even though the background looks like he decorated it in 6th grade...because it's the still the same room at his parents house. this was actually super awesome. Thanks man

[dicerosautismambient]

surnames are starting to have a bigger spectrum now

[SamarkandChan]

In Norway and a lot of scandinavian countries our last names are mostly the fathers name + sen or son in Sweden. At some point they stopped doing that and a family just stuck to some distant relatives father's name or the name of a place. Hence why so many scandinavian people are named Olsen, Jensen, Hansen and so on.