If your last name is "Sharp," what nationality are you?

Question:For example: If your last name was Kawaguchi, you'd be Japanese.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: For example: If your last name was Kawaguchi, you'd be Japanese.

Ancestry.Com shows the following given as the place of origin of Sharp immigrants to the United States

England 6074

Scotland 245

Ireland 241

Great Britain 137

Germany 14

Sweden 14

It can be English from a nickname meaning
keen, active or quick.

Irish, County Donegal Anglicized part translated form of Gaelic O'Gearain, a descendant of Gearan, a byname for a diminutive of gear 'sharp'

Americanized form of any of several European names with similar meanings, for example the German Scharf.

The same name can come from more than one national origin and not everyone with the same name is necessarily related or shares ancestors, even those of the same national origin. The best way to know your heritage is to trace your ancestry starting with yourself and working back. Anytime you wish to do this, there are lots of good people on this board that can give you some great tips and advice. Just ask.

Rootsweb(freesite) has more than 230,000 entries in family trees for Sharp. Just pull up the sites and put Sharp in the World Connect block. If you see something that interest you, probe on a name and it will take you to a screen that will give you the name and email address of the submitter.

Now, be careful about taking as fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is user submitted and most are not documented. Even when you see the same information repeatedly by many different submitters, you can't take it for granted that it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying.

Also be wary of peddlers of surname products, like coats of arms. See the links below. One from the British college of arms and the other from the U. S. National genealogical Society

http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.ht...

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp...

It sounds English to me...

It's Irish

With all respect... you are confusing nationality with (probable) ethnic heritage.
249 persons with the last name of Kawaguchi are in the social security death index, for the most part, it is likely that they were American citizens, and probably born in the US.
In general conversation, it is not uncommon to think of nationality and ancestral heritage as the same thing. If you get into research, they are distinct topics. Nationality is where you are a citizen, which cannot be identified by a surname.
And other surnames often come from different places. For the name Sharp, you might determine the accepted "origin"... but that does not mean your ancestor came from that place. VERY important, if you are attempting to locate the specific place where your ancestor is from, in order to trace his/her family.

According to www.ancestry.com it's English.
Sharp
English: nickname from Middle English scharp ‘keen’, ‘active’, ‘quick’.
Irish (County Donegal): Anglicized (part translated) form of Gaelic ó Géaráin ‘descendant of Géarán’, a byname from a diminutive of géar ‘sharp’.
Americanized form of any of several European names with similar meaning, for example German Scharf.

Place of
Origin Sharp Immigrants
England 607
Scotland 245
Ireland 241
Great Britain 137
Germany 14
Sweden 14

Hope this helps.