How Did We Get Our Last Names?

Question:Say, Bobby Blemish, (Example)
Who Chose Blemish, And Why? Our Ancestors? Who Came Up With The Idea?

Just Came To Me. I Wonder If You Guys Could Help Me?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Say, Bobby Blemish, (Example)
Who Chose Blemish, And Why? Our Ancestors? Who Came Up With The Idea?

Just Came To Me. I Wonder If You Guys Could Help Me?

Last names come from a variety of things.

Occupations gave us names like Smith, Forman, Teacher,Clark,etc.

Patro/Matrinimical names like Hughes, Davis, Thomas, Jones, Marye

Locations gave us names like Burgos, Bebbington, Paris, Ulm, Kruchton

Descriptive - like blemish for someone who had them...their children were called David son of Blemish...
short, tall, little, black,

and the scandinavian names come from the fathers first name with either son or dottir added to the end. So Mattson, is son of Matt.

people got their names from the jobs they did a long time ago. For example someone who made arrows would have the surname Fletcher... a common name.

Jackson was son of Jack, for instance. Cartwrights made carts, Goldsmiths worked with gold. Some names derived from the area people were from. Smiths were blacksmiths, etc.

Like the first answerer yes they did get it from what jobs they did that's why Smith is so popular.

My name, Crawford, is named after a clan of Scots who defended a certain mountain pass from invaders.

My surname is Jordan. It goes back to the Crusades, when the knights would bring back water from the River Jordan to baptise their children. So the children would have been named So-and-so of Jordan.

Came from the job you did or a name might have come from the parent's first name or i dunno where some come from because mine means enemy lol :(

last names came from what they did as a living

it depends on your ancestors financial status, mine were slaves, they were named after their plantation owners.eg.Brown the owner, the slaves were joe,mary,jane or tom brown so others would know who they were and where they're from. so i change my name.

It differs from region. Like in Baltic. If when baron started to give surnames for peasants after order of Russian czar they gave what ever they wanted. Like Smart one Smelly one, my surname is Fisher, most of Latvians are birches and bushes, also hills and names of their houses or landmarks.

A multitude of different contributions. Many names relate to a profession ( ie Smith, Baker, Farmer etc...) or some colloquial version there of. Also geographic locations lend themselves to ones ancestry and lineage. Your specific example is another common contributor, personal descriptors (ie Big, Little, Black, Green, Elder, Young etc..). Hope this helps. Good Luck and God Bless.

People did not have surnames as a rule until about the 14th century in western countries. They were begun by the Normans for taxation purposes.

Example, a man named John had 4 legitimate sons, Henry, George,Sam and Robert.

Henry, if he could write, signed his name, Henry son of John. When he took or was assigned a surname he became Henry Johnson or Henry Jones.

George was a blacksmith. He became George Smith. Other occupational names,
Clark(clerk), Taylor, Baker, Cooper, Miller, Fisher, Wright (wheelwright) Barber, Carpenter etc.

Sam lived on or near a hill and became Sam Hill. I have Overton in my family tree and it just means over town. You can imagine how many people lived over a town that became Overton.

Robert had black hair and he became Robert Black. He could have been Robert Short, Robert Stout, Robert Little etc etc.

So legitimate sons of the same man could each have a different surname and still they each shared their surname with others with whom they were not related.

According to Ancestry.Com Bush is a topographic name for someone who lived near a bush or thicket.

Well, some names, such as Smith and Cooper, ARE related to jobs.
As to who came up with the idea, as far as I can find out, it was one of the many Roman inventions, applied at first to the Caesars and their families. Romans often had four names, the third being the mother's name, the fourth being the fathers name (where did you think the Spanish names came from?). In the rest of Europe, the idea came because there were so many people with the same name (Mary, John) that the authorities needed a way to distinguish the various people and came up with surnames (based on the Roman) to use. To ensure that people complied, royal decrees were issued in various countries.
Read this:
It can now be said that almost all English and Continental surnames fall into the four categories: 1. Place Names John Hill, John Atwater
2. Patronyms (or others based on personal names John Robertson, John Williams, John Alexander
3. Occupational Names John Smith, John Fletcher
4. Descriptive/Nicknames Names John Long, John Armstrong
from the website:
http://www.gen-find.com/resources/surnam...
Several countries did not implement surnames until the 20th century (Turkey); some were using surnames, but every one was free to choose a different surname (the Philippines).
For more details, google "origin of surnames".

From where you r ancestors lived or the work they did. Your first name was at one time your only title. Thus David Smith was David the blacksmith to differentiate him from David Bright who was a very clever person! Or it can be where you're from. Jack London etc.

My ancestors were slaves. They got their first name (N----r) from the masters and overseers of the plantation and the last name from whoever the president might be at that time, such as Washington (he fathered many slave women) (they took on his name as the father of this country), Jackson, Johnson, Wilson, Monroe, Roosevelt, Grant, Garfield and etc. Some took on the last names of their owners.