Where did my last name come from?

Question:I don't know mych about my family and would like to know where the last name Jaynes is from and my heritage from it. i am having trouble finding information about this and need help with this asap. I would greatly appreciate this*

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I don't know mych about my family and would like to know where the last name Jaynes is from and my heritage from it. i am having trouble finding information about this and need help with this asap. I would greatly appreciate this*

Jaynes immigrants to Ellis Island were mainly from England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, and Newfoundland.

I also plugged the name into the National Trust Names website --- it "presents the findings of a project based at University College London (UCL) that is investigating the distribution of surnames in Great Britain, both current and historic. It allows users to search the databases that we have created, and to trace the geography and history of their family names."

It had this:

JAYNE English - Name Of Person; Female Personal Name; Female Personal Name

JAYNES English - Name Of Parent; Ending in -S; After Personal Name

It also mapped the distribution of the name in 1881: Most of the Janyes were in Gloucester.

The website has MUCH MORE data than I could include here, so you should take a look yourself:
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/

BUT all of this data only provides CLUES as to where YOUR family might have come from. The only way to find your true ancestry would be to trace it back from you, your parents, etc.
Who knows -- your great-grandfather could have been Josef Janisloski and changed his name! (I just use this as an example of how you can't really use data on surnames as "gospel" for your family.)

This tiny little bit of information came from www.ancestry.com
Jaynes
English: patronymic from Jayne.
hope this helps.

One problem that comes up here, is we have no way of knowing if you are in the UK, US or somewhere else.
www.familysearch.org has (along with other items) a complete transcription of the 1880 US census and the 1881 UK census. Using the US for example, the census in 1880 listed all persons in the country (those that were not missed/hiding), and this included their place of birth..and place of birth for their parents (not the names). The most reliable route is to use regular tracing steps to locate where YOUR family may have been in 1880, find them and look at the parent's place of birth. SOMETIMES you can find an ancestor here who is age 70 (ie born 1810), so his/her parents would be born in the late 1700s. This is one means of finding HOW LONG the family may have been in the country.
As already mentioned... skipping this research can be completely a way to not realize that your ancestor's actual name might be something different. In that case, telling you that the name comes from England, would be of little use.
Something else we try to point out... your last name is from your father only.. your mother had another name at birth. Your grandparents would have 4 names, only one is Jaynes. Your HERITAGE involves all of your ancestors, not just your last name. No problem if all you want to know is your last name...but just a reality check, that one name is only a tiny part of your history.

your last name came from your acestors.

The surname Jayne originates from England, Great Britain, Canada, Switzerland, Scandinavian and Ireland.