I'm trying to find out where the name "boone" comes from?...can anyone

Question:

I'm trying to find out where the name "boone" comes from?...can anyone help?

i am working on my family tree..anything i can find will be a great help! thank you!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I guess the misconception in your question is that names don't "come from places", people do. People also move around and take their names with them.

The other part is that surnames haven't always existed. On the timeline of history they're relatively new inventions. Spain came up with the idea early, around the 11th-13th centuries, while other countries were later in the process and even now are refining naming traditions. Someone above claimed the surname came with the Norman Conquest. That's highly suspect...France didn't have surnames in the 11th century. The only thing resembling a surname used by the French nobles (and only French nobles came over during the Norman conquest) was a patrynomic name or a place descriptor. Patrynomics are like Andre de Jehan (Andre son of John). Place names are like Henri Toulouse-Latrec...Henri son of the comte de Toulouse and Latrec.

Boone is a name developing in an English-speaking country. But until the 1800s, "Britain" as we know it didn't exist. Every land in the British Isles was considered separate and unique, whether Ireland or Scotland, England or Wales, etc. The English Isles took surnames a little later and used 4 primary methods of picking names. They did use patrynomics, particularly in Ireland and Scotland (Mc and Mac). Farther south you'll find names like Johnson...son of John.

In England they were more likely to use place descriptors...Dale, Brooks, Churchill (by the church on the hill), Broadmoor. Boone is probably one of these types of names.

They used descriptors of physical features to develop into surnames. John Black may have been a dark-skinned moor or may have had black hair. Thomas Smiley may have been a happy-go-lucky sort who smiled often.

Men took their surnames from their occupations, which is why Smith is so prolific.

The last source (and the one most surname services skip...on purpose) are religious sources. St. John, St Amand, Vera Cruz, Cross, etc.

The English were a record-keeping country. The records are kept separately and archived well. They didn't lose much through the years. If you want to know where your name originated, it wouldn't be hard to do the research. In addition, there is a Boone family society and I am willing to bet they would "be a boone" for your research (pardon the pun). http://www.boonesociety.org/messagefromp...