What is the ethnic background of Berdan?

Question:I was adopted when I was 6 weeks old. I know that my biological mother was murdered. Her last name was Wagner. I have it on good authority that my biological father's last name was Berdan. Any ideas which ethnic background that comes from?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I was adopted when I was 6 weeks old. I know that my biological mother was murdered. Her last name was Wagner. I have it on good authority that my biological father's last name was Berdan. Any ideas which ethnic background that comes from?

Berdan

Variant of French Bardin.

and

Bardin

French: from a pet form of the Germanic personal name Bardo, from Old High German barta ‘battle axe’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

If you are in France or Canada, he was probably mostly French, unless he wasn't. In the USA, my French Huguenot ancestors were marrying English, Scotch, Irish, Dutch and Germans as early as 1804, so the chances of your bio dad hopping off a boat wearing a beret are slim. You are probably the standard "Heinz 57" that most of the rest of us are.

Surnames are a really poor indication of ancestry. Had I followed my heart in 1975, my kids would have an English name but be half Chinese.