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Incredibly stupid question

Angel

Angel

Down with this sort of thing
Guildmaster
Town Guard
Aug 13, 2006
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Those of you who read my money laundering thing on FB will know just how stupid I can be, so bear with me on this one.

You know how people can have the same surname? Is it possible they are all related to each other somewhere along the line - even if it's from way back when in the depths of history? I know some names mean things like "son of so and so" such as Richardson or they are related to the job the person did like Cooper - but what about other names? Like the more mad-sounding ones which don't mean anything so must have started somewhere...

Could I also just be talking absolute nonsense based on the fact I don't really sleep anymore?
 
My family surname dates back to the early 11th century. Now, if you need some tips about money
washing then you are welcome. I used to do that all the time. Sweet USD and Euros used to come in
my pocket.
 
It depends. Estonians were given (or they picked themselves) surnames like two centuries back I think. A lot of them were popular so people with the same name nowadays aren't necessarily related.
 
Sometimes but for example: Lawrence Haubner and Cristopher Haubner (A man I met in Canada) don't even have the same origins, we are completely unrelated, so it depends.
 
It's both true and impossible. If you go back 10 generations, your family could have hundreds of members. Almost all people are related to each other when you go back as far as 1000 years.

But Smith is a family name because of the blacksmith trade. A lot of names are traditional, so I doubt it's exclusive to the surname.
 
It's highly probable.... but as Shirosaki just said, Smith for example is derived from a blacksmith, so two people called Smith may just both have a great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great granddad who was a blacksmiith, who weren't nessarsserily (IDGAF) related. However, the further back you go, the more grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents etc. you share with other people so that is also likely.
 
Angel said:
Those of you who read my money laundering thing on FB will know just how stupid I can be, so bear with me on this one.

You know how people can have the same surname? Is it possible they are all related to each other somewhere along the line - even if it's from way back when in the depths of history? I know some names mean things like "son of so and so" such as Richardson or they are related to the job the person did like Cooper - but what about other names? Like the more mad-sounding ones which don't mean anything so must have started somewhere...

Could I also just be talking absolute nonsense based on the fact I don't really sleep anymore?
Click to expand...

Pretty much all surnames come from what one of your ancestors was known for. A lot of the more obscure ones are just Romanised forms of foreign words. You could be the son of Richard, or your family are smiths. You could have lived on a hill in Germany, in which case your surname could have been something like whatever the German word is for living on a hill, but then you move to England and you change your last name to fit in better. Then your sons move somewhere else, change the name a bit more. Or it could be as simple as the doctor misspelling the name on the birth certificate.

In short, whilst we're all technically related to each other, surnames don't really mean anything like what you're saying. They all come from something your ancestors did, but has just been messed up by crazy linguistics.
 
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Where surnames come from is pretty obvious. They had to choose something that goes with their family and chose something they thought that fit, just like Arseface explained.

What I would like to know is where first names come from.
''Hey, uhm, UNGH, how's life?'' How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not Ungh! I'm, uh... hm...'' ''What about 'George', that sounds nice.'' ''Sure, but what does it stand for?'' ''Uhm... You... work with the ground right? Like a farmer.'' ''Yes, that's right.'' '''George' means 'farmer!''' ''Great!''

Yeeaahhhh, I don't think it went like that. But still, I'd like to know at which point in time they were intelligent enough to develop a system that also let's ones identity be recorded vocally.
 
First names usually have some kind of meaning. I know my name is Hebrew for "God is my judge" or something.
 
My first name is Germanic in origin, it means fame and war or alternatively famous fighter,

famous farter is more like it though, given my recent bowel troubles. (really must stop eating those curries.)
 
my name means son. my all-male bloodline traces back to the old testament times (or as close to that as you can actually trace), the rest i have no idea. in theory yea, i guess we all have to come from the same place if you go back far enough. i'd definitely be for that idea.
 
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