What is your surname?

[Traitorfish]

Vaguely inspired by the other name-based thread, I thought I'd start a thread, which, well... Yeah. Of particular interest would be names with a unique history, or names which have at some point been put through the whole "Ellis Island"-mangling process. Obviously, people are less willing to divulge their surname than their forename, but we'll see how it goes.

Mine is "[what]", a more-or-less arbitrary Anglicisations of the Irish Gaelic "[why did i think this was a good idea]", meaning "trustworthy" or "honourable". There's many more attempts- a ridiculous number even by the standards of Irish names- including "[nope]", "[no]" and "[goddamit it]", which people seem to insist on getting mixed up.
Oddly enough, we used to be [who gave me an internet connection], backs when my great-grandad came across from Donegal. However, he once went shopping for a name-plate for his front door, only to find that the shop had no "[nope]", but did have a "[nyet]", and apparently decided that this was good enough. I'd like to think that this reflects his dedication to his proper Irish name, and that one Anglicisation was the same as any other to him, but the reality is probably that he was just another semi-literate navvy who couldn't actually tell the difference

The two most famous bearers of my name, at least round here, are [no], a Northern Irish member of the Provisional IRA who was twice incarcerated for kidnap, and [nuh-uh], a Glaswegian safe-cracker. Good stock, then.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Something hardly pronuoncable for people who don't speak serbian or croatian.
As I understand it could mean "of noble birth" in old slavonic.

 

[bigdog5994]

Schaffer

 

[Leonel]

Anderson. Supposedly it was Adamson before my great grandpa went to the US.

 

[Imrahil91]

Mine is Andersen, meaning son of Anders. It's a very common and boring name here. The most famous bearer is probably Pamela Anderson.

A little more interesting is that the ending -sen is used in Denmark and Norway, while -son is used in Sweden. Both means "son", and are used after a regular first name. We have stopped giving the father's first name followed by "-sen" by now, so everyone with names like that have an ancestor with a first name that became the family name i.e. Soren for Sorenson, Per for Person etc.

Even though there are more Norwegian- and Danish-Americans in America than Swedish-Americans, most of the immigrants got their names changed from ending with -sen to -son I guess, because that makes more sense to English-speaking people.

 

[Leonel]

Mine is Andersen, meaning son of Anders. It's a very common and boring name here. The most famous bearer is probably Pamela Anderson.

A little more interesting is that the ending -sen is used in Denmark and Norway, while -son is used in Sweden. Both means "son", and are used after a regular first name. We have stopped giving the father's first name followed by "-sen" by now, so everyone with names like that have an ancestor with a first name that became the family name i.e. Soren for Sorenson, Per for Person etc.

Even though there are more Norwegian- and Danish-Americans in America than Swedish-Americans, most of the immigrants got their names changed from ending with -sen to -son I guess, because that makes more sense to English-speaking people.

Eeey we're practically cousins.

 

[bhsup]

The original French spelling before the border control agents in NY butchered it (thankfully) was "Surprenant". I have been told it means...

SURPRISE!

 

[gangleri2001]

In fact in means surprising.

Mine is Masclans, which could be translated as "The Big House of the Clans".

 

[Narz]

Next is what's your social security #, right?

My last name is the same as this guy's.

 

[Kraznaya]

I will reclaim the long abeyant imperium.

 

[Zelig]

Twtfljcq

 

[warpus]

My surname is long and Polish-looking and doesn't really mean anything, but could mean "defender" or "one who ploughs fields"

So my ancestors were probably Polish ninjas hired to protect the king.

 

[Joecoolyo]

My name was made up when my ancestors arrived here in the U.S. (though not via Ellis Island, I believe they went through Canada).

I don't really want to go around splurging any more information about me, but I'll let you guys figure it out. My name happens to be on a (rather good) store bought ice cream brand in the U.S. (not sure about the rest of the world), though my version of the name is spelled slightly differently.

 

[bhsup]

Your name is Joe Blue Belle!

 

[Joecoolyo]

Close, but you're totally off

 

[holy king]

von Arschstraße.

 

[BSmith1068]

Smith.

As you can tell I am super original...

 

[sophie]

Frederick

My family was Bavarian, and was Friedrich. They moved into England in the latter part of the 19th century, and during the First World War, they changed it to Frederick to avoid persecution. Fun family fact of the day

 

[Lillefix]

My family was Bavarian, and was Friedrich. They moved into England in the latter part of the 19th century, and during the First World War, they changed it to Frederick to avoid persecution. Fun family fact of the day

A bit like the British Royal family, only they come from slightly further north in Germany.

 

[dannyshenanigan]

My name essentially means "bell ringer" in German. Their are two spellings, the Southern German/Austrian and the Rhineland spelling. Mine is the Rhineland spelling. Also my Grandpa took out the umlaut or the "e" when he immigrated to the U.S.