What is your surname?
- Thread starter Traitorfish
- Start date
Graves. Paternal line's been in America for almost four centuries; before that, we think they came from Lancs. 
()
()I see what you did there
ArneHD
Just a little bit mad
Both my surname and middlename are essentially place names, though my grandfather "niceified" my surname, meaning that it is extremely rare.
Lillefix
I'm serious. You can.
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- Dec 1, 2003
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CaptainF
The Professional Poster
It's Swiss German for "by the field".
I guess my Swiss ancestors must have been farmers.
I guess my Swiss ancestors must have been farmers.
Yared
That Guy
Torgbäck?
My surname is Jaw of Gold. Basically, a good orator and speaker is said to have a "jaw of gold". There's a similar surname called "Hand of Gold" and it's used to describe a craftsman really.
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
Wait a second, the (old) Norse word for "market place" is "torg"?? Really? That's eerly similar to the Slavic "trg" (from which the Romanian word "târg" came from, which is the only reason why I know about the Slavic one). Call me crazy, but I'm seeing more and more random very very similar words between Germanic and Slavic languages.
Okay, random observation of the day, move along...
Okay, random observation of the day, move along...
Lillefix
I'm serious. You can.
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Wait a second, the (old) Norse word for "market place" is "torg"?? Really? That's eerly similar to the Slavic "trg" (from which the Romanian word "târg" came from, which is the only reason why I know about the Slavic one). Call me crazy, but I'm seeing more and more random very very similar words between Germanic and Slavic languages.
Okay, random observation of the day, move along...
Probably not a coincidence at all. Grad(like in Leningrad), and it's relatives is also one of those words you find all around the Germanic, slavic languages and latin languages. It's just one of those words that we seem to have kept relatively unchanged from protoindoeuropean times.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
According to Wiktionary, it's borrowed from Old East Slavic. That might explain why it's so at odds with the West Germanic terms for "market square". especially given that the Scandinavian words for plain old "square" line up neatly. Possibly something to do with trading in Russia?
It's Swiss German and it's uncommon enough in North America to easily trace back to me in a google search were I to put it here.
The spelling was never changed, though my great-grandfather, the one who came to America, was never around for my grandfather so the pronunciation got butchered.
My mother's surname, one I'm tempted to switch my surname to, is (speculated to be) from a village in south eastern England wiped out by the plague. It has the form of an Old English place name, and has no record outside of Kent. It was found to be a name of a woods but those were long since cut down. It's actually more uncommon than my father's, the only record of it today is from people we can directly place in a recent family tree.
The spelling was never changed, though my great-grandfather, the one who came to America, was never around for my grandfather so the pronunciation got butchered.
My mother's surname, one I'm tempted to switch my surname to, is (speculated to be) from a village in south eastern England wiped out by the plague. It has the form of an Old English place name, and has no record outside of Kent. It was found to be a name of a woods but those were long since cut down. It's actually more uncommon than my father's, the only record of it today is from people we can directly place in a recent family tree.
_random_
Jewel Runner
Greetings, Mr. Breyer.
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
Certainly, it wouldn't be too much of a surprise if it were simply an Indo-European thing.
But I was specifically talking about words similar in Germanic and Slavic languages that are not so similar to words from other IE families (although that could definitely be explained by random, similar changes that occurred in the evolution of language families).Out of curiosity, what are the Germanic/Romance words similar to the Slavic "grad"?
Just asking because I don't seem to be able to think of any.I wasn't aware that Wiktionary included etymologies in its entries. Neat!
That definitely sounds like a likely explanation.
Lillefix
I'm serious. You can.
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In old norse garðr meant city. They called for example Constantinople Miklagarðr or big city(the Icelandic still call it that). Today Norwegians use gård/gard which means farm or yard. And yard is the English relative of the word. All these words are of course also related to garden or garten. And considering how interchangeble j and g tend to be, it's not a suprise that the romance word jardin is also closely related. Originally all of this mess probably meant fence, like we can still see in the Norwegian word "gjerde".Out of curiosity, what are the Germanic/Romance words similar to the Slavic "grad"?
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
Oh bloody hell, the Romanian word for "fence" is "gard"!!
I did NOT expect that! 
And the official dictionary of the Romanian Academy tells me that it's directly descended from Dacian, and not a later borrowing... That really has to be one of the most productive Indoeuropean words ever, I mean it's also the origin of the English/French "guard", and the huge lexical family developed from that, as well as the English "warden", the German "warten" (to WAIT..... hang on a second - that might be related to that root too!), with all its descendants (like the German word for "gatekeeper") - and that's apart from the huge number of words originating in the ones you've already mentioned! 
Nice job!
Though once again it's spelled slightly differently, but you don't have to guess at that
Zack
99% hot gas
My surname is Obama.
West 36
Can count up to 4
Mondschein. German for moonlight, comes from my great grandfather when he came over from Austria. So my ancestors were either very fond of the night, were pale, or liked illegally distilling liquor.
Although recently meeting foreign Mondscheins has shown that perhaps it's actually Jewish, in which case my ancestors were probably much more boring than even that.
Although recently meeting foreign Mondscheins has shown that perhaps it's actually Jewish, in which case my ancestors were probably much more boring than even that.
Annex
Tyranny and Mutation
A little birdie might tell you 
Did it work?
My grandfather changed our family name himself when he came to Canada. I wish he hadn't, because I am really tired of all the people who insist that I absolutely must be some long-lost relative.
So... unless your family connection to mine was Swedish or Norwegian, circa 1920-1923, we cannot possibly be related. No, England doesn't count. Neither does anything in the 1800s. Neither do many, MANY protests that I am wrong, because I know I'm right.
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