Hacker News Reader

Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

Yes, the surname "Baker" would've originally been a baker. There are a variety of occupational surnames that you can quickly recognise: Potter, Cooper, Cook, Miller, Fisher, Carter, Tailor, Smith. As well as a few -smith specific ones: Green, Silver, Gold, White, Black, Brown - all having origins in things like working with tin (whitesmith), copper (greensmith) or silver, etc.

I doubt that genetic disposition would be a strong factor given that the skills for these various physical lines of work would be fairly similar.

View on HN

Exactly. Trade related surnames weren't forged over generations, they were given to, or forced upon, one person in a specific time and location.

* Farmer was a tax collector (fermier), where Franklin was a successful farmer who owned land.

* Brewster and Baxter were women brewers, not much opportunity for a long line of those.

* Fuller had an ancestor who pounded wool and clay with a hammer, they took the place of people who did it with their feet, the Walkers.

It's fun to think about, especially for those who have a name like Faulkner. But, many of these trades/technologies were a flash-in-the-pan that lasted just a few generations (e.g. Parsons, Warner, Stoddard), during a time when western civilization was incredibly unstable.

Not to mention variations on spelling! Tailor->Taylor, Cook->Cooke, Fisher->Phisher.

[Name] of [Father/Town/Clan] were also all common.

"John of Connor" (John, fathered by Connor)

German: Hans von Duisburg (Hans from the city of Duisburg)

(Feudal) Japanese: 藤原鎌足 (Fujiwara of the Kamatari clan)

Then, as mentioned by another user, some names were given based on characteristics or parents' wishes of the future.

Russian: Неулыба (One who does not smile)

Or even the location of where your family lived ("place names"):

Japanese (again): 田中 (center/middle field), 中村 (center of village), 山本 (base of the mountain).

> (Feudal) Japanese: 藤原鎌足 (Fujiwara of the Kamatari clan)

Another neat thing about Japanese surnames is that you can typically tell which families were retainers etc. for the Fujiwara by the presence of the character 藤 (the "Fuji" in Fujiwara, often read "toh" in other names) in names like the very common 佐藤 (Satoh).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com