What Does Your English Last Name Say About Your Family?

In the old days many families and clans were named by where they lived or what they did for a living. We’ve previously written about what some of these German last names mean, what Swedish last names mean, and what some Irish last names mean. Today we’ll be diving into what some English last names say about how the family once operated. It’s fascinating to discover what occupations or family traits you might be named after. Read on to find out what some of these English surnames once meant. We’ve broken them up into sections based on the type of name, but note there is some crossover between the categories.

Occupational Names

Names of occupations were not uncommon as surnames in the early modern period and we’re still using these names- even if some of the professions are not so common anymore. Long before the internet or telephone books, in an age when even maps were scarce, directions might be based on shop locations as each town or hamlet likely only had one blacksmith or one shoemaker. Those professions were markers in both time and geography and shops were often handed down through the family.

You can imagine a person being called John the Fletcher then people eventually dropping the “the” and calling him John Fletcher.

Burgess- landowner, later an elected official

Cooper- someone who made wheels

Dyer- someone who dyed cloth

Fisher- a fisherman or someone who lived near fishing traps

Fletcher- someone who made arrows and their feathers

Fuller– someone who worked in wool production

Hunter- a huntsman, in feudal times not everyone was allowed to hunt

Knight- can mean servant or helper boy and doesn’t necessarily refer to a knight in shining armor

Laster- someone who made shoes

Potter- someone who made pots and ceramics

King- could be derived from early theater in which an actor might play a single role his entire career

Tucker- someone involved in finishing wool fabrics

Vassar- a medieval servant

Vickers or Vicars- a local clergyman or one of his servants

Walker- someone who had to walk over fabric to finish it

Wright– a tradesman or wagon maker

Geographical Names

These toponymic or locative surnames can be derived from general locations or from specific counties or cities. They can even describe specific glades or river crossings now long forgotten as landmarks. In ages past many people didn’t stray far from where they were born, so even small areas each had important meanings and people would have known these locations well.

Atwood- someone who lived “at the wood”

Ayton– comes from Old English ea “river” or ieg “island” combined with tun “enclosure, or town”. Commonly referring to people from Berwickshire and North Yorkshire

Blackburn- a family who lived in Blackburn at one time

Croft- a parcel of land near the house for pasture or gardening

Harrington- those who lived in Harrington (Northamptonshire)

Morgan- Welsh or Scottish, related to or circling the sea

Putnam- someone from old Puttenham (Hertfordshire or Surrey), means “hawks’ farm”

Sands– family from sandy soil or from Sands in Carlisle (Cumberland) or Sands Cottages in West Hoathly (Sussex)

Stanford- “stan” means rock and “ford” means a shallow place to enter a river

Wood- someone who lived near woods

York- those who hailed from York or worked for a nobleman with York in his title

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