Surnames
By me
@dfollin (27267)
United States
July 14, 2007 9:11am CST
Do you know where your surname is from? Mine is Follin from Ireland.My ancesters were O'Fallon in Ireland and when they came over here they changed it to Follin.But,because of census takers that could not spell,illiteracy and family fudes some surname's spelling got changed.I have seen Follen,Fallin,Fallen,Folin,Folen.I hear people say we are not related because my last name is spelled differnet from your's.That's not right.Surname's can be spelled at least one other way.In some case's many different ways.
7 people like this
12 responses
@nolipo (407)
• United States
14 Jul 07
Mine was Anderson, in the time of my dads grandfather the sweedish would take the first name of the father and add son our daughter to the end. so if you dads name was Ander you would be Anderson or Andersdaughter Im sure glad they changed that.
@nolipo (407)
• United States
16 Jul 07
Yea i guess it gets quite complicated with all the svens and anders and all that. My dads grandpa came over from Sweden he was the first of them. It's all pretty interesting, my brother does tons of genealogy and its interesting to hear all the stories. And he has a lake named after him in Idaho.
2 people like this
@KAMIKAZECALIFORNIA (114)
• United States
14 Jul 07
mines duggan...from ireland...
3 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
15 Jul 07
My dad got his name changed from Gross during the Second World War. It is a German or Austrian name and refers to someone large. I will not tell you what he changed it to because I am using a nickname, not my real name. I am being cautious. But it does explain why I difficulty losing weight.
2 people like this
@AmbiePam (120701)
• United States
14 Jul 07
My last name, I'd rather not say it, is German. It was Karcher in Germany and as my dad's family came over, it gradually changed because they feared it sounded too German. There was a lot of bad sentiment towards Germany all those years ago.
2 people like this
@Bizziebod (3497)
•
15 Jul 07
Hi, I was reading a book about surnames not so long ago. It's quite interesting where some names come from. My surname is quite common in england (Wood) and means that you lived near woods suprisingly lol.. My daughter's surname is quite unusual and originates from Ireland too.
2 people like this
@Bizziebod (3497)
•
16 Jul 07
Erm yes actually I can and there's one on ebay at the moment http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/A-Dictionary-of-English-Surnames-by-Reaney-Wilson-PB_W0QQitemZ280118879842QQihZ018QQcategoryZ101046QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
Good Luck
1 person likes this
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
14 Jul 07
My surname is actually a nickname given to my dad. I don't really know the whole story but it seems the last name I carry, should not be my real name LOL its weird but its an Atiuan surname (from the Cook Islands).
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
14 Jul 07
Well that is the name that was put on his birth certificate and in fact it is not according to my Grandma. I really don't know the story behind it as she wouldn't go into it so as far as I know its legal LOL
2 people like this
@dfollin (27267)
• United States
15 Jul 07
The reason I asked was in 1980 when I had my oldest son and I was not married I was not permitted to give him his father's surname.He ould have to adopt him.When I had my second son in 1983,I was still not married and I gave both surname's hyphenated.But we were permited to just use one.Then when his father signed the paternity paper's,which was not permitted at the hospital then,we were able to change his birth certificate to his father's surname only then.Then in 1997 when I had my daughter,I still was waiting to get married because of insurance reason's we waited till after she was born.I could of given her any last name that I wanted.It didn't even have to be mine or my fiance's.It could have been Presley,Gable,whatever.Plus I could have put Elvis down as her father,lol.They didn't care.
1 person likes this
@danishcanadian (28954)
• Canada
16 Jul 07
My father is Canadian and so I was born with an English surname. When I was 19 I changed my surname to my mother's birthname which is Danish, because I wanted a last name with a Danish background, to reflect my Danish heritage.
@bkfuels (1601)
• Canada
15 Jul 07
Yes I know where my name came from and the spelling has also changed over the years. It is a German name. I also know what our family coat of arms looks like.One of our relatives wrote a book on our family history dating as far back as he could go the coat of arms in on the front. You can also find your coat of arms on the internet if there is one. We found my husbands and we also found mine, it was the same as on the book and the book was written before the internet craze.
@scarywhitegirl (2766)
• United States
15 Jul 07
Mine is Vogel, from Germany. I've also seen it spelled Fogel or Fogle, depending on who was writing it. Vogel, though, seems to be the version that my family has always used.
Of course, I have heard that Vogel is about as common in Germany as Smith is in the U.S., so that makes things a bit complicated for research.
@vicki2876 (5636)
• Canada
15 Jul 07
My Opa doesn't talk much about his childhood. When he was a boy in the ukrane he was adopted by a family and was given their surname. He wasn't a part of the family but a farmhand, pretty much legal slavery and they never showed him any kindness. He came to Canada with my Oma and had a family. I was the last one here and there were no males to carry it so I gave my three childern my name. So 1 hundred years from now if there are any around they are from my family line. There are nine of us in the world and 4 are in my house. I am proud of the name because my Opa is a very strong hard working man who loves his family very much. That to me is what the name represents now. Vicki
2 people like this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
25 Oct 07
I've researched my last name and there are all different ways to spell it and all different stories that go with it. Supposedly, it was a name meaning from a now-defunked-province in France and had another syllable and all the people from that province were de la Barreaux or de la Bareault (of the _______-province) and about 5 other variations. Another set of research says my last name means, "Son of Bear" and dates before the franks and may be from a people who were in scandinavia or Germany. So who to heck knows?
@isaiah12 (416)
• United States
14 Sep 07
I am doing work on my family tree now. One my mother's side the Blanchards are of French origin. The Bates are English. On my father's side the Montigny's are French. And the Ainslie's are from Scotland. You can find out someinteresting things when working on your family history. My great-great grandfather Ainslie married Eliza Jane Lincoln, who was a third cousin once removed of Abe Lincoln. My fathers last name is Martin. His father was born Montigny, but changed the last name somewhere along the way. If you go back far enough the family went by De Montigny.
