A history and folklore enthusiast has shared the five types of English surnames and what they mean about your family history
People are only just discovering the origins of their surnames and the meanings behind them. Whilst surnames such as Smith, Johnson and Hill might appear commonplace, many individuals don’t give them a second thought.
However, people are now realising that their surnames could reveal more about their family heritage than delving back through multiple generations of research.
A surname is generally handed down from one generation to another, offering insight into a person’s cultural and geographical roots, profession or physical traits.
A history and folklore enthusiast, posting on TikTok as @the_past_and_curious, has explained that there are five categories of surname and their various origins.
He explained: “In England, there are five types of surnames introduced by the Normans with the Doomsday Book.
“They needed to differentiate between all the people with the same first name so that they could keep track of everyone and tax them accordingly.
“The types of surnames are patronymic, which means from the father. For example, John’s son becomes Johnson or Peter’s son becomes Peterson.
“The next type is vocational, so that’s the type of job somebody had. For example, Smith or Thatcher. Now these often end in ‘er’, like Thatcher or Cooper, which means someone who makes barrels.”
The history enthusiast continued by explaining that certain names are geographical, meaning that somebody residing in Derby would adopt that as their surname. Others derive from geographical features and draw inspiration from the terrain where individuals resided, such as Hill, Bridge and Wood.
He explained: “So someone who lives by a hill would take the surname Hill. The last and the least common type is a descriptive name.
“So a name like Armstrong would be a strong person, or Grey would be a person who had grey hair or possibly a grey beard.”
Across English-speaking nations, some of the most prevalent surnames include Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Garcia, Miller, Davis, Rodriguez, and Martinez.
Smith frequently ranks as the most widespread surname in numerous English-speaking countries, originally stemming from the craft of metalworking.