Names and Occupations By Hazel Bentley

 

During the Middle ages and before people were known by First Name Only

•         PETER THE GREAT

•         CHARLES I   (The First)

•         CHARLES II  (The Second etc.)

•         KING RICHARD

•         MARY Queen of Scotland

•         EDWARD

•         BIBICAL NAMES WERE SINGULAR

•          Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

•          John the Baptist, John the Beloved, John the brother of Jesus etc.

           As the population grew so did the need for surnames.

•         Surnames for the most part, drew their meanings from the lives of men in the Middle Ages and their origin can be divided into 4 main categories.

•          

1.PATRONYMIC SURNAMES  Formed from the Father’s name.          

English   and Swedish            Scottish and Irish

Davidson                                         Mc or Mac

Tennyson                                         Dutch

Richardson                                       Van               

Anderson                                         Danish or Welsh

Irish surnames beginning with sen

 “O” mean                                       Christensen

Grandson of___________               Andersen

 

2. PLACE NAMES

                     

•         Eastwood or Westwood

•         Cullen/back of the river

•         Atwood/lived near a wood (we don’t know which one)

•         Dunlop/muddy hill

•         Brooks/along a brook

•         Churchill/near a church on a hill

•         Cliff/steep hill

•         Ashley/field surrounded by ash trees

•         Riverside

3.NICKNAMES

 

•         Goodman                   Small

•         Strong                        Stout

•         Baines (Bones)          Armstrong

•         Goodman                   Sharp

•         Broadhead                 Smart

•         Reid (Red)                

•         Black

 

4.CRAFTS & TRADES

 

•         Plumber                     Knight

•         Baker                        Smith (blacksmith)

•         Barber                       Powers (poor)

•         Miller                         Carter (maker of carts)

•         Muller                        Alterman (court official)

•         Wainwright                Taylor

•         Wagner                     Bishop

•         Waggoner                  Cooper (barrel maker)

•         Banker (not an occupation)

Hints for Spelling Variations

•         Say it out loud and spell phonetically

•         Use a dictionary for foreign equivalent.

•         Beware of silent “H” “E” “Y” “K”

•         Different Vowels can have different sounds (INGALL, ENGEL)

•         Ending in S try dropping the S

•         Transpositions (CRISP, CRIPS)

Having a list of different spelling variations available can help when searching. Our ancestors and/or recorders were not good spellers or good at penmanship.  This included first names and last names. The following is a variety of the spelling of Meyers:

Myers Myer Myres
Myre Mire Meyers
Moyers Moyer Moires
Miers Mier Meare
Mayres Meirs Meir
Meyer

I looked for Donite in the 1850-60-70-80 census and finally found his first name spelled Dante. Also abbreviations were common: wm, jr, sr, jon. Rich, don, etc.  Also be sure to have a handwriting guide with you when searching for records written by pen.

          

Searching for Grandmother’s Maiden Name

•         Remember Clusters

•         Search by first name and specific locality

•         Census for mother in law (MIL) living with   the family.

•         Google.com or ask.com for marriage index for specific locality. If Ancestry.com make a list and go to the FHC.

•         Websites:

•         http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/bl_meaning.htm

•         http://langmaker.com/ml0103a.htm

•         http://genforum.genealogy.com/

•         http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sam/occupation.html

•         http://cyndislist.com/

•         .surnameweb.org

•         http://www.gengateway.com/

•         ask.com or google.com  search for surnames

Make a study of naming patterns when you find the country of your ancestor.