Any other examples of surnames that have died out?

Question

Like DRUNKARD - A Roberde le Dronkard recorded for 1324 I think, and the writer added 'Perhaps not surprisingly, this surname has not been perpetuated.'

I used to know a girl with the surname SACHEVERELL and she told me that if she got married and changed her name in the then normal fashion, her name would die out completely as she had never heard of anyone else with it apart from her and her family.

Any other examples.

Answer 1

One surname I have not seen anywhere else, that died out in Huron County Ohio was the Smithla surname. Joseph Smithla married Helena Hiss, who was a sister of one of my ancestors. As far as I know, the sons only had one son between them and this lone paternal grandson had no children.

Answer 2

I know Zhurong is a rare surname nowadays. It's an old chinese compound name. I'm PRETTY sure no one has that name anymore but you never know...

Answer 3

Stephen Drunkard is in the social security death index, died in the 1980s in Oklahoma.  So much for the writer. There are other US records for the surname.

Just like anything else.. just because someone says it, that does not make it fact.

Answer 4

if the person with the surname Sacheverell googles it she will find that it hasn't died out. I have heard this name before numerous times,  and perhaps she should also look into its origins. Many names may have been anglicised from their original as well. Say for example people that came from Europe and went to America during the WW1 and  WW2 often changed their names because of easiness, but have a look at some here in UK, and many have survived.

Answer 5

There have evidently been no Plantagenets since the Middle Ages, but of course a person can change his name to anything he chooses, so there may be people who have adopted that name.