Are people who share the same last name somehow related?.. even very distantly?

Question

Are people who share the same last name somehow related?.. even very distantly?

Answer 1

Evelyn's answer so far is best.  Best answer - it all depends.  A few names DO indicate the same family, but I only know of two specifically (of more, it just isn't my area of interest).

Scandinavian names often indicate son of (in earlier times, also daughter of), Irish and Scottish names often indicate clan, English names generally reflected occupation, or place if part of higher classes.

A family name could also be obtained through adoption, and in some areas of the world, a family name is still not assigned.  Anyone who came through Ellis Island or Angel Island to the U.S. may have been renamed by an immigration worker.  (Name? Huh? Smith.  Next? Name? Huh? Jones.)

So - a family name is a starting place.  In both cases where I know all of a specific name to be related, the spelling is slightly different from a commoner name.

Answer 2

No, for the simple reason that surname development originally was separate from family relationships.  Just as a broad example.. the last name Smith often began by occupation, and if there were 5 men in an location (or not the same location), all took the name (description) of Smith, and it got passed down that way.

Many new people want to find the "Jones family history", on the wrong assumption that alll Jones have one origin and are thus related.  

There ARE some names which can be worked back to a single parent/ origin.  Example from mine.. Fullingim. The father's name is a variation of Fillingham (which exists in England and the US).. but it got garbled about 1850. All persons with this name ARE related.

Short answer.. the same name SOMETIMES will be related, but that is more of an exception than a rule.  You can find relationships with persons who don't have the same last name.

Answer 3

There is a feeling that we are all related back down the line somewhere.  Nevertheless, we don't all share the same root person of our surname with others with the same surname.

Most people in Europe did not have a surname until the last melennium.  In England, most had one by the end of the 14th century. They were based on a) being the son of someone b) their occupation c) where they lived d) some characteristic about them.   When they got through it wasn't impossible for legitimate sons of the same man to have a different surname. Still they could have each shared their surname with others not part of their family.

People starting out in genealogy can get overly involved in surnames.  They can be helpful in identifying people as before people had surnames, it is difficult to determine records on people.

Answer 4

Everyone is distantly related to some point whether you are religous or not, life forms do not just go from no life forms to multiple in no time. But last names do not even imply traceable relations if you take into account adoptions and other legal forms of changing last names. Not to mention I know several people of different races who share the same last name, and they are most likely as closely related as a chimpanzee and a gorilla.

Answer 5

It depends on how unusual the surname is.  My last name is Smith, so odds are that I'm probably not related to just any Smiths.  However, my chances of being related increase within a particular geographical area the more unusual my surname.  

For example, a paternal great grandmother's maiden name was Keesee.  Since "Keesee" is most probably a botched attempt at translating the French name "La Cage" into English, my chances of being related to a Keesee increase considerably if I meet someone with that surname in either Virginia or Texas--where most of the people with that last name have lived since about 1700. Similarly, a maternal great grandmother's maiden name was McQuerry, an Americanization of the Scottish surname Macquarrie. Odds are that any McQuerry I meet in Texas, Missouri, or Kentucky descends from the John Macquarrie who was transported to the Colonies after the Battle of Cullodeen in 1747.

Answer 6

it seems we are all related somehow  but not because of the last name being the same

Answer 7

No, Family names originated due to people occupation (Smith, Cobbler Baker etc..)or other logical reason (The son of a man named Tom would be Mr Tomson etc..)

So may people would have the same last name with no relation what so ever.

Answer 8

not really .

Answer 9

No.  It is not criteria for relationships.  Many families have ended up with names that have nothing to do with the origins of the name or any connections to anyone else with that name.