Are people with the same last name once related?

Question

Do you think people with the same last name are related? Because there used to only be one person with the last name Smith or Meyers or Spears. So someone who has the last name "Hilton" is related to Paris lol.

If you have a rare last name, then i guess that means the first person with that last name didn't have very many kids. But, if it's common i guess they had a lot lol.

Answer 1

Not necessarily.  Most people in Europe did not have a surname unitl the last melenium.  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.

Example: John had 4 sons, Henry, George, Sam and Robert

Henry, if he could write, signed his name Henry son of John.  He became Henry Jones, Henry Johns or Henry Johnson along with other men whose father's name was John.

George was a taylor and he became George Taylor along with others of his occupation.  Other occupational names, Smith, Baker, Carpenter, Cooper, Cook, MIller, Fisher, Barber, Clark(clerk) etc.

Sam lived on or near a hill and he became Sam Hill.  Some took the name of the town or castle to which they lived close.  I have Overtons in my family. It just means over town(settlement).  

Robert had brown hair and became Robert Brown.  

Legitimate sons of the same man could have wound up with different surnames but they could each have shared their surnames with others with whom they were not related.

Answer 2

Probably.  What was the first monkey's name?

Answer 3

I'll debunk your theory with this:

Some black people have their slave owner's name

Answer 4

Nope. If they were, Robert E. Lee would have a million Chinese cousins.

>> Because there used to only be one person with the last name Smith

Wrong again. When they started using last names, there was a Smith in nearly every village.

Answer 5

Not really. Names have a variety of origins and some do deal with who your ancestors were related too, like Johnson or Smithson. The last one also shows a link to jobs, like Reeve and Butcher. Yet another group related to geography at the time the records were made for census purposes, like Hill, Forrester or Scott.

The chances of being related to someone with a common name are slim, but a rare name may be a different story.

Answer 6

No, there did not used to be only one person with the last name Smith.  There may have been one blacksmith in the village and he was the one smith.  The next village over would have another smith.  They were not related, they just happened to have the same occupation.  John the Smith in your village was not related to Joe the Smith in the neighboring town.

Answer 7

You really can't assume that. Anymore , people change names just to be cool. Think of all of the last names out there.They had to start somewhere. I think that my last name got changed when my distant relatives immigrated from Ireland.

Answer 8

No.

Answer 9

There is a greater chance of it, especially if its a rare name which is unique and not some "logical" name.  By "logical" name, I mean names that were something like the trade or profession some person / family was into,  like  Mason, Smith, Baker,  Schumann, Schumaker...

People with rare names could also have "relatives" , cousins, etc, who have abberations of the spelling of the name, like spelling mistakes when immigrating,  etc...