How can i find the history of my last name?

Question

the last name is chantiloupe but i cant find the name history anywere

Answer 1

some tips for you, my friend..

Names don't always have a "history".. but actual persons do. For example.. the name Smith has been around for hundreds of years or more.. yet what one Smith did, will be different from what another did.

The other issue around "name origins"... is this a name that has existed for long enough to be traceable?? To illustrate how that happens.. my ex's gr gr grandfather migrated from Canada in the mid 1800s, and obviously persons in Minnesota could not handle Dauphinais (a common name in Quebec).. and it BECAME Dolphay.  Thus, the overall history of the Dolphay name is quite simple.. someone could not speak or spell French, and took the easy way out.  Of course, once the original name is found, it is easy to find when and how they came from France to Canada.

Having only the US version of ancestry, I can look only at US sources, although there are others. I find only ONE entry in the social security death index, and a lady at that.. this raises the flag to me, that the name/family has NOT been in the US for many years.. a recent immigration. The only entry in familysearch.org is the same death.. no births anywhere else.

Google is where I finally found any leads.. I'd wager your family may be connected to Jamaica. That explains the lack of records.. I don't know that Jamaica has made a huge effort to put genealogical records online.  That does not mean they are not out there (ie in churches, or civil records, cemeteries, so forth).  If I am correct where your relatives were from, that is where the valid records may be.

I'll take that one further step, just to guess. I usually avoid making assumptions.. but the name seems to have a French flavor to it.  But I can't help but wonder if it is like Dauphinais.. something that is garbled from the original.

http://users.pullman.com/mitchelm/jamaic...

If I am correct, then here is one site that may start you on how to find your ancestry in Jamaica.

Answer 2

This is the nearest I could find, Wendy C is giving good advice. Your name does not necessarily originate from one place.

Cantalupo : Last name origin & meaning:

Italian: habitational name from any of various places in Italy named or named with Cantalupo, thought to be a grimly humorous name derived from Latin cantare ‘to sing’ + lupus ‘wolf’, i.e. denoting a settlement where the wolves could be heard howling in the uncleared woods around. This is a widespread place name but some scholars now dispute its derivation, believing it to have been altered by folk etymology.

Answer 3

I googled your name and it came up with 266 answers.  So I googled it in geneology.  Here's the link:

genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/b...

Search for yourself.