How can some people judge your heritage by your surname?

Question

How comes most people in america count you as only your dads race and not your moms justt because you have his surname, on a real thats ONLY a name. Most people I know who are mixed only look there mothers race or atleast more there moms race, maternal dna seemss to be more stronger.. probably because we only have our mothers mitchondrial dna. And look this girl i know, her mom is ecuadorian and her dad irish people count her as 100% irish cause of her surname, hahaha but look how dark she is http://i30.tinypic.com/23ur0nn.jpg no way is she irish, you can tell shes an ecuadorian and christina aguilera her mom is irish and her dad is ecuadorian yet people see her as ecuadorian just because her surname is, gosh the girl is more pale than a ghost and has platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, you can tell shes irish, my mother is irish and she looks like alll my aunts, i'm not even kidding. its so stupid how people can judges ones identity and family because of a name. don't you think?

Answer 1

I don't know-I'm irish scotch welsh and blonde but my sis is rthe same and our dark Irish background makes her look almost italian at times. I don't think its a big deal-I always see people in America as a big mix anyway-thats why we get so many cool looking people with such a cross of features and skin types. Look at Hawaiian peoples and all that they are-a last name is just a portion of ones background.

Answer 2

I answered this question earlier, but Yahoo! would not allow it...

I agree: people should not guess anything about a person based upon a surname (or any other name.  E.g., Kim is a Korean name, but how about Kim Novak?)

But you have a few things wrong: Irish are not blond(e)s, but REDHEADS! Often they have green eyes...

Women's DNA is not stronger: women pass mtDNA to their children; boys can not pass mtDNA on to THEIR children.  Men pass yDNA to their children; but the daughters canNOT pass yDNA on.

A man can have his mtDNA AND yDNA tested for his ancestry; a woman can have ONLY mtDNA tested.

See: www.familytreedna.com (or other reliable sources).

It is an unfortunate fact of humans: they judge everyone by name, appearance, jobs, etc.  They shouldn't.  My surname is English: my paternal grandmother's maiden name was Welsh; going on back, there were Germans, American natives, etc.  The surname represents ONLY ONE THIN LINE (BRANCH) of a person't entire family tree.

Answer 3

I won't argue with you on this one, at all.

I have been here in this area over a year, answering questions.. and EVERY DAY, we get the same question..

"my last name is so-and-so, what is my heritage?"  And almost every day, I try to explain the same thing.. your last name is not your heritage, and sometimes, it isn't even your real ancestry.

The fact is simple, that it is a misconception, but common to persons who start wanting to know their background. They start with the last name.  Most persons don't stop to think that their heritage comes from ALL of their ancestors, and the name is just a label.

Genealogists don't usually assume this. Just persons who have not thought about it.

Answer 4

In a lot of cases, one's surname is a very iffy indication of even your father's ethnic background. Many immigrants with names that were difficult to pronounce, or understand, were re-named upon arrival or soon after, or chose to change their names. I remember being a little perplexed when chatting with a stranger whose excellent English was delivered with a strong Polish accent ... his surname was Brown!

Answer 5

Anthroponomastics (or Anthroponymy), is a branch of onomastics, and is the study of anthroponyms (<Gk. anthropos, 'man', + onuma, 'name'), the names of human beings.

The study of all names, in particular, lastnames, does give an indication of where in the world THAT NAME originated, it also gives an indication, but only an indication, of where the male line of a family MAY have originated.

Regarding dna. Male and female dna. are basically in equal measures. Human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes: 22 pairs of autosomes, and one pair of s*x chromosomes. Females carry a pair of X chromosomes that can swap, or recombine, similar regions of DNA during meiosis. However, males harbor one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, and significant recombination between these dissimilar s*x chromosomes does not occur. Therefore, the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome (NRY) remains largely unchanged over many generations, directly passed from father to son, son to grandson, and so on, along with genetic variations in the NRY that may be present. Scientists can use genetic variations, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), on the Y chromosome as markers of human ancestry and migration.

The male Y-dna is actually much stronger, and more reliable, than the female mtdna which can change often, but these are only a portion of the human genome, and it is other genes, in both male and female, which can dominate and are responsible for our appearances.

Edit : This forum is an English language forum. Whilst it may be true to say that last names in America have changed out of all recognition in many instances, that is not generally the case in, for example, England, where some names have undeniably changed in form over the years but are normally still easily recognisable, and there are some names which have been Anglisized at some time in the past.