What nationality is the last name green from?

Question

just curiouse my last name was green before i was married but just curiouse. thanks :)

Answer 1

Surnames were not common in Europe until the last 500 years. They are often based on occupation (e.g Smith, Wright), on being "the son of" (e.g. Jones, Johnson), on a geographic area (Broughton is  place -  names ending "ton" in English are common examples of this) or names indicating a specific feature in the land (e.g. Dell).

The name Green could well be English but you cannot be certain without trying to trace it back. It could be from anywhere as it may have started out as something else. It is only in the last 150 years or so that people have been able to read or write there own names - before that they spelling could have changed as often as the telling as a clerk struggled with an unfamiliar accent or misheard a respondent.

It could be that the name Green is English as you might expect but it could equally have been translated from another language.

Answer 2

I'm guessing it's somewhere in Britain.

Answer 3

I don't know if all families with the name Green came from there, but some Greens in my family came from Boughton, Northhampton, England.  The "Green" the surname was originally part of the name of an important noble's estate that was nearby called "Green Norton."  I think it was called this because of the large green fields there.  I've also heard that there were other families who got the  name "Green" from similarly green fields near their houses that identified them in the same way that being a blacksmith by trade earned you the name "Smith."  Again, I'm not sure if that last bit about people with the Green name in general is true, but as far as I know the part about Green Norton is.

Answer 4

Most english-language-names like this that are common (green, smith, jones, black, etc.) are of anglo-saxon origin in the british isles.