When people hear a last name how do know where their family is from?

Question

Like O'Finnagin is from Ireland (I think), but what about the more common names such as Smith?

Answer 1

Common names like "Smith" have no single origin. Most German immigrants during WWI "Americanized" their names and Smith was a common name for them to choose. Many Poles named Kowalski changed their names to Smith because it made them sound American. So you really can't "look" at a name like that and "Know" where everyone with that name originated.

But at the same time, there are trends in immigration and you can look at a name like Koch or Finkelstein and have a very good idea that they were Central European and very possibly Jewish...though not everyone with the name was Jewish so don't get over confident in that.

You can look at a name like Przyzbylski and know pretty certainly that they were from a Slavic land, like Poland, Slovakia, or part of Lithiuania. Then you cross-reference that with their census records and immigration records, like http://www.Ellisisland.org or http://www.castlegarden.org But you can't stop there because then you have to lay what you know over the history of the land where they're listed as originating. You have to know that in the 1800s, Poland was partitioned between Prussia/Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. You look at the year of emigration and it gives you a clue as to which partition it was. If they say that the person was Austrian on their immigration paperwork from 1885, it's a good sign that they were from the land called Galicia, near Krakow, where Austria-Hungary was in control until the end of WWI. Reading their passport information on the immigration websites only tells you who ruled the land of their birth, not what that land is called today.

If the name is Manninen and they lived in the UP of Michigan, the first place to search is Finlandia University because the odds are greater than 95% that they were either Finnish or Swedish. But either way, the records will tell you where they originated.

Finally, after you get all your fact-finding done, you go to the definitive source and get their Naturalization paperwork from the National Archives and it tells you exactly where they were born and when they arrived (more or less if they came over before 1890)

Answer 2

Where someone's family is from could be wherever they have lived.

Where someone's name is from is a separate question.

If you consult houseofnames.com you'll see smith comes from multiple European countries...

Answer 3

the answer is that you DON'T know where your family is from, based on hearing a name.  Common or not, names are not limited to one geographical origin.  Example.. if Smith were considered an "English" name (which is is not, necessarily).. it does not change what might be the fact that YOUR 12X gr grandfather was named Smith, born in Wales, and migrated to Venezuela.

Name 'origin' is probably the one most common question we have, after "how do I?".  You choose if you want to know your ancestry.. meaning, you use records to find the specific location of PERSONS, or are you just wanting the generic (and sometimes incorrect) origin of a name?

They are two different topics.

Answer 4

In past times your last name often reflected what job you were in. For instance Smith would have been a blacksmith, and cooper would be barrell makers. Its hard to tell which country they are from. Smith sounds English but may not be the case. Most Scottish names have a McK at the start but not always.

Answer 5

Granted that names have places of origins like the example you gave, but that does not mean that is where YOUR family came from.  Throughout history, there are TONS of reasons why people get the name that they had, and the reasons in each individual case may have nothing to do with the origins of the name itself.  That is not the way to do genealogy.  You have to look for the people.......not the names.  A perfect example of that is the name Smith as you mentioned.  Often the name came about by the person being in the trade of being a blacksmith.  But, was he a blacksmith in America?  England?  Scotland?  That is why you cannot do genealogy by names.  You must research the actual people.

Answer 6

They don't. For example, there are people named "Lee" who are black, with African roots, people named "Lee" who are white, with European roots, and people named "Lee" who are Chinese.

There are patterns that you can recognize, with time and experience. Surnames that start with "Mac" or "Mc"  may be Scottish. Surnames that start with "O'" (the apostrophe does't show very well, but I mean names like "O'Brian") may be Irish. Names that end in an "o" may be Italian. Names that end in "ez" are often Spanish, since "ez" means "son of" in Spanish, the way "son" and "sen" do in English and Scandanavian.

Johnson = Son of John

Petersen = Son of Peter

Rodriguez = Son of Rodrigo (Roger)

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa...

will tell you where a name came from. There are often several places.

Names are clues and hints, not facts. The only way to find out where someone is from is to trace his/her ancestry.

Answer 7

I believe that "Smith" originated in England. There are actually a number of websites you can go to and type in a surname. They will give you the origin of the name and what it may mean.

You could even try Wikipedia. They have information about common surnames.

Answer 8

Well, firstly, your family can be from lots of places at once.  What if one parent is Chinese and the other is Irish?  If my sister is white and she marries a Japanese man, couldn't her last name become Takanawa?  You got your last name from your father, and he did from his father, and so on... But it used to be that people stayed in one place to marry.  So, if you have a German last name, perhaps your grandfather's grandfather and all his ancestors were German.  Your last name is only a small part of all the kinds of ancestors you had.  Smith is an English name.  Anyone with the last name Smith has at least some English blood, but not neccessarily all.  The only way to guarantee that you're totally one thing is to know that the only place your ancestors lived is where you do now.  It's really confusing.