I’ve wondered about this for a long time and Google yields unsatisfactory results.
George Washington is one of the most famous white persons in history. I am fully aware that many slaves were given or took the names of famous whites of the time (or before) for a variety of reasons, hence the large number of Washingtons, Lincolns, Jeffersons, etc. Perhaps it’s where I live (Washington, DC) or who I’ve grown up around, but in all my life I have yet to meet or even hear about a non-African-American “Washington,” with the exception of “George” of course.
Notwitstanding those who have married/been adopted into a family of Washingtons, has anyone ever met a white Washington? If there are white Washingtons, why are they so rare? I believe the name originated in England, but does it still exist there (as a surname) and if so is it common or is it rare there as well?
Anyone have any ideas about any of these questions?
Thank you sir! Didn’t really answer my questions but I see it has been discussed already, along with an interesting side debate about what does or should constitute “urban music.”
Well, it does show that, at least as of 1930, Black “Washingtons” outnumbered Whites by about 14:1.
Also, several years back there was some analysis done on “If George Washington had been a king instead of a president, who would be the king now.” The lineage thru his next of kin converged on a White guy named “Washington,” who might have lived in Texas. (That might have been the first White Washington I’d ever seen.)
Pretty rare, I think. The original Washington (the place George’s ancestors named themselves after) is about 15 miles away from here, but a check in the local phone book finds only one actual person of that name.
That seems to be fairly typical, though: this part of the country’s full of Anglo-Saxon place names of that format– Ashington, Bedlington, Easington, Widdrington, Longframlington etc – but only a few have become common surnames. Probably because the people who would adopt a place name as their family name were the local lords of the manor, and since most of these places are (or were) titchy little villages, if the opportunity came along to trade up to a more impressive surname, they took it. So while Ellington is just a few miles up the road here, the nearest Duke’s called Percy.
According to this website, there were 2,876 Washingtons in England and Wales in 2002, making it the joint 2,714th most popular surname. So not common, but not unknown either.
In the case of landowners, there would have been no obvious advantage in trading up. No one cared if one of your estates was centred on a titchy little village, just so long as you had lots of those estates. In which case, you would own lots of villages from which you did not take your name.
More relevant is the fact that plenty of surnames died out. Given that population growth was low, or non-existant, or, during the Black Death, steeply negative, families died out in the male line more often than you might think.
Mind up, the Duke of Northumberland should be a Smithson! That really is trading up.