# Surnames associated with a particular ancestry **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899 "2007-08-25T16:32:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/1 "2007-08-25T16:32:15Z")
What are surnames associated with a certain ancestry? Here are some of my guesses. Wolfe, Adams- English Mac-anything- probably Scottish Jones- Welsh O’anything- Irish (O’Malley, O’Kelly, O’Neill, etc…) Mc-anything- probably Irish but possibly Scottish anything-son- probably Scandinavian (Larson, Ericson, etc…) Le-anything- French (LeBrun) Those are just my guesses. What surnames are associated with a particular ancestry or ethnicity? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/2 "2007-08-25T17:33:06Z")
Also, di-anything, Della-anything- Italian ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/3 "2007-08-25T17:36:35Z")
Cohen, descendant of Aaron. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/4 "2007-08-25T17:38:14Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Socks] O’anything- Irish (O’Malley, O’Kelly, O’Neill, etc..) Mc-anything- probably Irish but possibly Scottish [/QUOTE] You have to actually see the names written, of course. If you just hear them, you can be fooled by last names like Mikawa and Obama. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Socks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captain\_Socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Socks)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/5 "2007-08-25T17:39:34Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus] Cohen, descendant of Aaron. Tris [/QUOTE] What ethnicity/ancestry? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/6 "2007-08-25T17:40:46Z")
Van followed by anything usually implies Dutch ancestry. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/7 "2007-08-25T17:41:10Z")
My name ends in ez…a dead giveaway of Hispanic ethnicity. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/8 "2007-08-25T18:56:40Z")
-ski is often Polish. -sky is more likely Russian. -ovich or -ovna as the middle name is definitely Russian, as is -ov as the last name. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/9 "2007-08-25T19:17:18Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Socks] Mc-anything- probably Irish but possibly Scottish [/QUOTE] I’d put that the other way round. Mac or Mc names are more likely to be Scottish than Irish in my experience. A name starting with Sch- is very likely German. Names ending with -ov or -ev are Slavic, most likely Russian. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/10 "2007-08-25T19:28:19Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] I’d put that the other way round. Mac or Mc names are more likely to be Scottish than Irish in my experience. [/QUOTE] Generally, Mac indicates Scottish, but Mc indicates Irish. Except when it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/11 "2007-08-25T19:31:34Z")
Surnames ending in -off, or -in: Doukhobor Russian. E.g., Popoff, Varabioff, Zoobkoff, Veregin, Repin, Shukin. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/12 "2007-08-25T19:33:39Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Socks] What ethnicity/ancestry? [/QUOTE] Is that a whoosh? Hebrew, in case it isn’t. Verified by genetic testing of the x chromosome of men named Cohen, or its linguistic variants in most of the world. The priests of Israel were all the descendants of Aaron. Not counting the usual incidence of infidelity, they include a lot of guys named Cohen. Tris ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/13 "2007-08-25T19:59:19Z")
[QUOTE=Triskadecamus] Is that a whoosh? Hebrew, in case it isn’t. Verified by genetic testing of the x chromosome of men named Cohen, or its linguistic variants in most of the world. The priests of Israel were all the descendants of Aaron. Not counting the usual incidence of infidelity, they include a lot of guys named Cohen. Tris [/QUOTE] Y chromosome. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/14 "2007-08-25T20:10:34Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Generally, Mac indicates Scottish, but Mc indicates Irish. Except when it doesn’t. [/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure this is a myth. I believe Mc is just a popular ( and modern )shortening of Mac, not, as far as I know, a genuine linguistic variation between Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Every historical Irish name I’ve ever seen is written as Mac-, whether it be MacCarthy, MacLochlainn, MacDermot, MacMurrough or MacDuinnshleibhe. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/15 "2007-08-25T20:50:12Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Generally, Mac indicates Scottish, but Mc indicates Irish. [/QUOTE] As **Tamerlane** says, that’s a myth. It seems to have originated in North America, and is prevalent enough that both [Scottish](http://www.scottishhistory.com/articles/misc/macvsmc.html) and [Irish](http://www.irishroots.com/id4608.htm) genealogy sites feel it necessary to address the issue. I’m UK born-and-bred, with a “Mc” prefix courtesy of my Scots father, yet had _never_ heard of the supposed “McIrish/MacScottish” correlation until I came to the US; one fellow was quite insistent that my father **must** have been from Ireland due to my “Mc” prefix, until I pointed out that my ancestors within recoded history were illiterate crofters (known rather more for their cattle-rustling and murder-for-hire proclivities than for their orthography), and that family gravestones in our local Highland [kirkyard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkyard) mixed “Mc” and “Mac” apparently at whim. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/16 "2007-08-25T21:06:18Z")
Ben- (or Bar-, which is strictly speaking Aramaic) – likely Hebrew/Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/17 "2007-08-25T21:08:47Z")
Names ending in “dink” or “ink” are often of low german or Netherlands origin. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/18 "2007-08-25T21:13:09Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Y chromosome. [/QUOTE] :smack: Hey, the ones with X chromosomes are all descended from Eve, and she was Hebrew too! Tris ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/19 "2007-08-25T21:18:41Z")
No need to re-invent the wheel, folks. [Link.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name_affixes) ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899/20 "2007-08-25T21:20:06Z")
Englebert Humperdink??!? Who’d a thunk it? Le- (as in LeBon, LeBrun, LePen, etc) is indicative of Normandy French. Also, the given name Gaetan has always been Quebecois when I’ve run across it. Vlad/Igor (Romanian/Russian) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surnames-associated-with-a-particular-ancestry/416899.md?page=2)