My last name, which is “Carnage” but replace the C with an H, means descent from a village just outside of Shropshire, England. Can’t get more specific than that.
Sorry for the extra confusion, just a bit paranoid about becoming google-able.
Just outside Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, perhaps? 
And it’s certainly a small place: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=356500&Y=304500&A=Y&Z=4
Regional surnames still survive in Britain. One friend, from Yorkshire, has a name which origintates from there, filling several pages of the phone book. Here, down sarrrf, there’s only half-a-dozen entries.
How does that rule increase the number of surnames?
Not definitely. The Polish “-wicz” or “-witz” is the same ending, and pronounced the same. And, has been mentioned above, Ellis Island can change spellings. As can people – I know people in the current generation that are altering spellings themselves to make them more pronouneable.
Captain Socks lists “-witz” among the common “Jewish” surnames. I don’t know if he’s being facetious, but it’s worth pointing out that all those names are Eastern European (-vic, -witz, -wicz, etc occurs in many Slavic tongues), and these suffixes aren’t Jewish at all – they’re typical Eastern European name endings. You can have them and not be Jewish. You can be Jewish (i.e. – west European, or something more exotic) and not have them.
And, of course, you needn’t have any particular ending. My name is Polish, not shortened or respelled, and doesn’t end in any variation of -ski or -wicz.
And such endings can be misleading. I thought for years that the name “McClusky” must be an invention because it combines that Gaelic “Mac–” with the slavic “.sky”. But there are such Gaelic names ending in “–sky”.
Many Armenian names end in -ian or -yan. But it’s not universal. The famous Canadian photographer Karsh was Armenian. And ending in -ian, -ion, or whatever doesn’t guarantee Armenian-ness. Again, frequentkly languages in a region are similar enough. Prince Bagration, of the battle of Borodino, wasn’t Armenian, but his family hailed from nearby.
And don’t forget Lando Kalrizzian, who’s not a black Armenian from outer space (although I suspecxt Howard Kazanjian’s name inspired his).
I haven’t noticed if it’s been pointed out, but in most cases these “typical of an ethnicity” endings all connote “son of” or “from the X”. The ubiquity of such endings or beginnings becomes pretty clear in that light.
This smacks so much of folk (i.e., mistaken) etymology, that I’m going to have to ask for a cite.
(Re: Katz)
The etymology given above is lightly, but not very, corrupt – Katz is an acronym of “Cohen Tzedek” – literally, “Priest of Justice.”
There are many people who write the name Katz in Hebrew as כ"ץ (the quote-mark denotes abbreviations in (Modern) Hebrew), and quite a few people simply named Cohen-Tzedek (spelled out in full)
Of course, this **could **be a case of “reverse etymology” – people taking a folk-etymlogy and applying it backwards… I’ll try and look for a real cite later, at home.
Thanks! Could very well be. As you are aware, such popular explanations as “port outward, starboard home” for “posh”, and “for unlawful carnal knowledge”, for you-know-what, do not reflect how words, including proper names, really evolve (yes, there are a few exceptions, like “laser” and “radar”).
As Chronos points out, profession names are common in many cultures. Using your examples:
SMITH
German: Schmidt
French: LaForge, LeFevre
Spanish: Herrera
Italian: Ferraro, Ferrrari
Gaelic (anglicized): Goff, Gough, McGough, McGowan
Czech: Kovac
Hungarian: Kovacs
Polish: Kowalski
Russian: Kuznetsov
Arabic: Haddad
Punjabi: Lohar
COOPER
German: Kuper, Kupfer, Buttner, Schaffler, perhaps ultimately Keefer (from Küfer) and Keebler (from Kübler).
Dutch: Kuiper
Czech: Bednar
Polish: Bednarik
French: Barillier (and IIRC, a Charpentier could have been either a traditional carpenter or a cooper)
Scandinavian: I believe Boddicker derives from Danish Bødker
TAYLOR
German: Schneider (ultimately Snider, Snyder)
Dutch: Snijder (ultimately Snider, Snyder)
French (?): I have often wondered if Teller derives from French teilleur.
Polish: Krawiec, Krawczyk
Spanish: Sastre
Cool list!
Just so we’re clear here, Captain Socks, every family name tends to indicate a particular ethnic ancestry.
Doesn’t “Stein” = “Smith”, too? Goldstein, Silverstein …
Well, that’s why I said “pretty much” all. 
Well, those are just German endings (except for -witz), meaning “tree”, “stone”, “man” and “mountain”, respectively. Jews from different parts of the world will have different types of names, so I don’t see how those could be called “main”. It’s just that many Jews in the US come from German or Yiddish speaking cultures.
Stein literally means “stone”. Don’t know about any idiomatic or regional uses of the word, past or present (Kellner, are you around?).
Is that an actual last name? If so, chalk it up.
:smack: I forgot a word! Those are common suffixes among Ashkenazi Jews, right, Eastern European.
Yes, two of my colleagues in Yucatan were brothers named Armando and Fernando Sastre. I don’t know how common the surname is.
It’s often used in place names where you would probably use “rock” in English. These are sometimes the basis for surnames, including those of noble families who were usually named after their estate. For example “Frankenstein” is a rock associated with the tribe the Franks. This was the name of several castles and villages and at least one real-life noble family was named after one of the castles.
To elaborate on my previous answer – both **JKellyMap **and I are correct. The name Katz is a Jewish name meaning Cohen Tzedek; it is also a German name, meaning “cat.”
Interesting, thanks.
Looking through student records every week brings slightly more "mc"s as "mac"s, but I can’t say its enough for statistical purposes.
Are names in English derived from colours all from the period of time when the English decided that colonists in Ireland were turning too native and tried to do away with Irish names in exchange for bland meaningless ones?