Why is "Savage" such a common last name, given what it means?

Dan Savage. Michael Savage. Fred and Ben Savage. There are plenty of non-celebrity Savages too - any phone book will be full of them.

Given the meaning of the word “savage,” why do so many people have it as a last name? Did the word originally mean something else?

I’ve been wondering about Coward. I’d hate that as a surname.

Death and Raper are two I’d rather not have as well.

The word “savage” traces back to the Latin silva (forest or grove.) Although savage today means “wild” or “untamed” with overtones of ferocity or agression, it’s orginal meaning when applied to people was “indomitable” or “valiant.”

Online Etymology Dictionary

I once had a coworker whose last name was LeSavage. She said it was of Eastern European extraction, presumably anglicized (?) to its present form. I can see how it might have come from a Slavic name. This may be true of of many of the “Savages” we encounter.

Savitch is a pretty common Jewish/Eastern European last name. I’d always assumed that at least some of the Savages are derived from that.

“Savage” was a fairly common surname throughout Ireland in the mid-19th century. There were 673 Savage households in the Primary Valuation property survey of 1848-64. The Irish version is Sabhaois.

ElectricScotland.com says,

Given the surname’s Norman origin, what Uvula Donor wrote applies.

Fred Savage from The Wonder Years is Jewish, and his surname probably comes from the Savitch-to-Savage route.

What about Lynch? I’ve encountered the name far more in the Southern US, too, which seems a bit ironic given the history of lynching.

What about the RV dealer in Indiana with billboards all over the state - “Tom Raper” or “Tom Rapist” or something like that?

I’ve often wondered why there aren’t more Lovejoys and Lovecrafts ?

The verb “lynch” is relatively modern, named after Captain William Lynch of Virginia, who died in 1820. The Irish surname Lynch (Irish Ó Loingsigh) goes back centuries, and is from the Irish word loingseach, mariner.

Bit of a sidetrack, but I was watching a BBC show about the worst jobs in history and was surpirised where some (I thought) inoffensive surnames came from. Take Walker for example. It comes from an old tanning process where you got to walk in a vat full of urine and excrement to help the skins tan. I may never eat Walker’s crisps again!

A walker is a person who fulls cloth (fulling is the process of cleansing and thickening cloth by beating and washing). The “walker” walked on damp cloth to thicken it.

But urine was what was used in the processing! :eek:

Not for cloth it wasn’t.

We have him around here, too. He’s Tom Raper. If I had that name, I’d definitely change it.

It’s not Walker, but Fuller that comes from the urine-stomping:

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/W/worstjobs/medieval.html

(Anyone for a pint of Fuller’s?!)