Addendum to 3)
So it is on that list – I didn’t wait for it to finish loading last time. It’s down near the 13000s.
- Irish
- I’m the 5th generation in the US
- around 1500 on the US census list
- Poland
- 3 or 4 generations, I don’t recall exactly.
- mid-9000’s
My surname is Jones. It’s Welsh.
I would be the sixth generation, patrilinearally speaking, to be born in Canada.
Obviously, “Jones” is exceptionally common in any English-speaking country.
My surname is big in Wales and Cornwall, but not limited to there; my family originates from Scots pirates and wreckers, Cornish pirates and wreckers, and Vikings.
Manchester- google seems to find a few of the same name still around there.
Lots of people not my ancestor with the same name in the US before me, but I’m the first of my immediate family. Our lot went out to Australia in the 1840s.
Down in the 25000s on the frequency chart and dark blue everywhere but Georgia and South Carolina, which are lighter blue, on the frequency map.
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I’m not asking you to reveal your surname – but if you know its origin, as in which foreign country it first appeared in, can you identify that country (or countries)?
My name is Italian. -
If you know, or can make a reasonable guess, how many generations of ancestors with your surname have lived in your present country?
It has been in the US for 4 or 5 generations but only 3 for my family to get to me. -
Roughly where does your surname appear on a Surname Frequency list?
My name ranks in the twenty thousands, it is quite rare and yet we have one old celebrity.
Jim
My surname is a not uncommon English (I think) name. But my family is not English. Back in the first half of the last century it was not “cool” to have a really ethnic sounding name. So my grandfather had his name changed (first and last) to sound more American. Therefore we’ve had this name for four generations, including my brother’s and sister’s children. The only people I am related to with my surname are my parents, siblings, and my and my sib’s kids.
Before my grandfather changed our surname our family name would have been Basque. It’s a long, difficult to pronounce name. It does not appear in any of the reference’s I’ve found here, although I did find a few occurences of this name once upon a time in a digital nationwide phone directory. Fewer than ten altogether, with one in the Eastern USA, a handful in Bishop, California and the remaining five or so in the Los Angeles area (where my father was born and raised).
My wife’s surname is Thai in origin and also does not appear on any of those lists, either. It’s long but easier to pronounce than my family’s original surname. Thai surnames are a recent phenomena and are, by royal decree*, unique to a given family. So if you have the same last name as someone else and you’re Thai then you are related.
*In the early 1900s King Rama VI issued an order to create surnames, in an effort to integrate the sizeable Chinese minority into Thai society and end ethnic violence. Only Thais with “Thai” names could own property.
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Mine is German in origin, but was shortened some time after my family came here. The problem is that nobody remembers exactly what it was before, and my great-great-…-great grandfather stowed away on a ship to get here, so we don’t have any immigration records.
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I’m not really sure. We do have the discharge papers that one of my ancestors received when he left the Ohio Militia at the end of the Civil War (complete with Abe Lincoln’s signature), so that would be at least 6 generations or so, but it might be several more.
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In the low 32,000s. I’ve never heard of anyone with our name who was not a member of the family.
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Origin unknown. The pronumciation may have changed, and since the alphabet was probably different, it’s hard to track. We think the greater Ukrainian area, but that’s because we can only go back 4 generations on that side. I once saw a buisiness name in Israel (in Hebrew) that was similar, but couldn’t find a person of that name.
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Three born in the U.S.
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It does not appear. Nor do any reasonable variants.
Married name: Carter. But none of the in-laws know anything about who came from where.
Maiden name: From Bavaria somewhere in the mid 1800s. It’s about 20,000th on the Census list.
Nothing that mysterious - dad’s family were dirt-poor peasents and even today it’s not that unusual to encounter such people in various parts of the world who have no surnames but go through life as “Zorg, son of Og” or “Zelda, daughter of Og” or some such variant.
This not being in conformity with US custom at the time of their arrival (1895-1900), and their English being largely non-existant, the US was “kind” enough to assign a surname. Of course, the US government did not realize that the family came over in three batches, and for a bit there were three surnames shared among parents/siblings until the confusion was sorted out and (no kidding) the family voted on which one to keep. Everyone in the immediate family not sharing that name had it changed to match.
Quite a shock, as they came from a culture where only the nobility had surnames. Wow - come to America as a refugee, and they give you a boost up the social ladder! Woo-hoo!
- It’s Greek, sorta. When my grandparents went through Ellis Island, the folks there decided that Americans just can’t pronounce names with that many consonants, so it lost a few letters.
Curiously, there’s a Finnish hotel chain with the same name, although it has a completely different origin. I always wondered if I would get a free hotel room if I ever tried to get a room there.
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My surname hasn’t been in the US for long. My Grandmother and Grandfather came over from Greece somewhere around 1930.
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It’s not on the list at all. From doing web searches, the name seems to be reasonably common in Greece, but almost non-existent in the US. Everyone in the US with the name is a descendent of my grandparents.
In Greek mythology, it shows up as the name of one of the titans, so it’s fair to say that the name itself has been around for a while.
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It’s most likely Scottish. Family lore says it’s German, but there’s a clear German cognate spelling that isn’t used; rather, an English spelling is.
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Tough question. At least five, but probably not more than that.
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Around 9600.
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Country of origin: US (made up at Ellis Island)
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Generations: 5, starting with my great-grandparents who received the name upon emmigrating here.
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Frequency: it’s not on any of the lists that have been linked to in this thread.
Country of Origin- Most commonly associated with Greek these days but is Biblical as well.
Five generations that I know of.
Not on the list
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French
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since the 1600’s, Plymouth County, Massachusetts
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not on any of these lists
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French
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My great-great-grandfather came down from Quebec.
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In the high 600s, surprisingly. There is an identical surname from Eastern Europe that I think is more common a source.
For my maiden name.
1.) Scottish in origin
2.) I’m not sure, I’m going to guess 3 or 4.
3.) %FREQ CUMM FREQ RANK
0.002 64.849 5734
1) I’m not asking you to reveal your surname – but if you know its origin, as in which foreign country it first appeared in, can you identify that country (or countries)? (If you’re certain that the name originated in the country where you live now, please make that distinction.)
Sweden
2) If you know, or can make a reasonable guess, how many generations of ancestors with your surname have lived in your present country?
Well, my husband was born in Sweden, so we are the first generation with this name in here in the US by default. If you’re talking about Sweden, though, his family has had the name for less than 100 years since it is a patronymic name. Also, since it’s a patronym, we’re not in the least way related to the vast majority of people in the world with the same last name. Kinda weird!
3) Roughly where does your surname appear on a Surname Frequency list? (such as THIS ONE).
I’m somewhere around the 30,000th most common US surname.