There a small book by Primo Levi that I’ve enjoyed dipping into now and then over the years. It’s called “Other People’s’ Trades”. I had almost forgotten it until I was scratching my head to think of a title for this post. It’s a collection of essays describing various jobs and trades. I must read it again soon.
Back to the subject then. I’m fascinated by languages and the derivation of words, and so no surprised I’ve been wondering about names. Almost everyone has a name, or maybe two or three, and how we came by them is an interesting question.
Now here I’m talking about surnames in particular, they must have an origin and maybe they evolve through time. I’ll confine this to English speaking names, but it would be useful to compare these to other cultures in the world.
Now, let’s start with Smith.And why not. It has long been the most common name surname in English speaking countries. There people have a christian name or two and a surname, or maybe more than one if they are multi-barreled. Or should be say a given name and a forename, just to be more inclusive. So John Smith. Someone’s lacking in imagination, still have met quite a few John Smiths all look like you would expect a John Smith to look. So I guess years ago being a Smith was pretty big cheese what with all those horses to shoe. Taylor springs to mind ( John Also ), Sigourney Weaver , Max Miller, Ginger Baker, Butcher, Fletcher, Cooper ( made barrels ), Carpenter ( John again ) Thatcher ( you know who ) and Harry Potter. You could populate a village thus. Then we have people who have rich blood, King, Lord, Knight. But what about the Farmers?? So many of them. Mr Farmer??
On to colours. I’ve met a Mr Black and a Dr White. There’s and Earl Grey, a Huey Green, and many a Joe Brown. But where’s Mr Blue? Miss Yellow? Master Orange ( Take That! ). But like a set of Cluedo pieces.
Now on to the sons. There are Johnsons, Petersons, Robertsons, Andersons, but no daughters. Explained by the patriarchy and the tradition of passing the family name down the male line.
Sometimes names are derived from towns ( Tony Blackburn ) or cities ( Michael York ) or even countries. Dawn French, Jules Holland,
Animals, apart from John Bull, James Whale, Michael Fish, and I did once know a guy called Rob Chicken.
( You shouldn’t laugh ).
Well, that’s about it.