Surname Origins

[Toddy]

Souter here is a shoemaker or cobbler.

 

[Glow_worm]

When you say it was "only" the male dominated trades that were represented for "obvious reasons", what reason do you consider the most obvious?

The male surname tended to overwrite the female surname at marriage, so even if women attracted surnames related to a craft, they would be lost on marriage.

 

[Zingmo]

WOODHOUSE.
Modernisation of `Wodewose`

I often wonder if this was considered a job: "Ah You'll be looking for John the Wodewose"

 

[Toddy]

The male surname tended to overwrite the female surname at marriage, so even if women attracted surnames related to a craft, they would be lost on marriage.

As an aside to that; a Scotswoman never loses her own name. Geneaologists love it for the detail if gives to the matrilineal connections.

As an example, gravestones are marked with something like this,

Jane Geddes Campbell
wife of
Andrew Gibson MacLeod.

Her name is always given, that she is married in no way takes that away.
The Scots and Northern Irish carried that custom with them when they emigrated, and such grave markings are found wherever they settled, from Canada and North America to New Zealand, Australia, Indian, Burma....Scotswomen keep and are often known by their name, even if letters coming in give her husbands as the family one.

 

[Glow_worm]

Thanks for that @Toddy, really interesting. I've yet to do family history research, but there is Scots there so this knowledge will be useful.

 

[slaine_23]

As an aside to that; a Scotswoman never loses her own name. Geneaologists love it for the detail if gives to the matrilineal connections.

As an example, gravestones are marked with something like this,

Jane Geddes Campbell
wife of
Andrew Gibson MacLeod.

Her name is always given, that she is married in no way takes that away.
The Scots and Northern Irish carried that custom with them when they emigrated, and such grave markings are found wherever they settled, from Canada and North America to New Zealand, Australia, Indian, Burma....Scotswomen keep and are often known by their name, even if letters coming in give her husbands as the family one.

Must be a Scottish thing, I’ve never heard of it as Irish - maybe a curio, another side effect of the plantation. Wonder if that can be evidenced based on the denomination of the graveyard.

 

[Keith_Beef]

From the Hebrew - Fool' er literally translated as "to trample" , ie the method they used to tread the cloth to clean it. (According to a quick internet search).

It's not Hebrew.

It's derived from French "fouler" that means "to tread, trample". Fulling cloth means to submit it to pressure, usually while underwater, to mat the fibres together and tighten the weave, a similar process to felting but on a woven fibre. It also washes the cloth somewhat.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Not really, very very few in Finnish, the only ones that comes to my mind at short notice is "rautio" and "seppä" both meaning a blacksmith, another one is "suutari" meaning a cobbler. Others probably exist but rare.

From Carelia a lot of bird and animal names.

Säkkinen, I was told by a Finnish friend, might be derived from "sack maker" (perhaps a Swedish borrowing of "säkk").

 

[oldtimer]

For French legal purposes, women keep their maiden name (nom de jeune fille) which is used in documents and contracts but are usually addressed by their husband's family name (nom de famille). As a French lawyer explained to us, "A woman may be married several times but is only born once." Gravestones usually include family and maiden name.

 

[Glow_worm]

It's derived from French "fouler" that means "to tread, trample". Fulling cloth means to submit it to pressure, usually while underwater, to mat the fibres together and tighten the weave, a similar process to felting but on a woven fibre. It also washes the cloth somewhat.

Agreed- cleaning, scouring, walloping etc to consolidate. Fuller's earth and or urine used during degreasing and bashing. The process was mechanised when water powered fulling mills were devised.

Fullering is also a metalworking term- the reduction of the thickness of stock, often using specific fullering tools.

 

[Toddy]

Must be a Scottish thing, I’ve never heard of it as Irish - maybe a curio, another side effect of the plantation. Wonder if that can be evidenced based on the denomination of the graveyard.

Quite probably, but having said that, here in Scotland, it doesn't matter which kirk folks attend, the woman keeps her name.

 

[TeeDee]

Quite probably, but having said that, here in Scotland, it doesn't matter which kirk folks attend, the woman keeps her name.

< Wrong Kirk ? >

 

[TLM]

Säkkinen, I was told by a Finnish friend, might be derived from "sack maker" (perhaps a Swedish borrowing of "säkk").

Not impossible; though a more direct derivation might be "someone with a sack".

 

[Pattree]

Not impossible; though a more direct derivation might be "someone with a sack".

A “tinker”? A trader who carries their stock on their back?

A woman keeping her own family name after marriage is becoming common here in the UK today. I do not know what legalities demand but as far as common usage and postal addressing is concerned several of my children’s female friends have kept their own family names after marriage. I totally approve having once met Jennie. She took a delight in telling anyone who would listen, that she wasn’t owned by a man; neither her father nor her husband. She was just Jennie. Again I do not know how the law or an automated postal system handles this.

My daughter and her husband both changed their surnames to a shared one when they got married. It is one way that anyone (anytwo?) can legally change their name.

Has anyone mentioned Scrivner. Originally a clerk to a royal court.

 

[Keith_Beef]

And what about Cy Twombly... what on earth did his ancestors do for a living?

Spoiler

Apparently they lived in what is now Twemlow in Cheshire.