About names
Names originally told a lot about a person – where he lived, what he did for a living, even what color his hair was!
If you think the only thing you are able to tell from a person’s last name is his or her nationality, you’re wrong.
Names can tell a lot about people, or more correctly, about their ancestors
In the early days of history, before people had last names, a person might choose a name that told his neighbours what is his occupation was. For example, Mr Weller would dig wells for a living and Mr. Mason would be a worker is stone. Mason, of course means someone who works with stones.
Other people took their names from their fathers. If the father’s name was simply Anders. The son would call himself Anderson. Other ways of incorporating a father’s name into a son’s included adding an “O” (O’Connor), na “S”(Jacobs), a “Mac” (Mac Dougall) to his name.
Some people looked at their own physical characteristics for inspiration. A man named Armstrong had the strongest arms in the village. A women named Goody was known far and wide for her goodness. And a fellow called Fairfax
Another way of choosing a name was based in where you lived. The Beaverbrooks lived by a beaverbrook. (Brook is a small river.) the Greenbergs lived on a top of a green mountain (berg means “mountain in German). And the Moors lived, well, in a moor, where else?
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