Kind of. The original spelling of my last name is Ó Murchadh, and it's allegedly one of those "descendant of that guy" kind of names, the guy being known as the Sea Warrior. Which is where it kind of falls apart. Was the guy's name Sea Warrior, or was that some title they gave him? Or was it kind of a trade name, like Smith or Tanner or something? Nobody really knows.
Murphy is the fifty-eighth most common surname in the United States, but it's number one in Ireland.
We've done a pretty comprehensive family tree, but we were stymied by a lack of records due to a fires, wars and so on. We've plans to try to fix that, someday. My wife has been doing a bit of the same for her family.
Johnson. Son of John. Basic Scandinavian. Although, if we followed the rules, it would be Michelson.
By the names, you'd think I was British. We've got Browns, Johnsons, Johnstons. From different lines. Or German. But no, I'm about 5/8 Swedish, both sides combined. The rest is mostly English. 3rd gen American on moms side, 6th on dads.
Did the blonde hair and blue eyes give it away? I'd claim to be a Viking if I was more than 5,8
Couple of versions. Most common is that Pettengill means "Those who came from Portugal", which would have been when the Celts were pushed out of northern Portugal in the mid 1300s to England. My ancestors go back to a Thomas Pettinghale in Norfolk, who was a weaver, born 1450. The other version says that since all of the Pettengills come from a small area around Norfolk, which was part of the Danegeld, we come from Vikings - a pretty good bet. DNA says mostly various types of Celtic with a dose of Scandinavian, so it's anyone's guess. First Pettengill in America came to Massachusetts in 1629 as an indentured servant. On my mother's side it's pretty much all Celtic, with several varieties of Irish, some Scots (MacIvers) and a good dose of Manx (Kewleys). The MacIvers were septs of the Campbells and the MacKenzies, my wife is a MacKenzie, so I'm entitled to wear the MacKenzie tartan, which is a whole lot more common, and therefore much cheaper, than the MacIver. Wore it to an international clan gathering in Scotland back in 2010, a great experience. For anyone with Scottish roots, I strongly recommend a visit to the auld country. I do have MacIver tie, that I can afford, but the kilt, etc, is MacKenzie.
The_Jed
PowerDork
1/9/24 12:43 a.m.
My last name is Smith.
My dad always maintained the belief that our family was Scottish with a sprinkling of Native American while my mother said we were Irish and German, having immigrated to the US five or six generations ago from Belfast.
I took a DNA test and got 96% English and 4% Saudi Arabian. *shrug*
I was named after this guy:
Linky
My dad does family tree research and found out that someone in Barbados simply made it up around the late 1700s/early 1800s IIRC...he would have the date it first appeared on records and he also has the name(s) those people went by before. So I have a very rare last name, and anyone else who has it can trace their ancestry to "redlegs" on the east coast of Barbados.
Edit: That's one of the reasons I'm extra careful with privacy, not only because I know how social media works, but because I can't hide in a crowd, there are like 3 other people on the planet with the same first and last name as me, and one is my dad.
Edit2: In terms of what it means, it doesn't mean anything, it's a combination of a made up word with a real one that together sound plausible as a last name. See also, Haagen-Dazs ice cream.
My last name?
It's two parts. Last half like tree. Baum. That's easy. First half, there's some debate on. Either "barrier", or "round". Either way it's not spelled how Germans would spell things now. But yeah, "round tree" is what I understand my last name to mean, translated into modern English.
My last name is Palatine German, but there is evidence that one of my ancestors took his wife's name to avoid the law. Grandmother's family were indentured to the Dutch East India Company, we have evidence of arrival in New Amsterdam in 1640. Fled North during the revolution.
I thought this was gonna be about how manufactureres came up with your car name.
My mother's family is from Ireland, can be traced about 270 years. My father's mother is Irish, but his father emigrated from the Montreal area of Canada. Hence the French name.
But if you've ever been to one of my mother's family funerals, we're Irish !!
David, mind sharing what it was before Wallens?
French (Sénécal): status name for a seneschal, an official in a large household who was responsible for overseeing day-to-day domestic arrangements, from Old French seneschal (of ancient Germanic origin, composed of the elements sini 'old' + scalc 'servant').
ShawnG
MegaDork
1/9/24 9:01 a.m.
Very old name from a town in Scotland.
I am descended from English, Irish and Scot. Brown is common enough throughout. While there are multiple previous John Brown in my family I was named after John R road in Detroit. So I am John R Brown.
My last name came from near Stuttgart... emigrating to North America sometime in the mid-1700's.
GameboyRMH said:
I can't hide in a crowd, there are like 3 other people on the planet with the same first and last name as me, and one is my dad.
Two more than me... my last name is uncommon but my first and last together are unique to me.
My Grandfather on my Dad's side came to Canada from Wales as one of the home children shortly after the turn of the century. He was apparently an orphan and sent to Canada for a better life, which started out as him being a slave on the farm and living in rat infested quarters. I didn't hear about this until long after he was gone and it only came up while discussing something totally unrelated. Grandmother was English, and Mom's parents were Irish and Scottish
My last name sounds like it would be common, but it's not. I've never met another and only ever heard of one other in this country and his first name is the same as mine... and we deal with the same bank apparently
Somebody, at some point, was a Smith. And now I am too.
My mother was a Hawkins. I've read a ton about the history of my mother's family and their contributions to forming the city of Reno. Super interesting. but they all sound like rich entitled shiny happy people. I've only ever met a handful of them over the decades and they do not dissuade me of that notion.
I'm going to say that at least two people on this board are unknowingly related.
Mndsm said:
Son of Lars.
Doesn't really get any more scandanavian than that.
Ah! Fellow squarehead!
Mine is the son (sen) of Peter (peder)
the Daniel is picked out of the Bible, and the middle (although a strong biblical name) is actually my moms madain name, shortened. She didn't want to saddle me with "Daniel Jacobson Peterson" 
Indy - Guy said:
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Well, the first part is because I live in Indianapolis (commonly referred to as Indy), the second part is because I'm a male.
I wondered that, as I clicked on the title. My forum name origins are pretty obvious, to those that know a bit of me on here. 
yupididit said:
Slaver in Virginia
What town? My moms moms side of the family goes all the way back to Jamestown times. All were very poor, but as your ancestors went from digging rows for that man, to digging rows for less wages than their meals cost, they may have been digging next to mine!
In reply to Peabody :
My maternal grandfather was a Bernardo boy, same history. His wife was the daughter of Irish labourers who built the Rideau canal.
I don't know, but I can only assume that my Bavarian ancestors used to put shiny little bits on things.
On my mom's side, I think we are just named for the area of the Netherlands where the family originated.
03Panther said:
Mndsm said:
Son of Lars.
Doesn't really get any more scandanavian than that.
Ah! Fellow squarehead!
Mine is the son (sen) of Peter (peder)
the Daniel is picked out of the Bible, and the middle (although a strong biblical name) is actually my moms madain name, shortened. She didn't want to saddle me with "Daniel Jacobson Peterson"
Squarehead? The Québécois use "tête carrée" (square head) as slang for anglophones who don't speak French. It's not a term of endearment :)
Mother's sides have been in the US since before the Revolution. A distant cousin on my grandfather's side is Betsy Ross.
Father's side - somewhat hazy, but roughly when the (Protestant) Huguenots fled persecution in (Catholic) France some time before the Civil War. As far as I can tell, in the US we pronounce my last name different than proper French, but the spelling hasn't changed.
I'm the 5th person since 1810 having the same name. 5 generations.
Here's the short story. My aunt has the whole genealogy back to the 1700's.
The first ancestor in the USA was convicted of stealing a pound of wool in the UK and was sentenced to indentured servitude somewhere around Virginia. After he served his time he married and had kids. Every few years the kids would have a falling out with one another and someone would move to another town and change the spelling of the name slightly so they wouldn't be associated with the other clan. This carried on for generations. I've seen about 10 different spellings over the years. Our people just didn't know how to get along with one another.
