surnames where do they come from

[coombs]

For example my George Coombs was born in Bincombe in Dorset in 1790 and lived in London from about 1810 onwards. Coombs is common down in the West Country. I have Teager in Suffolk which seems Viking.

[Nick29]

Lots of names refer to nearby geographical features.   Combe is old English for a wooded valley.  One of the names in my Ancestral tree is Hole, which refers to a hollow, and is quite prevalent in Somerset and Yorkshire, where underground caves and other underground features are to be found.

[Redroger]

I have the surname Butt in my tree, luckily they never met and married your ancestors Nick

One of the names in my Ancestral tree is Hole, which refers to a hollow, and is quite prevalent in Somerset and Yorkshire, where underground caves and other underground features are to be found.

[rancegal]

  Butt meant either a barrel, or the targets used for archery practice, which was compulsory in the Middle Ages.
  I know at least two places with a Butts Road and there must be others.

   Unfortunately, the word 'crap' was in use many years before Thomas Crapper began his career.

[LoneyBones]

I just realised last night, whilst doing a bit of serious stuff, my g-grandfather YEATMAN, who was a shoemaker all his life, was actually a gatekeeper on his last electoral roll entry. YEATMAN / YATEMAN / YETMAN all mean Gateman / Gatekeeper. 

[joboy]

My own surname is old english locative and rare according to surnames of England and Wales ... but interestingly I also have some herbaceous names like WOOD,MOULD,FLOWER as well to keep it interesting.
joboy

[Pamela.Ebrey]

The origin of my surname, Ebrey, was always a bit of a puzzle to me until one day I was scrutinizing a large scale map of Shropshire (where the vas majority of Ebreys seem to have come from) and I noticed a tiny place called Ebreywood. Now I like to think that my name originated with a scruffy old hermit who lived in the wood!

Unless, of course, the scruffy hermit came first and the woods were named after him...