surnames where do they come from

[joboy]

My best friend before I left UK for OZ had the surname 'Bathmaker' which I thought very unusual.
Joe

[astwood]

My grans name was winspur It means a man who
won his spurs as a knight

[rayard]

Onions pronounced as Oh-nye-onns is another one!

[Guyana]

Sorry, SuzyW, Thomas Crapper didn't invent the W.C., nor was the bra  invented by Otto Titslinger.

[Musicman]

This site is worth a look: "Internet Surname Database": http://www.surnamedb.com/


Years ago I worked with a lady who was Miss Cockaday, and a neighbour was Mr Glasscock.  And I knew lady who was Mrs Strange - she hated the name so much she would never say it out loud - only whisper it!

[Nick29]

Sorry, SuzyW, Thomas Crapper didn't invent the W.C., nor was the bra  invented by Otto Titslinger.

Crapper didn't invent the W.C., but who would want to go for a 'harington' ? 

[LoneyBones]

He may not have invented it but he did give it his name. Or at least the term came into use because of him & his name. He was a plumber & invented the "Valveless Waste Preventer" which had his name stamped on it. Since by the time one got around to saying, "I must away to the Thomas Crapper Valveless Waste Preventer." it was probably a bit late, the much simpler name of crapper was easier.   
Seriously tho', many names are colloquial / local dialect words for simple things & jobs or foreign words for simple things & jobs. eg, my own Yeatman comes from gate-keeper.
Leonie.

[Billyblue]

Years ago I worked with a lady who was Miss Cockaday, and a neighbour was Mr Glasscock. And I knew lady who was Mrs Strange - she hated the name so much she would never say it out loud - only whisper it!

How strange!  It's (well it used to be) a well known name here in Oz because a guy of that name was one of the chief organisers of the Australian Bicentennial celebrations in 1988.

My grandmother's sister married a guy in 1881 in Sydney, named John Charles Crook Strange.  I've always thought his parents were cruel giving him a name of Crook to go with Strange.      
And one of his children got the name John George Prince Strange.  I guess Prince Strange is a bit better, as there have been a lot of strange princes throughout history      

And the first guy I mentioned is into FH too, and we have compared notes and think there is no relationship in our respective families. 

Dawn M

[LoneyBones]

I think you lot have got me started on a new hobby. 
My parents were ENNIS & JONES. Well Jones is easy, but Ennis or Innis is a small island in a river. It's from Scottish and Irish words. Except I'm 90% sure my ENNIS family came from Portugal, in which case it would have been Anglicized from INACIO.    Oops... there goes my auntie turning in her grave again. According to her we were Scottish!! She even got herself an ENNIS tartin kilt.