Is there a record of surnames becoming extinct?

[Nick Carver]

One reason why I am interested in this is that in an 1871 census for one of my maternal ancestors, there is a grand daughter shown as living in the house by the name of Livinia Dosy. I have been unable to track down any other Dosys, even her parents and she had either died by 1881 thus apparently making the name extinct, or the census enumerator was 'in his cups' and not overly bothered about the accuracy of the name of the last member of the household.

I have no great need (or even desire, at this point) to research the family Livinia - there are far too many direct ancestors to hunt, but who knows, one day I might get round to it.

[PaulineJ]

I'd worry about something other than Dosy. See 1901 census site>

 Annie Dosy  1 Wilts Newton Toney Wiltshire Newton Toney   
 Ellen Dosy  4 Wilts Ludgershall Wiltshire Newton Toney   
 Ellen Dosy  31 Wilts Broughton Gifford Wiltshire Newton Toney   
 William Dosy  8 Wilts Ludgershall Wiltshire Newton Toney   
 William Dosy  33 Wilts Bradford On Avon Wiltshire Newton Toney Police Constable
 Ada Dosey  22 Staff Newcastle Stafford Stoke Upon Trent Dressmaker
 Emily Dosey  32 Staff Newcastle Stafford Stoke Upon Trent Seamstress Clothing
 George Dosey  27 Finsbury London London Shoreditch Douggists Packer
 Harold Dosey  17 Staff Newcastle Stafford Stoke Upon Trent Apprentice Plumber
 Harriet Dosey  57 Staff Wolverhampton Stafford Stoke Upon Trent   
 Harry Dosey  15 London St Johns Wood Surrey Barnes Stationer Assistant
 James Dosey  19 Staff Newcastle Stafford Stoke Upon Trent Coal Miner Hewer
 John Dosey  45 Cardiff Wales Yorkshire North Riding Ormesby Iron Works
 William Dosey  63 Salop Alveley Stafford Stoke Upon Trent Insurance Agent

Pauline

[Gardener]

Well if there is a record then bags me be on it! When my grandfather was getting married he was told to use the name by which he was known. He was brought up by his mother's family but his birth was registered in his father's name. So he was known by two surnames and the priest decided to hyphenate them and my father and his sister were baptised with that name (very posh in a mining community). I have one sister so that will be the end of our surname I'm not sure if that is long enough to count as a real surname but if in the future someone started on my family tree they would be very confused around 1920!

I do have a "real" name struggling not to be extinct. Walloxall and variations of it just never seemed to get going as a family and limped along through the generations until now I believe there is one young man to carry the name forward. My longterm plan is to see if it is due to a lack of males being born or failure to thrive or disinterest in the female sex

[Nick Carver]

Pauline

Thanks for your input - I've obviously not been as thorough as my memory was telling me.  That part of my family was W Yorks, so the N Yorks reference may be worth a dig. I can't possibly have missed all those other Dosys so must have mentally disregarded all non Yorks references. Of course that in itself is not to be recommended. Another line went E Yorks for 4 generations and then back to Norfolk. Note to self - don't jump to conclusions!

[suttontrust]

When I was a child we lived next door to a family whose surname was Dafter.  They insisted on being known as Defter, because the children didn't suffer so much.  As the children grew up they kept it as Defter, and so the "real" name would eventually die out.  I suspect this happens quite a lot with potentially embarrassing names.

[suey]

The surname Ellwick is pretty uncommon, have been in touch with someone who has tried to trace all the living Ellwicks, only about 128 of them left.

Some years ago I worked with a lady with the surname Squince, she reckoned she was the last of the line, just had a look on name search on 'the other site' and there are only 16 and no-one after 1851 so praps' she was right ..

[D ap D]

Alternatively. how many HITLERs are there?  Mass name changes?

There was a documentary film about exactly that on TV here in Germany sometime last year. There is some guy in Austria born in the 1930s, to a Mr and Mrs Hittler. Due to the political scene at the time, the name Adolf was popular, so that was the name he was given. He said he was proud of his name, was no relation to the infamous dictator and had no intention of changing it.

They also managed to find a Heinrich Himmler.

Interestingly enough though after 1945 the town where the original HH came from changed its name to avoid unwanted attention.

[ryan]

Suey,
Are YOU researching/conected to the surname Elwick? Also, about that Squince surname it looks like a variation on 'Squance' which is, in my opinion, a regularly occuring name in Devon.

[Minn]

This is an interesting subject, thanks Nick for bringing it up. I am currently researching the name BROGRAVE, my ggg grandfather, who had 2 daughters - no sons. Apparently there were several generations of male Brograves from one particular line who met sticky ends before they had a chance to produce any male heirs & eventually that line became extinct. They originated from Norfolk/Suffolk. There were only 3 on the 1871 census (ggg grandfather, wife & unmarried sister) & they all died before the 1881 so that seems to be that. I would be interested to know if there are any Brograves anywhere in the UK in a telephone directory.

Minn