Is there a record of surnames becoming extinct?

[Nick Carver]

Just got to thinking about whether any surnames had actually died out as opposed to their spelling evolving over the years and if this was the case, is there any record of them? It's not a problem I am facing in my own research, but from my own village there were16th century Lukyns whose name might have changed to Lucan or something else, or it might just have vanished altogether.

Thinking about it some more, I'm not sure how you would ever know if this had happened, but I'm sure that if it has, someone on Rootschat will know.

[Pollynation]

My husbands dad had 2 brothers. Brother number 1 had only daughters. Brother number 2 couldn't have children. So my husband was the only boy with that surname. If something had happened to stop us from having children , the name would have died out.

I'm sure it is possible for other families to be in the same situation. In fact with WW1 and 2 plus all the epidemics, it's a wonder that more haven't gone.

Don't know if this has exactly answered your question. That is the only instance i know of a name almost going.

Best wishes
Pauline

[Amy K]

There was an article on this topic in this months "Your Family Tree Magazine", which came out yesterday. Whilst I have the magazine, it is next to me right now, I have not had time to read the article yet.

[legs11]

hi Nick,

Not on the line that i am researching but on hubby's grandfather's side, way, way back, two brothers had a large argument, they decided to go their separate ways. One brother went north or east and the other brother went south or west. not only that, one of them decided that he didn't want it to be known that he was related to his brother, so he put an A in his name, changing Serle to Searle

legs11

[Boongie Pam]

Interesting question.  How would a name become extinct?

In my mind a natural extinction would mean an entire generation would have to be female - married or childless if single.

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

Pam
 

[Fitty]

I used to Live in Berlin in the early 70's and there was a Mr and Mrs Hitler lived just up the road from us!

[Boongie Pam]

But in Britain many Hitlers changed their names - I know of a family who all became Hillers.

This in itself throws a blinder to knock you over.  When I find a new name associated with my tree I go onto the IGI and see where the distribution roughly centres.  I know the Hitler example is too new for this to be apt.  But you could go off into a massive false lead if the family just decided to change their names!!! 

Sorry this is diverging from the point of the original post - apologies.

Pam
  

[Cell]

Hi,
There was an article  in "Your family History" magazine, August edition , titled "Am I the last Pimbury in Britain?" . Seems the name Pimbury has died out over the centuries.
 Apparently there is only one person with this name in Britain. The gentleman with this name today  has not got any children, and he has one sister. He was  the only son of a reverend.
At the time of his birth around  *1931 he was only one of four males  with the surname in Britain, now he is the only one. He has even looked overseas for  anyone with the name, but it seems they have all  but died out. four of his uncles emigrated to Canada.

 

[Hackstaple]

One of my ancestors married an Eliza Julia Nethway. Nethway is so rare that according to Taliesin there are none in the UK. On Genes Reunited there 4, one of them mine [a Londoner] - the others from Swansea.
I looked also for Nethaway, its old form - none of those either. There are 25 Damary people around in the UK but 110 Murrill persons so that side of my family is "flourishing".
Why then is it so hard to trace my ancestors?