I then realized this is one more issue the feminists will seize on: Use the mother's name as the surname!!!!! Of course, with the pandemic of fathers, either not knowing they have a child, or, not caring - ancestry is going to be hard to trace.
Just thought this would be an interesting discussion.
FYI
Well, it looks like “Featherstonehaugh” (pronounced “Fan-Shaw”) is same for now!
And of course he Bassington-Bassingtons remain well-stocked:
(From Wodehouse:)
“I am familiar with the name Bassington-Bassington, sir. There are three branches of the Bassington-Bassington family - the Shropshire Bassington-Bassingtons, the Hampshire Bassington-Bassingtons, and the Kent Bassington-Bassingtons.”
“England seems pretty well stocked up with Bassington-Bassingtons.”
“Tolerably so, sir.”
“No chance of a sudden shortage, I mean, what?”
“Presumably not, sir.”
“And what sort of a specimen is this one?”
“I could not say, sir, on such short acquaintance.”
“Will you give me a sporting two to one, Jeeves, judging from what you have seen of him, that this chappie is not a blighter or an excrescence?”
“No, sir. I should not care to venture such liberal odds.”
The Throatwarbler-Mangrove family shall be duly and properly distressed at this news.
Some surnames need to go extinct.
Such as ‘Clinton’ and ‘Obama’......................
Why is it that nobody remembers the name of Johann Gambolputty... de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle- dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz- ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer- spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein- nurnburger-bratwustle-gernspurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut- gumberaber-shonedanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?
Let’s not worry about English surnames going extinct. There will be new ones to replace them. A 2016 survey of UK male baby names had “Muhammad” at #2.
These folks will provide new surnames to replace the old ones.
https://www.babycentre.co.uk/top-baby-boy-names-2016
These include
Chips
Hatman
Temples
Raynott
Woodbead
Nithercott
Rummage
Southwark
Harred
Jarsdel
And others include LA Dodger pitcher last names.
Cohen (-42%)
Ashworth (-39%)
Sutcliffe (-36%)
Clegg (-34%)
Butterworth (-34%)
Crowther (-34%)
Kershaw (-34%)
Brook (-34%)
Greenwood (-32%)
Haigh (-31%)
Pratt (-31%)
Nuttal (-30%)
Ingham (-30%)
Ogden (-30%)
Years ago had a boss whose last name was “Daft”.
We simply thought it humourus.
He had to go to London for business... they were hysterical about it, he could NOT have a single minute of serious business with them. He was also a total jerk, so we were quite “chuffed” at the outcome :)
Some names adopt a cache that they didn’t have before due to historical circumstances. Anybody know anyone named “Hitler”? And consider revolutionary war hero Henry Knox’s wife. Her maiden name was Lucy Flucker. With an “L”, thankyouverymuch... I mean, of course there’s an “L” in Lucy...
In Rick Atkinson’s WW2 trilogy, during the north Africa campaign there was a British regiment that was very uneasy about their regimental commanders surname....”Pine-Coffin”.
Not a crisis...everybody is going to have the surname muhammad real soon now anyway. Plus, it’ll be your given name as well. Or surname “islam”. Take your pick.
There was a once-prominent and well respected family in the county where I grew up with the surname Fagg. The last one to my knowledge who still goes by that spelling died a couple of decades ago. There are male descendants but it’s Fogg now. On a related note, there is a wealthy family in SC by the name of Gay. They haven’t changed their name that I’m aware.
I saw a professor named Dull on National Geographic channel last night.
I was in boot camp with someone with the last name, Bobo. After lights out the fun began. Good night, Bobo echoed to snickers.
I was in boot camp with someone with the last name, Bobo. After lights out the fun began. Good night, Bobo echoed to snickers.
“My father and his two brothers had daughters, no sons.”
My grandfather had 8 kids — 5 daughters and 3 sons. None of his sons had a boy. His daughters were prolific, but that doesn’t do much for carrying on the name — at least from his lineage.
Most popular new surname is Nuffin.
The Nuffins are not the most imaginative of families; they all have same first name.
:-)
Many early surnames died out at the time of the Black Death in the mid 14th century, when their use was still not universal. By the start of the 15th century most English people had fixed hereditary surnames, although they spread more slowly in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.