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What Your Last Name Says About Your Family History
Word Smarts ^ | 01/25/25 | Bennett Kleinman

Posted on 01/26/2025 1:24:38 PM PST by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 01/26/2025 1:24:38 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Jingleheimer-Smith


2 posted on 01/26/2025 1:26:10 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Hey, that’s my name.


3 posted on 01/26/2025 1:26:46 PM PST by AndyJackson
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To: SeekAndFind

Benson didn’t look Norwegian to me.


4 posted on 01/26/2025 1:27:52 PM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: SeekAndFind

biden...


5 posted on 01/26/2025 1:28:12 PM PST by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value and makes people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁 )
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To: SeekAndFind
But what about "Ward" as a given name? I think it means "Beaver Watcher."


6 posted on 01/26/2025 1:28:37 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (They were the FA-est of times, they were the FO-est of times.”.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"...there were too many Wangs for the new regime to target any specific royal family."

The current British royal family also has an over-abundance of wangs.

7 posted on 01/26/2025 1:29:02 PM PST by Joe 6-pack
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To: SeekAndFind

I bet that there is a very high chance that when you meet an Indian who wears a turban, the family name will be SINGH.

The surname “Singh” is more widespread than “Patel.” ( the other very popular Indian surname ).

Singh is a common surname among Sikhs and is also used by many Hindu communities, especially in North India. It is derived from the Sanskrit word “Simha,” meaning lion.


8 posted on 01/26/2025 1:29:45 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Have you traced your family tree?


“In my family tree, I’m the sap.” - Rodney Dangerfield


9 posted on 01/26/2025 1:30:21 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

It says that in the native American communities.

That a white man was doing some teepee hopping


10 posted on 01/26/2025 1:30:56 PM PST by riverrunner
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To: SeekAndFind
The surname “Singh” is more widespread than “Patel.” ( the other very popular Indian surname ).



""Patel"? F__ you. F_____g Shiva handed this guy a million dollars, told him 'Sign the deal!' he wouldn't sign. And the god Vishnu too, into the bargain."
11 posted on 01/26/2025 1:33:14 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Most of my family has been traced back to the seventeenth century, at least, however most of the information in Europe at least prior to 1600 is extremely sketchy. As I was working on my husband’s family, I gave him the name of an ancestor I just found. He laughed and said the surname translated to “Hell Dog”.


12 posted on 01/26/2025 1:39:26 PM PST by caseinpoint (Don't get thickly involved in thin things.)
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To: SeekAndFind

If I remember correctly Patel and Singh are like smith and jones in English speaking countries. Patel is from farming, business, government families and Singh was from part of the warrior caste but lots of families from multiple castes adopted it so it’s now a common last name. Where I work we have a lot folks with last name of Patel.


13 posted on 01/26/2025 1:41:39 PM PST by Liaison (TANSTAAFL)
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To: SeekAndFind

Good story about my first name which many think is Russian or Slavic:

Parental units were teaching two-year-old Michael how to print his name. He said “No - girl name.”
“What do you mean that’s a girl’s name?”
“Mih-chell.”
“How do you think your name SHOULD be spelled?”
I printed ‘MIKEL’.
“Dang, he’s right. It’s more phonetically correct.”

So they sent for the document and got my name legally changed for the world’s youngest case of Macho Complex.


14 posted on 01/26/2025 1:43:49 PM PST by MikelTackNailer (NewRome Tacitus)
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To: SeekAndFind

My last name is below. From what I gather, it means my family came from Ulm, Germany.

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-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitzweimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönendanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm


15 posted on 01/26/2025 1:43:49 PM PST by Leaning Right (It’s morning in America. Again.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Mc” son of

“O’” related to.

Roughly.

I traced back one branch. McLean/McLain.

Sean Connery a VERY distant relative.


16 posted on 01/26/2025 1:45:14 PM PST by TexasGator (11.111''!11)
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To: Leaning Right

I wonder if he knows Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F’tang-F’tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel


17 posted on 01/26/2025 1:45:17 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I can trace my family name all the way back to Napoleon.

When Napoleon conquered Europe, he formed civil govt instead of church govt. You had to go to the local court house and register your new name. If some one else picked your name you had to choose something else but someone in the next country could choose that name. Just because you had the same last name didn’t mean you were related. Dad always said our name meant “pleasant valley with bird song.”

Some chose funny names like stuckenbruck (stuck in pants) or “out house” thinking Napolean wouldn’t last but then they were stuck with those names. All those dutch names mean something.


18 posted on 01/26/2025 1:48:04 PM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: caseinpoint

My paternal ancestors came from Kidwelly, Wales. A poverty-stricken teenaged brother and sister walked to a port in England and were sent to Nevis, a Caribbean island. He cut down trees so the Black slaves could plant sugar when they arrived later and she was a spinner. I don’t think they were paid. After three years, they were dropped off on the shore of North Carolina.

Where the heck are my reparations?

And, btw, the first time I laid eyes on a Welsh Corgi, I knew I had to have one. That was in 1966, and our family has had them ever since. Didn’t know until later that our ancestors came from Wales.


19 posted on 01/26/2025 1:51:47 PM PST by Veto! (Kamalala Sux Rocks)
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To: dfwgator

I looked for a person recently online who my husband and I knew in the aviation community in OC, CA many years ago. His last name was Machado and someone wrote “he was half German and half Portuguese, which he claims gives him a genetic predisposition to conquer a country and then go fishing”.

I’m sure the words were his own as he was quite a comedian along with superb flying skills.


20 posted on 01/26/2025 1:57:11 PM PST by Thank You Rush ( )
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