The Meaning and Origin of the
Surnames
Maternal
Family Names
Farnsworth - (Old English) - dwelling name: from fearn
(fern) and worth (estate), thus, the name of an estate situated in or
near an area overgrown with ferns.
Fuller - (Old
English) - profession: someone who fulls, that
is, scours and thickens raw woollen cloth by beating and trampling it with his
bare feet in water; found mostly in Southeast England.
Lane - 1 (Old
English) - local name: for someone who lived in a lane, originally a narrow
way between fences or hedges, later used of any narrow pathway, even between
houses. 2 (Irish Gaelic) - anglicised form of several Irish surnames: O'Laighin, O'Luain,
O'Liathain (all pronounced more or less "O'Lane").
Longbottom - (Old English) - topographic name: from long
(long) and bodme (valley, bottom), thus
someone who lived in a long valley. There is a place called Longbottom
in West Yorkshire.
Massey - (English
<French <Latin) - old Gallo-Roman place name: Masse, in the
province of Normandy in north western France. Originally settled by the Celtic Gauls, later taken over by the Romans, then ruled by the
Franks, in the tenth century A.D. this province was constantly being plundered
by Norwegian Vikings - also called Normans, meaning “men from the North”.
Exasperated, the King of France decided to give them the province so that they
would leave the rest of his kingdom alone, and the province came to be called
Normandy after its new owners. A hundred years later these Normans, led by
their Duke - William the Conqueror - who was a cousin to King Harold of
England, invaded and won over England. Many Norman nobles and knights who had
helped William take England's throne were granted land in England and settled
there for good, bringing their names with them. Our Massey forefather was one
such Norman: he was granted land in Cheshire. Variations of this surname
include Massy, Massie, Macey, Masse.
Parrott - (English
<probably Celtic) - place name: from North and South Perrott
in Somersetshire, England, which take their name from the river Parret on which they stand. Variations include Parrot, Parret(t), Parrat(t),
Perot, Perret, Perrat.
Peckham - (Old
English) - dwelling name: from peac (hill,
peak) and ham (homestead); from one of the places so called in Kent and
South London.
Stones - (Old
English or Norse) - topographic name: from stan
(stone), for someone who lived either on stoney
ground or by a notable outcrop of rock or by a stone boundary-marker or
monument; also a profession: someone who worked in stone, a mason or
stone-cutter. This surname is found mostly in Yorkshire. The Old Norse tongue –
spoken by the forefathers of today’s Norwegians, Swedes and Danes - was closely
akin to the Old English with which it mingled in Yorkshire during the several
centuries of Danish rule there. Thus one cannot tell for sure whether this
surname be of Norse or of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) origin. Variations include Stone,
Stoner, Stenner, Stoneman.
Taylor - (English
<French) - profession: clothesmaker.
Paternal Family Names
Cloney (O’Cloney) - (Irish Gaelic) – patronimic:
o (descendant of) cluanaigh (genetive form of cluanach
< cluana a rogue,
deceiver, flatterer). The Irish surname (O’)Cloney is
derived from the native Gaelic O Cluanaigh Sept that
was located in County Wexford in the South-East of the country. Variants
include Clooney, Clowney and MacLoonie
in County Down.
De Friest - (Dutch <Late Latin) - place name: derived
from de foreest, which in Dutch means “the
forest”, and perhaps originally from de Foresta,
Late Latin for “of or from Forest”.
“Forest” was the name of a settlement which owed its name to being
situated near a woods. Over the ages the surname underwent spelling changes to
reflect Dutch pronunciation as the weakly sounded “o” in the unstressed first
syllable fell out: De Foreest >De Freest
>De Friest. The family traces its origins
to the town of Avesnes in Henegouwen,
which was once a province of the Netherlands, but is now a province of Belgium
(though Avesnes itself, due to boundary changes which
took place in the late seventeenth century, lies across the border in France).
In the early seventeenth century the family migrated to Leiden in the northern
Dutch province of Holland. This surname can also be derived from the Dutch vorst, forst (prince,
leader). Variations include De
Freest, De Freese, De Foreest, Van
Foreest.
De Grauw - (Dutch) - colour: dark grey.
De Vos – (Dutch) – animal: fox.
Heit - (Dutch or Frisian) - from an old
Germanic man's given name Hayto, Heito, or from the Frisian word
heit (father).
Herron 1
originally, MacHerron - (Scottish Gaelic) -
patronymic: mac (son), giolla
(of follower), Chiarain (of St. Kieran). Chiarain is pronounced like Herron, hence the
English spelling of the Gaelic original. This sept
belongs to the MacDonald clan. Also found spelt Heron, Herrin,
Herring, Herren. 2 (Germanic)
- Herron is found in England where it is the name of a bird. In Holland
are found Herren and Hering, in Denmark Herring, all containing the
Germanic stem Har, Her (man, army). I
do not know whether the name of this family is of Celtic or of Germanic origin
as my Herron/Herring forefathers spelt their surname sometimes Herring,
sometimes Herron or Herrin, and the people of the Scottish Lowlands are of
mixed Celtic-Germanic origin.
Holmes -
(Dutch, English, Danish, German < Old Norse) - topographic name: holm (little island), plus possessive ending es. Also Holm, Holme.
Kip - (Dutch)
- animal: chicken.
Konijn also Conyn - (Dutch)
- animal: rabbit.
Kool also Cool(e) - (Dutch) - given name:
from old Germanic man's given name Kolo or Nikolaas.
MacNamara - (Irish
Gaelic) - patronymic: mac
(son), na (of the), mara
(sea). Old native Irish nobility from County Clare, builders of many castles,
fortresses, monasteries, churches and abbies.
Variations include McNamara, Macnamara,
McNamarah, McNammer.
This sept belongs to the kingly O’Brien
clan.
Meyer(s) also
Meijer(s) - (Dutch, German) - profession or title: formerly, in
the Netherlands, a judicial official; or the overseer of a large
(usually, noble) household; or a dairy farmer; or a military
rank. The possessive ending s is often added, especially in the southern
provinces of the Netherlands. This name is commonly said to derived from the
Latin word major (greater).
Murphy – (Irish Gaelic) - englished form of the
Irish surname Ó Murchadha ‘descendant of Murchadh’, a given name composed of the words muir ‘sea’ + cath ‘battleground’,
thus, ‘sea-warrior’. An important family in County Tyrone.
Post - (Dutch)
- geographical term: post (boundary marker, post); this family’s name is
supposedly a shortened version of van der Poest.
Schoenmaker - (Dutch) - profession: shoemaker.
Schuts - (Dutch)
- military term: protection, defence.
Van Alstyne - (Dutch) - place name: van (from) and Alstyne (town in the Netherlands).