The Meaning of Names

So most surnames have some kind of given meaning behind them. For example, Sakura means "Cherry Blossom" in Japanese, and a Miller was someone who ground grain into flour, a Cooper made barrels and a Smith, well, they worked with metal. Some surnames can refer to places, like Yamagawa (which means "Mountain River" in Japanese; I use the Japanese examples because I know something about the language), or Craig (Craig shares the same root as crag, a rock-face. So someone with the last name Craig comes from a region known for its rocks, like Scotland). And some names just take the name of the father and slap on the word -son at the end. Like Ericcson (Son of Eric), or Tyson (Son of Ty). It also can depend on your cultural background as well; the last name Freeman was popular amongst freed slaves in the United States (when they were slaves, nobody bothered to give them a last name, so they had to pick one for themselves upon being freed).

But then there are some surnames that are odd enough that it is sort of hard to place their origin. Since the names that you give characters can be important, I figured a thread dedicated to a discussion of the meaning of different surnames might be appropriate.

I'll start with my own request: does anyone out there know what the heck the name "Lincoln" refers to? My google-fu is blocked by the importance of Abraham Lincoln.

edited 2nd Feb '12 8:23:35 PM by MyGodItsFullofStars

Well, according to Behind the Name, Lincoln was taken from the name of a town in England, which was subsequently derived from 'lindo' (Brythonic; 'lake, pool') and 'colonia' (Latin; colony).

edited 2nd Feb '12 8:36:05 PM by CrystalGlacia

Cool website.

It can also generate random names of whatever ethnicity you want, which means I'm kind of a fan of it right now.

Does it now? That sounds very useful to my current project...

As I've pointed out in another thread...

Sometimes, names can be given for physical characteristics. They can start out as rather offensive nicknames that the named either uses to try and turn the tables. Or just gets saddled with. The other option is to use irony.

Calling a really tall guy 'Stubbs' because there's no way he looks like a tree stump, for example. Double points if he happens to be a woodcutter. Or how about a really short guy getting 'Towers'... because he couldn't tower over anybody if he tried.

edited 3rd Feb '12 5:41:11 AM by Euodiachloris

That kind of thing really makes much more sense as nicknames then given names, though.

But often enough those nicknames got passed down to become names or surnames. The Oxford Names Companion is chock full of 'em. I know, as I own that Doorstopper.

And? Do you stop being called "Welsh" when your family moved away from there generations ago and you speak with an American accent? Same deal.

edited 3rd Feb '12 4:41:08 PM by Euodiachloris

But not necessarily the traits that inspired them.

The fictional languages in my series are roughly based on Japanese. Names reflect all kinds of things, mainly qualities and heritage.

Husani, Jizamu and Snow have the same name in different languages. Husani is a woman, Jizamu is a man, and Snow is a faerie.

Husani's middle name will be the name of her village, and her family name will be inherited from her mother. Jizamu inherits his father's family name. Snow has a house name instead of a family name, and he inherits it from his sire.

edited 9th Feb '12 1:35:26 PM by nekomoon14