Who are the English mostly descended from?

[Breedingvariety]

What America is for the world, England is for Europe. Lots of people have moved there to start a new life.

[Breedingvariety]

I know that they speak a germanic language although some people claim it's a half-romance language

English was influenced by Romance significantly, mostly because of upper classes.

[Antimage]

English was influenced by Romance significantly, mostly because of upper classes.

it's a germanic language though

[de Burgh II]

A good example is the Scottish surname "Peterson" that is a slight alteration compared to the Scandinavian "Petersen" or "Pettersson" etc. :



I would say its safe to assume why it is prevalent throughout the British Isles is because there is much mobility amongst the people with the given regions so all of the people can be a mix between these ancestries.

[LightHouse89]

A good example is the Scottish surname "Peterson" that is a slight alteration compared to the Scandinavian "Petersen" or "Pettersson" etc. :



I would say its safe to assume why it is prevalent throughout the British Isles is because there is much mobility amongst the people with the given regions so all of the people can be a mix between these ancestries.

Not to mention Brittany France culturally and ethnically are related to the Cornish/Devon people.

[Jana]

it's a germanic language though

Of course.

[Ouistreham]

Roughly, the English people is:
• Western Germanic 60%
• Celtic 30%
• Other (Norman, Norse etc.): enormous political and linguistic influence, but genetically 10% at best.

- England's Western Germanics were not Anglo-Saxons all of them. In my opinion a large part of England was Germanic prior to the Roman conquest (which is the reason why Celtic place names are virtually absent in Eastern England).
Remember that the ancient Britons were described as being closely related to the Belgian Gauls, who included a majority of ethnically Germanic tribes.

- England's Celtic component wasn't homogeneously Brythonic either. There has been several invasion waves, there were also pre-IE populations in the islands, possibly related to Basques and ancient Iberians (hence the conspicuous presence of Med types in the Celtic fringes of the island).

[de Burgh II]

A good portion of English surnames denote what they did for jobs, nicknames, family names and from places they live near.

Examples

Jobs:
Sawyer = man who would saw logs
Spencer = dispenser (keeper) in a store

Nicknames:
Blake (corruption of black) = dark hair
Reid = Red hair

Personal name:
Peterson = son of peter
Davis = Davy's son

Place name:
Darby: corruption of the city of Derby in England
Yarrow: lived near overgrown yarrow (plant)

[XenophobicPrussian]

I believe it's Britons mostly(although not by a huge margin). If it was mostly Anglo-Saxon, I think English people would have less differences in looks between them and NW Germans/Dutch/Danes.

More east you go, more Anglo-Saxon/Scandinavian, more west, more Briton(in England). Same with Scotland for Briton ancestry vs Scandinavian(excluding the western Scottish isles which have a lot of Viking ancestry).

I wonder if before the Anglo-Saxon invasions the English looked exactly like the Welsh, or if the Indo-European migrations already made the English have more light eyes/hair than the Welsh, or if there were even more significant mainland Europe migrations to the British Isles after IE(excluding the Romans) but before the Anglo-Saxons.

Norman influence on English race is probably the least significant, given Normandy is small and by 1066, England had quite a bit of people in it already, especially compared to 300-500 AD when the Anglo-Saxons started coming. I'd say there's more Mediterranean/Roman/Italian ancestry in England than Norman.

[Graham]

From what People of British Isles showed. Close to half of Englands DNA came from NW germany, Denmark to belgium. A quarter from France(mainly NW France). 20 percent from Ireland, 5% from Norway & Sweden.

But will need to check the newer update(below). Picture too small & can't find this anywhere else.