The Origin of your Surname

[Catuvellaunian]

Mine's Anglo-Saxon. It derives from "Haeth" (heather) and "feld" (field, clearing), thus it seems to translate as "from the heather field", but there is a Dutch word, heideveld, which means "moor" or "heath" so maybe it means that. Interestingly the word "haeth" is also the route of the word "heathen" which is quite appropriate for my family

The rest of the names in my family are seemingly irish/celtic however, such as Lackey and Keeley.

[Cato]

You needn't investigate it to confirm or deny this morphological point. No amount of genealogy has any bearing on the pure linguistics of name derivations. -kin(s) is a very widespread and recognisable Germanic diminuitive suffix.

Then how do you explain the exitence of the suffix in terms of a world like Angelcynn or mancynn?

http://www.geocities.com/ednewenglish/suffix.htm

-kin

-kin means "a kin, kind, race, species, family":

Mankin "mankind", wifekin "womankind", Anglekin "the English kin", Walkin "The Welsh kin" deerkin "species of animal", fowlkin "a race of birds", fishkin "species of fish", flykin "species of fly", seedkin "a kind of seed", bookkin "a kind of book", ernkin "a kin of eagles", reedkin "kind of reed", wheatkin "kind of wheat", neatenkin "kind of animals", fivelkin "race of seamonsters", treekin "species of tree", orfkin "cattle", peasekin "kind of pease", ravenkin "a kin of ravens", hawkkin "a kin of hawks", wilderkin "species of wild beasts", wormkin "species of snake", meatkin "kind of food", nadderkin "species of snake", entkin "the race of giants", weaponedkin "the male sex", werekin "mankind", gomekin "mankind", wortkin "species of plant", applekin "kind of apple".

[Osweo]

Then how do you explain the exitence of the suffix in terms of a world like Angelcynn or mancynn?

Old English cynn is a completely different word.

Some of the words in -cynn should be regarded as educated neologisms in fact, like Angelcynn, not really part of the vernacular, but coined to make charters look impressive, giving fancy titles to kings.

http://www.geocities.com/ednewenglish/suffix.htm

Hardly the best site to link to as authoritative. It's a 'conlang' almost! Their heart's in the right place, sure, but they're creating, not describing a kind of English.

-kin
-kin means "a kin, kind, race, species, family":
Mankin "mankind", wifekin "womankind", Anglekin "the English kin", Walkin "The Welsh kin" deerkin "species of animal", fowlkin "a race of birds", fishkin "species of fish", flykin "species of fly", seedkin "a kind of seed", bookkin "a kind of book", ernkin "a kin of eagles", reedkin "kind of reed", wheatkin "kind of wheat", neatenkin "kind of animals", fivelkin "race of seamonsters", treekin "species of tree", orfkin "cattle", peasekin "kind of pease", ravenkin "a kin of ravens", hawkkin "a kin of hawks", wilderkin "species of wild beasts", wormkin "species of snake", meatkin "kind of food", nadderkin "species of snake", entkin "the race of giants", weaponedkin "the male sex", werekin "mankind", gomekin "mankind", wortkin "species of plant", applekin "kind of apple".

These are largely poetic terms. Some are from Middle English, but most witness a form of word-building that was already out of fashion. Certainly so when modern surnames were coined.

None of these examples refer to an individual. Use of this element in personal names is unattested. They are abstract nouns. Given the amount of onomastica we DO have, we can say that -cynn was not used for individual people.

The simplest explanation is often the best. When backed up with a ton of analogues as in Wilkins, it's as good as definite.

[Eldritch]

If I were an Anglo, I'd be called "John Hillman".

If I were Italian, I'd be called "Giovanni Delmonte".

If I were Spanish, I'd be called "Juán del Monte".

My surname is the fifth most common one in Finland. Finnish surnames often refer to geographical locations; hills, ridges, lakes, rivers, valleys, swamps, etc. If you take your atlas out of your bookshelf and open the page with the map of Finland on in, you'll see that between the eastern Tavastian towns of Lahti and Heinola there is a place called "Mäkelä".

[Cato]

Old English cynn is a completely different word.

Some of the words in -cynn should be regarded as educated neologisms in fact, like Angelcynn, not really part of the vernacular, but coined to make charters look impressive, giving fancy titles to kings.

Hardly the best site to link to as authoritative. It's a 'conlang' almost! Their heart's in the right place, sure, but they're creating, not describing a kind of English.

These are largely poetic terms. Some are from Middle English, but most witness a form of word-building that was already out of fashion. Certainly so when modern surnames were coined.

None of these examples refer to an individual. Use of this element in personal names is unattested. They are abstract nouns. Given the amount of onomastica we DO have, we can say that -cynn was not used for individual people.

The simplest explanation is often the best. When backed up with a ton of analogues as in Wilkins, it's as good as definite.

My delving into Old English word usage, prefixes, suffixes and whatnot is spotty. I've got some OE grammar books and a "how-to" book with an audio CD. I'll file this information away, food for thought.

[Óttar]

My surname comes from England, but it has a cognate in French. It is an antiquated term for a carpenter or someone who works with wood.

[Germanicus]

My surname is anglo saxon meaning a hill with a clearing, i am surprised that other euro countries use it as it is pretty rare in the uk.

UK 93.19
AUSTRALIA 50.35
CANADA 33.24
NZ 20.01
1RELAND 18.51
UNITED STATES 3.71
SWITZ 3.19
ESPANIA 0.94
HOLLAND O.86
FRANCE 0.44

[Octothorpe]

It is Anglo-Saxon, from Devon, England. My ancestors left there in the 1630s to come to America. The meaning is:

"A kind of door or floodgate. These ancient stops consisted of sundry great stakes and piles erected by fishermen in the river Thames or other streams, for their better convenience of securing fish. Also, a term for gates leading to deer-parks or forests."

My feeling, based on where in Devon my ancestors came from, is that the second meaning is the one which gave Dad's family a name.

As for Mom's family (her Dad's family), it is "first recorded in the Records of Whalley Abbey, Lancashire circa 1250 as "Fagheside." . . . share the same meaning and derivation, which is the "multi-coloured hillside", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "fag", "Fah", brightly coloured, variegated, flowery with "side", slope."

Interesting that both are derived from places or objects, rather than occupations, as are so many others.

[Stefan]

My surname is the Spanish name "Cuevas" which is the plural word for "cave". My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Leguillou which from what I find is a french name referring to an older dialect of French that I assume used a different word for the. My mother's surname is Haman which is a deviation of Hamann which is a German name that I don't know a translation for. My maternal grandmother's maiden name was Reinhart, which means "Pure Heart" in most germanic languages.
So yep I'm probably one of the most mixed groups of Europeans in the United States.

[Mesrine]

This map is deceptive, it shows that my surname is most common in Northwestern Italy, but my family came from the Northeast (where it was already very rare, and probably extinct now).