Surnames in other languages

[andrewalston]

We probably all know the usual surname origins for the UK (occupation, place name, nickname and "son of"), but do other places follow similar schemes?

Scandinavia definitely has a preponderance of "son of". "Mac" in Scotland means the same thing.

But is "Ferrari" as common in Italy as "Smith" in Britain? If not, is there an equivalent common name?

Any experts on non-English-speaking parts of the world?

[Erato]

There are many Spanish and Portuguese surnames that are the equivalent of the 'son-of' surnames in English, typically they end in 'ez' [or 'es' in Portuguese]  - González, Pérez, Ibáñez, Fernández, etc.

[tonepad]

A Foreigner’s Guide to Polish Surnames:

https://culture.pl/en/article/a-foreigners-guide-to-polish-surnames



Tony

[KGarrad]

Some Manx surnames; being the 10 most popular surnames on the 1881 Isle of Man census:

Kell(e)y
Quayle
Cain(e)
Corlett
Christian
Clague
Moore
Far(a)gher
Cannell
Quirk

(With thanks to ManxNoteBook  )
http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/famhist/fnames/sn1881.htm

No mention of Smith, Brown, Jones or Williams!

[Viktoria]

In Belgium De before ,as example ,Smet De Smet ,  the blacksmith.
Van,is a bit like of or from so Van Cauwenberg.
There is not an exact prefix for son of ,like Mac.
  Viktoria.

[Erato]

Here are a few Quechua/Quichua/Kichwa surnames which are common [and some not so common] in Peru and Ecuador.  Of course spelling is vary variable on these names.  Sometimes they're adapted to the Spanish alphabet and sometimes not.

https://www.asociacioncasadeperu.com/2010/04/apellidos-de-origen-quechua.html

[Andrew Tarr]

No mention of Smith, Brown, Jones or Williams! 

 
Is Faragher the Manx equivalent of Smith?  (I'm only guessing but it looks possible).  And I've always wondered at the number of Manx surnames starting with Q (I remember from long ago a paper authored by Quin and Quan).

[pinefamily]

For common surnames, the Vietnamese seem to have a lot of Nguyen and Tran.
In Sweden surnames as we know them only really came into being in the 19th century, although they were used earlier in and around Stockholm.
My great grandfather was Lindquist/Lundquist, as was his father. The next generation was in the patronymic style. So my great x2 grandfather was born Jon Olof Pehrsson, and became Lundquist in later life. His father was Pehr Olofsson.

[bibliotaphist]

No mention of Smith, Brown, Jones or Williams! 

 
Is Faragher the Manx equivalent of Smith?  (I'm only guessing but it looks possible).  And I've always wondered at the number of Manx surnames starting with Q (I remember from long ago a paper authored by Quin and Quan).

The word for "smith" in Manx is gaaue (see Irish gabha, Welsh gof); I think occupational surnames are pretty rare on the island. "Faragher" comes from an Old Irish personal name, Fearchar.

In the Manx surnames starting with Q/K/C, it shows a remnant of Mac meaning son of, just as in the other Gaelic languages, where the "c" sound from "Mac" became attached to the rest of the name (often and Old Norse i.e. Viking personal name!) through linguistic rebracketing (in the same way that "a napron" became "an apron" in English).

This is further disguised because the "Mac" itself later dropped out of use, which didn't happen to nearly the same extent in Ireland or Scotland - and the spelling of Manx names was often anglicised further.

So for example, "Mac Thorcaill" - "Mac Corcaill" - "[Mac] Corkill" - "Corkill".