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Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Do You Know Ten English Family Name Meanings? - Ten Popular Jobs - And Statues To See

 It is easier to remember people's names if you recall the jobs which the names mean, probably a job held by their ancestor, or even their ancestor's boss. I have at least one book about family names, and several about first names.

Names associated with jobs

1 Archer (like author Jeffrey Archer), 

2 baker

3 barber

4 bishop

5 carpenter - made wooden items, spoons, furniture, housing

6 carter (who drove carts or maybe made carts)

7 clark  (clarkson was the son of a clerk, writer come secretary, or maybe a religious cleric)

8 Cook or cokson meaning son of a cook

9 cooper - maker of barrels

You can see a stue of comedian Tommy Cooper in Wales near Caerphilly Castle. More details in Wikipedia.

Statue of comedian Cooper near Caerphilly castle, seen in the background, in Wales. More details in Wikipedia.

10 draper made drapes or curtains

11 gardener or gardiner - worked in gardens

That is more than ten, but there are many more.

glazer - person who makes windows

knight - roade around on a horse

Lee means shelter in English, and in Chinese Lee or Li means plum tree

Statue of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong. Photo in Wikipedia.

miller - ground corn at a mill

Priestley - priest's woodland clearing, owned by the church. A common name in Yorkshire in England, and Scotland in the UK, also the USA and Canada. See the statues of Priestley the scientist in Yorkshire. See the statue of author-playwright J B Priestley whose time-slip play An Inspector Calls is used by many schools for English O level exams.

Statue of J B Priestley in Bradford, Yorkshire.

shepherd - looked after or herded sheep

smith - usually blacksmith, since a silversmith would be called silver, or silverman, and a goldsmith or person working wiht or selling gold bards or gold jewelery and items might be called gold or goldman

tailor/taylor- sewed by hand, later by machine (as in Elizabeth Taylor the film star)


Bust of Taylor in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

thatcher - who created thatch or thatched roofs, made of bundles or dried straw, before clay was dried and made into tiles (as in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher). A statue of Margaret Thatcher is in Grangham, Lincolnshire, England. A bust of her is outdoors in the Falkland Islands, in the capital, Stanley.

Statue of Margaret Thatcher in England.

weaver - wove textiles

wheeler - made and repaired wheels for wagons

woodman - worked with wood, or in the woods

You an buy books about statues, such as London statues (I have that one) and on surnames (I have one of those, ) and on baby names (I started collecting books on baby names when my son was born  more than 40 years ago and I now have more than ten books on baby names. Magazines on Parents and babies often give away books on baby names with their springtime editions. Some first names are derived from names of parents. 

Useful Website

ancestry.com (I tried loading up the link but it wiped out the entire post, so I have just given you the generic name. Add name meaning.)

https://www.oxfordreference.com

wikipedia.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inspector_Calls

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