:pokes naming conventions:

[burntcopper]

Huh. Most north european countries, when the surname denotes that someone comes from somewhere, stick the equivalent of the prefix 'of' or 'from' in the front - de, van der, von, de la, te, van t', da, di and so on. How the hell did the English escape this? Our language is descended from germanic/dutch/friesian with Norman French laid over the top of it. Was it a post-invasion of Britain by Saxons thing? The only example I can think of is 'a' - and the only actual name I can think of that has it is Allan a Dale, and that's medieval which appears to have died out completely. Cornish uses Pen, Tre and Pol, but that's Celtic, not English.

All the prefixes I can think of in English surnames mean 'son/daughter of', (o', mac/mc, fitz) and they're all other languages, since 'son of' in northern european non-latin non-celt languages tends to be a suffix.

Comments

[silly-swordsman.livejournal.com]

Fitz is basically "fils de", i.e. "son of", and was used to acknowledge someone as your illegitimate offspring. "He is my son, but not of my family" sort of thing.

Saxon names can be "son", like Harold Godwinson, but can also be descriptive like Edgar Etheling, or based on locations or professions. In general, they added a "surname" when it was required for precision.

What we think of as surnames were first names of noble/rich/powerful houses/clans/extended families.