WEBVTT - What's in a surname? 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.680 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.280 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant. It's just the two 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.360 of us, kind of like old time soun Chuck sure, 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.880 and this is Stuff you should It's not the full 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:29.319 thing without Jerry. That's right. But you said you're Josh Clark, 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:33.400 don't you mean Josh Clerk. Yeah, that is what my 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.040 my name is from. It's one of the most boring 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.959 names you could have, but it is my last name. 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.000 And that's what we're talking about. I don't even know 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:46.199 my I mean, I know the like country of origin 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.239 and stuff for Bryant, but I don't really know. Like 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.000 this is one of those episodes where I was constantly going, oh, 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.360 that's where that came from. Oh, that's interesting, but I 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.560 didn't have anything for me. I have something for you, friend. 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:06.040 You got the origin of Bryant, No origin of Wayne. Okay, 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:10.960 let's hear it. It denotes a driver or builder of wagons. 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.880 That's you, buddy in a nutshell, Well that was my surname. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:17.600 but I mean it still works for your middle name 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:19.520 is sound like it just loses all meaning when it 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:23.280 gets moved to the middle. Right, builder wagons, it's me 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.080 or driver. You could have been a driver to truck 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:31.200 wagon or or a double trouble a builder driver of wagons. Right. 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.080 So that's that's it. But we're not talking about middle names. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.720 We're never really talking about first names. We're talking about surnames, 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.720 which if you've ever been confused about which one that is, 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:46.120 it's the last name, it's the family name. Yes, And 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.160 depending on where you live in the world, it might 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.520 come before your first name, it might come after it. 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.120 There might be a couple of surnames involved, there may 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:58.240 be a hyphen joining them. Um, there's a lot of 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.000 different things you can do with surnames. And like you, 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.280 I was like, okay, there's actually a lot of interesting 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.960 stuff to this, So good pick, and thanks to the 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.400 grabster for helping us out. Yeah, and you know Ed 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.760 will feature later on because I don't want to spoil 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.639 it yet. But his last name is interesting because this 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.359 Polish and Polish names are generally interesting and how they're 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.560 and how they look on paper on the page and 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.560 are often changed. So we're just we're gonna float that 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.640 out there as a teaser. We're gonna be talking about 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.640 Ed's last name and speaking of being on paper. I 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.600 thought it was a polished name all this time. Glad 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:42.560 you said something first. Uh. The deal with surnames, though, 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:47.919 is they have been around a lot less long. That's 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.079 one way to say it than a given name or 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.880 a first name. Like first names, they came first, like 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.280 from the beginnings of people, like with Took Took. People 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.440 wanted to call each other things, and so people would 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.079 just give each other names. But surnames were invented much 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.000 much much later for reasons we're going to talk about 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.720 kind of around Dish the eleventh century. Yeah, that's for 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:16.119 like England, Western Europe. Um. There were places where they 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.079 came along much earlier, like I think in China they've 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.160 been in use for three thousand years as far as 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.400 we can tell. And then in Rome there were different 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.560 naming conventions that had two names, sometimes three names, you know, 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.240 a couple of thousand years ago. So yeah, surnames are 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:38.200 in England at least or the Western Europe. Uh, they 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:42.440 are definitely latecomers, is relatively speaking. Yeah, and you know, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.080 one of the reasons, uh, you might think, like why 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.280 would you need a surname, and there are a bunch 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.760 of reasons, um, one of which, like one of the 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.960 earliest reasons was that people, you know, there were more 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:57.080 people being born, and so your little quaint town that 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:02.160 had you know, John and in Jane everyone who John 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.600 and Jane were. But then as more and more people 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.720 are born, that town gets bigger and bigger. There's more 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.040 John's and Jane's. It was literally just like a way 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.480 to differentiate people, yeah, exactly. And then also as people 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:18.680 started to travel more, um there there that also kind 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:23.839 of called for people that differentiate themselves a little bit too. So, um, 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.240 population pressure is a really good reason, a really good 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:31.040 explainer for why there were such things as surnames. Why 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.440 they came along. There's just more people, so you needed 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.839 to be able to say no, not Jane, that Jane, 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.560 the other Jane. People got really sick of doing that, 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:42.960 especially if a third Jane came along, they just pull 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.599 their hair out and be mad all the time. Right. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.240 And then by the time people own property or had 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.240 like legal things to transfer to one another, titles and 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:58.360 things like that, then you had to have surtinnames. So uh, nobles, 0:04:58.400 --> 0:04:59.960 of course, you know, there's you know, a lot of 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.960 class that plays into this because a certain class of 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.960 people were landowners and had official titles. So these nobles 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.400 adopted these surnames, or maybe the monarchs that you have 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:12.920 to have a surname because we need to know your 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.000 you know, the rights of succession of your land or 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:17.800 you know, it's just gotta all legally check out. So 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:22.320 we just being John isn't enough anymore. Yeah, it was. Um, 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:26.760 it's strange to think of, but naming somebody and like saying, 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:28.480 either choose a name or I'm going to choose one 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.160 for you. It was a way for the ruling class 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.160 of a civilization to like basically track people, keep them 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.680 in line, keep you know, one group from you know, 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:44.520 marrying another group, and consolidating power. Um. And it's interesting 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.560 because they think that, you know, in China, one of 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.599 the reasons why uh they surnames came along three thousand 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.159 years ago was because of population pressure, but also because 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.280 the Zoo dynasty. And I'm probably not saying that correctly. 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:00.680 I think it's z h O. You is that right? 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.080 I'm gonna go with yao. I'm just kidna. I'm feeling 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.360 a little spicy today. I thought it was h A 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.680 O or am I thinking of something different? Okay? So 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.480 even more I'm going with Jao okay. But anyway, the 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:16.880 Joo dynasty was saying, um, like, you know, we want 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.480 to keep track of you nobles, and a good way 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:21.520 to do that is to like label something. That's how 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.479 you keep track of something. And that's that's one of 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.440 the other reasons why these um surnames came along in 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:30.240 China and the same thing played out um you know, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.159 a couple of thousand years later in England for basically 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:35.960 the same reasons. That's right, by the way, I was wrong. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.000 It is the h O wor I'm sorry, oh you okay, 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.600 I'm gonna go with jaw then. Okay, are you talking 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:49.440 about William the First Yeah, the Conqueror and his Doomsday book, which, boy, 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:54.479 if there was ever a book that was mistitled, it's 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.919 not Doomsday. It's Domesday D O M E S D 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.320 A Y. But when you look at it very you 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.400 just want to say doomsday book. Yeah, But what it 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.480 was it was just a survey of land and landowners 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:13.320 and tight six and William the First commission this thing 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.560 and basically said, all right, we got a book now, 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.920 so all these informal names aren't going to do it, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:19.840 so we have to have an official historical record of 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:25.000 this stuff, So pick a surname. Yeah. It was almost 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.400 like taking a snapshot of like the conventions and the 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.640 customs of naming people at the time, because William the 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.920 Conqueror didn't say, you know, you have to have a 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.880 surname now. It was more like whatever you go by, 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:40.320 you're going to go down in this book as that 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:46.760 and that basically solidified and created that tradition of passing 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.120 down surnames. From that point on, it kind of like 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.120 kept it going. What is so funny? I'm just trying 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.320 to think, do you want to be John the a 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.680 hole the rest of your life? Exactly? That's what you're 0:07:57.720 --> 0:07:59.920 known as around town. But if you have a chance 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.280 or to rewrite things, Yeah, and if you go back 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:06.920 and look, there's a a website that uh that um 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.080 ed found. I'll try to find it later, but it's 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:15.680 basically just uh, a tittering tour through medieval England and 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.200 some of the horrific last names people got saddled with 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.440 for nicknames and that became like their last name like 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:26.280 stuff we just can't even possibly say on this podcast. Yeah, 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.360 and uh, Ed points out too, and um, just since 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.920 we're talking about that, that sarcasm is not a recent invention. 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.920 So you might be uh called something like you maybe 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.960 John Goodman, Well not John Gidman. You could be John Goodman. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:43.600 I'm just going with John for everything. Uh, when you 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.319 were like a very like not nice dude, somebody might 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.520 have said Goodman as a good man. Yeah, as a 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.280 sort of a nod and a wink or a joke 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.240 or a play on words. Like imagine if John Goodman 0:08:55.360 --> 0:09:01.079 were basically like Russell Crowe gets the point across, he's 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.600 still on Wrestle Crew. I'm I'm trying to throw back here, man, 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.480 I'm trying to bring everybody back to our period of 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.080 comfort rather than moving along with everyone else. But it's 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.920 interesting you mentioned medieval the medieval period because the Roman 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.560 system that you talked about, which eventually evolved to a 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.320 three name system. I think at first, or I guess, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.640 before Rome, in different civilizations they had single names. But 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.920 then the Romans came along and they had what was 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.720 called a prey I guess prey Noman, which would be 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.120 the equivalent of a given name. Then the Noman which 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.080 what we would think of as the last name, and 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:43.640 then later on, if you were like an elite, you 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.840 would have a third name, the cognomen uh if you 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.680 wanted to like show off a little bit and show 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.880 your status. But it went away after the Romans for 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.680 a long time and then came back with the Europeans. Yeah, 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.080 it's really interesting that like the Europeans had all this 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.600 influence the Chinese had already in I ended this for 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.800 a couple of thousand years, and it just kind of 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.360 like evolved in isolation later on. So it really kind 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.679 of does just go to go to show you like 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.880 surnames are just once you reach a certain point of 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:18.400 you know, a civilization or a population growth, it's just 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.280 something that's just going to come up inevitably organically. It's 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:24.200 pretty neat. It is pretty neat. Um and we I 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.240 know we mentioned um. Some Asian names, I think Korean 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:31.080 and Japanese and Chinese are traditionally written with the surname 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.040 first and then you're given name. And then just a 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.840 few years ago, Japan I think formally enshrined that and said, 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.199 you know, we're not gonna western ize this anymore. We're 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.559 gonna go with the surname first. Yeah, they're going back 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.360 to their roots. I love it. A new kind of suit. 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:52.280 That's right. You you got that one really? Yeah? Sure, man, Chuck, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:56.439 I'm impressed. Uh, she'll be. Well, since you're impressed, let's 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:58.480 take a break, because I don't I want to. I 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.440 want to just like bathe in that for minute. I 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.480 think it's a wise move, or rather two minutes, and uh, 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.280 we'll be back and talk about the different types of 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:18.240 surnames and why they came about right after this defin 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:32.800 sk Alright. So, um, what's interesting is that surnames, you know, 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.040 take all sorts of different shapes and forms, and there's 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.600 actually some cultures that just don't have them or don't 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.760 use them. I believe, Um, the Philippines didn't use surnames 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:48.160 until they were colonized by um Europeans. Um. So I mean, 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.640 there's some some cultures that don't use surnames at all. 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.880 But among the cultures that do use surnames in different 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:58.400 way shape, way, shapes and forms, there's actually some commonalities 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.199 almost universality amongst our names and where they came from 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:04.800 and what they mean. Um. And there's at least four 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.040 or five that you can kind of hack out that. Say, 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.199 wherever you go in the world, if they're using surnames, 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.280 they may have some sort of like version of this. Yeah, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.599 and this is the stuff that's really cool. I think. Um, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.200 and this found me saying, you know, because ed gives 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.080 a bunch of great examples of a surname, and then 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.560 when you find out how it evolved to be that, 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.520 you just go, oh, well, that completely makes sense. Now. 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.439 Uh well, I was about to say something about jobs, 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.560 but we'll get to jobs a minute. Um. First though, 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:40.160 is place names, specific place names. If you were and 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:41.720 I think a lot of people know this one, but 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:44.840 if you were from a place, you might have been 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.840 Chuck of Atlanta, or you know, if it was in Europe, 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.199 it might you might have substituted d E for the Latin, 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:57.920 like chuck d Atlanta, and then over time that d um. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.800 There's this this process that happens to words, where if 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.360 you use a word for a thousand years, it gets 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:08.280 kind of molded and shaped and um and cut down 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.400 to a more manageable size. You're saying L and OMG 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.600 right exactly or l m f A oh because party 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.559 rock is in the house tonight. Um. But it's called truncation. 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.840 And the same thing happens with names too, So instead 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.760 of Chuck day Atlanta, it could just become chuckd Atlanta, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.800 d apostrophe Atlanta, which is very kind of nice, like 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.040 I like the way that rings that Atlanta. Um, Yeah, 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:37.800 you have to say it like that, or you could 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.000 just get rid of that apostrophe and make it one 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.720 word chucked Atlanta, right, And that actually happened like that 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.720 with the name Darcy. Um. It used to be um 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.120 somebody a day r C r C is a village 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.400 I believe in France, or Normandy maybe um, And then 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.480 over time it became d apostrophe r C as in 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.880 Jefferson Darcy from Married with Children, or just Darcy d 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.320 A r c y as in Mr Darcy from Pride 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.120 and Prejudice, who I presume Jefferson Darcy's character is based on. 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.760 But if you have the name Darcy, um, you can 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:17.800 almost I mean, there are other ways that you can 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.760 acquire last surname, which will we'll see kind of along 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.680 the way, but Um, chances are you can probably trace 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.280 that back to the fact that someone in your lineage 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.320 was from Arc. Yes. Um. And it also suggests that 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.480 some somewhere back in your lineage, somebody was probably of 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.680 uh noble lineage, because it was the nobles who would 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.920 have taken the place that they were from as their surname, 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.920 because number one, they would go off to court, so 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:49.520 they would be I'm Jefferson Darcy, so you know, not 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.800 Jefferson d Atlanta, Jefferson Darcy, I'm the one from Darcy 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:58.120 or from Arcy. Right, Um, a commoner from r c 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.760 would have no reason to to say that they're from 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.520 Arcy because they don't ever leave Arci. They spent their 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.720 entire life there exactly. And then also, um, it would 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.240 let people know that you were, um you basically like 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.000 ruled that land that you were from. That was that 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:19.320 was that And it's called a toponymic name. Um, where 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:21.600 you're it's a place name that you've taken as your 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.480 last name. That's right. If you were a commoner, like 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:30.360 you said, you would not be Chuck of Atlanta because 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.640 I was I grew up a commoner because I could 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:35.120 make no claim that I ruled Atlanta back in the 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.120 medieval times or post medieval times. Um, and everyone else 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.560 would have that name too. And in my little neighborhood 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.120 that didn't have a lot of money, let's say, but 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:50.680 you might have a really local name that is um 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.520 more like topographic. Like if your last name is hill 0:15:54.400 --> 0:16:00.440 or under hill or green, then chances are you're you know, 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.280 distant relatives lived on a hill or on a green 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.480 or under a hill. I don't know if that there 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.200 were cave dwellers, but those are literally named. There's a 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.320 name by water. I've never really heard that, but you 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.160 know it literally means you live by the water. Yeah, 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.560 there's some really nice names that have to do with water. 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:22.520 Um as that served his last names like bay, shore, bay, meadow. Um. 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.960 I think those are very pleasant, but that I never 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.480 really realized that means that their family lived by a bay, 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.520 by a meadow. I guess last names. Those are very 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:37.480 nice last names. And then um, Chuck. I also realized 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.080 just now when you were talking, that you could have 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:47.280 rightly called yourself chuck unpaved road right, Sure that would 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.640 have that would have definitely placed you there. Yeah. Yeah, 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.720 I grew up on a chuck to gravel. Yeah. The 0:16:54.200 --> 0:17:01.520 via Graville another locator or I guess topographic. Um, it's 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:03.480 sort of along those same lines. If you ever hear 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.440 anyone with the last name of like Scott or Western. 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:09.800 Western is a great example. It's a great last name 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:14.200 or the last name Ireland that you know, those are 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.439 just very quite literal last names taken because chances are 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:19.639 they moved to a different place and maybe that was 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.280 a different rentiator, like there, you know that maybe they 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.080 even called the person from Ireland that moved to a 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.840 place not in Ireland, Ireland, right exactly. They were probably emigrants, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:32.520 you know, they were the Scott who just showed up 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:36.399 that everybody liked, you know, the Scott Okay, yeah, John Scott, 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:41.639 the Scott school, right exactly. Um. It's also like in 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.960 that movie Zombie Land, where everybody's called where they're from. 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.959 I don't remember that, Yeah, I think, Um, what's his name, 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.960 Jesse Eisenberg. Isn't that who's in it? Yeah? He he's 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.800 like Columbus And I can't remember what Woody Harrelson where 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:02.640 he's from? Text maybe or some something like that. I know, gotcha. Yeah, 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.160 I just wanted to give a Zombie Land shout out. 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.439 You know, it's a good movie. It really was surprisingly so. 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.359 Um or if you're just finished several you just have 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:19.280 a last initial like Mark s Well, I just watched 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.320 it twice because Emily didn't watch it the first go round, 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.080 and I was like, I think you would like this actually, 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.560 so um, I watched it all the way through again, 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.080 so I obviously loved it. But that boy, that season 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.240 Family was to st at minute panic attack. It really was, 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.840 and one of the most unfair cliffhangers history of TV 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.359 really was, but really really good stuff. Love it. So 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.640 um moving on, Chuck Um. One of the other things 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.360 we could have adopted as our surnames if that were 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.080 a thing, like people were still taking new surnames, we 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:57.080 could be Josh Podcaster and Chuck Podcaster. Yeah. I mean 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.040 I love this one because this is uh, probably the 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.159 most common way that someone would get a surname. I 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:07.000 think more than ten of English surnames are because of 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.760 an occupation in your lineage. So you know, Karen Carpenter, 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.159 she had someone way back in her family that was 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.119 a Carpenter probably, or Earl Weaver had a Weaver in 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:22.080 his family, and uh any Smith. I mean, well that's 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.359 not true because there is a thing too where a 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:26.640 lot of time immigrants would adopt the name like one 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:28.560 of the most common names when they would immigrate to 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.240 a country to fit in, so there might be smith's 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.800 acquired that way. But uh, if you were a smith, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:38.119 then you had the last name Smith, right, um. Or 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.760 Clark is a derivative of clerk, which was yeah at 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.439 the time, not just some some pencil pusher. It was 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:48.480 a scholarly person who could read and write at a 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.560 time when most people couldn't read it. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:58.360 my ancestors was real smart. Um. Thatcher is another example 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.600 of an occupation le based or shepherd. Uh. These are 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:05.240 all very obvious, but one kind of cool little oh 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:09.879 moments is in medieval England they would use s t 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.840 e r or x t e r as a suffix 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:18.160 if it was a woman's occupation, So a baker would 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:24.200 become Baxter or brewer would become Brewster. That's right, um, 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.000 so uh, and that's that holds not just for England, 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:28.800 but like if you went to Germany and your last 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.679 name Schmidt, it's it's the same thing as if you 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.040 were in England and your last name Smith, because there 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.000 was somebody in your lineage that was a blacksmith, which 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.479 is pretty cool. Um. And it was almost like like 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.280 I was saying when that Doomsday book was was um 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.880 when it came out. Sure, it was like a snapshot 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:52.840 of professions at the time. UM. And apparently within about 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.640 three d four hundred years the use of surnames had 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:02.439 solidified enough that people became weird for the tradition of 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:05.199 it being weird for us to say I'm changing my 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.400 last name to podcaster because it's my job, that had 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.400 really kind of solidified. People weren't taking on new surnames, 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.679 they were getting them passed along, and so um. Professions 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.719 that came after the fourteenth and fifteen centuries don't usually 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.960 pop up very often as people's last name. No, but 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.280 it's funny now that I'm thinking my Instagram handle is 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:27.520 Chuck the Podcaster, I should podcast. I should change it 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:32.400 to de ampost future. That'd be pretty fun. I think 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.760 that's a great idea, Charles. Another fun thing that Ed 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:42.040 found was sometimes actors back in the day would um, 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:44.320 sort of with a nod and a wink, take a 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.240 surname of a character that they played a lot. And 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:51.359 anyone that knows the origins of the theater knows that 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.560 actors were. You know, they're not like they are to day. 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.640 They were generally sort of the lower class. And so 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.760 if you that, that would like sort of explain away 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.440 why you might find someone of the of a lower 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:07.680 class maybe with the last name king or lord, because 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:10.040 they might have been an actor who played a king 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.960 or a lord a lot. Yes. Uh. And then nicknames 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:18.000 play a really big role across cultures. Uh. And again 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:20.159 this is kind of what they think the tradition of 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.760 first names came out of. Like your your first name 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:27.359 was not necessarily John or Jim or Josh or Chalk 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:30.840 or anything like that way back in the day. It 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:35.399 was probably just the initial differentiator for you, you you know, 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:38.200 like instead of that guy, No, no, not that guy. 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:43.240 That guy they would say, you know red or apparently 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:48.800 sherlock means fair headed. Um. They would also they would 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.960 apparently if you did things with say like your penis, 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:55.960 you might end up with a nickname name like Shakespeare 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.680 they think is actually that or Wagstaff they think are 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:05.920 actually leap from from that kind of lewd uh toilet humor, 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.160 lowbrow humor that people used to love in the medieval era. 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:12.320 Oh yeah, I mean there was you know, I mean 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:15.600 Shakespeare itself was sort of body. But I took an 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.800 English class where we did. Uh. I took a couple 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.600 of like, um, not play writing. Well, I did take 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:25.960 play writing, but play reading classes. What would you call that? Uh? Yeah, 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:30.080 play reading had a better name than that. Uh. And 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:32.320 a lot of the place that we read from the 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:36.760 time period that weren't Shakespeare were just toilet humor, blue humor, 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.520 dirty body humor. And it's not like that's just gone anywhere. 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:42.719 I mean, I made a marry but children reference not 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:46.720 twenty minutes ago, so it's still around, although married with 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:48.800 children is not around anymore. But you know what I'm saying. 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:54.960 But I would pose it that, like sophisticated intelligent humor 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:59.679