Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts > Dictionary of Surnames I

Linguists Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges have a genius for deciphering the meanings of last names. In their splendid publication A Dictionary of Surnames, these two scholars examine the meanings of 70,000 surnames from almost every European language.

Hanks and Hodge's Dictionary explains that surnames began appearing on tax and census records between the 13th and the 14th centuries. They were invented so that, for example, a particular villager named William could be distinguished from the other Williams in the vicinity. So, the one who ground grain into flour became William Miller, another with long thin legs was William Crane, while a third, who lived down along the stream, was called William Bywater. The surname was then passed throughout the generations from father to children.

A Dictionary of Surnames contains thousands of such stories, meticulously researched stories. Here is another sampling: Gromyko was a Ukrainian surname given to a noisy, obstreperous man. The name was fashioned from the word grom, meaning "thunder." The Spanish name Laguna, a toponym -- or a word derived from a landscape feature -- means "one who lives by a pond."

Radio Script > Dictionary of Surnames I