Social Studies, Ancient History

Grade 3- 5

Objective

Students learn about the origins of last names in Medieval times.

Directions

Introduce to students "The Story of Last Names."
A long time ago, four men named Thomas lived in a little town. That was the only name any of them had. In those days, only kings and nobles had last names; most men and women had only first names.
Because the men had the same name, here's how people told them apart. One Thomas had a father named John, so he was called "Thomas, John's son." Another Thomas, a baker, was called "Thomas the Baker." The third Thomas had light-colored hair, so he was known as "Thomas the White." And the fourth Thomas lived next to the village green, so he was known to everyone as "Thomas of the Green."
Time went on. Thomas the Baker married a girl named Elaine. She became known as "Elaine, Thomas the Baker's wife." They had a little boy named John, and he was known as "John, Thomas the Baker's son." But after a while, people got tired of saying all those words. So they simply called Thomas the Baker, "Thomas Baker." His wife became Elaine Baker, and their son was John Baker.
That's how last names came to be. People took their fathers' first names, the names of their fathers' jobs, the names of the places where they lived, or names that told how they looked. They put these names after their first names. When a man married, his wife and children took his last name. Sometimes, a widow or single woman might adopt children and give them her last name. So, today, our last names can tell us something about the people we got them from long ago.
Ask students to pay close attention to see if their last names are on one of the following lists. Here are some examples of patronymics, last names that come from first names:

Adding son or sen	Adding s	Adding es, ez, or is
Andersen	Fredricks	Davis
Davidson	Matthews	Harris
Jackson	Phillips	Hernandez
Johnson	Roberts	Hughes
Robertson	Stephens	Jones
Wilson	Walters	Rodriguez

People who spoke different languages sometimes added sohn, wicz, vich, or ak to the end of a name. All of these mean "son." People from some countries put son in front of their fathers' names. Mac, Mc, and Fitz all mean "son of."
Here are examples of some last names that came from the jobs that people held:

Blacksmith	Cart Driver	Making Bread
Ferraro	Carter	Baker
Herrera	Porter	Baxter
Kovacs	Wagner	Fournier
Kowalski	Grinding Wheat	Shroeder
MacGowan	Miller	Making Clothes
Schmitt	Molinaro	Schneider
Schmitz	Mueller	Snider
Smith	Sarto	Taylor

Here are some last names that were taken from the places where people lived:

By a Hill	By a Stream	Near a Small Forest
Barrows	Arroyo	Atwood
Downing	Beck	DuBois
Downs	Brooks	Holt
Hill	Burns	Hurst
Hillman	Rivera	Shaw
Hull	By a Grassy Field	Silva
Knowles	Field and Fields	Wood and Woods
Law	Lee	By a Castle
Lowe	Mead	Borg
Peck	Meadows	Burke
By a Main Road	Vega	Castello
Estrada		Castillo
Lane		Zamechi
Strass
Streeter

Here are some names that were taken from the way people looked:

White Hair	New Person	Curly Hair
Bannon	Doran	Cassidy
Blanchard	Dowell	Krause
Weiss	Doyle	Kruse
White	Newcomb	Rizzo
Whitehead	Newman	Tall Person
Whitlock	Short Person	Lang
Whitman	Bass	Long
Wise	Basset	Longfellow
Red Hair	Hoch	Happy Person
Flynn	Kline and Klein	Gay
Reed and Reid	Short	Merriman
Roth	Small	Murray
Russell

Here are some names that described animal characteristics:

Wolf	Fox	Kinds of Birds
Lupo	Fox	Bird and Byrd
Wolf and Wolfe	Todd	Coe
Deer	Volpe	Cox
Buck	Bear	Crane
Hart	Baer	Crow and Crowe
Hirsh	Lion	Garza
Roe	Leon	Hahn
Dragon	Loewe	Ortega
Drake	Lyon and Lyons	Vogel

Distribute the What's in a Name? activity sheet to complete activity.

Resources

• Story of Last Names handout
• What's in a Name? activity sheet