What is the nationality of your current last name?

. . . "English patronymic?"

My husband's father was adopted by a German family so my last name is of German origin.

I don't have to look it up. It's Swedish.

English.. with a slight hint of latin.

I'm Spanish but my surname is French.

The family is Russian, but I'm not sure about the name -- might be German. And for some reason we spell it differently than everyone else.

Rosenthal, right? It's got to be German because "thal" or "tal" means valley in German and is a common name suffix. So there must be some place called the Rose Valley. How do you spell it? Or did I completely forget your last name and it's schmid?

english/scandinavian according to the site, but alas i am a mutt!

We spell it Rosenthol, but yeah, I've always been told it means Valley of the Roses, so that sounds right. I wonder where the German came from? As far back as I know that side of the family was Russian.

Can you really have a Canadian last name? You can't unless you're Native Indian

How far back do you know? I think there was a lot of cultural exchange between Germany and Russia in the 19th century. I wonder whether there were any notable Jewish migrations to Russia then - perhaps the Tzarist government was more tolerant? I should go look it up somewhere.

I don't know. I couldn't find my last name there, even though it's a pretty common last name.

Both English and Scottish, which is pretty much what I would have expected.

Finnish

My currant last name was made up by my grandfather so there is no nationality associated with it.

My birth name was German. I changed my middle and last name for career purposes and because of my grandmother (long story). The name I changed it to is Cherokee, as for my married name (it's hyphenated) I have no idea what it is...a "Heinz 57" I think...

English

I didn't notice the link until after I read the comments. My name isn't in there, but I know enough history of my family to provide the right answer.

*shrugs* It was my ex's name. I only kept it so my daughter and I would have the same last name.

German.. but there is no way it would be on that website.

Chinese

My last name wasn't listed.

My name wasn't listed but it's English. My husbands name, which I haven't taken, is Irish.

mandy, it's weird that you say that about wanting to keep the same last name as your daughter...a friend and I were just having an in depth discussion about that topic the other day. I've never had children or been divorced, so I might just be deluded, but I don't think I could keep the last name after the marriage was over. Especially if it was over on the same terms that my friend's marriage was over. I would still feel tied to my ex if I did. At least that's my speculation. But then again, I don't think I would want to change my name in the first place. Nevermind, it's all just meaningless babble.

The family legend is that some black-sheep O'Brians in Ireland changed their name to "Drummey" so that it would be distinctive.

Half russian. Its been castrated.

I'm Czech

I am so glad you are back...You funnneeee gurl
(((HUG)))

I must admit, if it wasn't for my daughter I would have dumped the last name in a heartbeat. (sick confession)I am kinda keeping it out of spite too...
He's getting remarried and I think it's fummy that I'm still Mrs. so and so....as well

Anglicized French

Mine's the same way--it's Russian, since that's where the people who brought it with them came from, and had lived for generations, but it's technically German (or really technically, it's probably Yiddish, since it's half Hebrew and half German). The part of Russia where most Jews lived (my family, and probably yours, included), called the Pale, was in a part of the west (I think modern Ukraine) which bounced around between Poland and Russia for centuries, and had a lot of German influence as well. Plus, there was the fact that Yiddish was widespread in Jewish communities all over Europe, leading to lots of German, or Germanicized, Jewish surnames.

That makes sense; I know that part of the family was from a village that is in what is now the Ukraine.
And your family spells their name differently than most, as well -- wonder if that's also common to that area.

The spelling, or so goes the family lore, was changed by my grandfather (or maybe great-grandfather) in the 30s when everyone was leaving the silent letters out. Now it's hip to be ethnic and everyone puts them back in.

I think it was changed by our great-grandfather as well as by our grandfather; the former took out the h between the c and the t and the latter took out the c between the s and the h.

You guys aren't really being fair to those of us who don't know your last name. However, just on a side note, I don't believe in silent letters and perhaps I will write a survey about it.

I kept my married name after my divorce, simply because it had been my last name my whole adult life and I thought it would be a hassle to change it back. (I might have felt differently if the divorce hadn't been my idea.)

However, just recently (7 years after the divorce) I went ahead and changed back to my maiden name. I got tired of people seeing the name and thinking I was related to my ex-husband's relatives. Since I didn't change it as part of the divorce proceedings, I had to pay a fee and go to court to do it, but I'm glad I did. Now I'm linked to my real family again.

I thought of that, but in the interests of privacy I decided not to say what it is. On the other hand, it would be really easy for you to find out, because we have mutual friends and you have met me at least once.

Yes but I am far too lazy. My last name is Heck and I know it's German but I don't really know what it means. Heck in German today is a prefix which means, more or less, "in the back". So the old Volkswagen, for example, had a "Heckmotor". I am fairly fascinated by names and related topics for some reason.

Our last name means "butcher." It's actually "ritual slaughterer," I guess, from the Hebrew term for the person who kills animals so that they're kosher.

Portuguese

Most people believe that my last name is French (DePierre) but it is actually Italian.

i don't pay attention to stuff like that

I want to say American because it was likely changed as my ancestors came to the U.S. Though, I'm not really sure. Marrs is not a common Irish name as far as I know, but we're suppose to be Irish. My aunt suspects it was a mutation of "Marrah". Also, there's a rumor on my mother's side of the family (Lynch) that we're actually Scottish but one of our ancestor's changed his name to Lynch so he could marry a Catholic Irish girl. Bottomline: I don't know.

I've always been curious about how the Jews' migrated from the middle east (Egypt, I guess - how many 1000 years ago?) all the way up to Russia. I guess, there was a ton of time in there, but I don't hear much history about it. I guess I'm more curious about the Jews because I have the impression that they didn't mix much with the populations they migrated to or through. So, I suspect they might be more traceable than most Europeans.

The Irish last name Maher is also pronounced Marr--perhaps your name is derived from that?
As for how the Jews got to Russia (I think): They probably started spreading out around the Mediterranean to some extent pretty early on. As early as the 6th century BC they were in Egypt and Asia Minor, after the Babylonians conquered Palestine. More left as the Greeks and then the Romans moved in (although a lot of them also went east, to Persia).
In the early Middle Ages the Muslims controlled most of the Mediterranean; they were very tolerant of other religions at that point, and a lot of Jews moved around the Mediterranean, huge numbers of them settling in Spain. The 13th and 14th centuries in Spain saw a huge flowering of culture and enlightenment, due to the Jewish and Muslim populations there. When the Church took over and drove the Muslims and Jews out, however, a lot of Jews fled to other parts of Europe, and also to parts of North Africa. (The Jews who didn't make it out early enough were forcibly converted to Catholicism.) From there I think it was pretty much a question of the Jews moving around Europe to escape persecution, and finally settling in large numbers in the fairly unpopulated parts of the Pale. Probably some Jews arrived there from Asia Minor, as well.

I guess my last name is English. I'm not sure really. It's pretty plain and boring, so I assume it's English.

TwM and SueBee, it's great to be talking with you two again! Things are going good with you two I assume..anything new and exciting? I must have updates!!

Same old Same old...Happiness and sadness sprinkled with fun and laughs and love and tears and hope...normal life stuff...Nothing too exciting. Thank goodness!

Dutch. Although it could be considered German too, but none of my relatives are from Germany.

My last name is German. My maiden name is Welsh.

I have a pretty unusual last name, Stout, and thought it would come from somewhere interesting, but no, it's boring old english like the rest of me!

I have a friend surnamed "Pulsifer", which is also apparently English but sounds singularly weird to me. I haven't figured out what it means.

Dutch.
Vos = Fox.

Oh, by the way it took some digging (on the net - I remain too lazy to ask anyone) but I managed to determine your last name (next stop: phone number) and it sounds like your ancestors fairly reasonably rationalized the spelling of your name into English. That is assuming they were here in the states at the time, or possibly in some other non-germanic type country. I suppose if you wanted to seem more exotic you could throw the c and h back in, and even add an n while you were at it. Oh and also PS while in ordinary life I would rarely pronounce the two spellings differently, I do think they spell different-sounding words.

Smith!!!!

Aha...

Hmmm... I ment Enheduanna, not you ILJ. You don't have a t, an h, another t, an h, another c or a z in your name, so I'm sure it wasn't you. But apparently her name used to be Enschedtuanniowski, so I can see why her grandparents changed it. Sorry for the misdirect!

Scottish - it is the name of a Scottish village and has tartan associated with it.

thai

Chinese and German (its hyphenated)

It's ten letters long and constantly mispronounced. Grr! If I were female, I'd at least have a chance of getting a new one...

my last name is german but my dad is cuban