What’s in a name?

 
As we ask someone ‘Where do you come from?’ we can sometimes anticipate their answer by considering the clues we already have. Physical characteristics may one of them and, so too, their surname may suggest a familial connection to a region, if not a particular place.
 

In Britain, those whose surnames begin ‘Mac’ or ‘Mc’ are likely to have a Scottish origin. While it is a good working hypothesis that anyone called Jones, Davies or Rees may well be Welsh or at least have Welsh ancestry.
 
You may want to think of Homer as a Greek, but in the part of England I come from -the so-called Black Country (an industrial area west of Birmingham)- Homer is a common surname. I can think of three from my own schooldays: none were students of classics!
 
It’s a fair bet a Barraclough or Thwaites comes from Yorkshire.  A Chilcot is likely to be a Bristolian. Beer may be a universal drink, but it is also a Devon surname, in the same way that a Gammon probably comes from north Devon (when it is not a cut of pork). There are several surnames that originate from Cornwall that offer an initial ‘Tre’, ‘Pol’ or ‘Pen’ as a clue to their origin; for example, the names such as Trelawney, Polglase or Pengelly.
 
A common characteristic of Greek surnames is that they have inflected endings as, of course, do most Greek nouns and verbs. This is not a feature of English surnames. The map included in this post illustrates the association of common suffixes found in Greek surnames with particular regions in Greece. I am trying to remember as many of them as I can, equipping myself to meet many an -akis or -opoulos in Greece this summer.
 
Now you have the answer to the question asked at the start of this article, your conversation is off to a good start. After all, aren’t we usually pleased to talk about ourselves and our origins?
 
Richard Devereux