RAZ-kids


“Reading A-Z for Kids” 是套非常优秀的英语阅读教材。我随着监督孩子学习，自己也涨了不少见识，这里就通过 S 级的第一本书，介绍一下英文名字的由来。

为节省时间，文章就不翻译了，直接上英文，反正能读到这篇文章的小伙伴们，这点英文不成问题。当然，我做了点删减。

Introduction

There are twenty-four other children in Tommy’s class. Twelve are boys and twelve are girls.

Every morning, at school, Mrs. Zimmerman, the teacher, calles out the names of the children. The children shout “present” after they hear their names.

Boys Girls
Daniel Armstrong Samantha Baker
Robert Figueroa Kim Chan
Andrew Fitzgerald Jennifer Clark
Joshua Fox Emily Fisher
Jason Freeman Rebecca Goldschmitt
Jose Garcia Amanda Hill
William Gardener Stephanie Jackson
Kareem Johnson Kawanna Macdonald
Matthew Longfellow Isabelle Redriguez
Michael O’Brian Brittany Schumacher
Thomas Tomkins Ashley Taylor
Christopher Wood Sarah White
David Yamamura  

Family Names

Your last name is your family name. Your first name is your given name. It’s called “given name” because your parents give it to you.

Your family name has probably been in your family for hundreds of years.

History

At one time many years ago, people had only one name, a given name.

People lived in small villages wehre everyone knew each other. Over the years, the population increased. In the towns and villages many people had the same name, and it started to get confusing.

In one village there may have been eight men called John. The villagers had to add words to the different Johns’ names to understand which John they were talking about.

Some of the Johns were known by adding their father’s name. For example, John, David’s son, or John, Jack’s son.

Others were known by where they lived. For example, John from the hill, or John from the lake.

Others were known by the job they did. For example, John the carpenter or John the gardener.

Still others were known by some personal feature. For example, John the short, or John with white hair.

Since the Middle Ages, the rulers of many countries wanted to know who everyone was in their country, so they can collect taxes without any mistakes. Laws were passed that said everyone had to have a last name.

In our example village, John, David’s son became John Davidson. John, Jack’s sone became John Jackson. John from the lake became John Lake, John from the hill became John Hill. John the carpenter become John Carpenter, and John the gardener became John Gardener. John the short became John Short. John with white hair became John White.

Our last names are usually based on one of the four groups:

  1. father’s name
  2. place where they lived
  3. job or trade
  4. person’s appearance

Let’s look at all the children in Tommy’s class and divide their names into the four groups.

Names from a Father

  • Fitz means “son of” and came from France. Fitzgerald meant “sone of Gerald”
  • Johnsone started off as “John’s son”, and Jackson as “Jack’s son”
  • Mac and Mc mean “son of” and occur in Scottish and Irish names. Macdonald meant “son of Donald”
  • O’ means “son of” and is used in Irish names. “O’Brian” meant “son of Brian”
  • kins at the end of a name formed a nickname meaning “little”. Tomkins meant “little Tom”, or “Tom’s little one”
  • ez at the end of a name meant “son of” in Spanish. Rodriguez meant “son of Roderick”

Common Names from Father’s First Name

Son of Last Name
William Williams
Williamson
Will Wilkins
Wilson
Watt Watson
Watkins
John Jones
Harry Harrison
Harris
Parry
Robin Robinson
Robbins
Richard Richards
Richardson
Prichard
Robert Robertson
Roberts
Probert
Eric Ericson
Adam Adams
McAdam
Peter Peterson
Peters
Evan Evans
Bevan
Evanson

Names from a Place

  • Figueroa means “where the fig trees grow” in Spanish. So Robert Figueroa’s ancestors came from a place where fig trees grew in Spain.
  • Garcia is the name of a place in Spain, so Jose’s ancestors came from this town.
  • Yamamura is Japanese. Yama means “mountian” and mura means “village”. David’s ancestors came from a village in the mountains of Japan.

Common Names from Places

Place Last Name
from a moor Moore
from near a hall Hall
from near a village green Green
from near a mill Mills
from near a barn Barnes
from near a ford (river crossing) Ford
from near a lake Lake
from near a brook Brooks
from near a marsh Marsh
from near a lane Lane
from the country of Holland Holland

Names from a Job

The ancestors of the children in the class with “job” names were bakers, clerks, fishermen, gardeners, goldsmiths, and tailors.

  • Schumacher menas “shoemaker” in German, so Brittany had an ancestor who made shoes.
  • Jason Freeman’s ancestors were salves. They were captured in Africa and brought, against their will, to America to work in the fields. When slavery was abolished, they were able to choose their own names. Many picked the names of their former masters. Some, like Jason’s ancestors, chose the name Freeman.

Jobs No Longer Exist but Names Live on

Name Job Description
Cooper A cooper made wooden barrels
Hooper A hooper made hoops for barrels
Archer and Bowman Archers and bowman were soldiers who used a bow and arrows
Fletcher A fletcher made arrows
Carter A carter made or drove carts
Wheeler A Wheeler made wheels for the carts
Tanner A tanner worked with leather


Ohter Common Names from Jobs

Last Name Job or Trade
Smith blacksmith
Farmer farmworker
Miller worked in a flour mill
Shepherd took care of sheep
Cook cooked food
Potter made pots

Names from a Description

  • The first ancestor of Daniel Armstrong with a last name was known as a strong man.
  • Chan is Chinese and means “old”, so the first person to have a last name in Kim’s family was old.
  • Joshua Fox’s ancestor was probably cunning, like a fox.
  • Longfellow was a tall person and White had white hair.

Common Names from Description

Last Name Description
Brown brown skin or hair
Young yound person
Gray gray hair
Bird timid, like a bird
Long tall person
Peacock pround or showy, like a peacock
Lamb meek, like a lamb
Whitehead with white hair
Bull wild and dangerous, like a bull
Short a short person

Categories

Now we can group children’s last names and put them into four categories.

Father Place Job Description
Fitzgerald
Johnson
Jackson
Macdonald
O’Brian
Tomkins
Rodriguez		 Figueroa
Garcia
Hill
Wood
Yamamura		 Baker
Clark
Fisher
Freeman
Gardener
Goldschmitt
Shumacher
Taylor		 Armstrong
Chan
Fox
Longfellow
White

Changing Names

Sometimes family names were changed for different reasons. Many of the people going to America from Europe had difficult names to pronounce and spell. To make things less difficult, they changed their names.

Sometimes, people arrived in the country and an official would change their name for them. This was because the official couldn’t understand them when he asked them their names, or he couldn’t spell it properly.

  • Someone called Jan Micsza would have become John Mcshea.
  • Someone with the last name of Mlynar would become Miller.
  • Hildergart Zimmerman, German for “carpenter”, would become Hilda Carpenter.

Sometimes actors and singer change their names so that people will remember them more easily, like Babyface from Kenneth Brian Edmonds, Tom Cruise from Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, Eminem from Marshall mathers III, Elton John from Reginald Kenneth Dwight, Madonna from Madonna Louise Ciccone, Sting from Gordon Matthew Sumner, Tiger Woods from Eldrick Woods.

First Names

Now let’s look at given names or first names.

Meaningful Names

Most first names have meanings, which are very old and now forgotten.

Meanings of Some Common First Names

Name Meaning Language
Ashley from the ash tree Old English
Brittany a woman from Britain Irish
Stephanie crown Greek
Amanda lovable Latin
Michael Who is like God Hebrew
Andrew courageous Greek
Robert bright fame English
David friend Hebrew

Family Names as First Names

In the past few years, it has become popular to use family names as first names. Some examples:

  • Tyler, originally a family name from someone who put tiles on roofs
  • Hunter, a hunter
  • Logan, Irish, from a cove
  • Mason, a stone mason
  • Blake, Old English, white
  • Tanner, English, leather-worker
  • Morgan, Welsh, sea dweller
  • Haley, English, hay meadow
  • Brooke, lived near a brook

Nicknames

Very often, first names are shortened or changed. These names are called nicknames. Let’s look at Tommy’s class and see how many nicknames there are.

Boys Nicknames
Daniel Armstrong Danny
Robert Figueroa Bobby
Andrew Fitzgerald Andy
Joshua Fox Josh
Jason Freeman Flash1
Jose Garcia N/A
William Gardener Billy
Kareem Johnson KJ
Matthew Longfellow Matt
Michael O’Brian Mike
Thomas Tomkins Tommy
Christopher Wood Chris
David Yamamura Dave
Girls Nicknames
Samantha Baker Sam
Kim Chan N/A
Jennifer Clark Jenny
Emily Fisher Em
Rebecca Goldschmitt Becky
Amanda Hill Mandy
Stephanie Jackson Stephie
Kawanna Macdonald Mac
Isabelle Redriguez Bella
Brittany Schumacher Britt
Ashley Taylor Spud2
Sarah White N/A

Epilogue

假使有人问你，玛格丽特·撒切尔夫人（ Ms. Margaret Thatcher）的夫婿祖上是从事什么职业，你能猜到么？

如果你知道英文名的由来，那大概就能猜个八九不离十，因为 thatch 是茅草屋顶的意思，而 thatcher 是指修屋顶的工匠，原来他们老家是修屋顶的手艺人！

  1. Jason is called Flash, but that’s not because of his name, but because he runs fast. ↩

  2. Ashley is called Spud because she eats a lot of potatoes. ↩