Происхождение фамилий в ранней истории округа Блонт: от шотландских корней до немецких адаптаций

What is in a name? A lot, if you go back to early American history, and early Blount County history. Last week I had the opportunity to look up the origins of the surname Houston. It is Scottish and derived from “Hugh’s son.” Many of us are of European descent. History tells us that the use of surnames in Europe began around the 11th century, influenced by the Norman conquest in England and the needs of a growing society. Surnames became increasingly necessary for taxation, legal documents, and land ownership, and were recorded by churches and government. By the 16th and 17th centuries, surnames were common. It was during this time that the exploration and colonization of America began. The Europeans came, bringing their surnames and languages with them. Some names came from occupations. Examples are Miller, Smith, and Tailor. Other names came from nicknames. Those are names like Little, Big, and Red. These became either a surname or part of one. Interestingly enough, some of the last names come from a place where the person lived. These are names like Woods, Beach, and Meadow. Other origins of surnames came from given names. Why are there so many surnames here with the prefix “Mc”? The Mc prefix in names comes from Gaelic languages, especially Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic. It is a shortened form of the word “mac,” meaning “son of.” For example, McDonald means the son of Donald, McTeer means the son of Teer. Eventually that evolved into family surnames. Our early settler names often took the Patriot Legacies writing team on a chase. Their names evolved over time and evolved rapidly once the pioneer became stationary and their names began to show up on legal documents. Many of our names here are not the names our earliest settlers brought with them. They Americanized their names. Some of those folks were those Scots Irish Presbyterians, and they believed in at least basic education of reading and writing and ciphering (math). But for some reason they did not consistently spell their names the same way. Being part of a melting pot of Europeans they likely influenced each other in the pronunciation and spelling. The origins of some surnames is not readily obvious. Some local examples that are early pioneers are: Duncan, Eagleton, Weir, Gillespie, Ish, etc. Walker is probably not difficult to figure out, but what about Cowan, Boyd, Cusick, etc.? Patriot research often took us on a journey thru the evolution of a potential veteran’s surname. The Vineyards came from Germany to the Americas as Weingart. Then there was a young man with German origin with the surname Neyman, Nieman, and Neiman. Confusion also came from some of the Mcs. Was the man Mackey, McKey, or MacKey? He was actually all three. Then there was McKinsey and McKinney, the same man who changed his name over time. Here are some interesting examples from Patriot bios based on legal documents. Gamble evolved from Gamwell, Simmerly evolved from the German Zimmerly (meaning carpenter), Cupp evolved from Cope and Coupe. Then there was the Vineyards who came to the Americas as Weingart. Americanized Yearhous became Yearout leaving the guttural early German pronunciation behind. Other challenges in researching our early folks is that repetitive naming of the children for generation after generation by not just father and son but aunts, uncles, and cousins. Ask anyone that is trying to find the right James Davis in early Blount County. There is also our African American population, who lacking in surnames after the Civil War, often adopted the surname of the last person who owned them. Looking back locally, it gives some history of the era, and even genetic interrelationships that might be related to the names. We often forget that we are a country formed by immigrants from all over the world who became a free society, taming a frontier. There was no king to standardize their names. Besides that healthy dose of Scots Irish here our earliest settlers were a hefty population of Germans and a smattering of English, Welsh, Dutch, French, and African. A few had been here for several generations, but for many, English was their second language. Blount County became their home.