The Select Surname Site
What's in a name? More than you might think. Each surname carries an individual history that has been shaped by all the forebears of that name. In palmistry, the left hand usually tells you what you are born with, the right hand what you made on your life. So too with family genealogy. Word origin and DNA will provide a starting point. But the history and events over time can give these names their distinctive characteristics and traits.
The site contains select surnames of English,
Scottish, Welsh, Irish and other origin.
The following are some of the surnames that are covered here:
Chandler. Chandler is an
occupational name for a maker or
seller of candles, derived from the Old French chandelier.
and Chandler, it is thought, reflect different pronunciations within
that came to England - the hard "c" in candle reflecting the northern
French spoken by the Normans and the soft "ch" in chandler reflecting
more standard central French perhaps employed by scribes.
Dillon is a surname in Ireland of Norman
or Irish origins. In Leinster Dillon derived from the Norman
family of de
Leon (meaning either "of Lyon" or "of the lion").
There is an old Irish saying: "All the Dillons descended from Henry de
Leon." But the Dillon name also came from the anglicization of
Irish O'Duilleain (from Dalian meaning "little blind
one") in Munster and Connacht.
Pettigrew. Pettigrew comes
from the French petit cru, meaning "small growth," and was
probably a nickname for a small or short man. The name was
by the Normans to England and Scotland and later by French Huguenots to
Waugh. Waugh derived from the Old English word walh meaning "foreign" and, like the surname Wallace, was a term used to describe outsiders - in particular, it is thought, the Welsh-speaking Strathclyde Britons who survived as a separate group in Scotland well into the Middle Ages. Waugh is usually pronounced as "Waw," rather than "Woff" or "Woch."
The table below shows the list of the 100 surnames that are reviewed here.
Site Map: Select Surnames
We welcome any suggestions or thoughts you might have on the site. Just click on the email address shown below and send us your message. Enjoy the site!
PS. If your surname does not appear in the list above, you might want to check out the surname page in this website. It covers surname genealogy for more than 800 surnames. These surnames are to be found in this and these companion websites:
- Select Surname list. The 100 most common surnames.
surnames from Ainsworth to York.
- Select Surnames. 100 surnames from Adams to
- Select Surnames 2. 100
surnames from Archer to Yardley.
- Select Surnames 3. 100 surnames from Abercrombie to Wisdom.
- Select Surnames 4. 100 surnames from Abbott to Wynn.