The English binomial system—that is, the practice of people having a first name and a family name—is a somewhat recent practice. As with many other things in English history, we should start in 1066, the year in which the Normans led by William the Conqueror invaded and conquered England. The Normans divided the lands among the many knights, creating a feudal system which worked relatively well for more than a century. Then, in the thirteenth century, the problems of recordkeeping caught up with the bureaucracy.
In his book Adam’s Curse: The Science that Reveals Our Genetic Destiny, Bryan Sykes reports:
“The trouble was that, without surnames, it was almost impossible for the estate officers to keep track of events.”
Bryan Sykes also reports:
“Other than among the aristocracy, most English surnames were introduced around the thirteenth century, principally as a tool of estate management. By this time pretty much the whole country was divided into large feudal estates, a direct legacy of the Norman invasion in 1066 by William the Conqueror, who handed them out to his friends and supporters.”
In his book Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors, Nicholas Wade summarizes it this way:
“Commoners acquired surnames between AD 1250 and 1350, apparently for the convenience of feudal record keepers who needed to differentiate between tenant farmers with the same first names.”
Family names were created in many ways. One of the common ways was for the family name to reflect heritage, thus the suffix -son was added to the father’s name to create the surname (such as Johnson, Jameson, and so on). Another way for creating surnames was to use a person’s occupation as a surname. Another way for creating surnames was to use a person’s occupation as a surname. Some of the common recognizable occupations which became used as surnames include Butcher, Butler, Cook, Fisher, Hunter, Miller, Mason, Taylor, Shepherd, Smith (Smythe), Wright,Carpenter, Barber, Bowman, Archer, Brewer, Potter, Glover, and Fletcher. This is, of course, only a partial list of names which are easily identifiable as occupational names. Some other occupational names include:
Carter: referring to a person who transports goods by a cart or wagon.
Chandler: referring to a candlemaker.
Chapman: means trader, merchant, or businessman.
Collier: referring to a coal or charcoal seller.
Coleman: referring to a person who gathered. charcoal
Cooper: this surname is from the barrel maker who made items which included casks, wooden tubs, buckets, and vats. In terms of etymology, cooper comes from the Latin cupa meaning “cask.” Related to Cooper is Hooper which referred to the craftsmen who made the metal or wooden hoops to bind the barrels, casks, tubs, buckets, and vats made by the coopers.
Kellogg: this surname did not originally refer to a breakfast cereal but to a hog butcher. In Middle English kellen meant “to kill” and thus kellogg meant “to kill hogs.”
Lorimer: this surname was given to people who made spurs, bits, and small attachments to the harness. Lorimer is based on the Latin word lorum which means “harness or strap.”
Nutter: there are two different origins for this surname. It could come from the Old English notere, which means "clerk," or it could come from nothard, which means "oxen breeder."
Parker: this occupational last name refers to the ‘Keeper of the park.’
Stoddard: this surname is from “stud-herd” and was a name originally given to a horse breeder.
Tingle: this occupational surname refers to someone who makes nails or pins.
Tucker: this surname was given to people who processed raw cloth by beating and trampling it in water. Tucker comes from an Old English verb meaning “to torment.”
Turner: this occupational surname refers to people who made objects from wood or metal.
Webb: this occupational surname refers to a weaver.
While most of the occupational surnames referred to male occupations, the ending “-ster” refers to females: Webster was a female weaver; Baxter was a female baker; Brewster was a female brewer.
More English etymology
Origins of English: Morticians and more
Origins of English: Eponymous origins
Origins of English: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper
Origins of English: Working Words
Origins of English: Kinds of meat
Origins of English: Kibitzing about the whole kit and kaboodle
Origins of English: Bimbo and Slut
Origins of English: Animal Words