there is a whole category of names that are believed to have been given to children abandoned to orphanages - including the French name Jette (meaning "thrown out"), the Italian name Esposito (meaning "exposed") and the English name Parrish (meaning someone who was raised at the expense of the community.) ...
Both the English names Nott and Cave probably described someone who was bald.
A Barrett was a fraud, a Mallory someone unlucky and a Purcell a little pig...
Similarly insulting are the German names Armann (poor man), Scheunpflug (avoids the plow) and Schiller (cross-eyed)...
"Shakespeare is probably an obscene name, originally, for a masturbator," said Hanks.

Funny, I thought Bose meant 'ridiculously overpriced'.

Some possible meanings of my German last name: "little red-tempered man" or "hot-tempered man" and "one who dwells near the barn." Doesn't say much from my ancestors. Apparently we were short-tempered stable hands. Yipee.

My last name is Pagani. I'm told it means "the Godless ones" or "those who live in the hills." So, basically I'm descended from Italian hillbillies.

As it's been explained to me, when the Christians first came to Italy, the evangelists went to the marketplace where the largest crowds could be found, to preach.

After a while, the only people who hadn't heard them speak were those who lived way out in the countryside who didn't get to the market often (or at all). In other words, the pagans (Pagani is plural for pagan).

Apparently "Depp" is German for "fool" or "village idiot"

"Goldwater" for urine, and a host of other such more-or-less forced onto Jews centuries ago, or even later if some of the stories about Ellis Island are true.

Besides, I thought "Lawyer" was the word for fraud.

My maiden name was "Lamb". ...I figured it had something to do with a possible shepherd ancestry? But then again...that could have been shortened from something else all together. Lambert? No one on that side of the family has done any research...so there's no real history or anything. I couldn't even tell you if there is a specific country of descent. And my biological father's last name was Shipley. Possible French & Scottish bloodlines. Were they big as ships? Or did they float well? Maybe they were ship BUILDERS?

And then there's my mother's family. O'Mahoney. (Shortened to Mahoney after the first immigrant arrived in America.) The basic history is that old John J. was a servant of the O'Mahoney castle...and took the name b/c that was his place of employment.

Anywho. I do not think I agree that "many" common surnames were insults. After all, CMG - a 'pagan' isn't necessarily an insult, but a simple description. (But I don't know that Pagani is common at all.) I know a family with the surname "Ferrier". That would seem to me as if the family had a history of being, well - ferriers. Ya know - the people that put shoes on horses? What about the name Smith? There are many different professions that are "smith" professions. Black...silver...etc.

And I think the Shakespeare line is just for laughs.

I've heard that the prefix Fitz- was originally used to designate a bastard child whose parentage was acknowledged by the father. This might have been beneficial for the child since the father was usually of higher station than the mother. The name Fitzroy meant a natural child of the king, in French 'roi'

This was quite common among the Romans:
Cicero is derived from cicer "chickpea" probably because of a wart, Plautus means "flatfoot", Brutus means "stupid" etc.

Maegan said:

"Anywho. I do not think I agree that "many" common surnames were insults. After all, CMG - a 'pagan' isn't necessarily an insult, but a simple description. (But I don't know that Pagani is common at all.)"

Oh, I agree. No, Pagani didn't derive from an insult so far as I know. It was merely descriptive.

You're right, Pagani is far less common than Pagano, the singular form. When I was growing up, there were only five Paganis in the Bronx phone book and three of them were my family.

Some of the names cited in the linked tread just happen to sound insulting in English, but were only descriptive in the original language. E.g. "Gross", which is a common German, means "tall" in its language of origin.

Most surnames were originally introduced to distinguish between multiple persons with the same first name in a small community, and therefore coined after commonly known distinguishing features: Peter the Baker and Peter the Farmer, John the Tall one and John the Small one, Paul living on the Hill and Paul living by the River. Some of these features may have been disagreeable and lead to insults, but those were a minority.

The main exception was the forced introduction of last names for jews in the german language region, where many were given deliberately insulting surnames, and in some cases were "allowed" to pay large sums of money to have them altered to more acceptable ones if they could afford it.

Trade-derived surnmes really need a firm tradition of following in your father's footsteps.... or, as in Lancre, you end up with Tailor the butcher, Weaver the thatcher, and so on.

Lars...I would never describe a wart as a chickpea. Why would a Roman? Why wouldn't they simply have used the word for "wart" or if that specific word did not exist, maybe sore, blemish, spot, bump...etc??

So it's possible that rather than insults...again, it was simply descriptive. Or just a way to tell the difference between two common first names like Nadine mentions. If there were two Pauls living on the same hill...you now have to find a way to make them stand apart from each other, since they already stand apart from Paul living by a river.

Apparently, my surname means "overpaid sportsman with a 'posh' wife". Go figure!

Scheunpflug doesn't come from "scheut den Pflug" (avoids the plow)

Scheune means barn

My last name means either "mouse" or "happiness". I prefer mouse. Mice and rats are my favorite animal, plus according to the chinese I was born on the first day in the year of the rat. :D So it fits the theme.

hmmm... wonder what "Bush" signifies? One can only ponder the implications, but my guess would be: Bush=putz... or wanker

Sadley my last name is Armann so yeah. Thats a rather insulting last name if you ask me. "Poor Man" WooHoo!!! Who wants to help me redecorate my new box!

Actually, Jette does not mean "thrown out". It is a short form of Henriette that means "ruler of the house".

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