The topic of our article today is American male surnames. By this combination of words we mean the so-called "lastnames" of the stronger sex from the USA. Since this country was founded by immigrants, and replenished with a large number of emigrants, its name-list is rich in nicknames of different nations. But its basis is, of course, the names of the English-speaking peoples who arrived from the shores of the United Kingdom - the British, Scots, Welsh, Irish. They made a bizarre mixture with African and Native American surnames, enriched with "nicknames" of other European peoples. As in any multinational country, this process continues to this day.
According to the 2000 census, today American male surnames are counted, and make up a little over 150 thousand unique “lastnames”. The most popular, of course, is the surname Smith. Almost 2.5 million of its representatives live in America (of which 73% are white and 23% are black). The surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, “translated” means “blacksmith”. Etymologists, however, write that initially blacksmiths in England called any craftsmen, not only those who forged metal products.
Already in the 19th century, this surname was very common and daily appeared on the pages of newspapers. When American pranksters wanted to take a place in the theater, they ran into the auditorium with a cry: “John Smith's house is on fire!” Among those present, there was surely a person with such a surname who rushed to extinguish the fire, freeing up space.
The following American male surnames are also widespread.
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Johnson (Johnson) - "son of John"; corresponds to Russian Ivanov; almost 2 million Americans carry this surname.
- Williams (Williams) - "son of William"; 8 centuries, this surname competed with Johnson in popularity; today its representatives are about 1.5 million.
- Brown (Brown) - "son of Brun or Brown"; 1.3 million carriers.
- Miller - Miller just over a million representatives.
- Davis - “son of David, Dave”; about a million carriers.
As you can see, American male surnames could be formed from male names ("the son of such and such"), nicknames, professions, geographical names (Lancaster, Davenport, England), from the features of the relief (Poole, Fountain, Rock) or have other roots.
Interestingly, the top ten common surnames included borrowings from the Spanish language: Garcia (Garcia) - “son of Garcia” and Rodriguez (Rodriguez) - “son of Rodrigo”. There are also such beautiful American male surnames of Spanish origin, as Cabaleiro (Cabaleiro), Fandino (Fandino), Madalina (Madalina) - more than 11 thousand in all. By the way, they almost did not undergo “Americanization” in sound terms.
But surnames of Russian origin in America 167 thousand. Perfectly acclimatized, adapting to the American phonetic system, Pavlov and Pavloff, Petrov and Petroff, Ivanov and Ivanoff, as well as the Sabelnikovs, Tabakovs, Nabatovs and many others.
Of course, there are male surnames of African descent. So, the current American president Barack Obama is the bearer of a surname widespread in Kenya and Tanzania. It comes from the verb meaning "spin, wriggle." In 2000, the United States was inhabited by no more than 100 people named Obama. By the way, many African Americans today seek to return the once-lost "native" names.
It is interesting to analyze the origin of surnames and other American presidents. Bush - "bush"; Clinton - “a cape (hill) by the city”; Reagan - "the son of Reagan - the little king"; Carter - from "cards, a small car"; Ford - "ford, crossing" and so on.
As you can see, American names and surnames (male and female) are a rather interesting topic for research.
