As an aside from the larger project of creating my son’s family tree, I decided to look into what other kinds of things I could find out through genealogical research. I came across an index of surnames and thought that it would be fun to look up my last name and my husband’s last name.
Did you know that surnames came into use relatively recently in history? The Chinese began using them about 5000 years ago as a means of legally distinguishing two people with the same first name. A surname usually came from one of four sources: the father’s first name, the place that the person lived or a place nearby, the person’s occupation, or a descriptive word describing the person’s appearance or personality.
My last name is Berthiaume. When I looked it up, I discovered that it is a French surname and it comes from a Germanic personal name meaning bright or famous helmet. For some reason it is rather amusing to me that back in the day, one of my ancestors could have been known as “the one with the shiny helmet”.
My husband’s last name is Delaney. We are not sure whether for his family it is of English or Irish origin. If it is of English origin, it means “alder grove”. If it is of Irish origin it means either “black challenge” or “defiance”.
In case you’re wondering, our son has my husband’s last name. We did not look up the meanings of our last names prior to naming him. We just decided that that was what it would be. In looking at the two choices, it seems as though he got a pretty good deal. He won’t have to deal with people mispronouncing or misspelling his last name. As you can imagine, I’ve been dealing with that my whole life. His last name also has a pretty neat meaning, whichever of the three it is. Let’s just hope that if in his ancestors’ case it meant “defiant” that he’s not overly so. At least he’s not a bright, famous helmet like his mommy.