What's in a Name?
April 19, 2019 1:08 PM   Subscribe

Search this global database to find out the roots of your name, its frequency around the world, and all sorts of other intriguing did-bits you didn't know you were interested in...
posted by TruthfulCalling (3 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: There are a lot of name/ancestry sites and they don't necessarily deserve a thread on Metafilter -- restless_nomad



 
So I put in my last name and the description of it's origins was entirely wrong. Like I know the origins of my surname, its a corruption of a last name given to Jews in Europe in the 1600's originally in German. And the description this site gave tried to tell me my name was from England. Here's some of their text: "This common and very beautiful name is somewhat difficult to account for."

So a) my last name is not common, (also lol not beautiful) never met another person with it who wasn't a relative. AND b) I can completely account for it, you just have to know more than two facts about Jewish naming conventions in the old country. So I have some... doubts about how good or useful this site is.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:14 PM on April 19, 2019 [2 favorites]


This site looks sketchy and like it exists to harvest data or something. What's the draw here?
posted by prize bull octorok at 1:23 PM on April 19, 2019 [2 favorites]


And "did-bits"? Really? That's an eggcorn I haven't heard before.
posted by rikschell at 1:26 PM on April 19, 2019


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