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HelpRe: Anniston
in reply to a message by braydenJ123
I'm a bit wary of this because as a surname it is actually a modern invention. Anniston is originally the name of the city in Alabama, founded in 1872 and given that name as a telescoping of "Annie's town" after a woman named Annie Scott Tyler. It may sound and look like a place name from England which could also be an English surname, but it isn't. It only became a surname when Jennifer Aniston's grandfather used it to "Americanize" his Greek surname Anastassakis when he immigrated to the United States in 1935. Annison is actually an English surname with a long history, but Anniston is not.
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Fascinating as always, thank you! Are there any other surnames which are relatively modern inventions?
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What do you mean by "relatively modern"? I am sure there are other examples of immigrants who have changed their names to something which actually hadn't been used as a surname before. Almost 40 years ago I knew a male gay couple in Michigan who both legally changed their surname to Stonewall in order to signal their commitment to each other before legal marriage was possible. Stonewall isn't listed in the surname dictionaries I own so I would suppose it was a "new" surname at that point.
About a sixth of the world's population still lives in cultures that do not use hereditary surnames. When people from those cultures immigrate to places where surnames are required, they have to adopt them. So there must be tens of thousands of examples of families originally from southern India and other non-surname cultures who have adopted them when they move to Europe or the Americas within the last couple of centuries.
Most sub-Saharan African cultures did not have hereditary surnames until the colonial powers required them to be adopted a century or so ago. I believe most African families took the given name of a recent male ancestor as their family name. Obama was the given name of the 44th President of the USA's great-grandfather. I would think most families in Africa therefore have surnames of very recent origin.
About a sixth of the world's population still lives in cultures that do not use hereditary surnames. When people from those cultures immigrate to places where surnames are required, they have to adopt them. So there must be tens of thousands of examples of families originally from southern India and other non-surname cultures who have adopted them when they move to Europe or the Americas within the last couple of centuries.
Most sub-Saharan African cultures did not have hereditary surnames until the colonial powers required them to be adopted a century or so ago. I believe most African families took the given name of a recent male ancestor as their family name. Obama was the given name of the 44th President of the USA's great-grandfather. I would think most families in Africa therefore have surnames of very recent origin.
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