American male names in the mirror of etymology and statistics

The theme of our today's article is American male names. By this combination of words we will understand the so-called "lastnames" of the stronger sex from the United States. Since this country was founded by settlers, and replenished by a large number of emigrants, its names are rich in nicknames of different nations. But its basis is, of course, the names of English-speaking peoples who came from the shores of the United Kingdom - English, Scots, Welsh, Irish. They made up a bizarre mixture with African and Native American surnames, enriched themselves with the "nicknames" of other European nations. As in any multinational country, this process continues to this day.

According to the 2000 census, to date, American male surnames are counted, and make up just over 150,000 unique "lastnames". The most popular, of course, is the surname Smith (Smith). In America, there are almost 2.5 million of its representatives (73% of whites and 23% of blacks). The surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, "in translation" means "smith". Etymologists, however, write that initially blacksmiths in England called any craftsmen, not only those who forge metal products.

Already in the XIX century, this surname was very common and daily met in the pages of newspapers. When American jokers wanted to take their place in the theater, they ran into the auditorium with a cry: "The house of John Smith is burning!" Among those present there was necessarily a man with a name that rushed to extinguish the fire, making room.

The following American male names are also widespread.

• Johnson (Johnson) is the "son of John"; Corresponds to the Russian Ivanov; Almost 2 million Americans carry this name.
• Williams (Williams) - "son of William"; 8 centuries, this name vied with Johnson in popularity; Today its representatives are about 1.5 million.
• Brown is the son of Brun or Brown; 1.3 million carriers.
• Miller (Miller) - "miller"; A little more than a million representatives.
• Davis (Davis) is the son of David, Dave; About one million speakers.

As you can see, American male names could be formed from male names ("son of such and such"), nicknames, professions, geographical names (Lancaster, Davenport, Ingland), from features of the relief (Poole, Fountain, Rock) or have other roots.

Interestingly, the ten most common surnames include borrowings from the Spanish language: Garcia (Garcia) - "son of Garcia" and Rodriguez (Rodriguez) - "son of Rodrigo." There are also beautiful American male surnames of Spanish origin, like Cabaleiro, Fandino, Madalina, more than 11 thousand. By the way, they were almost not subjected to "Americanization" in the sound plan.

But the names of Russian origin in America 167 thousand. Perfectly adopted, adapting to the American phonetic system, Pavlov and Pavloff, Petrov and Petroff, Ivanov and Ivanoff, as well as Sabelnikovs, Tabakovs, Nabatovs and many others.

Of course, there are also male names of African descent. Thus, the current US President Barack Obama is the bearer of the family name, which is widespread in Kenya and Tanzania. It comes from the verb, which means "spinning, twisting". In 2000, there were no more than 100 people in the US named Obama. By the way, many African-Americans today are trying to return the once-lost "native" surnames.

It is interesting to analyze the origin of the names and other American presidents. Bush - "bush"; Clinton - "cape (hill) near the city"; Reagan is "the son of Reagan - the little king"; Carter - from "maps, a small car"; Ford - "ford, ferry" and so on.

As you can see, American names and surnames (male and female) are quite an interesting topic for research.