Surnames
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
This is a frequently referenced part of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, and one of my favorite, in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her rival's house of Montague, that is, that he is named "Montague." The reference is often used to imply that the names of things do not affect what they really are. We know that each surname is hereditary and common to all family members. Because I have such an interest in family history, I know that a surname gives you a sense of identity and helps you discover who you are and where you came from.
There are many online sites that can help you to find information about your family name, but I am going to use the Ancestry.com surname finder to research my family names because of the many resources available for review. http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/
Firth
English and Scottish: topographic name from Old English (ge)fyrhþe ‘woodland’ or ‘scrubland on the edge of a forest’.Scottish: habitational name from Firth in Orkney.Welsh: topographic name from Welsh ffrith, ffridd ‘barren land’, ‘mountain pasture’ (a borrowing of the Old English word mentioned in 1).Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
I really love this definition, especially "mountain pasture." My family has lived in the same area of Utah in the foothills of the Wasatch Front, farming and raising sheep for 4 generations. It thrills me to have this connection to those who have gone before.
An interesting resource available on this site is the average life expectancy for Firth's chart.
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| Children of Robert Jackson and Frances Young Firth |
The green line on the chart shows that we have a little longer life expectancy than the general public. This chart information has been proven by my grandfather and his siblings whose average death age of 8 children is 86.
Speirs
Scottish and northern Irish:This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the spier,' i.e. watchman; v. Scorer. The final 's' in Speirs is genitive.
The Surnames of Scotland (1946) by George Fraser Black (1866-1948)
Using census records, Ancestry has been able to track the distribution of surnames in the United States, England and Wales, and Scotland. You can see how families have moved over years by checking information from each census year. I am displaying the chart from the 1851 census of Scotland which was just before my husband's family emigrated to the United States.
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| George Speirs |
Lynn's Speirs family originated in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland. We have been there and really felt a connection in the people, the land, and the churches. There are 124 Speirs living in Ayrshire today according to Ancestry and we hope someday to meet some of them.
There is more information available on the Ancestry.com surname site. Take some time and learn more of your surname.
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
