io adoro l'araldica e ti consiglio di cercare con google araldica, origine dei cognomi ecc...moltiderivano dai mestieri, quelli anglosassoni anche dai clan, come qui c'erano le famiglie
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognomi
English-speaking countries
In Britain, hereditary surnames were adopted in the 13th and 14th centuries, initially by the aristocracy but eventually by everyone. By 1400, most English people and Scottish people had acquired surnames, but many Highland Scots and Welsh people did not adopt surnames until the 17th century, or even later.
Most surnames of British origin fall into seven types:
Occupations (e.g., Smith, Cooper, Cook, Carpenter, Archer, Baker, Clark, Dyer, Walker, Woodman)
Personal characteristics (e.g., Short, Brown, Whitehead, Long)
Geographical features (e.g., Hill, Lee, Wood, Fields, Morley—Old English for mōr lēah = marsh in the woodland clearing)
Place names (e.g., London, Hamilton, Sutton, Flint, Laughton)
For those descended from land-owners, the name of their holdings, manor or estate
Patronymics, Matronymics or ancestral, often from a person's given name (e.g., from male name: Richardson, Williams, Johnson or female names Molson (from Moll for Mary), Madison (from Magdalen or Madeline), Emmott (from Emma), Marriott (from Mary)) or from a clan name (for those of Scottish origin, e.g., MacDonald, Forbes) with "Mac" Scottish Gaelic for son.
Patronal, from patronage (Hickman meaning Hick's man, where Hick is a pet form of the name Richard) or strong ties of religion Kilpatrick (follower of Patrick) or Kilbride (follower of Bridget).
The original meaning of the name may no longer be obvious in modern English (e.g., a Cooper is one who makes barrels, and the name Tillotson is a matronymic from a diminutive for Matilda). A much smaller category of names relates to religion, though some of this category are also occupations. The names Bishop, Priest, or Abbot, for example, may indicate that an ancestor worked for a bishop, a priest, or an abbot, respectively, or possibly took such a role in a popular religious play (see pageant play).
In the Americas, the family names of many African-Americans have their origins in slavery. Many of them came to bear the surnames of their former owners. Many freed slaves either created family names themselves or adopted the name of their former master. Others, such as Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, changed their name rather than live with one they believed had been given to their ancestors by a slave owner.
In England and cultures derived from there (though not in Scotland and France, for example), there has long been the patriarchal tradition for a woman to change her surname upon marriage from her birth name (or maiden name) to her husband's last name. From the first known instance of a woman keeping her birth name, Lucy Stone in the 19th century, there has been a general increase in the rate of women keeping their original name. This has gone through periods of flux, however, and the 1990s saw a decline in the percentage of name retention among women. As of 2004, roughly 60% of American women automatically assumed their husband's surname upon getting married.[citation needed] Even in families where the wife has kept her birth name, parents often choose to give their children their father's family name. In English-speaking countries, married women were traditionally known as Mrs [Husband's full name]. This practice is now largely outmoded and has been replaced by a title of Mrs [Wife's first name] [Husband's surname]. It survives mostly in very formal instances or among older people.
In the Middle Ages, when a man from a lower status family married an only daughter from a higher status family, he would often take the wife's family name. In the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain, bequests were sometimes made contingent upon a man changing (or hyphenating) his name, so that the name of the testator continued. It is rare but not unknown for English-speaking men to take the name of their wives, whether for personal reasons or as a matter of tradition (such as among Canadian aboriginal groups, especially the Haida and Kwakiutl); it is increasingly common in the United States, a married couple may choose a new last name entirely.[citation needed] This has become more widely popular in Southern California since the election of Antonio Villaraigosa as Los Angeles mayor.[citation needed]
As an alternative, both the husband and wife may adopt a double-barrelled name. For instance, when John Smith and Mary Jones marry each other, they may become known as John Smith-Jones and Mary Smith-Jones. However, some consider the extra length of the hyphenated names undesirable. A wife may also opt to use her maiden name for her middle name, giving her the option of referring to herself as either Mrs Smith or Mary Jones Smith. An additional option is where the spouses adopt a last name derived from an aesthetically pleasing combination of the prior names, such as "Simones".
In some jurisdictions, a woman's legal name used to change automatically upon marriage. Although women may now easily choose to change to their married name, that change is no longer a requirement. In some places, civil rights lawsuits or constitutional amendments changed the law so that men could also easily change their married names (e.g., in British Columbia and California).[4] (Note: many Anglophone countries are also common-law countries.)
Many women choose to change their name when they marry, while others do not. There are many reasons why women maintain their surname. One is that the female surname disappears throughout generations, while the male surname survives. By keeping their surname and passing that name down to the next generation, the female surname (and its heritage) may also survive. Another reason is that if a woman's surname is well known due to her particular family's heritage or prominence, she may choose to keep her surname. Yet another is the identity crisis women may experience when giving up their surname. Women in academia, for example, who have previously published articles in academic journals under their maiden name often do not change their surname after marriage, in order to ensure that they continue to receive credit for their past and future work. This practice is also common among female physicians, attorneys, and other professionals, as well as celebrities for whom continuity is important. Though the practice of women maintaining their surname after marriage is increasing, it has not caught on in the general population. (A possible reason is the difficulty of distinguishing such a married couple from one who is cohabiting without asking them directly, and the associated embarrassment or stigma that may result.)
In Southern Gospel and folk music, families often perform together as groups. When female artists in these genres marry, they usually adopt double-barrelled surnames if the husband comes from a noted musical family as well (e.g. Allison Durham Speer, Kelly Crabb Bowling), or simply continue to go by their birth names if the husband is not from such a family (e.g. Karen Peck, Libbi Perry, Janet Paschal).
Spelling of names in past centuries is often assumed to be a deliberate choice by a family, but due to very low literacy rates, the reality is that many families could not provide the spelling of their surname, and so the scribe, clerk, minister, or official would write down the name on the basis of how it was spoken, or how they heard it. This results in a great many variations, some of which occurred when families moved to another country (e.g. Wagner becoming Wagoner, or Whaley becoming Whealy). With the increase in bureaucracy, officially-recorded spellings tended to become the standard for a given family.