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A toponymic surname or habitational surname or byname is a
surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...
or byname derived from a place name,"Toponymic Surnames as Evidence of the Origin: Some Medieval Views"
, by Benjamin Z. Kedar.
Last Names and Their Meanings
'' ancestry.com''
which included names of specific locations, such as the individual's place of origin, residence, or lands that they held, or, more generically, names that were derived from regional topographic features. Iris Shagrir, "The Medieval Evolution of By-naming: Notions from the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem", ''In Laudem Hierosolymitani'' (Shagrir, Ellenblum & Riley-Smith, eds.), Ashgate Publishing, 2007, pp. 49-59
p.55
/ref> Surnames derived from landscape/topographic features are also called topographic surnames, e.g., de Montibus, de Ponte/ Da Ponte/
Dupont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
, de Castello, de Valle/ del Valle, de Porta, de Vinea. Some toponymic surnames originated as personal by-names that later were used as hereditary family names. The origins of toponymic by-names have been largely attributed to two non-mutually exclusive trends. One linked the nobility to their places of origin and feudal holdings and provided a marker of their status. The other related to the growth of the burgher class in the cities, which partly developed due to migration from the countryside to cities. Also linked was the increased popularity of using the names of saints for naming new-borns, which reduced the pool of given-names in play and stimulated a popular demand (and personal desire) for by-nameswhich were helpful in distinguishing an individual among increasing numbers of like-named persons. In London in the 13th century, the use of toponymic surnames became dominant. Some forms originally included a
preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
such as ''by'', ''in'', ''at'' (''ten'' in Dutch, ''zu'' in German), or ''of'' (''de'' in French, Italian and Spanish, '' van'' in Dutch, ''von'' in German)that was subsequently dropped, as in "de Guzmán" (of Guzman) becoming simply Guzmán. While the disappearance of the preposition has been linked to toponymic by-names becoming inherited family names, it (dropping the preposition) predates the trend of inherited family surnames. In England, this can be seen as early as the 11th century. And although there is some regional variation, a significant shift away from using the preposition can be seen during the 14th century. In some cases, the preposition coalesced (fused) into the name, such as Atwood (at wood) and Daubney (originating as de Albigni, from Saint-Martin-d'Aubigny). In the aristocratic societies of Europe, both nobiliary and non-nobiliary forms of toponymic surnames exist, as in some languages they evolved differently. In France, non-nobiliary forms tended to fuse the preposition, where nobiliary forms tended to retain it as the discrete particle, although this was never an invariable practice. Issues such as local pronunciation can cause toponymic surnames to take a form that varies significantly from the toponym that gave rise to them. Examples include Wyndham, derived from
Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England. It lies on the River Tiffey, south-west of Norwich and just off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The pari ...
, Anster from Anstruther, and Badgerly from Badgworthy. One must be cautious to interpret a surname as toponymic based on its spelling alone, without knowing its history. A notable example is the name of
Jeanne d'Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ;  – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...
, which is not related to a place called ''Arc'' but instead is a distorted
patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...
(see "
Name of Joan of Arc Due to inconsistent record keeping and different contemporary customs, the name of Joan of Arc at birth is not known for certain. Explanation Joan of Arc did not hail from a place called Arc, contrary to popular belief, but was born and raised ...
"). Likewise, it has been suggested that a toponymic cannot be assumed to be a place of residence or origin: merchants could have adopted a toponymic by-name to associate themselves with a place where they never resided. In Polish, a toponymic surname may be created by adding "(w)ski" or "cki" at the end. For example,
Maliszewski Maliszewski ( ; feminine: Maliszewska; plural: Maliszewscy) is a surname of Polish-language origin. It is a toponymic surname associated with one of the places in Poland named Maliszew, Maliszewo Maliszewo is a village in the administrative dis ...
is a toponymic surname associated with one of the places in Poland named
Maliszew Maliszew is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Mińsk Mazowiecki, within Mińsk County, Masovian Voivodeship Masovian Voivodeship or Mazowieckie Province (, ) and any variation thereof, is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship ...
,
Maliszewo Maliszewo is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Lipno, within Lipno County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship * Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) in Poland. * Kuyavian-Pomeranian is one of 13 ...
, or Maliszów. In anthroponymic terminology, toponymic surnames belong among ''topoanthroponyms'' (class of anthroponyms that are formed from toponyms).


See also

*
Nisba (onomastics) In Arabic names, a ' ( ', "attribution"), also rendered as ' or ', is an adjective surname indicating the person's place of origin, ancestral tribe, or ancestry, used at the end of the name and occasionally ending in the suffix ''-iyy'' for males ...
* Sinhalese name * Territorial designation *
Toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper na ...


References


Further reading

* David Hey, ''Family Names and Family History'', 2006, {{ISBN, 1852855509 Surname