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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
On an aside, and meaning no disrepect to anybody, would you call a short man who had the surname Martin a martinet?Well, at least you didn't suggest that he flies around your house catching insects.  There is a bird of that name, after all.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Geoff: I was surprised to find that "martinet" is actually an eponym:
mar[ti[net 7m9rt#�n et$, m9rt4�n et#8
n.
5after Gen. Jean Martinet, 17th-c. Fr drillmaster6
1 a very strict military disciplinarian
2 any very strict disciplinarian or stickler for rigid regulations
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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You'll find chauvanist has an interesting history too.
Nicolas Chauvin
wow
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think Johnson heads the list--if you include varients-- jonson, johnsen, etc.
an other post suggested checking census data-- but in US, most of the lists came from US Army-- especially during WWII when a broad spectrum of US population was enlisted. Miller was up there too, (again, with varients. mueller, etc) I think it too was above Smith--
the most common italian name (in NYC) is Russo -- the italian "smith" of NY.
According to US Army/WWII records-- griffin is #100 in the list of family names.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whoa, Max, not around here! I never heard of a single
Quordlepleen (or a married one, either) in all of Louisville.Aah, that's because the family changed the spelling when they got close to the Mason-Dixon line. Round your way, my relatives go by the name "Y'alldepleen"  
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Joined: Jul 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
Davis is a very common last name as well. It's of Welsh origin and I don't really see how it spread so much. Wales isn't very big.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Surprising that there aren't more Farmers than Smiths. It must have taken a couple dozen farmers to support one smith.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, jazz, sometimes its luck, or healthy genes--My ex can trace his family back to the mayflower--
One of his forefathers married a woman who came over on the mayflower as a child.. the forefathers name was long and hard to pronounce-- so it got changed in the 1640's to Sias-- all the Sias's in the US and Cananda are related to this man-- and there are thousands! (several book have been written-- "the Sias's in America" has several volumes! In my husbands branch-- His great grand father-- was a hard scabble NE farmer-- went to serve in Civil War-- was wounded, and served time in Andersonville prison-- survived that, return to northern NE-- North of Mount Washington-- at the time the northern most town in NH-- where he lived another 50 years-- and father 7 more children-- (for a total, i think of 13-- 12 of whom survived to adulthood! )
Them are good healthy genes! This was not a rich man-- and the climate he lived in made it hard to grow enough food to survive-- but he did, and his kids did-- and going back in history, you see he was typical for his family-- in most generation, more than 50%-- sometime 75% or more of the children survived to adulthood-- in large families of 10 to 13-- this makes a big difference!
The Sias's are strong--(His grandmother lived to 103!) So it wouldn't take anything much but a one or two strong Davis males-- marrying some strong women (or going through two or three wifes!) to have a large family-- and soon creating a large population with the same name!
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Surprising that there aren't more Farmers than Smiths. It must have taken a couple dozen farmers to support one smith.Perhaps the Farmers just weren't as efficient at spreading their seed as the Smiths!  [Ducking from the gutter police emoticon] ["Oooo, 'ullo, Jackie! Wot you doin' 'ere?" emoticon] ["Everybody gotta be somewhere" emoticon]
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It's of Welsh origin
I think that may be mistaken, Jazzo � the Anglo-Welsh form is Davies (Anglicised orthography of Dafydd, pronounced Da-veeth); I think Davis is of Jewish origin.
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