Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words name translations
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
OP Someone on the Straight Dope message board inquires about the surnames which begin with "Mal-", like Malfara and Malatesta. He was told that the "mal" indicates that somewhere along the line, there was an orphan whose name was imposed by nuns because that means "bad."
I'm thinking that some people might have acquired a name that way, but that most are more ordinary descriptions of some ancestor or an association with that ancestor. Opinions?
And what about "Buon-" names, such as in Buonfiglio.
My family's names include Herzberg, which means Heart Mountain and McDonald, which means son of Donald. Other family names, regarding which I don't know the meanings, include Martin and Ingersol. Is "Ingersol" something like son of Inger?
What about your family names?
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted name translations Sparteye 04/25/01 02:33 PM Re: name translations Bean 04/25/01 05:27 PM Re: name translations rodward 04/26/01 04:09 PM Re: name translations Bobyoungbalt 04/26/01 06:35 PM Re: name translations BlanchePatch 04/26/01 12:27 PM Re: name translations juanmaria 04/26/01 07:23 PM Re: name translations emanuela 04/28/01 05:11 AM Re: name translations juanmaria 04/29/01 02:34 PM Re: name translations Geoff 04/28/01 04:09 AM Re: name translations Capital Kiwi 04/28/01 04:49 AM
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,371Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 1 members (A C Bowden), 765 guests, and 3 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 24
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,561tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,919Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org