Question of the Week: What's the strangest surname you've found in your research?

Question

What is the strangest surname you have found in your genealogy research?

Tell us about it with an answer below! You could also use the question image to share your answer with friends and family on social media.

Comments

There is Truelove on my husband's tree.  I have also come across Loveless.  The strangest name on my tree is Gyte.

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I have found Snodgrass family members.

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I used to know an entire family of Snodgrasses. They are very nice people and also accomplished.

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It's an interesting name it possibly comes from Snod meaning neat or tidy and then grass possibly from field or medow. Perhaps the Snodgrass family were land owners?  I can't wait to find out about the Snodgrass members of my family. I'm still working on my family tree. Thank you kindly for your comment.

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I have found a family member with the first name love also. Very sweet!

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There was once a couple in their late seventies that were named Warren and Evelyn. Their last name Moon. Not to weird. Their license plate-- WE-MOON still not weird "butt" the looks they received were.

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I'm related to Snodgrass

Answer 1

Wigley is another one.

Answer 2

In my own ancestral line, the most unusual surname I've stumbled across is Duck, from my ancestor, Elizabeth Duck - Duck-38.

Among my kinfolk, one of my Johnston relatives married into the Wrong family.  I've often wondered if two people with the surname Wrong got married if their children would have the surname, Wright . . .

Comments

My aunt had a cousin whose last name was Duck.

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About forty years ago I knew a man with Asian ancestry (perhaps Chinese or Korean - I never inquired) who had the surname Duck.  At least, that was the English spelling of his name.

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My Dack ancestors often have their name mistranscribed as Duck.

Answer 3

Not so much a strange surname, but this surname had me led on the wrong research path for a while.  

I found the surname Klarenbult in a South African record from an area with lots of British Settlers.  Because of the Dutch sound I started looking for possible links and ancestors in the Low lands in Europe.  Klaren might be "clear" and bult might be "hill".  But my search was not so successful there.  

Then I searched where this surname would be common in the world and found a similar surname in the south east of England:  Clarenbould.  And that put me on the right track,  then I managed to find the records of immigration and on ship lists with the ancestors.

So some Dutch of even early Afrikaans clerk phonetically wrote the surname and put me on the wrong track for a while.

Answer 4

I always remember with pleasure and a chuckle the moment I discovered that one of my great grandmothers was born Harriet SPINAGE.  I have since found that, though it is indeed a rare surname, there are at least a dozen or more people living with it today - and I have enjoyed meeting some of them, my cousins, and collecting every record of past bearers of it.

Answer 5

Pickle, Primrose, Thrift, Underhill, Constable, Hussey, Paris, Skipwith, Stallion, Tempest, Tongue, and Touchet.

My favorites names, Grace Crackbone and Mercy Jelly.

Answer 6

I think I win this round.

Comments

are you a doctor? 

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Heh. I actually completed studies for a doctorate in public administration and made it to "All but dissertation." In my college teaching days I included a picture of the Marvel superhero Doctor Strange in my Day One PowerPoint for students with my office hours, contact info, etc.

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Hahahah... NICE !!!!!

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I'm known to play a game of "Who's on First?" when I meet someone new..... "Well, I have a very strange last name...." I've had to pull out my driver's license to prove it from time to time.

Answer 7

Reathin. Margaret (Reathin) Mathewson. is my 5th GG. She died before 1759 in County Tyrone, Ireland. Reathin is a very strange name for Ireland.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Reathin-1

Answer 8

I have an Agnes Haybeetle (1569-1604) from Sussex.

Answer 9

I have a 3rd cousin who married a William Thomas Eykelbosch (sounds Dutch), in Coventry, England in 1893. But of my direct ancestors, 4th GGF was James Dockrill / Dockrell of Hornchurch, Essex, England is a little strange and whose name may also have a Dutch origin?

Answer 10

Strangest one I've found on Wikitree is Hyman Poop...Poop-1.  He's the only one on Wiki so far.  Couldn't believe my eyes when I came across it.  His father's given name is Wolf!!

Answer 11

"Ghost" comes up frequently along my family tree...

Answer 12

Weirdest one I've encountered is Langkreier, possibly of Dutch origin, Anglicized to Longcrier.  Because of reasons, I originally had a vague idea that Longcrier might have Native American origins.  It's a bit of a dead end for me, but from what I can tell, the origin of that name is not an English translation of any Native American name.

Answer 13

What is evidently one of the hardest-to-spell names is

Lichstein
Reaststine
Reichtstine
Reistine
Restine
Richestine
Richitatine
Richstein
Richsteine
Richstine
Richthline
Richtine
Richtins
Richtsine
Richtsline
Richtstein
Richtstine
Rickstine
Rictstine
Rightstine
Rischtine
Rishstein
Rishtine
Ristens
Ristine

It's anybody's guess which is "right".

Answer 14

Zeitler, a cousin who was adopted from the Murphies in my family tree.

Answer 15

Something like STIGLOWAIT.

This family name belonged to my german-speaking 3G Grandmother born 1806 in a small village in Kreis Marienwerder, West Prussia. 

I've found 40-odd written attestations of this name (with several spelling variations) in 19th Century German/Prussian church records involving my ancestors. But other than that I have found absolutely no record of this family name anywhere else. As if no one alive had ever heard of it until I uncovered it. (The only google search results for this name and its variations lead back to my recent research).

The name is so unusual that I don't even know which major branch of European ethnicity it stems from. Could be: West Germanic, Scandinavian, Baltic or even Slavic. My best guess is that it was originally Baltic (Lithuanian or Old Prussian) which went thru "Germanization". That's based on the geography and the -wait or sometimes -weit ending.

I've asked in several places online for advice, but no conclusive answer has been found. I carefully documented every written record of the name on my website here. Feel free to chime in with your opinion! Thx!

Answer 16

Family named Coffin. (not a close relative).

Comments

I came across a JB Pine-Coffin in a book once.

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That's really interesting. In the old days last names were often trades, especially in Germany. I don't think anyone would chose that today. Thanks.

Answer 17

Namaste from Denver Colorado

Answer 18

Demarcus Lafayette Stafford!  Both named for the Marquis de Lafayette post Revolutionary War.  They were cousins and they made my research a nightmare.  I was connected to both of them by DNA but did not know how.  One came from the Maryland Branch of Staffords, the other from the Giles, Va. branch of Staffords.  Ancestry and Stafford Society had my Great Grandfather coming from the Maryland Branch, but that Demarcus Stafford ended up living and dying in Graves County, Kentucky-miles away in west central Kentucky, Johnson Co. is eastern.  My Great Grandfather was born in Paintsville, Johnson Co., Kentucky, and as I later found out, died in Ohio.  When I visited Paintsville, the only John Stafford, cousin to Demarcus Lafayette of Giles, Virginia had a second wife, Nancy Ratliff, and two children, John who had to be my great grandfather, and daughter Mary Polly according to the family genealogy at the Johnson County Library.  John and Mary Polly both connected to me through DNA.  Not until I found on Ancestry that my great grandparents died in Ohio, and I ordered their death certificates, did I break my brick wall and find my great great grandmother, John Stafford's second wife, Sarah Sally Blevins.  OH!  sorry, strangest SURNAME, whoopsie.  But outside of this, we are quite normal!

Answer 19

Oost.  Dutch for "east."  My sister's married name.  There are only a handful of them here in the United States.

Answer 20

I have a Hugaboom married to a Quackenbush  :)