I am trying to find the origin of my last name can someone help me.?

Question

I am trying to find the Origin of my last name which is: Vincent. I know it is English but I would like to find out if that means it is Anglo-Saxon or Norman or Briton or Jute. I have tried various geneology sites and can't seem to find the answer.

Answer 1

Vincent; Latin, literally, "HE CONQUERS". so if your ancestors name was, say, John, it would read as: John who Conquers. Late/Medieval Latin, BTW

Answer 2

Seems to derive more from a personal trait or accomplishment with Latin roots:

vincent
English and French: from a medieval personal name (Latin Vincentius, a derivative of vincens, genitive vincentis, present participle of vincere ‘to conquer’). The name was borne by a 3rd-century Spanish martyr widely venerated in the Middle Ages and by a 5th-century monk and writer of Lérins, as well as various other early saints. In eastern Europe the name became popular in honor of Wincenty Kadlubek (died 1223), a bishop of Kraków and an early chronicler.
Irish: the English surname has been established in the south of Ireland since the 17th century, and has also been adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Mac Dhuibhinse ‘son of the dark man of the island’.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

Answer 3

To understand why it's impossible for us to answer your question with the information given, you'd have to look at how surnames developed.

Prior to the 14th century, "surnames" didn't exist. There were "patrynomics" in some countries, but usually one was known as their father's son (Ericsson, Johnson, etc), by their occupation (which is why we have so many "Smiths" in this world), or by a unique feature of their lives/homes (Cousture comes from an old medieval word for pasture...so the Cousture family lived near the community pasture, just as the Knoll family lived near the knoll down the road).

At some point countries needed a better way of tracking residents...one that gave families a unique, but consistent, identity. The problem is that there wasn't a single consistent formulat used to create these "surnames" and one man might have 10 sons and all of them took different surnames. For instance, Monsieur Tessier's children could have taken names ranging from Tessier to Lavigne to Charron to LeRoy to Tasey. Their children may have further split the family with new names.

At that point in time, all of Europe was Catholic so Latin was a huge influence in every country. It was the language of the educated and the only language used by the Church in every country. So when someone tells you that their friends have the name Vincent who are of Flemish (Belgian) ancestry, and someone else says they have family with that surname who are French, it's all true...and doesn't mean any of them are in any way related to each other. The names came (usually) from the patron saint of the individual who started using that as a surname, though it may also have been his father's first name and he used it in honor of his father. But it could also be because they lived in St Vincent's parish, or near the town of Vincennes. All would have been perfectly valid reasons for adopting that name as their surname.

So to answer your question honestly, there isn't a pat answer on the heritage of your Vincent family. They could well have lines going back into each one of those groups. The only way you'll find out is to trace the lines backward just as far as you can go...and trace, and trace and trace...until you find the origins of that line. You might be surprised and even find that they were originally from one of the countries on the continent and someone migrated to the British Isles in the 15th or 16th centuries to escape persecution somewhere and the line is actually French or Italian or Spanish.

Answer 4

Sorry, but you're beyond help.

You're cursed with a last name that is most people's first name. But, if you go far enough back in history, you'll find that people only went by a first name. Later, as population grew, they added some other identifying characteristic, like Erik the Red (i.e., the Erik with the red beard).

So, if one of your ancestors had been crippled, you might actually be....

Vincent the Lame.

Answer 5

Do not be so sure about the English part. I have several friends in Belgium and their last names are Vincent. They traced theirs back to France.