how to determine the nationality of a person by last name?

Answer 1

There are 6 billion answers to this question.

Answer 2

It takes a little while to learn about the ethnic traits of last names. For example, a name ending in -ier or -ieux or -eaux or -eau is probably French. Names ending in -ez are probably Spanish. Italian names almost always end in a vowel and often have double letters. Italian and Spanish names can be quite similar. English names might end in -ton or -son or -ley, but have many other kinds of endings as well. Scandinavian names (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish) might end in -sen. Irish names could begin in O', and Irish or Scottish names might begin with Mc or Mac, and many Irish names end in -gan.

And I haven't even gotten off the continent of Europe yet!

Answer 3

It's so hard to say, because someone could have their step-dad's name and not their own, or they could have gotten married and then the last name has nothing to do with their own nationality. Maybe if you listed a particular name, then we could all help you answer this question a lil better. :)

Answer 4

If the name begins with O, it's Irish, and if it ends in O, it's Italian?

Gosh, nationality, ethnicity, passing down names from father to child, changing names so they can be spelled in English, etc., etc., not likely to succeed much with that.

Answer 5

u can...like some names you just know and its kind of stereotypical like if u hear lopez u wud think spanish.....abdullah-arabic, etc.....i mean some names it can be hard to tell but for the most part u can search on line and bring up the country of origin but like my maiden name was hard to find out the true origin. good luck!

Answer 6

You can't. Why is this even a question your name is only a fraction of who you are.

Answer 7

Hard to do with so many mixed race relationships.

Answer 8

its impossible these days