do last names determine ethnicity or vice versa?

Question

you know how some people have a "ski" on the end of their name...it ususally means they are polish but does it necessarily have to? do you have to be hispanic to have a last name like rodriquez? do you have to be jewish to have a last name like hartman?

Answer 1

I don't think names HAVE to determine ethnicity but sometimes they really do. When you see the last name Jenkins you usually assume the person is black but I'm sure there are some white Jenkins. You might one day find an Asian with the last name Rodriguez because marriage and things like that mix up last names. I think one day in the future it might be different.

Answer 2

no it doesn't because people are adopted, people get married, people legally change their names for various reasons.
and being jewish is a religion, not a nationality or a single ethnic group because jewish people come in every ethnic background, believe it or not. so do hispanics, and all people with a "ski" at the end of their name don't always have a polish background.

Answer 3

I have a sister who, like me, is German in ethnicity. She married and now has the last name "Intawong". Her ethnicity has not changed. So the last name can not determine ethnicity.

Plus my own last name was changed from Kuhnz to Coons (pronounced the same) during WW1 to avoid discrimination.

Answer 4

In the US, women who take on the names of their husbands do not change ethnicity once they have married. I think it all depends on where in the world you live and how much diversity there is in the population.

Answer 5

The anwser is no. Goldberry , Brown, Johnson, Hernendez. all common names that could be white, jewish, black or hispanic.

Answer 6

not necesarily. my last name ends with "cki" instead of "ski" because my Polish ancestors changed it when they immigrated to the US. it is different in all cases

Answer 7

Usually only a fraction of it...and none at all if it's a married name.