Where do African Americans surnames come from?

Question

This is not meant to be racist, but i've just been wondering. Like some African Americans have surnames that come from names like white poeple, like Johnson, Smith, Jones, Williams, while I've seen alot that say there black but have hispanic last names like Garcia and Gonzalez. Whys that?

Answer 1

A lot of African Americans surnames are names that their ancestors were given in the times of slavery. Unfortunately since slaves were considered property many times their actual african names were replaced with their owners surname or a surname that was taken from the bible. The reason that there are black people with names like garcia and gonzalez is that there are many people that come from south america (brazil) and the carribean (for instance hati and dominican republic) that have african roots. Also there are people of creole heritage that combined spanish french and african ancestry.

Answer 2

All European surnames can be African American surnames. Slaves didn't have surnames. If there were two slaves named Michael in the same area, one owned by Mr. Smith, one by Mr. Jones, people would sometimes call them "Michael Smith" and "Michael Jones" to distinguish between them. Many, not all, slave owners were English. The Germans tended to go through Pennsylvania and west, the Scotch and Irish were too poor to own slaves. Those are generalities and there are lots of exceptions, but an awful lot of black people have English surnames. When the slaves were freed in 1865 a goodly number took their former owners' surnames, because they were already known by it, and settled down to be share croppers. Others spit in their owners' eye and headed west to be cowboys. (About 1/3 of the cowboys, 1865 - 1900, were African Americans; Hollywood didn't show that until the 1990's.) The ones who didn't take their former owners' names sometimes took the name of a person they admired, except Lincoln. That would not have been a wise move in a county where half the barns were still smoldering from the Yankee cavalry. Others took a generic "Black" or "Brown" (in English, again), or the name of their trade (Carpenter, Cook, Baker - more English surnames) and some undoubtedly took the name of their father; Johnson, Moses, Paulson.

Answer 3

Einstein, ever heard of the term "Afro-Latino" or "black Hispanic"? YES, THERE ARE BLACK HISPANIC PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARRIBEAN !!Therefore they have Latin/Hispanic last names. Most African Americans have English sounding names from way back during the times of their most unfortunate slavery. Most slaves took on the last name if their "master" who were most often of Anglo Saxon extraction, hence the English sounding name (not "white sounding" name as you so stupidly put it). This is also a similar case with the black Hispanics and their last names. Africans were also brought as slaves to the Carribean and to South and Central America. But the difference was that South America and certain islands of the Carribean were colonized by the Spanish, not the English. So therefore, the blacks that were in that region got Latin sounding last names. Get it?!

Answer 4

Where Do Surnames Come From

Answer 5

Has to do with slavery and ownership of slaves. Slaves took on the surname of their owner, as well as being forced to take on anglo names instead of their former tribal names. The surnames passed on to their children thereafter.

Once slavery ended, they kept the surnames, because several generations for some families had gone by and this was the only name they had.

Answer 6

Santo Domingo could be the capital of the Dominican Republic and the oldest European town in the Americas and if you would like to see one of the UNESCO World Heritage List then, that hotelbye could be the place. Santo Domingo is just a collage of cultures and neighborhoods. It's where the appears of life, domino parts slapped on tables, backfiring mufflers and horns from crazy traffic. In the center of the city could be the Zona Colonial, wherever you will discover one of many oldest churches and the oldest remaining European. Also, in the Zona Colonial you will discover Gazcue, among the city's oldest neighborhoods, filled with old Victorian properties and tree-lined streets.

Answer 7

the garcia and gonzalez are probably from a marriage earlier on in their family or at the present time.

Most last names came from days of slavery when a slave took on the name of their slave owner.

Answer 8

Historically, African Americans surnames comes from slave owners.

Answer 9

Some people had to take the last name of their owners and some people once they escaped or were emancipated changed their surnames to rid themselves of the master's name.

Answer 10

Here's a brief history lesson for u. I'm a Black Puerto Rican and my ancestors came from Portugal, Spain, Greece, France, and from Africa. Princes and Princesses of African decent were sent by their fathers to sharecrop new lands in the names of their tribes at first then African men, woman, and children were captured after the Dutch saw a profit in selling human beings especially Africans, then other countries joined the band wagon. Those that survived the voyage were fattened and bred like animals then sold on the islands of Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, the Virgen Islands, and the West Indies to rich White men from the southern States of America and South American countries to tend their fields, their homes, and their families. Slaves that escaped were sponsored by northern Whites and those Black Americans took the names of their sponsoring family as and honor to them for helping them. While other Blacks took the names of their masters or were given the names of their masters or the plantation owners where they came from to distinguish what area they migrated north from. These r not to honor their masters but those slaves that kept their masters or plantation owners names did so to distinguish what plantation they were from to help identify them for those family members that were sold and after slavery could reunite with their families from whatever plantation they came from. Those Blacks with Spanish or Portuguese names had the same happen with their ancestors who ended up in one of the Americas. American Blacks and all the other Blacks including the Africans of the world r related to all islanders of the Caribe whether they know it or not or want to accept it or not. Hope I helped