how would you know a person's race by his surname?

Answer 1

Actually, there are several websites you can go to that will give you the historical basis for a surname...the best one to use would depend on the demographic you are searching in.

However, this is pretty sketchy at best. People marry, names change. A large percentage of African-American families took the names of their owners upon their release from slavery. (Making it impossible to distinguish many black and white families by name alone.) A large number of families "Americanize" their names during the immigration process, making it difficult to reliably derive the original name even if the original name was distinctive.

What are you hoping to accomplish here? In most of the western world, name is just not a good proxy for race.

Answer 2

You can get an indication, and depending on what you consider race, you can get a pretty good idea that there is at least some portion of a particular race in someone's background.

-scu is a common ending in Romania, -ova common in Russia, Pacino is Italian, Chang is Chinese. Thing is, you would have to study names from around the world to be able to quickly figure out where the name comes from and the prevalent race.

Biggest exception I can think of is American blacks who were given or assumed the surnames of their owners, thus having no real relationship to their surname.

Answer 3

For the most part you can't. Sometimes you can tell what their ethnic background is. But people (especially women) often change their names so it's never a sure bet. I knew a woman of Swedish background married to a Nigerian man and her was "Mary Nawako". No one expected to see a blue-eyed blonde answer to that name, but there she was!

I also know Jewish people who make their names sound more Anglo. For instance a man whose family name is "Burkowitz" may go by "Mr. Burk". Also there are many names that are more associated with religion than ethnicity, particularly in the Muslim or Jewish communities. I know three girls with the last name 'Ahmad'. One is Arab, one is Black, and the other is South Asian.

There are also tricky names, like 'Chang'. I don't know if you watched 'Seinfeld', but there was a hilarious episode about a woman who was named "Donna Chang". Everyone though she was Chinese, but she was actually Caucasian.

Besides the Chang issue, generally I find Asian names the most tell-tale. It's up in the air with the rest, especially in the USA with slavery and the changing of names during the mass immigration period.

Answer 4

I don't think that you can know a person's race by his surname. Anyway, what difference does it make, as to what race a person is. All men are created equal in the eyes of God.

Answer 5

Some names have pronounced endings. Like ski, moto, enz or endings with o. There is also the surname Lee. Others have prefixes of Mc or Mac.

Answer 6

Well, depending on what their last name is, it typically indicates which country it might have originated. Its pretty obvious if its a middle eastern or english name. Russian or even eastern europe names can be harder. However with all the people having kids now a days theres really no telling.

Answer 7

thats a question never resolved. because if you're in america it might be easier to detect a person's race by his last name. but then you'll never know if he's caucasian or african-american. other races, like mine, malay didnt have last name. we're merely using son of or daughter of. but if we're going to oversea to live there or study there we usually use our father's or grandfather's name as our surname.

Answer 8

You can guess at a person's ethnicity and then extrapolate from there.
For example: Kipling most likely British mostly then Caucasian.

Answer 9

Impossible.

Answer 10

Well, I know a Mike English who is Irish, and a John Welsh who is English