Where do last names come from?

Answer 1

I know that alot of last names came from the career that the person had like the shoe maker became John Shuemaker or the blacksmith was Joe Black or Joe Smith - other names came from the area you lived like Joe of St.Louis became Joe St.louis

Answer 2

i'd agree with the first 2 answers. its part what the career was and what area came from. my last name is lithuanian (a small country on the north west border of russia), i'm only like 6 % lithuanian but mostly italian (25 %)

Answer 3

I'd say from where you come from what career you had, from towns names, some people probably ever gave themselves their own last names.
also with slaves, you will find a lot of black ppl with the last name Freemen/Freeman as their ancestors when they got out of slavery could name themselves they chose the name freeman, because of them being free.
also some Africian Americains got their last name from their planation owners....thus it makes it kinda of difficult for us to track our asnctry back further than the slavery.

Answer 4

hahahahah. i have no clue, but i was wondering the exact same thing :) my last name is so wierd lol =) anyways good luck with your question