2007-09-11 14:54:22 · 11 answers · asked by A 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Thanks!! Still have to wait 3 hours before I can solve the question.
Sorry if I caused some confusion. I know how the American citizens get their last names today. I was just wondering due to the fact that most of the African-Americans have "European names" if they where given to them, they took it or married into them...
The answers are very clearifing!! Thanks again!!!
2007-09-11 15:55:18 · update #1
Freed slaves adopted the last names of their former owners.
2007-09-11 15:19:10 · answer #1 · answered by staisil 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Just watching football you see many African Americans with last names "Mc"something (Donovan McNabb for instance.) There are not many true Scotsmen who look like African Americans. These are names derived from their masters before the Civil War ended slavery in America. "White" European names came about largely in the 1300s. People often were named for their father's vocation. That's why we see so many Millers, Smiths, and Johnsons. Johnson was a last name added to specify John's son. "You know him, that's old John's son from Worcester". Fletchers put feathers on arrows. Thatchers put on thatched roofing. And so on. When populations were small and people did not move around much at all, it was sufficient to call people by their village - "Thomas of Roxbury". etc.
Get the idea?
2007-09-11 15:18:28 · answer #2 · answered by Spreedog 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually, for clarification, African Americans were named by their parents. History tells the story of slaves brought from African hundreds of years ago. They had names already, but die to slavery they were striped of their names and forced to take on their slave names. Now generations later, today, we have black Americans, who are not from Africa, but born and raised in America. There is a difference when you think in terms of where people are born and where that come from in relations to specific demographics. Even if the black Americans fore parents were originally from Africa, being born in America, of not African blood but black/mixed blood, we are black Americans. This is my spill on differentiating African American from Black Americans. I assure you, Most African Americans do not accept Black Americans as their own. It is quite complicated to explain and understand if there has not been specific study into this concept.
2007-09-11 15:39:44 · answer #3 · answered by Jay 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Mostly from their owners, similar, actually, to the way white people originally got theirs--when the European feudal system was easing up, a lot of serfs who went elsewhere just took the name of their masters' estates. I guess it was how they were already known, so it just seemed easier for them.
2007-09-11 15:02:41 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Some took their names from their former owners. Some took names from national heroes (Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington). Others picked a name that appealed to them.
2007-09-11 14:59:58 · answer #5 · answered by Troy 3 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Some used the same name that their former owners had, some used the names of their heros, some went with Freeman...
2007-09-11 15:03:10 · answer #6 · answered by loshea65 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
mostly from there former owners.and later they got to keep real names.
2007-09-11 15:10:52 · answer #7 · answered by Phil Deese 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It depends
2016-08-24 15:33:36 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
White people gave them to us lol
2007-09-11 14:58:48 · answer #9 · answered by reebabyten 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The same way you and everyone got their;s from their for-fathers and then your grandpa ; then your dad; that;s how,
2007-09-11 15:09:30 · answer #10 · answered by Cami lives 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋