Many of today's last names (including many of the most common last names) derive from the medieval tradition of appending people's trade to their given name (for a fictional example, see Ken Follett's "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End"). So let's bring them all together here, those Smiths, Millers, Bakers, Farmers, etc.!

1

by
3.99 avg rating — 115,140 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
3.61 avg rating — 462,998 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
3.70 avg rating — 102,110 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
4.23 avg rating — 258,128 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
3.81 avg rating — 275,568 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
3.59 avg rating — 258,382 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
3.92 avg rating — 1,016,102 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.04 avg rating — 69,795 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
3.89 avg rating — 201,331 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
3.97 avg rating — 62,637 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.29 avg rating — 16,565 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
3.37 avg rating — 37,830 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
3.65 avg rating — 12,282 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
4.73 avg rating — 302,443 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
3.59 avg rating — 17,765 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
3.97 avg rating — 3,279 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
3.96 avg rating — 9,008 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.67 avg rating — 85,729 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.67 avg rating — 7,288,760 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.97 avg rating — 377,388 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
3.96 avg rating — 94,688 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
3.46 avg rating — 10,679 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
3.85 avg rating — 26,032 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
3.99 avg rating — 119,103 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.94 avg rating — 168,116 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
3.79 avg rating — 174,545 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.01 avg rating — 72,375 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
3.63 avg rating — 16,266 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.87 avg rating — 66,039 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
3.75 avg rating — 10,518 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.90 avg rating — 129,917 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.30 avg rating — 510,937 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
3.89 avg rating — 34,899 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.62 avg rating — 18,725 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
4.08 avg rating — 212,236 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
4.24 avg rating — 15,163 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.81 avg rating — 21,300 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
4.01 avg rating — 21,426 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.98 avg rating — 60,752 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.92 avg rating — 580 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
4.25 avg rating — 56,995 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.66 avg rating — 33,221 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.28 avg rating — 750,537 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.97 avg rating — 10,186 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.88 avg rating — 4,860 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
3.68 avg rating — 18,061 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.99 avg rating — 45,981 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
4.23 avg rating — 43,809 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.95 avg rating — 17,685 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
4.47 avg rating — 11,367,312 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.33 avg rating — 36,246 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.65 avg rating — 5,476 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.67 avg rating — 568 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
4.09 avg rating — 6,349 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.97 avg rating — 57,670 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
3.47 avg rating — 1,404 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.63 avg rating — 6,853 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.01 avg rating — 82 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.05 avg rating — 30,416 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.27 avg rating — 16,735 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
3.86 avg rating — 195,656 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
3.95 avg rating — 9,358 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
3.28 avg rating — 4,574 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
3.95 avg rating — 860 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
4.37 avg rating — 2,871 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
4.38 avg rating — 2,230 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.65 avg rating — 2,455 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.81 avg rating — 1,608 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
4.23 avg rating — 40,035 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
4.23 avg rating — 1,062 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.41 avg rating — 930 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
3.97 avg rating — 9,310 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
4.18 avg rating — 1,280 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
3.81 avg rating — 2,017 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.97 avg rating — 3,765 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
3.80 avg rating — 935 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
4.19 avg rating — 46,638 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.37 avg rating — 3,555 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
4.09 avg rating — 42,749 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.13 avg rating — 1,411 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.06 avg rating — 27,993 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
2.97 avg rating — 6,563 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.70 avg rating — 14,629 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
4.20 avg rating — 15,978 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.81 avg rating — 874 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.05 avg rating — 3,192 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.69 avg rating — 6,605 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
4.11 avg rating — 89,808 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
3.91 avg rating — 5,209 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
4.04 avg rating — 104,520 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.92 avg rating — 1,954 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
4.21 avg rating — 37,327 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
3.90 avg rating — 7,009 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
3.90 avg rating — 55,478 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.70 avg rating — 1,963 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.85 avg rating — 6,654 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
3.98 avg rating — 12,052 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.01 avg rating — 1,879 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.14 avg rating — 7,265 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.86 avg rating — 1,864 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) 546 books
365 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3386 books
851 friends
Derya 911 books
77 friends
Phillip 5186 books
139 friends
Thom 6022 books
294 friends
Bettie 15674 books
19 friends
Mir 15056 books
448 friends
Sooma 6 books
9 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-27 of 27 (27 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn FOOTNOTE: Sartoris....."taylor" in Latin.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Yes, of course! (What am I missing about Atwood's "Blind Assassin," though?)


message 3: by [deleted user] (new)

Meyer, Maier, Mayer?


message 4: by Bettie (new)

Bettie Was Forster a rapist by trade?


message 5: by [deleted user] (last edited Jul 08, 2010 08:21AM) (new)

Forester, perhaps.

Wagner? Muller? Ferber?

(Just found Ferber... Farber=Dyer in german)


message 6: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Jul 08, 2010 08:50AM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Meier (or in last names, any variant spelling) refers to a poulty farmer in German.

Wagner => wagonner (a wagon driver). Same in German for a wagon, or rather, cart wheel maker, btw.

Müller = German for miller.

Forster = forester (forest keeper); again, virtually the same in German (Förster).

And, yes, Ferber (or actually, Färber) = German for dyer.

Anyone for French names? (Boulanger? Patissier? Boucher?)


message 7: by [deleted user] (new)

Thanks T.-A. You learn something new every day!

Färber: can't do the umlaut thing on my keyboard... or accents...

Wiki failed me on these!


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Yeah, I know -- that used to drive me nuts when I was living in the States! I hated always having to open a Word doc, insert the umlaut as a special symbol and then copy it ...


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads It's not bad on a Mac, but I never have figured out how to do it on a PC keyboard.

And what is "Atwood"?


message 10: by [deleted user] (last edited Jul 08, 2010 09:27AM) (new)

Susanna wrote: "It's not bad on a Mac, but I never have figured out how to do it on a PC keyboard.

I know there is a way, but I cant remember the stupid code numbers...

Themis-Athena wrote: "Yeah, I know -- that used to drive me nuts when I was living in the States! I hated always having to open a Word doc, insert the umlaut as a special symbol and then copy it ..."

...so I've got the ones I use most on my Google side bar, so I just have to copy and paste. No umlaut in Italian, however!


message 11: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn Themis-Athena wrote: "Yes, of course! (What am I missing about Atwood's "Blind Assassin," though?)"

Well, it's kinda grim, but "assassin" is a profession in the story-within-the-story. They are higherlings, and there are several of them, the blind assassins. And, of course, there are many books about professional assassins, more's the pity. Martin Sheen plays a professional assassin in Apocalypse Now, a film I wish was a book so I could make GR questions about it.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) No, but other diacritical marks (à etc.) ...


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Susanna wrote: "It's not bad on a Mac, but I never have figured out how to do it on a PC keyboard.

And what is "Atwood"?"


Yes, I'm wondering about that as well!


message 14: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn Themis-Athena wrote: "Susanna wrote: "It's not bad on a Mac, but I never have figured out how to do it on a PC keyboard.

And what is "Atwood"?"

Yes, I'm wondering about that as well!"


One of my grad school classmates was one Alfred KLEINERKREUTZMAN......What's that about ?


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Little cross man??!!


message 16: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn Themis-Athena wrote: "Little cross man??!!"

Yes, he said his grandfather would tell the story of how the name came to be, but if Al ever told ME the story, I forgot it. I'm guessing it was the person who was "kleiner", not the cross.


message 17: by Valerie (new)

Valerie Don't forget 'cooper', 'chandler', 'baker', etc. Any such list could get really unweildy really fast.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Do feel free to add books by Coopers, Chandlers, Bakers, etc. ... the more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned! :)


message 19: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jun 16, 2016 08:55AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) What's a 'James'? (As in Henry James, #10)

'Bakker' is Dutch for baker, by the way. 'Boer' is Dutch for farmer and 'Brouwer' is Dutch for brewer. 'Molenaar' is miller, 'Meester' is (school) master and 'Visser' is fisherman.


message 20: by Koenraad (new)

Koenraad 'Kuyper' is the old Dutch form of 'Kuiper' - Cooper in English
'Craemer' is the old Dutch form of 'Kramer' - Peddler/Pedlar in English
'Coster' is the old Dutch form of 'Koster' - Sacristan in English
'Volder' is Dutch for Fuller
'Olyslaegers' is Dutch for a person who crushes plant seeds to get the oil (I don't know the English translation for this)


message 21: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jun 15, 2016 09:10PM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Koenraad wrote: "''Olyslaegers' is Dutch for a person who crushes plant seeds to get the oil (I don't know the English translation for this).."

Olyslaegers (Olieslager) = oil-crusher/oil-presser :-)

Coster/Koster is also Sexton. She isn't in the list yet, and I don't have any of her work, otherwise I would have added something by Anne Sexton.


message 22: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jun 15, 2016 09:01PM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Hayes wrote: "(Just found Ferber... Farber=Dyer in german)"

The Dutch surname 'Verver'/'Verwer' also means 'dyer'.


message 23: by Koenraad (new)

Koenraad Booklovinglady wrote: "Olyslaegers (Olieslager) = oil-crusher/oil-presser :-)"

Thanks for the translation - didn't realize it was quite that simple :-)

"Coster/Koster is also Sexton. She isn't in the list yet, and I don't have any of her work, otherwise I would have added something by Anne Sexton."

You can add books that are not on your shelves to a list. Just go to "Add Books To This List" and click on Search where it says "Add books from: My Books or a Search". Then you can look up a title, an ISBN or an author and add books from the results.


message 24: by Koenraad (new)

Koenraad Added Felix Timmermans and Lia Timmermans (father and daughter btw). Dutch for' Carpenter'.


message 25: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jun 16, 2016 09:07AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Koenraad wrote: "Added Felix Timmermans and Lia Timmermans (father and daughter btw). Dutch for' Carpenter'."

Completely forgot about Felix Timmermans.... I've added an omnibus with his work. Thanks Koenraad.

Added another one too, by the way: Snijders (son of 'Snijder') = cutter


message 26: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jun 16, 2016 09:18AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Koenraad wrote: "You can add books that are not on your shelves to a list...."

I know I can ;-) but I rarely do. Except for Listopia's used for the seasonal challenges of the Netherlands & Flanders group (in which only titles of books translated into Dutch are mentioned), because if I stuck to the titles on my own shelves for these, I wouldn't have a Listopia to refer to :-)


message 27: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jun 16, 2016 09:16AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Hayes wrote: "Wagner? Muller? Ferber..."

"Wagner" is German and if I remember correctly it has something or other to do with carts/wagons. So maybe someone who makes carts and wagons. I'm sorry, but it is nearly 40 years ago since I took German classes in high school :-)


back to top