If you could have any colour as a last name what one would you choose?

@TheEmoCat

3 жыл бұрын

Turquoise maybe

@SnarkNSass

3 жыл бұрын

PURPLE!!!💜💜💜💜

@sadmanislam5111

3 жыл бұрын

magenta

@hellomynameisjoenl

3 жыл бұрын

Periwinkle.

@rasmusvanwerkhoven1962

3 жыл бұрын

Amaranth

Speaking of colors, Was there ever a Roy G Biv?

@fermintenava5911

3 жыл бұрын

There was actually a rapper named Biv - Michael Lamont Bivins.

@Froge0

3 жыл бұрын

@@fermintenava5911 There is in Sam and Max

@Robbie-pc1dl

3 жыл бұрын

Bri’ish

@fermintenava5911

3 жыл бұрын

@@Froge0 I thought that what OP referred to.

@haseenabadshah5381

3 жыл бұрын

69 likes lmao

we didn't have last names in the Netherlands. so when napoleon came he forced everyone to choose one. some people rebelled and called themselves shit, ect. cursing their kin for forever. (poepjes)

@pietergeerse5522

3 жыл бұрын

Or Naaktgeboren (born nude)

@PureReggae

3 жыл бұрын

Are there any common Dutch names with swears in them? People probably changed a letter or two in it over time

@Ibelikemj

3 жыл бұрын

So that’s why a bunch of you guys have the same last name as villages

@jjc5475

3 жыл бұрын

@@Ibelikemj yes for sure!

@jjc5475

3 жыл бұрын

@@PureReggae they're not that common because many people completely changed their names.

The surname Black is a contraction from Blacksmith. Smithies are very dirty work places. Hence the smith's skin, before washing, was black. It's also due to hair colour. NOT due to intrinsic skin colour of the English people.

@misterbk1791

3 жыл бұрын

It actually isn’t to due with the skin majority of english peoples jus over 7000 years ago was dark skin because they eat meat or fish more then they did plants Also majority of English people had dark hair or the fact over 60% people of them would have darker then pasty white skin because of where they lived they weren’t rich they weren’t royal they lived in huts cottages small houses crowded houses streets they had a lot of dust on them etc etc soil as well hard working farmers would have darker skins as not many people had proper baths the earlier you go in England’s history

@misterbk1791

3 жыл бұрын

Smiths work was actually very clean because they wore more clothing in fact their clothing was black ......... another reason for black smith please correct your information

@blookarakal4417

2 жыл бұрын

I heard that the same thing happen with the name White. Whitesmith is a real thing

@OtakuNoShitpost

2 жыл бұрын

Blacksmiths are called as such due to the color of the iron, not from the soot or dirt of the job. Many jobs were dirty

@TheDuckMan2523

2 жыл бұрын

Blacksmiths get the name from the colour of iron, in the same way that goldsmiths do, and silversmiths,

5:48. Llwyd was also anglicized as "Floyd." So "Pink Floyd" literally means "Pink Grey."

@Amy_the_Lizard

3 жыл бұрын

I also thought about that... ^_^'

@Terrus_38

3 жыл бұрын

And George Floyd - George Gray.

@811brian

2 жыл бұрын

There’s no letter F in Llwyd, so why is it pronounced that way?

@littelcreatchure506

2 жыл бұрын

why not Lloyd?

@kaitlyn__L

2 жыл бұрын

@@811brian Welsh has different pronunciation rules for its written language just as Irish does; or French, German, or Spanish.

I went to school with a person named Lloyd Gray, so he was Gray Gray lol, no relation to me.

@marmac83

3 жыл бұрын

What are the odds, with such a common name? *eyeroll*

@billylauwda9178

3 жыл бұрын

*50 shades of grey*

@edi9892

3 жыл бұрын

Ive seen Bianca DeWitt, which would be the corresponding white white LOL

When languages develop 'blue' is one of the last colours to get a name, before that it falls under green. In Homer's epics you won't find 'blue' at all and he uses other words to describe the sea, often comparing it to things we'd call green.

@grunions9648

3 жыл бұрын

Yes it was sometimes even described as bronze, which is kind of weird to us. The same is true of orange, which is why red squirrels are actually orange for example. The colour was eventually named after the fruit.

@kaitlyn__L

2 жыл бұрын

@@grunions9648 wasn’t that about the depth and lustre, rather than a direct colour comparison? Such as how Irish (the language) traditionally looks at tones and shades much more than hue when deciding which words to label colours with.

@PristinePerceptions

2 жыл бұрын

@@grunions9648 "Bronze" actually makes perfect sense. If you leave any bronze object outside for long, it oxidizes and turns blue. It seems weird to us because we aren't used to making and using bronze objects in modern daily life.

@oldvlognewtricks

2 жыл бұрын

The wine-dark sea

@geekygalaxy4307

2 жыл бұрын

I saw in the Odyssey the sea was called 'purple-dark sea.'

Speaking of hair names, in spanish there's the last name Rubio, literally blonde

@jakubpociecha8819

3 жыл бұрын

It's Rubio! *Spills water on people* *Drinks water* *Throws out the bottle*

@leeallbluem1

3 жыл бұрын

@@jakubpociecha8819 he hit my hand nobody has ever hit my hand i never hear of this one look at those hand are they small hand? and he refer to my hand if they small? something else must be small i guarantee you no problem i guarantee

@hankbarcelona7314

3 жыл бұрын

And Moreno which means dark-haired or dark-skinned, right?

@Alex-fv2qs

3 жыл бұрын

And Rojas (the red ones) which is a very common surname

@arnoldamaral7406

3 жыл бұрын

@@hankbarcelona7314 Olive completed like Sofia Loren & Penelope Cruz. Arnold Bourbon Amaral

I've heard that green also may derive from people's eye colors. And since green is a pretty rare eye color it would be a fair distinction between other people.

This just reminded me of some of my classmates in primary school - we had a Joe Brown, Joe White and Joe Pink! I always thought that was rather strange!

@fomalhaut_the_great

3 жыл бұрын

insert unclever joe mama joke

@Amy_the_Lizard

3 жыл бұрын

You had a pack of multicolored Joes

@nephele16

2 жыл бұрын

Together they can make a Joe rainbow

@Chigger

2 жыл бұрын

@@fomalhaut_the_great Primary school? None of those colors are primary!

@DelightfullyGrace

2 жыл бұрын

My brother’s name is Joe Brown lol

Some Latin-based colour surnames include Rosa (Pink), Rosso/Rossi/Roux and other variations (red), Alba/Alvarez (white), Bianchi/Blanco (white), Prieto (Black) and Bruno (brown).

@araparseghian2

2 жыл бұрын

Giallo (yellow), Verdi (green), Viola (purple), Grigio (grey), Nero (black)

@minigrinpins2528

2 жыл бұрын

wait, My aunt’s name is Blanca Alba… WHITE WHITE

This happens in a lot of languages I think too Blanche and Bianca relating to the color white Viridiana is a common spanish name relating to the color green colors are used a lot in names in japan, Aoyama and Midoriyama being blue mountain and green mountain

@robindemeyer8960

3 жыл бұрын

I must say tho, in my language Dutch, being in the same language family as English this never happens.

@Alex-fv2qs

3 жыл бұрын

Also, Rojas (the red ones) is a pretty common surname in many spanish speaking countries

@weijiafang1298

3 жыл бұрын

In a joke project years ago in which characters from Detective Conan are given parody Chinese names, Shuichi Akai was directly given the last name Zhu, because "Akai" is homophone with "Red" in Japanese, while the Chinese family name "Zhu" may also be interpreted as "scarlet."

My surname is Brown. While doing some research in parish records I found an entry saying 'Alister and Mazie of the Cameron having weaved and worn brown cloth since the banning of the tartain are now known as Alister and Mazie Brown'. I like to think that is where my surname comes from but don't honestly know that. Mr White our scoutmaster back in the 40s took the name White to hide his German name.

@mollybrown8361

2 жыл бұрын

That’s so interesting. My last name is Brown also. Looking at my family I reckon it came from our hair and eye colour as we all have dark features

@m00njaguar

6 ай бұрын

The British royal family also changed their last name to hide their original German last name. Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a royal family from Germany. Their son became King Edward VII of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During World War One, the British royal house was to Windsor, taking its name from the royal residence, Windsor Castle.

Shout out to CGP. You, him, real life lore, and useful charts are my top educational youtubers.

@eyjagnau2141

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed

@nathanides7584

3 жыл бұрын

Wendover + HAI, Veritassium, Physics girl, asapScience

@arunghadi

3 жыл бұрын

Vsauce, Vsauce2 , Vsauce3....

@jaishkhan7442

3 жыл бұрын

Thoughty2, Veritasium, Lockstin, Mark Rober, Oversimplified, Exurb1a, SamONella

@Christian-se5si

3 жыл бұрын

Vox, Johnny Harris, Sabrina and friends, Sam onella, Langfocus, polymatter, and tier zoo

I'm German and I actually know a lot of people with the last name "Pink", it's extremely common in the area where I live. But I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the colour, since the word "pink" only became part of our language pretty recently, being borrowed from English. Any other Germans here who have an idea where the German last name "Pink" comes from?

@vanhavirta

3 жыл бұрын

Could it have something to do with fish, fishing, or fishing boats? See: en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pink#English

in most ancient languages they don't have a specific word for "blue"(they use "black" or "green" to describe the color). which is why Blue is much rarer as a name. and Black comes from the etymology of "Blanc" which means white, so a lot of "Blake" or even "Black" might actually be named after "White".

@PeterAuto1

2 жыл бұрын

Black and Blanc are related, but the split happened still in proto-Germanic. So at the time Last names came about these were already different

@schwi5425

Жыл бұрын

Black and blanc were originally used to mean fire. I’m some languages it came to mean the bright light of the fire and in others the dark soot it left behind. Like the other person said, the split happened thousands of years ago so there isn’t really any possibility of the name black actually meaning white

@reddhood441

Жыл бұрын

Black and Blanc come from the same root, however the root rather meant "to burn" and in connection "burnt" if you have ever seen burnt wood, you will notice that it turns black, but it is somewhat reflective and can look white, also ashes are pale white, while soot is black, so the reason there are two different meanings is due to a disagreement between people if charred objects were light or dark in color.

There was also another reason for colorful names, especially in Germany: In the 18th til 19th century, Jewish citizens were "suggested" to integrate better into society and receive more civil rights by changing their patrimonial family name into a more German one. To comply with that request while also staying true to their culture, many jews chose themselves names with some symbolical relation to their history. In some cases, they chose colours in accordance to the Twelve tribes of Israel, or in relation to metals and gemstones. The tribe of Ruben, e. g. could be represented by both Rubin or Roth (ruby and red, respectively).

@jamesfrankel7827

2 жыл бұрын

To add to that names like blau-blue, weiss-white, grun-green, as mentioned schwartz-black.

@m00njaguar

6 ай бұрын

I hadn't thought about it before, but the last name "Rothstein", that means "red stone" in German, would probably be an indirect reference to a ruby

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Spanish last names. Like Rojas, Rosado, Prieto, Negron, etc.

@musAKulture

3 жыл бұрын

haha now we know what language he doesn't speak a word of

@sirsytham1588

3 жыл бұрын

Maybe because he is English and his videos are directed to an English audience?

@randomgamerdude98

3 жыл бұрын

@@sirsytham1588 i just wanted to mention it since he put a number of foreign surnames at the end

There aren't many Blacks in the U.S with the last name Black, but there are a heck of a lot with the last name Brown, surprised you didn't mention it.

@bluemym1nd

3 жыл бұрын

He did

@alcarbo8613

3 жыл бұрын

@@bluemym1nd No he didn’t suggest you watch the video again

@bluemym1nd

3 жыл бұрын

@@alcarbo8613 3:06

@alcarbo8613

3 жыл бұрын

@@bluemym1nd He doesn’t say Brown is a common Black Name he just says it’s a common name in general, so your wrong

@isaiah4006

3 жыл бұрын

Fax

In South Africa - Oranje is a common last name anongst afrikaans speaker’s.

@comradesam3029

3 жыл бұрын

The only relation I can think of is the association of orange with the the Dutch/The Netherlands as a whole

@kaloarepo288

3 жыл бұрын

@@comradesam3029 In the final analysis it doesn't refer to a fruit or a color but to a city in southern France called ORANGE which was in possession of the stadholder William the founder of the Dutch Republic -William inherited the principality from a relative with the proviso that he use it as part of his title.later on the color became associated with it purely because of homophony.

@poliorcetix979

2 жыл бұрын

@@kaloarepo288 True, and the name of the city has really no relation with the fruit or color, since it comes from the Celtic name meaning "High point of view".

A note about the name "Blue", in the past the colour blue was not distinguished from the colour green. Like how in modern English, blue is usually not differentiated from cyan, even through they are very different colours. It's possible that many people with the name "Green" could have actually been named after something blue.

In the Marathi ethnicity of India we have such last names. Pāndharé (White), Kālé (Black), Gōré (Fair), Sāvalé (Dark), Dhavalé (White), Hiravé (Green), Nilé (Blue), Tāmbadé (Red), Zāmbhalé (Purple), Pātalé (Pink). In addition to the usual place name and occupation based last names, there are also last names after animals, trees, vegetables, spices and even disabilities!

We call grandma Grandma Black. She remarried. When I was a kid I would say, "I am going to my black grandma's house!"

@KingNedya

2 жыл бұрын

That reminds me of how when I was a toddler I would call my doctor "Mr. Black Guy"...he wasn't even black, he was Asian.

there are many Chinese surnames that's also color names, such as Hong (红, red), Huang (黄, yellow), Lan (蓝, blue), Bai (白, white) etc., but most of them came from names of ancient city-states and does not have any direct connections to the colors per se.

Huang makes sense as a Chinese location last name after the yellow river which has had people living in its shores for millennias.

Just one thing about the last name "Schwartz" and the colour it relates to The colour is actually spelt without the t ("schwarz") which is also a last name btw

@wolfpackjew

3 жыл бұрын

I wonder if the t was added in Yiddish, since Schwartz is a common Jewish last name.

@NateWatson51503

2 жыл бұрын

@@wolfpackjew I assume the "t" was added in English to try to retain the same pronunciation, as a German "z" actually has three sounds: t, s, z, in that order.

@Chigger

2 жыл бұрын

It became Gray Matter when White was involved.

So the Green Ninja; Lloyd Garmadon from LEGO Ninjago is more in common with grey rather than green.

@octoberviberations233

3 жыл бұрын

Finally Someone said it

@KingNedya

2 жыл бұрын

That's exactly what I thought of when I saw that Lloyd means grey as well.

If this is interesting to anyone, apparently my family’s last name is Brown due to their occupation. The Brown surname for us came from when they were Irish farmers and the Brown name was from the soil :)

@atomic_guy3528

2 жыл бұрын

I believe that mine (also brown) comes from brown hair/eyes

@stephenwright8824

2 жыл бұрын

I knew a woman called Brown whose family came from, Scotland and, according to her grandfather, pronounced it like the French _brun_ in Scotland.

I also suspect that color names could have come from dyers who were known to sell a particular color. Likely most common with red, yellow, and blue, since those were fairly common dyes made out of madder root, weld, and woad respectively.

I had imagined that the last name “Green” may have derived from an occupation such as greengrocer, and was shortened.

As an English teacher in Asia, students have asked me why English-speaking people have colors as last names, so I needed this. Thank you. lol

Eva Green is French, of Swedish descent on her fathers side. Green is an alternative spelling of ”gren” (long e) meaning ”branch” as in tree branch. The ”gren” part is common as part of surnames, like Lundgren (”grove branch”) or Liljegren (”lily branch”)

In Sweden we have people with the surname Blå ( Blue), Gul ( yellow), Vit ( White), Grön ( Green), Brun ( Brown), Svart ( black), Grå ( Grey), Orange ( orange) and Lila ( Purple).

@Furienna

3 жыл бұрын

Har vi? Jag har då aldrig sett de efternamnen.

When you said "Regenbogan", I had a completely different image in mind. I can't actually picture Regan as a bogan.

This was such a great video! Your channel is very entertaining!

I think black, white and brown last names are vocational, referring to blacksmiths, whitesmiths (people who work with nickel and pewter) and brownsmiths (i believe those are coppersmiths or bronze smiths)

@TheFranchiseCA

3 жыл бұрын

Copper is greensmithing.

Black was probably derived from a blacksmith or from the prince of adders black. White probably comes from white or fair hair. In Irish, Fionn was blonde it became Finn in English, Donnacha meant brown haired, Rua was red haired, Rua Ri was a red haired king, Rory is the English. Gorm means blue, so any surname Gorman, Gormley is to do with blue. Dubh means black, Dubh Gall translates as black-haired stranger is now Douglas in English.

@randylmacwhite9666

3 жыл бұрын

Bán or Bháin means white in Irish

@karenchristinewise7833

3 жыл бұрын

@@randylmacwhite9666 Fionn is fair, as in blonde. Dearg is red but rua is for an animal, an madra rua is a fox. An Gaelige agat? Different words for different circumstances. I was ash blonde and my sister was platinum. A fair-haired person was never called bui. Rugadhim i mBaile Atha Cliath.

Born and bred in the UK and never once have I heard of 'Cluedo' being called 'Clue' here. Surely you meant it is called 'Clue' in the US?

I will use this video to pay tribute to my grandma on my dads side who died this July 2020 of cancer of the bladder and pneumonia , sadly also I now have no grandparents that are living. Her last name was Brown, although it was the last name of the last guy she was married to for a brief time, a guy my dad or I never met, but she never went back to a maiden name or a different married name even though it'd been a few decades since they were married. So she is the only member of my family who had the last name Brown, as she didn't have kids with the guy. No one else close to me has a color last name but I will always be reminded of my grandma Rose when I hear the name Brown even though it is not a name that runs in the family and was just a married name.

This video requires a video explaining why you guys call that game “cluedo”

@sohopedeco

3 жыл бұрын

In Brazil, we call it "Detetive" (detective).

@derekdufon5069

3 жыл бұрын

@@sohopedeco what the what??

@macaroon_nuggets8008

3 жыл бұрын

I guess you could say, "I have no clue."

@dilbert719

3 жыл бұрын

It's pun based on the game Ludo, which was brought to America as Parcheesi.

@derekdufon5069

3 жыл бұрын

@@dilbert719 you call Parcheesi “Ludo”!!!?? :-O

You should do how colours got their names. Love the content!

@sohopedeco

3 жыл бұрын

He already has that video.

@SP-bt9mp

3 жыл бұрын

That's what i thought this video was going to be about when i pressed it xD

Also in German the word for red is roth. And in Germany and Austria the last name Roth is pretty common.

@anlumo1

3 жыл бұрын

There's also the famous family called Rothschild (red shield), which all English speakers (at least on KZread) incorrectly pronounce as roth's child.

How did I not find this channel until now. I am OBSESSED with names. This channel is a godsend I bet you already know this but My given name is a diminutive of Robert which can mean famed and also bright and shining (I tend to focus on the later as I like it more) My last name is an occupation name

blue is thought to be a more recently named (possibly even seen) color so it makes sense that it wouldn’t be the most common color-based last name

Are you going to do a second video on Silver (like Nate Silver) and Gold with it's variants (Goldstone, Goldstein), maybe other stones and metals (I can think of Steel and Steele)?

The mandarin word for yellow (黄/黃/Huáng/Huang) and red (红/紅/Hóng/Hong) are popular and also common to Chinese speakers and ethnic Han Chinese people.

While reading a book about the Scottish Clans which listed the names associated with each clan, I came across a mention of the reason that many Scottish families have color names. During the time when many Scottish families fled to Ireland to escape the turmoil of war, they changed their names in order to maintain the secrecy of their origin. Many clans adopted a certain color as their surname. so that, once in Ireland, if they came across a person named Brown or Black they would know which clan they came from and be able to recognize their clan members.

Eva Green's name doesn't come from the English word green, but rather from a Swedish cognate, "gren," which means branch or tree limb. of course, the English word green also comes from the same proto-germanic root word for plants.

Blue came about later than other color names, so it's possible that's another reason why the name is uncommon.

my surname means "red man", probably after red hair, but since red hair is a very recessive trait it probably disappeared from my family for probably a long time, but now me, my brother, and my paternal grandmother have red hair but no other biological relatives have red hair

Aoi, and Midori are popular Japanese first names that mean blue and green respectively

Indian living in Hungary here. Fun fact, a loooot of people here in Hungary have colors as their surname, it was something I found really interesting and always wondered why was this the case...

This video made me unreasonably happy. I've got a colour-based last name! (But not an English one)

Lots of people of German or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry have surnames of Weiss (White) or Schwartz (Black). Examples: Erich Weiss, the birth name of Harry Houdini; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American actor and former Governor of California.

Unless the last name black came about after/during slavery, I would say its probably based on occupation or hair color, not skin color

When I lived in Peru, there was a surname I came across 'Puca Puca' which is Quechua for 'Red Red'.

5:53 Sorry Lloyd. You are not the green ninja

Thanks to a history teacher of mine, who wondered out loud about where my surname came from one day while talking about where surnames came from, I looked into my name. Turns out that one possible origin was that Greenlaw (which is Scottish, BTW) may have been derived from 'Greenleiu', which apparently meant 'green hills'.

Orange is a relatively new addition to English that was adopted after the fruit orange started to be imported. Prior to this the shade we call orange was referred to as red-yellow. As other posts say blue is also a newer lable. Older texts refer to the sea using terms that translate as shades of green, grey, purple.

Garys and Lucys!😂😂

@victorgomes103

3 жыл бұрын

Is that a reference to something?

@SnarkNSass

3 жыл бұрын

@@victorgomes103 yeppers. Where do surnames come from? A way to tell apart the Garys and Lucys....

@victorgomes103

3 жыл бұрын

@@SnarkNSass I know you were quoting the video, but I thought "Garys and Lucys" was a reference to some work of media.

@SnarkNSass

3 жыл бұрын

@@victorgomes103 oh lol. IDK. If it is... Went over my head too😂

My last name is Roan, which is a color pattern of a horses coat. Still wondering where that started

@danorott

3 жыл бұрын

What?! I thought your name was MacGuffin. I've been lied to!

@mrmacguff1n

3 жыл бұрын

@@danorott Bamboozled again

i don’t know about other languages, but particularly for ashkenazi jews, german color names are common, like schwarz, weiss, goldberg, geller, rotman, gruenberg, etc but blau is more rare and people don’t usually have the last name blue

Humans do have the color green on their bodies, we have green eyes.

@neon_skies5821

2 жыл бұрын

and our veins too in a way

Unless you happened to mention it after the section on Green, you might also have wanted to note that people can have green eyes too. And gray for that matter.

A friend of mine who studies costuming and historic clothing-making techniques recently finished her Masters thesis on historical methods for achieving the colour purple. She told me that most of the reason why purple was not worn by much other than royalty is because the colour purple was notoriously hard to achieve through use of natural dyes. As such, it was a very expensive colour to achieve, and the only people who could afford any clothing in a purple clothing would be royalty or very high-class nobles.

Great video! Very informative. What about "Violet?" I know it as a feminine first name. Is it also a last name? Gold and silver are common. Both are used in combination names as well. Are these used because of being colors or precious metals?

@oldvlognewtricks

2 жыл бұрын

Violet is a flower name, and precious metals were frequently taken as family names, just as gemstones were popular given names. They still work, since the colours were named after the plants/metals, but I don’t think the names refer to the colours specifically.

"This hardcore ghetto gangsta image takes a lot of practice, I'm not black like Barry White no I am white like Frank Black is"

@KnuckleHunkybuck

3 жыл бұрын

If man is 5 and the devil is 6 then that must make me 7.

Just for the record, I received a phonebook in the mail a week ago. I was very surprised. It was far smaller than those of my childhood.

There is a lot of speculation in this video. I had hoped for data. Pink Name Meaning English: nickname, possibly for a small person, from Middle English pink, penk ‘minnow’ (Old English pinc). English (southeastern): variant of Pinch. Variant spelling of German Pinck, an indirect occupational name for a blacksmith, an onomatopoeic word imitating the sound of hammering which was perceived as pink(e)pank. German (of Slavic origin): from a diminutive of Sorbian pien ‘log’, ‘tree stump’, hence probably a nickname for a solid or stubby person. Green Name Meaning English: one of the most common and widespread of English surnames, either a nickname for someone who was fond of dressing in this color (Old English grene) or who had played the part of the ‘Green Man’ in the May Day celebrations, or a topographic name for someone who lived near a village green, Middle English grene (a transferred use of the color term). In North America this name has no doubt assimilated cognates from other European languages, notably German Grün (see Gruen). Jewish (American): Americanized form of German Grün or Yiddish Grin, Ashkenazic ornamental names meaning ‘green’ or a short form of any of the numerous compounds with this element. Irish: translation of various Gaelic surnames derived from glas ‘gray’, ‘green’, ‘blue’. See also Fahey. North German: short form of a habitational name from a place name with Gren- as the first element (for example Greune, Greubole). Black Name Meaning Scottish and English: from Middle English blak(e) ‘black’ (Old English blæc, blaca), a nickname given from the earliest times to a swarthy or dark-haired man. Scottish and English: from Old English blac ‘pale’, ‘fair’, i.e. precisely the opposite meaning to 1, and a variant of Blake 2. Blake and Black are found more or less interchangeably in several surnames and place names. English: variant of Blanc as a Norman name. The pronunciation of the nasalized vowel gave considerable difficulty to English speakers, and its quality was often ignored. Scottish and Irish: translation of various names from Gaelic dubh ‘black’ (see Duff). Danish and Swedish: generally, probably the English and Scottish name, but in some cases perhaps a variant spelling of Blak, a nickname from blak ‘black’. In some cases, a translation of various names meaning ‘black’, for example German and Jewish Schwarz. Gray Name Meaning English: nickname for someone with gray hair or a gray beard, from Old English græg ‘gray’. In Scotland and Ireland it has been used as a translation of various Gaelic surnames derived from riabhach ‘brindled’, ‘gray’ (see Reavey). In North America this name has assimilated names with similar meaning from other European languages. English and Scottish (of Norman origin): habitational name from Graye in Calvados, France, named from the Gallo-Roman personal name Gratus, meaning ‘welcome’, ‘pleasing’ + the locative suffix -acum. French and Swiss French: habitational name from Gray in Haute-Saône and Le Gray in Seine-Maritime, both in France, or from Gray-la-ville in Switzerland, or a regional name from the Swiss canton of Graubünden

Another variation of Fairchild would also be Fairbairn, which I've encountered in North East England. Also for those who live among nature, Forreter, Wood.

Thanks for this vid! I'm a bit sensitive with my spelling when sending messages to someone from the UK and the US so I'll try to keep in mind that grey=England and gray=America.

iirc, in japan you can be named green green (緑みどり / midori midori). noticed it while browsing thru a names dictionary

great video What is your favourite colour as a name?

You forgot to talk about the English/German surnames "Gold" and "Silver".

@oldvlognewtricks

2 жыл бұрын

Are they referring to colours, or metals? I suppose it works either way.

Not color related but my last name is from dutch origin and it literally means "what here", it makes me wonder how it became a surname

There's a a very famous hotdog stand in Los Angeles called Pink's, the family that started in 1939 last name is Pink. In Spanish and Portuguese, Silva and Rosado, Rosales, or Rosada are common names either for the actual color of pink and Silver or last names as on Silva and Rosales. Plata is the word for silver when talking about the metal

Touchofpink, I think Everybody mentions my pink cheeks. LOL But then again, I do so love Blue. That song about Blue.. still a favourite !! Again, thank you for such yet another wonderful topic. Shall ask my lad how to donate to your channel. You are GRAND !!! hugs.

Green could also be green eyes I imagine (Blue is also a relatively common surname, and blue eyes are very common, as are brown and grey, and I've heard of Hazell as a surname, could be hazel eyes, could be someone who lived by a hazel tree). I have heard of Pink as a surname (maybe someone with a very pink skintone, like some Irish people tend to have) (and Pinkman, like Jesse Pinkman), I've heard of Purple as a surname (someone who made/traded purple dye, or someone who acted like a royal), I've heard of Orange from Take That's Jason Orange, I've even heard of regular words that also happen to be colours that are also surnames (e.g. Rose, Lemon, Chestnut). Gold and Silver are surnames too, and refer to people who worked with those metals or rich people who had lots of gold/silver. I have also heard of Ruddy as a surname (which would be a variation of 'red') I've even heard of Yellow as a surname (although I had to go out of my way to look for it), and Rainbow (in English now, not German). And if I'm not mistaken, the name Bowie (as in David Bowie) also refers to blondes (buí is the Irish for yellow, and it's not a huge jump from buí (pronounced "bwee") to Bowie. Although in Irish, the word for blonde is 'fionn', which gives us the first names of Fionn (pronounced 'fyun', like 'fun' but with a Y sound after the F) and Finn (the Anglicized form), and the surname Finn, as well as names like Finbarr (from Irish 'fionn' and 'barr' (top), so it would refer to someone with a 'blonde top' (i.e. hair)). As far as I know, Douglas comes from the Irish 'dúghlas' meaning 'dark green' (dúghlas = dubh (black) + glas (green)), and by that logic, Finglas (a place in Dublin, but can also be a surname) would mean 'blonde-green' (maybe someone with blonde hair and green eyes?). Corcoran is another Irish surname derived from a colour, this time it's purple (while the word 'corcra', which Corcoran is derived from, does mean 'purple' in modern Irish, it used to refer to a dark red colour, so probably someone with a red complexion). So in Ireland, it's more common to (sort of) have Purple as a last name (although I don't think there's many of us whose last name is literally "Purple")

Imagining the pg, soft spoken NameExplain sitting down and enjoying breaking bad is pretty funny.

In latin-derived languages, some surnames (and, especialy first names) derive from flavius, that reffer to blonde hair. In Portuguese it becomes Flávio.

Born and raised in rusyn family in Transcarpathia, I always was interested in origins of rusyn surnames. I have a friend with surname "Сідун (Sidun)" and I belive that it's came from word "Сідый (sidýj)" which means "gray (hair)" on rusyn. After watching your video, it's makes sense to me.

So when are you going to make a video about the names of colours.

If you were ever looking for topic ideas. I think you might find the Akan naming system quite interesting

In French we have "Leblond" and "Leroux" which can only refer to hair color. So Brown and Black most likely refer to hair color.

speaking of hair colours, what about ginger? it's a common female first name and could be related to the cooking ingredient. and in Japanese, the word "shiro/白" means white and is a name

2:35 - "Or Family Based" meaning like "I am Worf, Son of Mogh!"

Green can be characteristic based. Perhaps the original holders had green eyes.

@bea4790

3 жыл бұрын

Member of a Green family here. I've done a bit of research and apparently it originated in the family/individual being close to the town green/lawn

You would think blue or red would be a more common name BECAUSE there are less people with blue eyes are red hair. Why would brown be common? Which Joe do you mean? Oh, the Joe with brown hair. But ALL the Joes have brown hair... But if you're talking about the Cindy with Red hair, that's likely to be a good descriptor

@oldvlognewtricks

2 жыл бұрын

Russell, Flanagan, Couch, Gough, Radcliffe, Roy, Roth, Rothschild all refer to the colour red The surname Gorman means ‘little blue one’.

My own last name comes from the Scottish word for "Red." I believe my ancestor was called "Roddick" because he had red hair.

The fact that brown is a common hair colour actually speaks AGAINST it becoming a name. You tend to pick features that set people apart.

Pinck used to be a word describing a shade of yellow before it acquired its current name, so it may have been a hair colour surname originally.

in Italian, the most common surnames are related to colours. for example Rossi/Russo (red), Verdi (green), Bianchi (white), Neri (black), Bruno (brown), Moro (dark-hair or skin), Biondi (blonde)... very interesting!

I like the Japanese name Midori which means green :) I think the name Blair means white too

@heatherswanson1664

3 жыл бұрын

That's interesting for Blaire White who chose her first name

I don't really trust the re search on this

Common Russian names based on color: Chernov (black), Belov (white), Serov (gray). There are more but those are the most common ones that comes to mind.

5:16 I did something like this when naming a certain character in my novel... Except it was for his eye colour, not his hair LOl

I heard Russell comes from the color of rust.

Llwyd is Welsh for Grey and that is a mixture of Gwyn(white) as in Nell Gwynn and Du(black) as in John Dee the Elizabethan magician. I've seen a gravestone of a Mr Pink but I think it's a misspelling of Penc.

The video says the Crown in the past outlawed the wearing of purple? Source? It's not that I don't believe it, but curious what you are referring to specifically to read up on it.

@oldvlognewtricks

2 жыл бұрын

Look up ‘sumptuary laws’ - long history of regulating appearance and consumption.

I picked up somewhere that the surname Boyd is derived from the color yellow