Surnames: "Carpenter" and "Smith"

[brentspeak]

Surnames like "Carpenter" and "Smith" are simply names that people long ago adopted to express their family's occupation, right? (Me such a genius! :dunce:)

[PassingFair]

1. Cartwright... Cooper... Miller... Bishop... Chandler

etc.

[Richardo]

2. Brewer, Wright, Sumner, Wheeler, Shoemaker

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Mason, Cook, Barber, Carter, Sawyer

Baker, Gardener, Walker, Farmer, Taylor

[eyepaddle]

11. What is a Sumner?

I've never heard of that one.

[Richardo]

12. Summoner, sort of a medieval process-server

...as immortalized by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales, and Gordon Sumner (Sting) in one of his solo albums.

[Captain Hilts]

13. Boatwright....nt

[carpetbagger]

4. In German those are Zimmerman and Schmidt.

Schneider, Muller, Weber, Krueger, Meier, Koehler, Wagner, Fischer.

I have one of those names of a German occupation. (yep, that's where Carpetbagger comes from ).

[jobycom]

5. Sanitationengineer, Whitecollar, and Headofhomelandsecurity, too. nt

[smirkymonkey]

16. Don't forget Hedgefundweenie, Wallstreetdouchebag and

Corporatelawyerasshat. All good family names. German stock, I believe.

[petronius]

6. Baker, Thatcher, Butler, Hunter...

[rurallib]

19. Baxter = female baker

any other feminine last names?

[Swede]

7. Fletcher,Skinner,Sheriff,

Barber, Shepherd,Mason, and Miller etc etc

[unpossibles]

8. what about Sexsmith, Johnson, Dingleberry, Fink, Crapper, Dick, Love, Hooker, Wiener, Coward...

What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?

Edit:
I almost forgot Felcher. (don't look that up)

[Bucky]

18. I'm looking that last one up

Oh, my....


 

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Cordwainer, as in the pseudonym of Paul Linebarge who wrote sci-fi as Cordwainer Smith

Cordwainer= a shoe maker, from the leather know as cordovan.

[brentspeak]

14. Harlan Ellison has also written as "Cordwainer" something, I think

[Gormy Cuss]

15. Hah! Didn't know that.

From his wiki article:

Ellison has on occasion used the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird to alert members of the public to situations in which he feels his creative contribution to a project has been mangled beyond repair by others, typically Hollywood producers or studios. (See also Alan Smithee.) The first such work to which he signed the name was "The Price of Doom," an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (though it was misspelled as Cord Wainer Bird in the credits). An episode of Burke's Law ("Who Killed Alex Debbs?") accredited as written by Ellison contains a character given this name.

The "Cordwainer Bird" moniker is a tribute to fellow SF writer Paul M. A. Linebarger, better known by his pen name, Cordwainer Smith. The origin of the word "cordwainer" is shoemaker (from working with cordovan leather for shoes). The term used by Linebarger was meant to imply the industriousness of the pulp author. Ellison has said, in interviews and in his writing, that his version of the pseudonym was meant to mean "a shoemaker for birds". Since he has used the pseudonym mainly for works he wants to distance himself from, it may be understood to mean that "this work is for the birds". Stephen King once said he thought that it meant that Ellison was giving people who mangled his work a literary version of "the bird" (given credence by Ellison himself in his own essay titled "Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto", describing his experience with the Starlost television series).

[Orrex]

10. You don't meet a whole lot of Mongers though.

[Bucky]

17. What about the last name Hoare?

I'm thinking of computer pioneer Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare, who invented Hoare logic. I wonder what his ancestors did in order to pay for his college education?

[scheming daemons]

20. Why aren't there more people with the last name of "LazyAsshole"?