Allison Oakes (Sabraw)

GREAT PICTURE 

Allison

John Sertich

Very nice picture.  Isn't it nice that you have been able to reconnect.

Steve Kelly

Great picture I like your shirt John

Roger Kircher

That's a great picture.

Carol (Kurli) Thompson (Mack)

Great picture and cool to be able to reconnect.

Susie Weidman (Arnold)

Carol Ann, you said when you moved to AR you would look up John B...how nice that you got to connect with your spouses.  Carol Ann, when we talked you said you had a really good time together... Too bad you live so far away and can't get to our reunion...    👍  CKM Lions forever 

Diane Hinesley (Malone)

Peggy Fredlund (Schaffran)

Carol, adorable picture of you and John !! I may have to head out there next summer.

Charlotte Adelman (Paliani)

Thank you David for this forum!

Everyone looks so nice when they post pictures. My memories from high school are very positive, and I am sorry that I will miss the reunion.I was there in May for my brother's 90th and have been visiting and babysitting San Diego son and family a lot.  I am going on the Canadian Rockies train trip in August, and doing another trip in September just isn't in the cards. My husband isn''t 100% anymore and I don't like leaving him too often. I live in rural coastal Washington State. Come and visit. We have no heat!!  We may be getting older but I still feel very young and energetic most of the time. I am a very active community volunteer and feel useful.  Those of you I am still in touch with seem to feel the same way. Go Lions!! Charotte Adelman Paliani

Dennis De Cuir

Hi John and Carol,

Wonderful picture and wow how ageing hasn't happened to you guys!

Please post some more photos and info!

Best regards,

--Dennis

Ken Shoemake

Charlotte's comments and the great photo of John and Carol remind me of a t-shirt I saw in South Lake Tahoe yesterday:  "It is so weird to realize I am the same age as old people".  Some days I still think I am the same person that I was in the 5th grade at Reiverside School.  Other days, not so much:-). 

Linda Mancebo (Barnes)

It has been so nice to see the photos and comments posted.  Even though I wasn't really friends with most of you, I remember the names and yearbook photos    It is hard to believe it has been 60 years since graduation.  I still feel youngish most days. 
 

Carol Gee (Siefkin)

Carol, that is a great picture of you and John.  I totally agree with everyone who has commented that body says one thing and the 'young' mind says something different.  We are all making the most of every day and keeping one foot infront  of the other.  Thanks for sharing and you both look terrific--Arkansas?? Where in AR?  Must admit I have never been there.  Enjoy.  Also kudos to Dave for this website--you have made so many people very happy and many are reconnected.  THANK YOU.  Carol Gee Siefkin

Barbara Alexander

Hello Everyone. Hey Ken, I need one of those r-shirts! Carol and John, great coincidence that you both ended up in the same place. And yes, very nice picture. I remember you, Carol, and also the Bodenhammer brothers, always fun loving, upbeat an friendly. Am looking forward to the reunion. Barbara

Diane Hinesley (Malone)

Charlotte Adelman (Paliani)

I'm in ocean park on the Long Beach peninsula 

Diane Hinesley (Malone)

Michael McCarroll

Reflections for CKM '63:  We lived our late twenties in the early seventies, building on hopes and dreams for our future.  Now we are in our late seventies in the early twenties, contemplating the past only with hopes and dreams for future generations.  Humbly submitted - Mike McCarroll 

Barbara Alexander

Hello McClatchy Alumni. Our reunion was a great success thanks to all of the attendees and especially the committee who worked so hard to put it together. I really enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces (the name tags helped) some I've known since it's grade at Crocker Elementary. It was and exciting and heartwarming day. Take care of yourselves, Barbara

Bill Kelso

                           Posting on the McClatchy Website

After the reunion last month, I was just thinking of all of our classmates who normally attend reunions who were no longer with us. They ranged from Mike Bungay to Diana Doupe to Karen Elliott to Kristen Otto and Ron Marquardt.

That point became even more significant when I recently exchanged letters with Bonnie Stormont who told me that the Alumni Association was maybe going to hold reunions every two years rather than every five years. I guess the feeling is that if we wait five years, there may not be that many of us still around to attend a get together.

In light of the fact that our time may be short, and that the number of our classmates shrinks every year, I thought I would try to write a post about the makeup of our class. Before we passed away maybe people would want to know who we were and where we came from.

In the past week to ten days, I tried to look at the ethnic backgrounds of our class. But as soon as I finished the article and was going to post it, the world was turned upside by the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. The massacre of so many innocent people, especially young people at a concert in Israel who were probably the same age we were when we graduated from McClatchy, was so difficult to watch that I stopped looking at the news.

Given the severity of the world situation and the steady drumbeat of ominous news about foreign affairs, I decided to not post my article as it seemed too superficial and trivial. 

However, the more I thought about the issue, the more I thought that maybe a feature about our class might lift the doom that seem to have engulfed the world. Perhaps a post about the people we grew up with would give our classmates a chance to read something that would distract them from all the violence in the world. In place of reading about foreign affairs, we would have a change to recall pleasant memories about our high school days and in the process maybe learn something about our classmates that we did not know before.

Bill Kelso

          The McClatchy Class of 1963:  Who We Are

Over the past year we have looked at how the world has changed since we graduated from high school. While we have examined both changes in domestic as well as foreign affairs, our class might find it an interesting change of pace to look at the ethnic background of our classmates. Instead of focusing on what has changed since high school, it might be intriguing to also ask who we are. Rather than asking where we are going, maybe should ask where we have come from. In the process we might discover how little we actually knew about both the people we grew up with as well as our own ethnic makeup.

                             Four Reason for Learning about Our Heritage

I am raising this issue for four specific reasons. First of all, in this post I want to show that historically our experience in attending McClatchy was probably radically different from the experience of people living in ethnically more diverse cities like New York, Philadelphia or Chicago, While we did not realize it, our high school experience was probably unique in how we visualized and interacted with our classmates.

Secondly after looking at the ethnic makeup of our class we can also finally draw a profile of our class and see to what extent our class mirrored society at large. Even though we grew up with many of our classmates, we may never have asked if our class was unique or special in any way. 

Thirdly, we can even speculate what the McClatchy class of 2063 will look like in the future.. As we shall see the students who will attend our high school by the turn of the century may  look very different from the people who constituted the graduating class of 1963.

Fourthly, for personal reasons I also wanted to look at our ethnic background because for the longest time I never knew much about the ethnic history or even the national makeup of my own family. It was not until I graduated from high school and later when I turned 30, that I became fully aware that on my father’s side we were Scotch Irish while on my mother’s side we were Irish Catholic as my grandfather had immigrated from Ireland to American in 1914. 

Hopefully all four of the above topics will be of interest to our class. But more importantly, the most satisfying part of looking at the nature of our surnames, is that it may help us gain a better insight into our own family history. 

For instance, when I was young, I always enjoyed listening to my grandfather talk about living on his farm in Ireland. My grandfather, like many Irishmen, was a great story teller and kept me entertained.  But to be honest I was never quite sure what Ireland was or where it was located. Because my family as well as my grandparents never had a globe or a map in our house, I was unaware that it was a distinct country.

                          1) First I Finally Realized I was Ethnically Irish

However by the 8^th grade I finally realized that Ireland was a topic of major concern to my grandfather. The key event that changed my whole outlook came one day when the whole family had gathered for dinner. Before we settled in my grandfather was watching the tv from the dining room table when the tv news anchor announced that John Kennedy was going to run for President and had a good chance of winning. 

As soon as the tv reporter finished his announcement, my grandfather started shouting that “They were no longer going to keep us down and we were finally going to win.” Since I was sitting at the far end of the table, I grabbed my mother’s arm and said “We’re oppressed, Who are We?” My mother replied “Catholic and Irish.” When I pointed to my all my Catholic relatives, I said “Aren’t most people Catholic?” my mother replied, “Not at all.”

In the following months my brother, sister and I finally started asking my grandfather about his experience in America. While he generally like to talk about growing up on a farm in Ireland, he rarely talked about his experience in America. 

But after prodding from his grandchildren, he told us that because he had no future in Ireland, one day, without telling his parents, he left home and traveled to the coast to board a ship to the US. After working several months to afford a ticket to his new home, he arrived in America when he was 19 and settled in New York where he lived in Hell’s Kitchen on the upper west side of Manhattan, just south of Central Park. 

My sister wanted to know why he lived in such a dangerous place. He pointed out that if an Irishman found himself in the wrong ethnic neighborhood, he could expect a violent reception from members of an opposing ethnic group. In mid 20^th century America just about all neighboods were ethnic neighborhoods and the Irish, Italians, Blacks and Jews all knew it was dangerous to be caught in the wrong neighborhood. Even then Irish gangs often preyed on new newcomers intimidating them to fork over part of any wages they earned in New York.

Besides having restricted living options, my grandfather also had limited job opportunities. Since he had little or no education, he was a day laborer in New York city. 

To better his economic situation he moved to Texas to work in the oil fields. But the Ku Klux Klan, who were hostile to African Americans as well as Irish Catholics, were active in Texas and they hassled and tried to intimidate him at work. After realizing that he had no future in Texas, he left for San Francisco where he heard there were plenty of jobs for working men. But unfortunately, my grandfather said at that time there were many businesses that had signs in their windows saying “No Irish Allowed.” He eventually settled in a Irish ghetto which was south of Market Street and was forced to be a day laborer again. 

However, as he got older, he found a full time job as a janitor at a car dealership in downtown SF and with his Social Security check, he was able to retire on a modest pension.

                   2)Second, The Unique Nature of McClatchy & Sacramento

But if my grandfather’s experience in America made my curious about my ethnic identity, his comments about our classmates also made me realize how different our experiences at McClatchy were from those of our grandparents as well as other high schools in cities with large immigrant populations. 

The precipitating event that triggered this recognition occurred after our high school graduation. My grandfather, who was staying with us in Sacramento, was looking through our McClatchy yearbook, and he commented to me that I had gone to school with a lot of other Irish kids.  I remember I said, “How do you know that?” He replied, “I can tell by their Irish names.” “He then said, “Don’t you know who the other Irish kids are in your high school and whose names are Gallic?” I told him I hadn’t the slightest clue.

My grandfather, however, who was very conscious of who was Irish, naturally knew all the Gallic names in our school because he thought of himself as an Irish America rather than just an American. 

I quickly realized that l lived in a very different world from that of my grandfather and that my experience at McClatchy was probably historically unique reflecting the unusual nature of life in Sacramento after WWII. 

                                    The Idea of a Melting Pot

           How People lost their Ethnic Identity and became Americans 

Our McClatchy class is a result of what sociologists call the “Melting Pot”. While it took many years, by the third or fourth generation the Irish, and other ethnic groups, started to intermarry with one another, blurring their ethnic identity.  Eventually their children came to think of themselves as just average Americans who lived in uneventful. places like Land Park, or the Riverside area rather than distinctively ethnic neighborhood like Hell’s Kitchen or Bensonhurst, a sprawling Italian area in New York City. In the process, their off springs often forgot or became unaware of their ethnic heritage. And that was certainly true in my case. Of if our classmates were aware of their ethnic background, they, like me, often knew little of their grandparent’s heritage nor recognized the surnames of their relative’s original country.

                            A View of Ethnic America in DeNiro’s Movie The Bronx Tales

In this sense our class grew up in an atmosphere that was radically different from how our grandparents or great grandparents probably lived. Even more important our class probably interacted with our peers in a very different manner from high school seniors who grew up in more diverse and ethnically organized cities like New York or Chicago. In those more heterogeneous cities, people in the 1960s lived in neighborhoods that were patently Irish, or Italian or Jewish or German. Probably in the 1950s and 60s when we were in high school, kids in much larger cities were more likely to hang out with other members of the same ethnic group. If you want to get a feel for how New York or Chicago differed from Sacramento, watch Robert Dinero’s excellent move “Bronx Tales” which is a coming of age study of high school kids living in ethnic Italian neighborhood. In our high school we had very dissimilar experiences as most of us neither knew our own ethnic heritage nor that of our classmates and certainly had no idea if our classmates had a German, English or Irish surname. 

In contrast to cities in the Midwest and east, in Sacramento the intermarriage of different ethnic groups that characterized the Melting Pot occurred much earlier in our rather homogeneous city. Only perhaps 20 years after we graduated from high school, did most other public schools in America reflect the loss of ethnic identities that was so true of our high school in the early 1960s. 

                        3. Third, Drawing a Profile of our McClatchy Class

To gain a fuller picture of our graduating class, I will try to post the surnames of different ethnic groups later this week. Now admittedly surnames are an imperfect measure of people’s ethnic identity because of the influence of the melting pot. While a person could have an Irish surname, they might at best have only 25% to 50% of their genes from Ireland. 

Despite these shortcomings, our surnames will enable us to draw a tentative ethnic or racial profile of our classmates. While the picture will admittedly be incomplete, we should be able to achieve our third goals by drawing a semi accurate profile of the McClatchy class of 1963 in the next week or so and compare it with other high schools in the country. As we shall see some ethnic groups are surprisingly overrepresented in our class while yet other ethnic groups are heavily underrepresented.

          4. Fourth, Predicting the Makeup of McClatchy in 2063

Finally, while a profile of our class will be interesting, we should be aware that future classes of our high school will look very different from our class of 1963.  In studying the ethnic backgrounds of our classmates, we can achieve our fourth and final objective and speculate what the future will hold for our high school. As even a cursory look at census projections indicates, it is obvious that the McClatchy class of 2063 will consist of an alternative mix of ethnic and racial groups.

A Biracial Society

When we attended McClatchy in 1963, America was basically a biracial society as white Europeans descendants were close to 85% of the population and African Americans were around 10%. Because of more liberal immigration laws as well as the growing tendency of either white married women to abstain from having children or of the decision of younger white women to avoid marriage altogether, the percentage of Caucasians in American society is rapidly declining. 

A Multi Racial Society

Just as the makeup of the world’s population has dramatically changed over the past 100 years, a similar but less dramatic process of change is occurring in America. As we mentioned in a previous post, while the white population from Europe has declined from around 35% of the world’s population in the 15^th century to under 10% today, the world’s Asian population had grown from around 50% to close to 60%. The change in America’s demographic profile partly mirrors that of the world.  For example, while Asian Americans constituted only .6% off one percent of the American population in 1963, today they make up over 7% of the population and are expected to be 9% in twenty to twenty five years. Similarly in 1960s Hispanics were only around 4% to 5% of the population while today they constitute 18% of the American population. Predictions are that the Hispanic population will expand to roughly 25% or even 30% of the American population within several decades. Even the American Indian population, which was less than .4% of one percent in 1960, today constitute 2.6% of the American population as their population surged after the 1970s. While most predictions estimate that the Black population will remain at roughly14%, Americans of European descent will probably decline to around 47% of the nation’s population by the turn of the century.

A Multi Racial and Multi Ethnic Society

As the above data indicates, it is very clear that America is moving from a biracial society made up of former white ethnics and African Americans, to a multi racial society. But equally importantly, the growing racial diversity of American society is at the same time matched by the growing ethnic diversity within each racial grouping. The one exception, as we described earlier, is the decline of ethnic groups among the white population. But if we look at the three other ethnic groups, they have become much more diverse over the last 40 years. 

For instance, while Mexican Americans today are the largest Hispanic population in America, over 40% are increasingly from a variety of other countries in South and Central American. Similarly, while Asians once consisted of only Chinese and Japanese Americans today, today the Asian community is made up of six major Asian populations and several smaller Asian Communities. Even among African Americans, while the vast majority are locally born, over 10% of the population are from Caribbean nations. In a few states like New York and Florida Caribbean Africans even outnumber American born blacks who observe their own unique culture.

A Muti Racial Society with Multiple Interracial Marriages.

Besides becoming a Multi Racial and Multiethnic Society, the US is also becoming a society in which a large number of Multi Racial or Interracial Marriages are occurring. For instance, while fewer than 1% of weddings in 1960s were muti racial in nature, today they make up 11% of all marriages. While in the 1960s Gallup found that 80% of Americans opposed interracial marriages, today Gallup finds that 80% of Americans either approve or do not object to interracial marriages. 

As the country evolves from a nation where 85% of all of its citizens were one race to a nation of four distinct significant ethnic groups, the marriage choices of its citizens are bound to change. If all potential mates are basically of one race, there will naturally be little or no interracial marriage. But if dating and marriage involves selecting a mate from four distinct groups, none of which constitute of majority of Americans, marriage decisions will naturally change.  As the citizenry becomes more racially diverse, marriage patterns are likely to become equally diverse.

These changes in marriage patterns suggest that the issue of race may have to be rethought in the future. If the number of interracial marriages continue to climb to say 20 or 25 percentage of all marriages, the US may have to reconsider how it identifies people’s racial makeup. For instances in several Latin American countries they have four different terms to identify people with ancestors from Africa. Depending on how white or dark you skin is, you are assigned a different race. Of those four terms one was mulatto a term many American might be familiar with.  

But the problem becomes more complex if interracial marriages involve more than just white and black marriage. As an example, consider the case of Tiger Woods, who is part Black, Asian, Caucasian and Indian (Cherokee). The interesting questions is what racial term do you use to describe somebody with such a varied ethnic background? Tiger’s answer was that we needed to invent new names to described people like him and he coined the term” Cablinasian” as a possible name for his mixed race. To some extent this decision appears to be the approach of the Census bureau who will soon allow people to identify as more than one race. Perhaps in the future they may be able to create their own racial identity. In any case, racial patterns will become so complex, that it will be hard to come up with a satisfactory description of America’s ethnic makeup.

To understand why that might occur, we need to remember that the process of the Melting Pot blurred ethnic differences among the white European descendants of Americans in the post WWII period. It is thus possible that a second version of the Melting Pot may soon start blurring the racial difference in the country by the end of the 21^st century. If that process occurs, all traditional racial categories may seem inadequate to describe the ethnic makeup of America.

Today of the roughly 200 countries in the world Brazil is probably the most racially diverse nation in the planet as the vast majority of its citizens have ancestors from at least 3 continents, European, Africa and American Indian. If Brazil today has become the first multi racial nation in the world, it is very possible that America may become the second multi racial society. But, unlike Brazil, our future multi racial society may have citizens with ancestors from four rather than three continents: Europe, Africa, Asian and America (Indian, Hispanics or Mestizos). 

                  How My Grandfather Was Rights about Our Class

After looking at a profile of our current and future McClatchy graduation class, we can finally return to the observation my grandfather made after looking at our yearbook in 1963. He was definitely right that I had attended high school with many kids who had Irish surnames. As a partial list they ranged from Patty Dillion, to Mary Doyle, to Carol Gee, to Steve Kelly and Waynette Casey to all of our classmates whose last names begin with Mc including Janice McClure, Patty McCrillis, Bill McCampbell, Michael McCaroll and Walt McMillan to name just a few. Now some of these names could be Scotch Irish rather than Irish Catholic, but from the above list it is clear than many of our classmates have some ancestral link to Ireland. Ironically my grandfather, who never met a single member of our high school class, knew more about the ethnic identity of our classmates than I did who grew up with many of the above individuals.

PS.           I want to apologize to all our classmates who belong to ethnic groups that I did not analyze their  surnames. The reason for my failure to be comprehensive, is that it takes forever to compile these lists. Because trying to identify different ethnic surnames is incredibly time consuming, I finally just ran out of time and energy. In addition, even within ethnic groups I often failed to mention every classmate from that ethnic group. Unfortunately, there were just too many names to recognize the meaning of everybody’s last name.

Bill Kelso

                What is the Ethnic Background of our McClatchy Class

                                     The History of Surnames

A Surname literally means a name that is above your personal name.

Despite the significance and benefits of surnames, humans have not always had surnames. But when Europeans started using surnames, the practice varied from one country to the next. 

                           The Possible Sources of Surnames.

Historically there has been five main sources for the surnames we presently find in the west and Asia. 

A. The 5 Major Sources of Surnames

1.Patronymic Surnames which means you are the son of someone: 

(Pronounced as Pa trah ni mick) Examples: 

a. Gomez                               Son or Daughter of Gom

b. Di Angelis                           Son of Daughter of Angelis

c. McClure                              Son or Daughter of Clure

d. Olson                                 Son or Daughter of Ol

2.Occupational Surname: Examples:

 a. Counter is an accountant or treasurer in the Middle Ages.

         b. Fuller is a person who works on wool to make it thicker

         c. Hooper a person who make hoops for barrels.

        d. Miller is a person who owns or operate a Mill.

3.Habitation and Topographical Surnames

       1) Habitation.  A place you are from. Example:

       a.Kissinger from an area named Kissing in Bavaria

       2) Topographical Features. A prominent feature of your home landscape.

       a. Berg refers to a mountain, hill or cliff             

       b. Craig refers to a rocky hill.

       c. Holt refers to an area with trees or a forest.

       d. Rodda refers to a clearing in the woods.

     4. Physical Characteristic Surnames. For example,

        a. Armstrong refers to someone who is strong. 

    b. Doyle refers to Dark Stranger. 

      c. Grant refers to somebody who is tall

      d. Klein refers to someone who is small. 

5. Items Surnames

       a. Names of Animals. Example Wolf, The surname of the producer of the Law and Order 

        b. Ornamental names. Example: Roth means Red 

        c. Seasons. Example: Winter means one of the four seasons

The Possible Sources of Surnames in More Detail

(1) Surnames that are Patronymic Names

These are the oldest and most common type of surname, These surnames indicate that you are the son of someone. 

1. Add a Prefix. 

The following nations usually attached a prefix to a name to indicate son of: 1) Scotch, 2) Irish, 3) Italians 4) Arabs 

1) Scotch and Irish: Fitz, Mac, Mc, and O

In the Irish and Scottish languages, they often uses a prefix such as Mac or Mc to designate son of. Generally but not always Mac means you have a Scottish name while Mc means you have an Irish or Scotch Irish name. But that rule does not always hold and some Scottish people will use Mc and some Irish will use Mac. When the Normans invaded Ireland and Scotland they substituted Fitz for Mc or Mac.

You can also recognize that Mc or Mac means son of in that the second part of the surname is usually but not always capitalized so MacDonalds always has the Donald capitalized. The same is true of most surnames 

Fitzgerald                     Norman Irish Patronymic Surname

MacDonald                   Scottish Patronymic Surname

McCarthy                     Irish Patronymic Surname

In addition the Irish often use the letter O rather than Mc. In this case O means grandson as in O’ Reilly.

O’Reilly                       Grandson of Riley

However, in Scotland there is a difference in how people are named between the highland and the low lands of the country. While the Highlands speak Gallic, the ancient language of the Celtic people, wear kilts and play bagpipes, the lowlands of Scotland use English, don’t wear kilts and played the fiddle and guitar rather than bagpipes. While Scotland was one country, it had two very distinct subculture with different surname procedures, 

While almost all highland Scotch use Mac to designate son, the Lowlands of Scotland often imitate the England and rely on a suffix rather than the prefix Mac. 

2)The Italians. Di. The Italian Di or De is the Italian equivalent of the Irish and Scottish Mc and Mac.

While the Scotch rely on Mac the Italians rely on Di or De to designate son of. Famous examples would be Joe DiMaggio or son of Maggio or DeSantis which means son of Santis.

De Angells           A famous McClatchy classmate

DeBartolo.           The former owner of the SF 49s Football team.

De Blasio             Former  Mayor of New York

Di Caprio             The famous actor from the movie Titanic

DiMaggio              One of the most famous Baseball players.

Di Niro                  A famous Actor

DeSantis              The Governor of Florida

3) The Arabs.  Bin or Ibin 

Like the Irish, Scottish, and Italians, the Arabs attach a prefix to a name to indicate son of. The two forms are Bin or s Ibn 

In Arabic both Ibn and Bin can be translated as son of.

Everyone probably knows the mastermind of the Twin Towers attack was Osama Bin Laden which means Osama, son of Laden.  However, depending on where the name in a sentence is placed the Arabs will use Ibn rather than Bin.  If the word appears in the middle of a sentence they write Bin. If the name is at the beginning of a sentence it is written as Ibn 

Bin Lauden                                    Son of Lauden

        ii.Add a Suffix.

In place of adding a Prefix the following countries add a suffix to indicate that you are the son of someone. They include 1) Scandinavians, 2) the British, 3) Lowland Scotch and 4) Hispanics.

1)The Scandinavians.  They add Son or Sen.

Unlike the Irish the Norwegians and Swedes add a suffix to a name like son. 

Anderson                      Son of Ander

Peterson                       Son of Peter

However if the son is spelled Olsen where en replaces on as in Olsen or Hansen of Johansen, then the surname is Danish.

Olsen                            Son of Ole

 2) The English. They use three options. They Either use (a) Son, or secondly abbreviate it to (b)use       the suffix On or thirdly they (c) add the letter S to the surname.

The English as well as the Swedes often use the suffix son as in the English name Wilson or the Swedish name of Olson, 

Dyson                  Son of Dy who makes vacuum cleaners.

Pierson                Son of Piers. Famous CK classmate

Thompson           Son of Thomas. If there is no p then Thomson is usually low land Scottish.

Sometimes they will abbreviate the son and just use the abbreviated suffix on instead of son.  Example:

Dixon 

Nixon.

Finally they may add an S to the Surname to denote son of.

Examples

Andrews     As in the famous Andrews Singers of the 1950s and 60s

3) Hispanic Names Add ez.

Spanish speaking countries often attach the ending ez to a surname to designate a family relationship as in the name Hernandez which means son of Hernando and Lopez which means son of Lopez.

Gomez

Hernandez

Lopez

Martinez

Rodriguez

Perez

2)Surnames that are Occupational Surnames.

 a.For Example, The following are surnames based on Occupations involving either the acquisition of wood or lumber and the shaping pieces of wood or lumber into consumer products such as barrels or wooden wheels.

We go from Sawyer, and Hacker, to Turner and Wright and Carpenter. The first group secured the wood while the Hoopers, Collier and Carpenters made the finished products used by consumers.

Carpenter            Carpenters. A famous sister brother singing act.

Collier                 Provides the charcoal burner supplies for the Smiths and Turners. 

Hooper                Made hoops or staves for Barrels.

Sawyer                Wood Cutter. Provides the wood to the other occupations.                  

Turner                 Worked a Lathe. Make a consumer product out of wood.

Wheeler              Makes Wheels. Mr. Wheeler taught English at CK.

(3) Topographical or Locational Surnames

These are names which refer to a location. They can be of two types.  First they can be a habituation or location a person came from.  Secondly they can be topographical feature which refers to some significant piece of the landscape such as a forest or creek from your original home town.

a. A location or area from where you came.

Agnew                          Someone from a place in Normandy

Epstein                         Someone from a location in Hesse German with pleny of stones

Wallace                         Someone from Wales

b. Topographical Features that were prominent in your original home.   

1)Names designating white cliffs like the White Cliffs of Dover

Kelso                            White Cliffs

2) Names denoting Hills

Ridge                           Top of a Hill

3) Names denoting Trees or Woods or a Forest or alternatively a Clearing in a Forest.

Greenwood                   New Woods or Forest

Harwood                       The Hares’ Wood

Hurst                             A Wooded Hill

Holt                                Holt and Shaw both mean living near the Woods or Forest

Rodda                           A Clearing in a Forest or the possible name of a town.

(4)Surnames that Reflect the Attributes of People. Below are two examples of such surname, one reflecting on your character and the other reflecting on your personal appearance. Or when you appeared in the neighborhood.

1) Reflections on your Behavior

Adelman                      Noble Individual

2) Reflections on your Personal Appearance. The Color of your Hair

For Redheads or those with a ruddy complexion common Surnames are Reed, Russell, Rudge.

Reed                             Red Hair or Ruddy Complexion

Russell                         Red Hair or Ruddy Complexion

Rudge                          Red Hair or Ruddy Complexion

3)Reflections on your Personal Appearance. The Shape or Appearance of your Face.

Beck                            Person with a Beak or Big Nose

Campbell                      Crooked mouth

Kennedy                       Means Grim or Ugly Head. Also may mean Helmeted Head

Sullivan                        Dark Eyed or Hawk Eyed

4) Reflection of your recent arrival in a neighborhoods

Novack                         The new Person in town.

(5) Surnames based on Items in the World

1.Items that Often Serve as a Basis of Surnames: Animals, Heavenly Bodies, Stones often used in Jewelry, or Seasons.

Adler                              Eagle

Celine                            Means Heaven

Stein                              Stone

Winter                           The Name of a Season

Bill Kelso

     Understanding Surnames as part of Language Families

At times it is confusing to talk about your family surnames.  That confusion arises because sometimes instead of saying you have an Irish surname or a Jewish Surname or a Russian surname, people will say you have a Celtic or German or Slavic surname.  What do people mean when they make those assertations?

It turns out that various national names like Jewish or Irish names are part of larger language families which have similar naming practices. In case you are interested in what language family your last surname belongs, we can briefly identify the six language groups for Europe.

                              In Europe there are six main language groups. 

1. The Celtic Languages.

The Celts were a people that occupied the western shore of Europe over 2000 thousand years ago. They occupied Spain, France and England. They first come to people’s attention when Julius Caesar attacked them and defeated them in France two thousand years ago, making their territory part of the Roman empire. 

Eventually after the fall of the Roman empire, countries like France and Spain adopted a modified version of the Roman language as their own language. In so doing they created several of the Romance languages that include French, Spanish and Italian. In the process the Celtic languages died out in all of western Europe except for the British Isles. 

However, in Great Britain the Celtics controlled the country and practiced their own special religion which is called Druidism for a prolonged period of time. But once Rome fell, two German tribes the Anglos and Saxons invaded and conquered the land.  Because the south of Great Britain is a low-lying territory, it was relatively easy for the German tribes to defeat the Celtics in that area now known as England. To preserve their identity and language, the Celtics eventually withdrew to the outskirts and mountainous areas of the British Isles. In these separate areas of Great Britain, the once homogeneous Celtic population evolved into three distinct national states. In this more difficult terrain, the new formed Celtic states could hold their own against their Anglo Saxons conquerors and in the process retained their identity as well as the original language. While the Celtic population died out in France and Spain, it survived in the British Isles, 

As a result of this common Celtic heritage, Scottish names, Irish names, Scotch Irish and Welsh names are all very similar.

Because it is a language family, you may be asking yourself why Boston has a pro basketball team called the Celtics. At one time it was a basketball powerhouse with Bill Russell and Bob Cousy. The answer is that Boston has a lot of Irish Catholics who are part of the original Celtics ethnic group. The owner of the of the basketball team named the team after this large ethnic group in the city as a marketing device  to win the support of the local Irish population for pro basketball.

2. Germanic languages.

If Celtic languages at one time dominated the west Coast of Europe, Germanic languages have dominated northern Europe since the collapse of the Roman empire. The four German languages are 1) the German language itself, 2) Dutch, 3) The Scandinavian Languages and 4) English.

Interestingly enough the name for the country of England and the language we speak English is a modification of the German tribe Anglos which invaded England along with the Saxon tribe after the fall of the Roman empire.

The relations between German names and English names is readily apparent. For instance, in German surnames the suffix mann or man often indicates an occupation or a person’s characteristics. For instance, the name Kaufman indicates a merchant, Zimmerman means a carpenter and Bergman means a miner or mountain man while Adelman means a noble man, a member of the nobility and possibly a high ranking government official.  Because English is a Germanic language, we adopt a similar approach in naming occupations. In America, for instance, we talk of a Fisherman, Postman, Fireman, Policeman, or Chairman. The difference is that in America these terms never became surnames but both languages use the same suffix to indicate an occupation.

3. Romance languages.

If German languages dominate the north of Europe, Romance languages dominate the southern part of Europe.

Romance languages are languages that grew out of and are modification of the Latin spoken by the Roman Empire.  They include 1) Portuguese 2) Spanish 3) French and 4) Italian. 

Because these languages are derived from Latin, many people want to call Spanish speaking people Latinos. But if Latino is used in that sense, then French and Italian speakers would also have to be called Latinos.  That is why people in Spain argue that Spanish speaking people in America should be called Hispanics.

The above discussion raises the question why we call the countries south of us Latin Americans rather than Hispanic Americans? The answer is because Brazil speaks Portuguese rather than Spanish. To call South American Hispanic would have ignored the languages and culture of Brazil. In recognition of this fact, the Spanish leaders of the countries south of us choose the broader term Latin America to name their continent to reflect the traditions of those speaking Portuguese as well as Spanish. 

4.Uralic Languages.

A fourth language family in Europe is called the Uralic family and consist of the Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian languages. They are called Uralic because they come from the Ural mountains in Russia which is the geographical line that separates Europe from Asia. They along with the Celtic languages are the smallest language families in Europe.

5.The Slavic Languages. They dominate the Eastern Sector of Europe.

The fifth language family is one of the biggest and it is called the Slavic language group. It consists of all of the major languages spoken in the eastern part of Europe. It consists of Polish, Russian, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and many of the language of the country once known as Yugoslavia. As you can see, several of the eastern European nations even include variation of the word Slavic in their official name such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The Slavic languages also gave us the name slave. For most of mankind’s existence people have practiced slavery on every continent on the planet. But there was no generally accepted term to describe this practice. However in the 15^th and 16^th century the Ottoman Turks started raiding Russian and kidnapping young men to serve in their army.  The practice was so widespread, that people forced against their will into bondage became known as Slavs or slaves.

6. Semitic Languages

The final language family is the Semitic language group which includes a wide range of languages including Hebrew and Arabic. Many Jewish surname will be taken from the Bible which consists of Hebrew and a language called Aramaic. However, because most Jewish people in Europe and America originally migrated from the Middle East and at one point lived in either Germany and Poland or Russia, most of their surnames are either Germanic or Slavic in nature.  

Bill Kelso

                            How Humans Developed Languages.

If surnames are part of language families, it might be helpful to ask how human beings have tried to talk to one another. As noted below, not all language families are constructed in the same way.  In fact, among all the language families that humans developed in the world, they created four different types of languages to communicate with one another: Those four types involve either 1) clicks, 2) tones, and 3) syllables, either multi syllabic or 4) mono syllabic in nature. As is obviously the case, European languages and American English relies on syllables rather than clicks of tones.

1. Clicks.

         An interesting question is what were the earliest languages spoken by man?  While there is some       dispute over this issue, probably the very first languages spoken by men involved humans making clicks with their tongue against their teeth. Today in South Africa if you visit a village primarily made up of members of the San tribe also known as the Bushman who speak the Khoisan language you will find them using clicks to communicate with one another. If you ever read about a tribe like the !King cited with an exclamation mark in  front of the name of the tribe, it means you pronounce the first syllable of the name with a click. As is obviously the case, the exclamation mark in front of a tribe thus indicates that  that population speak with clicks. 

         The members of tribes speaking the Khoisan language, noted for its clicks, are probably examples of      some of the earliest living human beings. Being examples of the earliest human, they naturally developed what was probably the first form of human languages. However, in the roughly 150,000 to 200,000 years of modern human evolution, individuals in Asian and Europe developed three alternative type of languages to     communicate with one another. 

2. Tones. 

For instance, in place of clicks, the Chinese devised tones as a second way of structuring language. Because early languages did not have many sounds, humans in mainland Asia compensated by using variation in tones to express those sounds. In some case they used tones in an absolute sense with high or low tones to distinguish one word from another. That situation is true of some other African tribes. The Chinese, however, developed directional rather than absolute tones to communicate with one another. That means they can take the same sound and vary the         direction of the pitch. In one case the pitch may be ascending which means one word while in another case the same sound will have a descending pitch which conveys a very different idea. Today the main Chinese language, which is mandarin Chinese, has 4 tones but Cantonese, the Chinese language often spoken in Hong Kong, has 7 tones.  In Asia, China and South East Asia are the countries that primarily rely on tonal languages to communicate.

3.  Multi Syllabic Languages. True of Japan and many European Languages such as German

As an alternative to clicks and tones, people can multiply the number of sounds in a language by stringing together different syllables to express themselves.  For instance, Japanese, in contrast to Chinese as well as Vietnamese, has developed a multi-syllabic language. As is obviously the case, some European countries. like the Japanese, also developed many multi syllabic form of language to  facilitate speaking with one another,   

Generally, if a language has few sounds more of its words will be multi syllabic in nature. As an illustration, in Japan many surnames are long and multisyllabic such as Mitsubishi or Sumitomo and have   four syllabi. However, the most multi syllabic language in the world is  probably the indigenous Polynesian language of Hawaii. In Europe the language that is most notable for having multi syllabic words is easily the German language.

4. More Mono Syllabic Languages. Primarily English.

In contrast to Japanese and German, many other European languages are more mono syllabic in nature. That is especially true of English which is probably the most mono syllabic language in the world. It is this way because of all the languages in the world, the English language has one of the largest arrays of sounds. Because England was invaded by so many different nationalities it acquired a rich array of sounds from the Celtics, the Romans, the Germans, the Scandinavians and their Vikings cousins to construct our English language. 

You can easily visualize the monosyllabic nature of English if you recall our 2^nd grade reader. In our 2nd grade books which were called the Dick and Jane reader, they would have sentences that are incredibly monosyllabic in nature. For instance, a common or typical sentence would have Dick talk to their dog by saying something like “lie down Spot “. In many cases their words had only one or two syllabi or three at most. We also see this in how American given names are very monosyllabic such as Joe, Bill Bob or Ed as opposed to the more multi syllabic German given name such as Wolfgang or Friedrich or Hermann.

Bill Kelso

                                Irish Surnames 

I. Origins of Names I. When they Adopted surnames

Because the Irish were some of the first ethnic groups to have surnames they started adopting surnames as early as the 11^th century.

II.  The Ten most popular Irish Surnames in America

1. Byrne                  Raven
2. Doyle                   Means Dark Stranger
3. Kelly                   Warrior or Fighter
4. McCarthy            Son of Loving Individual.       
5. Murphy               Sea Warrior
6. O’Brian               Grandson of a Noble Individual
7. O’Connor            Grandson of a Lover of Hounds
8. Ryan                   Related to Water
9. Sullivan               Hawk Eye or Dark Eye          
10. Walsh                  Foreigner or Stranger possible from Wales

III. The Different Ethnic Groups that created Irish Surnames

Irish names are complex as they represent four different groups.

1) The first group are the native Celtic people who constitute the bulk of the Irish Catholics in Irelands today. Most names are derived from this population and thus Celtic surnames are derived from the Gaelic language, the original language of the Irish, Scotch and Welsh people.

2) The second group consist of Scandinavian Viking names. Ireland was basically a rural nation without any cities for over a thousand years. However, when the Vikings started attacking and conquering Ireland in the 8^th century, they created most of the Irish cities we know today including Dublin, and Cork. 

Equally significantly the Vikings also altered the physical appearance of the Irish people. Traditionally the Celtic people were originally from eastern Europe  before they migrated to western Europe and most of them had jet black hair. The actor Pierce Bronson is a typical Celtic Irishman. Many of our classmates with Irish surname likewise had or have jet black hair. However, when the Vikings from Norway and Denmark conquered Ireland and intermarried with the local population, many Irishmen acquired brown hair and even blond hair with blue eyes from their northern conquerors. And in a few cases, you even can find red hair Irishmen. The Scandinavians who made up the Vikings thus had an impact on both the surnames as well as the physical appearance of the Irish population.

3) The third group of people to make up the Irish are people we call the Scotch Irish. Because England was always worried that her Catholic enemies in Spain and France might one day strike an alliance with the Irish and thus attack England from the west, England was determined to conquer Ireland in the hopes of removing that threat.  One way they tried to achieve this was to move people from protestant Scotland into Northern Ireland. Their names are similar to local Irish names as both people are Celtics, but Scotch Irish surnames are still distinctive.

4) Finally, the fourth group to influence Ireland and influence her surnames are called Norman or the Anglo Irish. In the 11^th century the Normans who were former Vikings who had conquered the west coast of France also invaded England. Ever since then the Normans have ruled England as their kings and queens. Many of these Normans eventually tried to conquer Ireland and, in the process, intermarried with the local Irish. As you can imagine they have their own distinct surnames. For instance, names like Fitzpatrick, or Burke or Dillion or Barrett are Norman Irish names.

Below are the surnames of all of the above groups. However at the end of the outlines, I list some common Norman Irish Names.

IV. Types of Irish Names

1)Patronymic

2) Occupational

3) Location

4) Physical and Moral Characteristics

5)Item Surnames

V. Irish Names and their Origins

1) Patronymic Surnames

1) O                              O as opposed to Mc means Grandson.

1.O’Neill                           Grandson of a warrior or champion

2) Mac and then Mc      Son of. This is a very common form that many Irish surnames take.

1. MacNamara              Son of the House of the Sea

2. McAlister                  Son of Alasdair

3. McBain                     Three possibilities. It may also be English and refer to a Scottish Irish term for the son                                                         breather of life which may mean he is the son of  a friendly person

4. MacBride                  Son of an Exalted one.

5. McCain                     Son of Cain

6. McCampbell             Campbell is a well known Scottish name  meaning crocked mouth but because there                                            Mc in front of Campbell he may be Irish or Scotch Irish

7. McCarrol                  Son of a warrior

8. McCarthy                  Son of a loving person.

9. McClure                   Since it has Mc it means son of and there are  two possibilities. One is son of the pale one and  the other option is son of the servant of the pilgrims.

10. McCrillis                 Son of someone living in the woods or forest.

11. McGiven                 Son of Given

12. McGraw                 Son of someone who is full of grace or  prosperous

13. McGovern               Son of Govern. 

14. McKenney               Son of a very popular personal Gallic name

15. McKinnis                  Son of Angus

16.  McMillan                Son of a bald person

17. McNamee                Son of hound of Meath                             

18. Fitz                         Son of: the Norman version of Mac. The Normans were French who invaded                                                England in 1066 and then Scotland and Ireland.

19. Fitzgerald                Son of Gerald

20. Fitzsimmons            Son of Simon

21. Ferguson                 Son of Fergus.  This is more of an English type surname

22. Gee                         It can also be English and French. In Gallic It isoften used as McGee which means son of Hugh.

23. Murray                   Also a Scottish name But the Irish version is  probably some derivation of O’Muireadhaigh

2 Occupational Surnames

1. Bell                           Refers to a person who was a Bell ringer. A 

                                    Very popular name in northern Ireland. Also a popular surname in England

2. Buckley                     Herdsman

3. Carroll                      Son of a warrior

4. Clarke                      a modern surname to mean clergy or priest. 

5. Clery or Cleireach     Churchman or clerks

6. Coleman                   Burner of Coal.  Also an English name

7. Cunningham             From Conn which mean a a chief or Leader.

8. Donnell                     King of the world.`

9. Foley                        A Plunder (one who steals good) or a pirate.

10. McGowan               Son of a Smith. Gowan is Irish for Smith

11. Higgins                   Viking

12. Hughes                    A variant of the name Hayes which means fire

13. O’Leary                  Calf Herder or grandson off a calf herder

14. Lynch                     Seafarer or Mariner

15. O’Leary                  A Keeper of Claves or Keys

16. McLoughlin-           A Viking or son of a Viking

17. Murray                   Also Scottish. Lord of the Irish or it may be topographical and refer to sea side of a firth in Scotland

18. O’Neil                     Neil means Champion or Warrior.

19. Regan                     Means the child of the king or little King.

20. Ryan                       A King

21. Steward                  One who supervises the winery

22. Quinn                     A Chief

3) Location  or Topographical Surnames. (This type of name was rare among the Irish)

1. Burke                       Refers to a castle or fortress.

2. Ford                         An Irish name that maybe came from England  to refer to a shallow section of a river. May also come from an Irish name meaning son of the devotee of the saints.

3. Curry                       A Hill Hallow. It is a hill with a low valley next to it. Also the name of a small village in western Ireland

4. Desmond                   From south Munster

5. Graham                    Also maybe Scottish. Refers to a town in a   gravel areas or grey homestead. 

6. Johnston                   Refers to John’s town

7. Ryan                         Besides being a reference to a king some think it refers to water or the ocean

4. Attributes or Characteristic Surnames. Describes a personal trait or an activity one engages in.

In all of the follow names you can add an O to get O’ Carrol or O’ Connor or O’ Dryer which means grandson. Also some names will have an Mc in front of the surname to mean son of.

1. Barrett                      Means bearlike or a warrior. May also be English

2. Boyle                        Involves making a pledge. Actor in the TV series everyone loves Raymond.

3. Brady                       Spirited or perhaps thieving or roguish.The first meaning of Brady best portrays the                                              TV show The Brady Bunch.

4. O’Brien                    Grandson of a high and noble person.

5. Campbell                  Crooked mouth

6. Carroll                      Valorous in battle. Also sharp or pointed

7. Carey                       Means Dark of Black. 

8. Casey                        Vigilant in war, watchful.

9. Cassidy                     Means curly haired. Was a famous singer 

10. Caven                     Born Handsome                     

11. Connor                   Lover of hounds. Include Carrel O’Conner In the Heat of the Night and Donald O’Connor  who was in the movie Singing in the Rain.

12. Daly                        Assemblies Frequently. Powerful Mayor of Chicago

13. Daugherty               Dangerous or obstructive.

14. Delaney                   A mixture of two words meaning defiance.

15. MacDermott            Free from jealousy

16. Dillon.                     Like a Lion. Also means from Leon in France.

17. Doherty                   Grandson of an unlucky or hurtful person

18. Donald                    A powerful Ruler

19. Doyle                      Dark Stranger

20. Duffy                      Dark or black. Famous American actor

21. Dunn                      Means Dark or Brown

22. Farrell                    A man of valor

23. Flanagan                 Means Scarlet or Red

24. Flynn                      Another variant of /Flanagan

25. Gillespie.                 Son of the bishops’ servant

26.Gorman                   Little Blue One

27.Graw or McGraw     Son of a person of grace or prosperity

28. Hayes                      Fire

29. O’Keefe                  Grandson of a gentle person

30. Kelly                       Several possible meanings. 

                                             Fighter

                                             Warrior     

                                             Bright Headed     

31. Kennedy                 Helmet Headed or misshapen head

32. Lennon                   Lover         

33. Moore                     Majestic

34. Moran                     Great

35. Mulrennan              All names with Mul which means bald usually applied to the monks. Related to                                                      McMillan.

36. Murdock                 Warrior

37. Murphy                  Means Warrior of the Sea. Most poplar name in Ireland

38. Neil                         Champion. Tip O’ Neil was a famous politician. 

39. Nolan                      Famous person

40. O’Shea                    Grandson of a stately person.

41. Sullivan                   Dark Eye

41. Quinn                     Wisdom or chief

42. Regan                     Impulsive

43. Reilly                      Valiant

44. Scully                      A scholar’s descendant

45. O’Shea                    The Esteemed or Majestic One

46. Sullivan                   Little Dark Eyed or hawk eyed

47. Sweeney                  Pleasant

48. Wynne                     Fair or White

5)Item Surnames

a.A animal (Often the Symbol of a Clan) or a Plant

1. Byrne                       A Raven

2.Connor                      Wolf or hound do in Irish

3. Cullen                       a holy plant

4. O’Mahony                Grandson of a Bear Calf.

5. MacNamara              Son of a Hound of the Sea.

b.A Former King or Saint

1. Kavanagh                 Name of an Irish Saint

VI. Norman Irish Names

Cody, Barron, Barrett, Barry, Black, Bonds, Bourke, Britton, Brown, Burke, Bryan, Chambers Claire, Cody, Cooney, Crosbie, Cullen. Cusack Dalton, Darcy, Dillon, Fagan, Field, Fitzgerald, Fitzsimmons, Fleming, Francis, Gibbons, Griffin, Marshall, Martin Morris Morrissey, Nagel, Plunkett, Powers, Prior, Rice, Roach, Russell, Stapleton, Stephens, Talbot, Tyrell, Wade, Walsh, White, Wolfe.

The surnames for tomorrow will be English Surnames