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ArchivesRe: Last Names
in reply to a message by Nancy Adams
Adams and other "English male first names plus -s" surnames usually mean "son of", as in this case: Adams = "son of Adam". The "-s" version is very commonly Welsh, as in Evans, Williams, Jones (Johns), etc. Adamson would be the more strictly English equivalent and McAdam or MacAdam would be the Scottish.
"Sawyer" is an old English occupational surname, denoting someone would sawed lumber (planks) out of felled trees. Very often this was performed with the log laid horizontally over a pit. One man would work from the pit and one from above the log, cutting lengthwise planks with a 2-man crosscut saw (called a pit saw) like lumberjacks used to fell trees before the advent of the chainsaw.
The meaning of neither name is different in first, middle or last positions.
Hope that helps,
Da.
"Sawyer" is an old English occupational surname, denoting someone would sawed lumber (planks) out of felled trees. Very often this was performed with the log laid horizontally over a pit. One man would work from the pit and one from above the log, cutting lengthwise planks with a 2-man crosscut saw (called a pit saw) like lumberjacks used to fell trees before the advent of the chainsaw.
The meaning of neither name is different in first, middle or last positions.
Hope that helps,
Da.
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