如何从英国人的“姓”判断他身份？

Before surnames 揭露姓氏 'What is in a name? Very much if the wit of man could find it out.' Whoever penned this well known saying undoubtedly had it right - in England alone there are around 45,000 different surnames - each with a history behind it. “姓名包含什么呢？如果一个聪明人要刨根问底，那他肯定找到非常多的答案。”写下这句名言的人是对的——在英格兰，有45000个不同的姓氏，而每个姓氏后都有它背后的历史。 The sources from which names are derived are almost endless: nicknames, physical attributes, counties, trades, heraldic charges, and almost every object known to mankind. Tracing a family tree in practice involves looking at lists of these names - this is how we recognise our ancestors when we find them. 姓名来源于无穷无尽的派生词：绰号、物理属性、郡县、纹章的收费，还有其它人们知道的事物。我们在追踪族谱时，实际工作需要看姓名的列表——当我们寻找时，这能让我们辨认出我们的祖先。 Before the Norman Conquest of Britain, people did not have hereditary surnames: they were known just by a personal name or nickname. 在诺曼底人占领英国时，人们没有家族的姓名：他们用一个名字或昵称称呼对方。 When communities were small each person was identifiable by a single name, but as the population increased, it gradually became necessary to identify people further - leading to names such as John the butcher, William the short, Henry from Sutton, Mary of the wood, Roger son of Richard. Over time many names became corrupted and their original meaning is now not easily seen. 当在这一区域生活的人口较少，人们能用一个简单的名字确认对方的身份。但随着人口的增长，确认一个人，就需要在名字中作文章——就像这些名字：小贩约翰、矮个威廉姆、来自萨顿的亨利、森林中的玛丽、还有罗格的儿子理查德。一段时间过后，许多名字被广泛使用，而名字原来的意思却不见了。 After 1066, the Norman barons introduced surnames into England, and the practice gradually spread. Initially, the identifying names were changed or dropped at will, but eventually they began to stick and to get passed on. So trades, nicknames, places of origin, and fathers' names became fixed surnames - names such as Fletcher and Smith, Redhead and Swift, Green and Pickering, Wilkins and Johnson. By 1400 most English families, and those from Lowland Scotland, had adopted the use of hereditary surnames. 1066年后，诺曼底人将姓氏传入英格兰，而且越传越开。最初，用来标识的名字随意改变或舍弃，但是，他们慢慢适应，最后接受了。因此，职业、昵称、家乡和父亲的名字就用来当作姓氏——例如，富勒特彻和史密夫，利德希特和斯福特，格林和皮克灵，威肯斯和约翰逊。到了1400年，大部分的英格兰人和来自苏格兰低地的人习惯了家庭姓氏的使用。 Many individuals and families have changed their names or adopted an alias at some time in the past. This could be for legal reasons, or simply on a whim, but points up the fact that although the study of surnames is vital in family history research, it is all too easy to place excessive emphasis on them. 在过去某些时候，许多人或家庭改变名字，或是用别名。有些可能是法律原因，有些则是一时兴起，但是也说明了一个事实：尽管姓氏的研究对家族的历史研究很重要，但是姓氏很容易被更换，因为它们在当时不被看重。 Your surname may be derived from a place, such as Lancaster, for example, or an occupation, such as Weaver, but this is not necessarily of relevance to your family history. You could be in the position of the prime minister, Tony Blair, whose ancestor acquired his name from adoptive or foster parents. 或许，你的姓氏来源于一个地方名，例如兰开斯特，或者来源于职业，例如编织工。但是，这并不能中肯地说出你家族的历史。你可能会是一名首相，而唐尼·布莱尔的祖先是由于收养父母而获得该姓氏。 Another complication is that sometimes two different names can appear to be the same one, being similar in sound, but different in origin. The fairly common name of Collins is an example of this. It comes from an Irish clan name, but it is also one of several English surnames derived from the personal name Nicolas. 而另外的复杂因素则可能是，有时两个名字是一样的写法，一样的读音，但却有不同的来源。而”科隆斯“就是是这样一个例子。这个姓氏来自爱尔兰语，但这也英国广泛使用的姓名之一，其来源于个人名字“尼克拉斯”。 Thus you can see that only by tracing a particular family line, possibly back to the 14th century or beyond, will you discover which version of a surname is yours. It is more important to be aware that both surnames and forenames are subject to variations in spelling, and not only in the distant past. Standardised spelling did not really arrive until the 19th century, and even in the present day variations occur, often by accident - how much of your post has your name spelt incorrectly? 之后，追踪族谱的唯一方法，可能是看回14世纪或更后的族谱，你就能找到属于你姓氏的部分。而重要的是，你必需意识到，姓氏和名字更改拼法，这中状况可不会只是出现在遥远的过去喔。直至19世纪，标准拼法才真正出现。即时在现在，姓名可能由于偶然状况而变换——数数有多少封邮件是拼错你的名字的吧。