How Did Colours Become Last Names?

[@NameExplain]

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

[@TheEmoCat]

Turquoise maybe

[@SnarkNSass]

PURPLE!!!💜💜💜💜

[@sadmanislam5111]

magenta

[@hellomynameisjoenl]

Periwinkle.

[@rasmusvanwerkhoven1962]

Amaranth

[@jjc5475]

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]

Or Naaktgeboren (born nude)

[@PureReggae]

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

[@Ibelikemj]

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

[@jjc5475]

@@Ibelikemj yes for sure!

[@jjc5475]

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

[@Illumisepoolist]

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

[@fermintenava5911]

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

[@Froge0]

@@fermintenava5911 There is in Sam and Max

[@Robbie-pc1dl]

Bri’ish

[@fermintenava5911]

@@Froge0 I thought that what OP referred to.

[@haseenabadshah5381]

69 likes lmao

[@arthuruppiano3211]

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

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

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

[@Terrus_38]

And George Floyd - George Gray.

[@811brian]

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

[@littelcreatchure506]

why not Lloyd?

[@kaitlyn__L]

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

[@erichtomanek4739]

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]

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]

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]

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

[@OtakuNoShitpost]

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]

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

[@kid_doonski]

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.

[@656hookemhorns]

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

[@marmac83]

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

[@billylauwda9178]

*50 shades of grey*

[@edi9892]

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

[@jonistan9268]

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]

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]

@@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]

@@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]

The wine-dark sea

[@geekygalaxy4307]

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

[@noelaguirrechavez4462]

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

[@jakubpociecha8819]

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

[@leeallbluem1]

@@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]

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

[@Alex-fv2qs]

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

[@arnoldamaral7406]

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

[@abbyella2370]

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]

insert unclever joe mama joke

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

You had a pack of multicolored Joes

[@neph_16]

Together they can make a Joe rainbow

[@Chigger]

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

[@DelightfullyGrace]

My brother’s name is Joe Brown lol

[@carterwoodson8818]

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]

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

[@Alex-fv2qs]

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

[@weijiafang1298]

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."

[@rizzo_grt]

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).

[@minigrinpins2528]

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

[@kevinfalcon4488]

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

[@eyjagnau2141]

Agreed

[@nathanides7584]

Wendover + HAI, Veritassium, Physics girl, asapScience

[@arunghadi]

Vsauce, Vsauce2 , Vsauce3....

[@jaishkhan7442]

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

[@Christian-se5si]

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

[@alcarbo8613]

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]

He did

[@alcarbo8613]

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

[@bluemym1nd]

@@alcarbo8613 3:06

[@alcarbo8613]

@@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]

Fax

[@fermintenava5911]

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]

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

[@m00njaguar]

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

[@x42brown33]

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]

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]

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.

[@ichbinben.]

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]

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

[@holeeshi9959]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[@JL-ti3us]

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

[@comradesam3029]

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

[@kaloarepo288]

@@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]

@@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".

[@randomgamerdude98]

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

[@musAKulture]

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

[@sirsytham1588]

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

[@randomgamerdude98]

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

[@ignatiusqi9736]

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.

[@kshatrapavan]

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!

[@RonnieOP]

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]

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

[@NateWatson51503]

@@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]

It became Gray Matter when White was involved.

[@wj11jam78]

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.

[@thepixelstash3078]

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.

[@nebulan]

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

[@keriezy]

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]

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.

[@modmaker7617]

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

[@octoberviberations233]

Finally Someone said it

[@KingNedya]

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

[@marna_li]

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”)

[@hollybrown8449]

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]

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

[@stephenwright8824]

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

[@mediumjohnsilver]

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

[@tc2334]

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

[@myscreen2urs]

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

[@RobotWillie]

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.

[@hannayoung9657]

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]

Har vi? Jag har då aldrig sett de efternamnen.

[@eyjagnau2141]

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

[@karenchristinewise7833]

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]

Bán or Bháin means white in Irish

[@karenchristinewise7833]

@@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.

[@TransparentPickle]

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

[@sohopedeco]

He already has that video.

[@SP-bt9mp]

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

[@deplatformedcrowprinceluna6339]

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.

[@Donut-Eater]

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

[@joshuaswart8211]

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

[@terrencestearns3648]

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

[@wobbles3217]

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]

Copper is greensmithing.

[@vivaeljason]

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

[@lukedetering4490]

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

[@elijahyamauchi]

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

[@lornaduwn]

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.

[@ronmaximilian6953]

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.

[@robbybaker6657]

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

[@johnscanlan9335]

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

[@anlumo1]

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

[@EvaSnyder]

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

[@davegreenlaw5654]

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'.

[@AnkerPeet]

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

[@derekdufon5069]

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

[@sohopedeco]

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

[@derekdufon5069]

@@sohopedeco what the what??

[@macaroon_nuggets8008]

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

[@dilbert719]

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

[@derekdufon5069]

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

[@felisd]

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.

[@leozyxs]

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

[@allanrichardson1468]

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.

[@foxdeleon]

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.

[@sylviaramsay9180]

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.

[@DhanuRadha5]

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...

[@mr.turdlybird4387]

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

[@jacoblevin2178]

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)?

[@douglasphillips5870]

I heard Russell comes from the color of rust.

[@czxr_8]

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

[@_JayRamsey_]

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.

[@alsmoviebarn]

"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]

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

[@_jeff65_]

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

[@ronaldkarpatski399]

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.

[@aaronodonoghue1791]

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")

[@RodrigoPikatron]

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

[@Taima]

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.

[@AT-yn9dm]

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

[@neon_skies5821]

and our veins too in a way

[@SandyTidwell]

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

[@bea4790]

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

[@mrmacguff1n]

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

[@danorott]

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

[@mrmacguff1n]

@@danorott Bamboozled again

[@Slenderbanana880]

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

[@garyskyner5855]

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?

[@AT-yn9dm]

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

[@oldvlognewtricks]

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

[@Invalid-user13k]

Colors have a lot of last names arrive due to The last name necessity 5:33 Like Long John Silver's

[@theoblincko18]

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.

[@danielleporter1829]

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

[@StamfordBridge]

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.

[@HotelPapa100]

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.

[@davidroddick91]

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

[@SuprousOxide]

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]

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

[@masondipperpines5009]

There is a town near Cincinnati named "Fairfax"

[@neon-kitty]

In Eva Green's case, her last name actually has nothing to do with the colour green. It's actually Swedish in origin (her being part-Swedish) and comes from the Swedish word for tree branch.

[@winkleperiwinkle808]

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!

[@samuelscott1113]

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

[@clar1nettist204]

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

[@emmahenderson2737]

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

[@heatherswanson1664]

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

[@Jan_Koopman]

Van Oranje-Nassau is absolutely their last name. However, now that I think about it, it could be that indeed "Van Oranje" is the title, but not their last name, BECAUSE that is Van Oranje-Nassau...

[@junovzla]

"English names were originally just the first name..." And then there are medieval Spanish names with a heck of a lot of words stacked on one another. For example, "Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco", AKA Simón Bolívar.

[@pedroarjona6996]

Simón Bolivar was born in the XVIII century, very late for the Medieval age, but in medieval times the Spanish name convention was shorter, usually a first name and last name Jorge Manrique (poet) sometimes ading a toponimic for nobility. Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (better known as "El Cid Campeador). The use of two last names began at the beginning of the modern period, for nobility and don't became frequent in commoners until the XVII century. The use of 4 last names, Portuguese style, like Bolivar, is not unknown, but is considered a little pretencious in most Latin America and Spain nowadays.

[@junovzla]

@@pedroarjona6996 Good point, but 1. 18th century naming conventions were based on medieval naming conventions; and 2. it may well be that we don't know their entire names, for at the beggining of the 2nd millenium romance languages were barely starting to be written out

[@bjnt922]

The only person I know of with the last name of the color Blue is Alfred Blue who was professional American football player in the NFL. And then there’s another professional athlete who’s last name is the color Red and he spells it with 2 Ds. That is Michael Redd who was a professional basketball player in the NBA.

[@keetrandling4530]

The fact that BLUE is rare as a surname shouldn't surprise anyone who knows that the word BLUE is more recent in language tham any other color name.

[@gertvanderstraaten6352]

We have the same type of names in Dutch, location is usually Van and then a town, like Van Gogh, Van den Bosch or a geographical feature, like Van den Heuvel (from the hill) or Van der Meer/Vermeer (from the lake) etc. Occupations like Smits (son of smith), Dekkers (son of thatcher) etc. Characteristics like Kleine/Cleine (shorty) or De Groot (tall guy). And family names like Jansen, Fransen, Gerritsen. Martens etc. Also names like Rood (red), Groen (Green) Blauw/Blaauw) (blue) etc. And De Bruin (the brown one), De Zwart/Zwart (the black one) and De Wit (the white one) but no grey somehow.

[@TheMarshmellowLife]

Brown is probably not most people's favorite color. Technology connections has entered the chat

[@jamerican_bae]

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

[@GeoNeilUK]

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.

[@k.c1126]

I'm convinced most color-derived last names are connected to place and hair names, but there is a definite connection to personality or public persona as well. For example, a person designated "the Black", "the White" or "The Grey" because they were viewed as Evil, Kindly, or Mysterious might pass on these character-based eponyms / aptronyms / necronyms to their descendants.

[@ol1ver49]

Black, Brown, Gray and White are also common as Scottish clan names. All are commoner in Scotland than elsewhere. The names Gough and Gooch derive from Goch, Welsh for red, comparable with Llwyd/Lloyd, Wynne or Gwynne (white) and Dee (black).

[@randylmacwhite9666]

Ireland too have Blacks, Whites, Brown or Browne and Green or Greene, Grey or Gray Color surnames have many of many origins.