old surnames

[Tundra]

I'm working on my Nano, and I need a surname which used to be common, but now is considered sort of weird or isn't in use anymore. Know of any?

[melydia]

For which country? First instance, I found a pretty cool listing of common last names in Ireland in 1890 (http://www.rootsweb.com/~irish/igsi_published/math-nam.htm), but I have no idea how that compares with today. I mean, you're not going to find too many Bohanes or Motherways in the US, but that may have always been the case.

[Tundra]

um, i'm not sure. It has to be *obviously* a not frequently seen name, and if its in a foreign language, then readers (and other characters) won't be able to notice that. It's set in Australia, but we have immigrants from all over of course.

[kiss_me_now9]

(Pretty obvious) but some common 'old' surnames in the UK are Smith and variations of it, Miller, Wright and Shepherd.

Most of british surnames (older ones anyway) are derived from what job your ancestor did, for instance - Smith can come from a black smith or other kind of smith (can't remember anymore at the minute), or from your fathers name, i.e Jackson can come from a son of Jack. If there was already one of them, and you had a distinguishing feature, like green eyes, you could have been called Green. And the last shot you get is based on where you come from, e.g London. That kinda thing.

[Tundra]

yeah, i know that much. So i'm looking for a surname that WAS more common than it now is. I know that there have been a few surnames that have gone way downhill in terms of popularity (even though its inherited)

[Aquamonet]

You'll have to look up names that go with old professions such as "Tinker". How about looking up names on an old census or something?