Dictionary of American Family Names: O-Z
Description:... Where did your surname come from? Do you know how many people in the United States share it? What does it tell you about your lineage? From the editor of the highly acclaimed Dictionary of Surnames comes the most extensive compilation of surnames in America. The result of 10 years of research and 30 consulting editors, this massive undertaking documents 70,314 surnames of Americans across the country. To compile the Dictionary of American Family Names (DAFN), Editor Patrick Hanks gathered 100 million U.S. names and established a selection criteria for inclusion in DAFN. This selection criteria created a model of surnames with more than 100 occurrences. The next step was to begin researching the linguistic origin of the surnames. Each given names was carefully analyzed to determine whether it had any association with a particular language or culture. Naming practices for particular cultures were also determined to give clues about cultural assimilation. With the inclusions of addresses, pockets of ethnic areas were identified showing evidence of certain cultures in parts of the country, such as the French in Louisiana. Dictionary of American Family Names surveys surnames giving their meaning, nationality, alternate spellings, common forenames associated with them, and the frequency of each surname and forename.
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