Many thanks to all of you for your replies. You are a wealth of information and I very much appreciate it. I always use the "Noble Family" name in conjunction with their given name/title, when applicable, as a notation. I learned a while back that people used the name of their lands that they owned as their surnames, which made sense in a time when surnames were just beginning. Which reminded me of my great-grandmother who came here from Germany. When we went to war against the Nazi's, the name Goebbel kept popping up in the news and her father immediately changed the spelling of their surname to Gebel. She said that her father feared repercussions from the US government and wanted to protect his family from deportation or imprisonment. No, they were not related to Herr Goebbel. ;) Again, many thanks for the help and the knowledge you have provided.