Nicknames were and are used in Cornwall, especially in the West. Not only do individuals have nicknames, but entire families, surnames were sometimes not even used in everyday goings on. Jim > Thanks, Elaine. It seems to be an interesting site. However, it leaves my > specific question unanswered, and uses simplistic get-outs such as, "It was > logical to associate an individual with his occupation and this became a > source of many Hispanic surnames." No proof of any sort is given to > support > the conclusion "...and this became...". "Any physical characteristic could > become associated with an individual" - which is what a post-Enron auditor > would call an unsubstantiated assumption. "In order to reduce the > confusion, individuals with the same name were differentiated from one > another by various characteristics." So how come we have so many Juan > Garcias and Bill Smiths? I live on an island which until recently had > 15,000 people with only a few surnames. What happened was that the > islanders differentiated by means of (sometimes weird) FIRST names, not > surnames. At the date when surnames were reckoned to have been adopted - > whenever that was, in the various parts of the British Isles - 15,000 was a > pretty big town. Smaller villages would not have had a problem with > differentiation. Look at China with its hundred million Wongs and Lees! > > Here below is an extract from the Hispanic-surnames website that pretty > much > sums up my problem. I would guess similar examples could be found in > British surname-origins books. > > "This did not prevent individuals from arbitrarily changing their surnames, > however. This is something that happened often as the story of Don > Bernardo > Alvarez, a soldier in the 1200's, shows us. After getting drunk in a > village > Inn, Don Bernardo had trouble finding camp and fell asleep near a bed of > Roses. The experience of waking up to the smell of roses (especially with > a > hangover) promptly led him to change his surname to "de las Rosas". > Spanish > history is replete with these instances which can make it more difficult to > trace one's ancestry to the more distant past." > > Now, that may well have happened, and it's a fun story. But is it anything > more than a fun story?