I have to agree with the answers on this thread, but have to add another reason to the mix. This is because of what I know and have experienced with my own maiden surname - FLOWER. I don't know what to call the reason. Could be laziness, or ignorance, or ... I was puzzled as a child, annoyed as a teenager, resigned as an adult. But never liked being called FLOWERS. But it started way back in the mid 1800s. My ancestor had gone north from Somerset, leaving all siblings behind. Gradually the S was added to the surname, and it stuck. No family members in the area to set things straight. So it carried on in the male line. Hence my Dad and his siblings were FLOWERS. After the death of his parents Dad was brought up by his father's sister and her husband. His aunt told him, correctly, the name originally had no S, so when Dad came to NZ he became FLOWER, and never used the S again. However his brother, who remained in England, kept the S. It never worried them or us. I grew up knowing that was the way it was. But many people through my young life would add the S, thoughtlessly, I guess, and I didn't know why. Now I live with another problem. My husband says "Put a P in my name and I'll give you beans!" or "We're the dry ones!" (No P) That's life, people don't change. Shirley Thomson New Plymouth New Zealand Researching: SIMPSON, WRIGHT, CLARKE (Bedale, Yks), RAW, BEAN (Bradford & Swaledale, Yks), FLOWER/S (Co Durham, Bristol, Sth Wales) HARRISON, LAMBERT, SCORER (Co Durham), ASHDOWN, ARNSBY, CAMP (London & Middlesex), TREWEEK, CHAPMAN, PRYNN, LOBB (Cornwall), FERGUSS0N, CLARK, BLACKLEY, RODDAN (Dumfriesshire), THOMSON, SCOTT (Angus)