Rules for Surnames

 WSTopics Home
  Vivian Cook

As well as starting with a capital letter, surnames are often spelt differently from ordinary nouns or adjectives.

Rule 1. Add an "e"

bowls Bowles boil Boyle brown Browne clerk Clarke coats Coates ford Forde green Greene groom Groome oaks Oakes sharp Sharpe trollop Trollope wait Waite wild Wilde

Rule 2. Double the final consonant (and sometime add an 'e')

chub Chubb bar Barr bib Bibb bud Budd bun Bunn but Butt cap Capp car Carr cat Catt cob Cobb crab Crabbe done Donne faithful Faithfull fat Fatt fen Fenn fin Finn hog Hogg kid Kidd leg Legge lily Lilley lock Locke man Mann nun Nunn pot Potts star Starr web Webb wren Wrenn

Rule 3. Use 'y' rather 'i

Blythe Kydd Lyall Mycroft Nyman Pye Smythe Sykes Taylor Tye Tyler Wylde Dye Ydall Yles

Testing the rules
To test whether these rules actually work, here are other surnames from a local telephone book, all predictably different from the ordinary nouns or adjectives.

Angell Brimm Cabe Chappell Clubb Copp Cribb Cutts Fagg Dewes Flitt Frye Furr Gatt Kyte Lugg Myles Penney Poole Shortt Tabb Warr Whip