FoshizniK!

It’s odd, my last name. I know – or at least know of – every single person with my last name.

Namely, me, my brother, my dad and step-mum, my uncle (dad’s brother) and aunt; the dad’s cousins (x2? one may be married now) and one of the cousin’s two kids, who live near Aberystwyth.

That’s it.

There’s also single-figure numbers of a branch of the family – related a fair few generations ago – who spell it Chillistone rather than Chilestone. Rootsweb has this:

Subject: Re: [OEL] Population trends

Let me give you a current worked example.

My name is David Chillistone. Before about 1840 it was spelt Chilestone,
but "my" branch of that family name ended up with the spelling "Chillistone"
through a clerical error (all were illiterate Ag Labs, so had no idea how to
spell the surname anyway). There are a few people of the Chilestone
spelling around, but not many. There's single figure numbers of
Chillistones. Here's why.

My Great-grandafther was one twin of 2 boys, who were the only male carriers
of the surname "Chillistone". Unfortunately, the other twin died of
diabetes, aged 12. My Great-grandfather also died of diabetes, but had
survived long enough to father a son, my Grandfather, who therefore ended up
as the only surviving male with this spelling of the surname "Chillistone".
He had 2 sons - my father and my uncle. I have 1 sibling - a girl. My
male cousin likewise. So my cousin and I were at one time the only carriers
of the surname likely to produce yet further carriers. I have a son, who
has yet to father any offspring. My male cousin has had 2 sons, one of whom
has produced a son.

Currently; the only male in the "grandchildren" generation for my cousin and
I is my Cousin's grandson. (so far)

Suppose my son has no sons. Continuation of this particular spelling of the
surname will rely on my cousin's male-line grandsons, and their sons, and so
on, any of whom might marry or not, produce sons or not, and therefore the
name may die out altogether or not.

And just to complete the narrative; had my Grandfather (at one time the only
male with the surname "Chillistone") not had any sons, the surname would
have died out when he died. Similarly; had my Great-grandfather died of
diabetes earlier, such that my Grandfather wasn't conceived, then the
surname would have died when my Great-grandfather died.

Coclusions: Surnames can survive. In fact they usually do. But they may
not.

David Chillistone

It’s odd to know that you can name every single person with your surname, and have met them all at least once. If your last name is Smith or Jones, you can’t do that – you probably can’t even name all the people you’re related to, let alone everyone who shares your last name. But maybe you know where your name comes from, or what it means, and I don’t. Because Chilestone is such a rare name, you can’t even hazard a guess – there’s literally no information.

All I know is that it used to be spelled differently.

Tags: Names

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.