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Fun with Surnames

Created by azazella

Fun Trivia : Quizzes : Linguistics
Fun with Surnames game quiz
"We all have one, but how much do we know about the surnames that we hear in our everyday life?"

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  



1. What are the four basic categories of surnames?
    Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive
    Sanguin, Phlegmatic, Choleric, Melancholy
    Dental, Glottal, Labial, Palatal
    Patronymic, Occupational, Locational, Descriptive


2. A patronymic surname is derived from which of these?
    The given name of the person's employer
    The surname of the person's overlord
    The name of the person's patron saint
    The given name of the person's father


3. Which of the following English surnames is NOT patronymic?
    Watkins
    Simpson
    Badcock
    Duke


4. Which of the following German derived surnames is NOT patronymic?
    Tice
    Ficker
    Weigel
    Fuchs


5. The common Cornish surname Angove is the equivalent of which English occupational name?
    Carpenter
    Miller
    Smith
    Weaver


6. Names such as King, Duke and Bishop are which type of surname?
    Patronymic
    Locational
    Occupational
    Descriptive


7. Which of the following surnames in NOT locational?
    Hendriks
    Atwood
    Trounsen
    Ebenhoch


8. Which group of surnames would ALL be occupational?
    Thatcher, Cartwright, Glasson, Turner
    Baxter, Zimmerman, Fletcher, Goddard
    Cossins, Brewster, Carter, Troxel
    Roscruge, Ferraro, Turchi, Messerschmidt


9. The French surname "Dubois" is which type of name and what is its meaning?
    occupational - 'blacksmith'
    patronymic - 'son of Dubya'
    locational - 'from the wood'
    descriptive - 'clever'


10. Noel Coward's surname is of which type?
    Descriptive
    Patronymic
    Occupational
    Locational


11. Which of the following surnames is now extinct?
    Schratzenstaller
    Gaverigan
    Shufflebottom
    Cobbledick


12. The surnames Bevan, Bowen and Price have what in common?
    They are all patronymic
    All of these things
    They are all Welsh
    They all originally began with the prefix 'ap'


13. The surnames Ivanovich, DiGiovanni, Evans and Jans have what in common?
    They are descriptive surnames
    They are equivalent to the English 'Johnson'
    They are patronymics derived from James
    They are all of French origen


14. Which of the following sets of names shows a patronymic, a locational, an occupational and a descriptive, in that order?
    Rhys, Roscarrack, Roth, Reeves
    Piotrowski, Penberthy, Pflueger, Papst
    Fuller, Fitzgerald, Fromm, Ferby
    Van Horn, Vogel, Voinovich, Vogt


15. What modern European country does not have fixed surnames, but still uses a patronymic system?
    Russia
    Iceland
    Norway
    Luxembourg


16. What is the world's most common surname?
    Smith
    Chang
    Weiss
    Johnson


17. Animal surnames like Fox, Bear and Hart usually fall into the descriptive category. But what other category of surname are they occasionally derived from?
    Occupational
    Locational
    Patronymic
    All of them


18. Hudkins and Hudson are both patronymics derived from what given name?
    Richard
    Roger
    Howard
    Henry


19. Saxby, Bransby and Colby are what type of surname?
    Patronymic
    Locational
    Descriptive
    Occupational


20. Dutch surnames in New Netherlands could be confusing for what reason?
    People frequently omitted surnames altogether
    None of these
    Women kept their maiden name after marriage
    People alternated between patronymic and locational


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Compiled May 22 13