Why do some people have the same last name?

[Ted Pack]

Sometimes. Most of the people named Cady who live in the USA descend from Nicholas Cady, who was born within 10 years of 1620 in England and died in 1712 in Massachusetts or Connecticut. Most of the people named Pack in the USA descend from one of three men, who may or may not have been related.

Surnames come from four main places:

Occupation: Smith, Carpenter, Fisher, Baker, Cook. Lots of Germans named "Zimmerman" changed it to "Carpenter" in the USA, because that's what "Zimmerman" means. Lots of Germans, Russians, etc. named "Smith" in their language changed it to the English "Smith" in the USA. A Carpenter from Yorkshire and one from Shropshire would not be close. A Carpenter from Hamburg would probably not be related to a Carpenter from Hampshire, unless you went back to 14th cousin. (I've read that all Europeans, and by extension all white people, are 14th cousins or closer. I have my doubts.)

Father: Johnson, Peterson, Williamson, Williams, Wilson . . .; Again, people sometimes translated the name from their language to English. And, again, someone named Johnson from Italy wouldn't be close to someone named Johnson from Ireland.

Physical characteristic: Little, Armstrong, Black . . .; See above re translations.

Where they lived: General places, like Rivers, Lake, Green, Bank, Marsh, Meadows; specific places like York, London, Scott .... Note that the specific ones were usually people who came from there and moved away. Back in the middle ages, when there were too many Michaels to keep track of easily, you wouldn't call all of the Michaels in York "Michael of York", but you might, in Shropshire, have one "Michael of York", if he came from there, along with Michael Baker, Michael Armstrong, and Michael Meadows. Everyone named "York" or "London" or "Hampshire" might be a little closer related than all those Smiths, but, again, they probably moved from the place of their surname in the middle ages, so the relationship would be distant.