Are we related to everyone with our same last name?

[asdfghjkl]

I just looked on Facebook and typed in my last name, and so many people from all over the country/world had my last name! Am I most likely related to them?

[leaguer]

Probably not. See, people come from anywhere and everywhere. That's part of the reason why God created us; to be unique and come from all walks of life.

[Jeff]

Most likely yes! In some way there is a relation....Does that help?

[wendy c]

No. You are not related to everyone with a same name. SOME might be if a name is extremely rare, but in most cases, you will not be.

[NCY]

i do think it does, but it's such a big world that we usually forget. all you have to do is start a list of your family names. start off with you, your sisters and brothers and your parents, then your parents siblings and their kids and so on. of course you'll never get to the root of your descendants but you will be amazed at how we are all connected you'll be like "oh, that's how he's related to us"
so think about it. somewhere a long time ago somebody chose your family's last name and they had sons and daughters that had more sons and daughters and somehow the last name was spread, so i guess we all have to be connected somehow.
i mean we all come from the same parents so there must be a time line where we were all connected.

[Shirley T]

In Europe,as a rule, people did not have surnames until the last millennium. They were based on
a)being the son of someone
b)where they lived
c)their occupation
d)some characteristic about them.

They were not started originally to identify a man as a member of a family but for taxation purposes.
They had to have a way of telling which Joe was which.

When they got through it wasn't impossible for legitimate sons of the same man to have a different surname and still each could have shared their surname with others unrelated. Now, we are probably all related if we go back far enough. However, the root person of your surname will not necessarily be the root person of someone else with your surname.

In England most had one by the end of the 14th century. Still it was a couple of more centuries, in many cases, before the same surname was passed down to subsequent generations.

In the Scandinavian countries, they were all patronymics and changed from generation to generation. Eric the son of Olaf became Eric Olfafson. Then Eric named a son for his father and named him Olaf and he became Olaf Ericson.

In the Netherlands, they were begun during the reign of Napoleon. The Dutch thought they were temporary. In a spirit of good humor, they gave themselves funny names and sometimes downright obnoxious names. The joke turned out to be on them when they found out they would be permanent and they had one heck of a time getting their names changed.

Here are some samples from Wikipedia

History of Dutch surnames

Surnames were not required until 1811 when emperor Napoleon had annexed the Netherlands.[1] Since many Dutch people thought this convention would only be temporary, some deliberately chose confusing or comical names. For example:
Dutch surname Explanation English
De Keizer probably a wordplay on Napoleon when people came to register their name; Who are you? I'm the emperor. Lit. "emperor".
Rotmensen rot, adjective meaning "rotten" + mensen "people" Lit. "rotten people".
Poepjes poep, noun meaning "poo/feces", + jes plural diminutive Lit. "excrement; poopies".
Piest piest, third-person singular form of the verb piesen meaning "to urinate/to piss" (He/She/It) "pisses/urinates"
Naaktgeboren naakt, adjective meaning "naked", + geboren meaning "born" Lit. "born naked"
Zeldenthuis zelden, adverb meaning "seldom", + thuis meaning "at home" Lit. "seldom at home"

Sometimes people with rare surnames might be related. However, frequently someone thinks they have a rare surname and they go to other parts of the country or to another country and learn it is not all that uncommon.

One poster on this board said you probably have a better chance of being related to someone with a different surname than to someone with the absolute same surname.

[You asked so...]

No.

[Laura Sophie]

Sometimes.

[Lance G]

Its a very complex matter . In short no , your not . However it all depends, on your name , where you came from & your family History .

If you have a very rear name such as mine, its always a common fact , that all people with that name are related some how. There often many many branches of the same family , so you may not be a direct blood decedent, but quite possible a decedent from a different family branch . My own family on my father's lineage alone has 7 branch's , and we keep finding new once .

Say your name was Miller . This is a very common name . Being that its a name taken from a trade , we can say there could be many many different unrelated family's . However say, your last name was York . Because its a place , it more likely that ,that people with the last name York , are connected some how . Also spelling of names , can play a part .

My own name is Gösi ( Hungarian ) I come from they village of Gös. They "i" meaning FROM . Ever person in hungary called Gös or Gösi is one of my blood relatives off one branch or an other, as 90% of all the Gösi's can be found with in 300 km2 .

There also the family "Clan " system . Witch is a tribe like group off people , who or share there family heritage. If you know that say you came from clan X , and you know that Clan had that name and it came from only Clan X . You know that your apart of the group as a blood decedent .

But if your name is quite common , with no real spelling differences . Then "No" your not related . Its not say your not related to any of them , just 90% wont be .