Show how the joneses hansons dansons and smiths were named some family names grew out of first names thus we have johnson son of john peterson son of peter hanson son of hans and so on the common name of jones also came from a first name long ago in england it was the custom to speak of a man by a single name as john or richard or whatnot sometimes the helbers members of his family were called the john of the johnies John ses or the richards in the case of a family with richard as the father the names johnies John ses seems to have been changed to jones to make it short A great number of names sprang from occupations the name of smith became common in early days because there were so many smiths at work not only were there blacksmiths but also goldsmiths silversmiths arrowsmiths arrow smiths and locksmiths lock smiths |