| Our overview of the history of surnames or last | | | | Grey - can be spelled with an "a" or an "e" |
| names in English continues to be a fascinating one. | | | | Brown - sometimes spelled with an "e" at the end |
| Here, we'll look at how some other commonly used | | | | Green(e) - can be spelled with or without the "e" |
| English surnames were derived from colors, nature | | | | White - infrequently spelled with a "y" instead of "i" |
| and animals. | | | | Whitewood - a color plus object surname |
| Surnames of Colors | | | | Reid - a Germanic spelling form of the color red |
| Many additional surnames are simply derived from the | | | | Redmon - aka "Redman" |
| name of a color. Colors were an important part of | | | | Surnames of Animals |
| family crests of nobles, noblemen and the wealthy. | | | | On occasion, names of animals were adopted as |
| More "common" folk then, although probably without a | | | | surnames. Animals were thought to have special |
| family crest of their own, went with adopting a color | | | | abilities which could be "willed" or "gifted" to humans |
| as a type of surname as in these examples. | | | | who "adopted" them. Some of the more commonly |
| Black - infrequently spelled with a double "a" | | | | known ones are the following examples. |