What does your family name mean?
Depending on your lineage, family names come from many different sources. Medieval Europeans, for instance, adopted surnames based on professions, influencing surnames you’ll hear today like Smith, Skinner, Fletcher, or Baker.
You’ll also see last names based on place of origin – that’s where you see some French names with “de” or Polish names with “ski” at the end, for instance.
In other cases, last names are based on a father’s first name. Johnson is, quite literally, John’s son.
The list of influences goes on and on. For those wondering, Blackmore would be one of those ‘place inspired’ last names drawing on a family which must have been based near a dark marsh somewhere in England. And for those wondering: despite my musical background, I’m not closely related to Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore…that I’m aware of.
The idea of last names was believed to have been first invented four thousand years ago in China for census and records purposes – to make bureaucracy easier, I suppose. And our family names still have that use today. But they also provide a shared sense of legacy, identity, and belonging.
We serve many families through our different programs, and a key focus for us when doing that is to restore their hope and dignity so they can build towards independence once again.
A small example? When delivering our Student Food Boxes to Kingston families in need of additional support, we deliver to their home – rather than school. That way, the student’s peers don’t necessarily need to be aware of their classmate's situation, minimizing the risk of bullying or awkwardness. We’re thankful for the many donors and volunteers, including our Kingston Rotary clubs and the Kinsmen Club of Kingston, who help make that program a reality.
Want to learn more about how to join our family? If you’re not already volunteering, visit
lionhearts.ca/volunteer. We’d love to connect.
