Austin Davis English 1102 1/19/2014 Professor Raymond WP #2 My last name is Davis and this surname originates from

Wales in the meaning son of St. David. This name carried over into the United Kingdom and would have come over here when the pilgrims began their journey to America. Until around the 17th century many Scottish and Welsh people did not use surnames so you can assume that the name Davis was given during the 17th century. I dont know too much about the heritage from my fathers side of the fami ly because we do not talk to half of his family. Whenever I need to research information about my heritage I usually use my mothers side of the family because I consider them more of my family than the other. While I do not have the name of their family that is where I will research my heritage and research more. With that being said my parents did name both me and my brothers with the same middle name, I do know that this is uncommon but I have heard of it. All three of us have the middle name Christopher just like my fathers middle name. On my mothers side of the family they have used my grandfathers first name (Roger) as the middle name for some of my cousins but it is not used for everyone. Since we are living in the south there are not many changes in how names are used in regards to family. Everyone usually takes their fathers name and is passed down through their children. There are some exceptions to this rule however. Families that have been split apart or never been married do not always take the fathers name with them. My grandfather actually did not take his fathers name because his father left him and his mother when he was very young, his last name is Caldwell just like his mothers. Later on in life he did have a stepfather but he kept his name of Caldwell and passed it down to his children. It was particularly difficult to figure this out, not because he did not want to tell me but because we had never been told about it. I found a U.S. census from 1940 where my grandfather shows up but he was only 1 year old at the time, but I did not realize that this would be him because I did not know anything about his parents. I also have a genealogy book about his family the Caldwells and surprisingly he was not listed in under his mother, I do not know if this is because his mother was not married or what but it was difficult finding this out until I connected the dots from his mother to her father in the genealogy book. This is an elaborate example that names do mean something in our culture and that usually things that are out of the norm might not be accepted by others or could be unknown by others. I do know that my grandfather does know many people in his family but the author of the book must not have known about my grandfather having his name changed and therefore left him out of the book.