by Jim Young (guest)
8/12/2007, 4:06 AM
So many names, so little time!
Some of these look like dynastic names, possibly predating adoption of surnames. Pfalzgraf is a title, though I suppose it could also be a surname.
Anyway here's a couple;
Hotchkiss - another version of Hotchkin, Hodgekin, etc. (there are so many. Hodge, a diminutive of Roger, further diminished by the addition of -kin. Hotchkiss probably started out as Hotchkins.
Mendes - Portuguese, like the Spanish Mendez, Menendez and Melendez it derives from an Old Germanic name Hermenegildo. Well you would shorten it, wouldn't you?
Two examples of how one name go off in several different directions.