question about names? click here....?

Question

there are lots of last names that are after colors, like black, brown, grey/gray, green but how come there's no john red, or john pink or orange or yellow??  i know names used to come from a person's job like john shoemaker or whatever but where did the colors come from?  and you can't say their skin color b/c no one is grey or green?

nalaredneb · Accepted Answer

Immigration played a huge part.
Many were given new last names when they came over to America.

I wouldn't count a person not having the last last name of red,pink,orange or yellow.

Rex · Answer

Good question. Yeah jobs is the main source; Black from blacksmith, Brown maybe came from a tanner. White from a whitewasher? Green - can't think. 

As for red, pink, orange or yellow - can't think of any jobs linked to them either.

midlandsharon · Answer

Eye color

Anonymous · Answer

Partly a reason can be that many colours were not known when the family names were born.

In Hungarian we do have red as a family name.

luve112 · Answer

there was a Mr. Pink, Mr. Red, and a Mr. Orange in Resevoir Dogs!

Anonymous · Answer

there was an Agent Orange, and Big Red was a lawnmower

Stuie · Answer

you mean smith from black smith and black from blacksmith? yeh.

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question about names? click here....?

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