Can you guess people's backgrounds by their surnames in England?

[sweetestB]

The reason why I'm asking this is because in my home country we can clearly know people's background (poor or working class, middle class or upper class) by their surname. I've lived in the UK for a while now and I have no clue if here there is the same phenomenon....if so, can you give any examples?

I don't think so.

It used to be that people with double barrel names were more likely to be upper class, but so many people hyphenate their names on marriage these days to keep the woman's maiden name, or give their DCs double barreled surnames if (eg) the parents are not married, that the class distinction is no longer relevant.

Historically that would be possible but it wouldn't mean anything now.

I'd say no...the UK, especially London, big towns and cities are too mixed and diverse for that.

No, I don't think you can.

I guess a long time ago, yes, what with Baker, Smith,Taylor etc.
But I wouldn't say so anymore.

In my country, some girls with 'bad' surnames even choose their boyfriends by the sounding of their surnames in case they get married so the girl can boost up her own surname as well as her children's.

So it is funny here reading the 'other' thread, and this section too when people are so worried about the first name because in my country we need to worry about the surname too.

which country is this?

Not saying, sorry. Obviously if a girl falls in love with a guy with bad surname, she won't mind, unless she is deeply shallow but when you are kind of flirting you need to find out the surname asap and decide if you like it, if it goes well with yours, etc.

Why won't you tell us the country sweetest?

Because there is other info about me in other threads and I don't want to out myself.

No, I don't think there is any correlation and if you take your husband's name on marriage you lose that link with your background anyway.
My maiden name was a very obvious link to my background if you have a bit of political/historical knowledge but my married name could put me anywhere in the social spectrum.

I'm sure you can change your surname if you so wish in the UK.

In NZ, tthere was even a woman who successfully argued in court she doesn't need a surname after a divorce .

SweetestB so what you are saying doesn't apply here. See the following link on deed polls. The girl in your example can just pay a bit of ££ and get herself a upper class surname

www.ukdps.co.uk/

Ok

sweetestB another interesting link for you. www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20228060

This is about foreigners came to the UK and adopting English surnames or anglicizing their names. So it's nothing new where people change their surnames.

I adopted an English surname through marriage but I always have been very happy with my surnames (in my country you people have 2 surnames from both sides) so now I have my own name and 3 surnames...

I agree we can't tell. An exception would be where person's name ends "of that Ilk." That would usually be a posh person.

It depends,generally not, but a surname like Montgomery Fortescue Smythe suggests a particular social class.

I'm Welsh, but my married surname is Irish.

Generally, no. I think you can recognise a traditionally "aristocratic" name - the Montgomery Fortescue Smythes etc - when you see it, but there are so many counter-examples of backgrounds and names not matching that it's not a reliable guide.

But there was an interesting study about this recently (link opens as a PDF). They found that surnames associated with higher status in England in 1800 actually were more likely to also be associated with higher status in the present day than surnames without high status associations in 1800 - social mobility has not moved as fast as we think it has to iron out differences.