Surname Origin

The Jones Surname


Meaning
son of John
Type
Patronymic
Root
Welsh, from John
Chiefly
Wales and the borders

The commonest surname in Wales by a distance. Welsh naming used ap, ‘son of’, and did not fix hereditary surnames until relatively late; when English administration required fixed names, a great many families settled on the father’s given name plus the English -s.

Because the pool of given names in use was small, the resulting surnames are few and enormous. Jones, Williams, Davies, Evans and Thomas between them cover a remarkable share of the Welsh population.

Bestow the name a title it never had

An honorific Lord or Lady certificate in the Jones name, hand-finished and sealed, with a square metre of Scottish woodland dedicated alongside it. A novelty, magnificently done — and a good deal more fun than a family tree.

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