MSN Family Name Tracer Tool

Hello Papa!

I was reading online this evening when I learned about a new tool by MSN that allows a person to enter the last name of their family or relatives and learn about it's history. I entered the name "Rye" and got some results about which states had the most Rye's (including California) and it also listed these top five historical meanings for the name:

1. English: topographic name for someone who lived on an island or patch of firm ground surrounded by fens, from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter ye ‘at the island’ (from Old English ēg, īeg ‘island’).

2. English: topographic name for someone who lived near a river or stream, from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter eye ‘at the river’ (from Old English ēa ‘river’).

3. English: topographic name for someone living at a place where rye (Old English ryge) was grown, or perhaps a metonymic occupational name for someone who grew or sold it.

4. Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead so named, most of them from Old Norse rjóðr ‘clearing in a forest’, but others from ry ‘dry place with stones’.

5. Danish: habitational name from a place called Rye.

Keep in touch, I look forward to more of your blog posts (and especially the pictures and stories!)

Love ya, Court