Quotes & Sayings About Surname

Wong is the most common surname in the world ... "
" ... John is the most common first name in the world."
"That's right," I said. "And yet there's not a single person named John Wong. I looked it up."
"You know, I work with a John Wong. — David Wong

My nickname is Bondy. But not because of the Bond films - it was my surname a long time before I did those. — Samantha Bond

Try as i do, i can't recall her surname. Indeed, her very abstractedness and insubstantial personality seemed to say 'forget me'; she seemed to live in parenthesis; ... — Muriel Spark

As rich Cahill superstars went, Fidelio Racco was definitely on the B-list. Maybe even the D-list. Google had heard of him, but a search for his surname placed him below Racco Auto Body in Toronto and Trattoria Racco in Florence, and only slightly ahead of the Rack O'Lamb Irish Chop House in Des Moines. — Gordon Korman

No surname? Or is Thorn it?"
"Thorn is all anyone needs to know about me."
"As in thorn up all our collective nether regions," Devyl muttered. — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Recalling, some time later, what I had felt at the time, I distinguished the impression of having been held for a moment in her mouth, myself, naked, without any of the social attributes which belonged equally to her other playmates and, when she used my surname, to my parents, accessories of which her lips - by the effort she made, a little after her father's manner, to articulate the words to which she wished to give a special emphasis - had the air of stripping, of divesting me, like the skin from a fruit of which one can swallow only the pulp, while her glance, adapting itself to the same new degree of intimacy as her speech, fell on me also more directly and testified to the consciousness, the pleasure, even the gratitude that it felt by accompanying itself with a smile. — Marcel Proust

Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only,' finished Lupin. — J.K. Rowling

In more static societies, like Ireland, you can tell where a person is from by their surname, or where their grandparents are from. — Anne Enright

I'm aware people will think I've had an easy way into a dream career. My view is, if anyone has opportunities, they'll take them. My surname opens doors, but those doors will slam firmly if I'm no good. — Tamara Ecclestone

It was with an unusual intensity of pleasure, a pleasure destined to have a lasting effect on him, that Swann remarked Odette's resemblance to the Zipporah of that Alessandro de Mariano to whom more people willingly give his popular surname, Botticelli, now that it suggests not so much the actual work of the Master as that false and banal conception of it which has of late obtained common currency. — Marcel Proust

After that, we had a short conversation about how your body can sometimes seem totally separate. She said her body can feel like a distant bureaucracy controlled by telegrams from her brain, and I said my body is sometimes like that of Mario Mario, being controlled with a Nintendo joypad. Mario's surname is Mario. — Joe Dunthorne

His nostrils flared with annoyance. "I prefer Ambassador Asterios, thank you very much." "Using your surname, eh?" "I requested Big Daddy Steve, but your Elders feel it isn't official enough. Tools. — Joshua Roots

And this is Nymphadora-"
"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus," said the young witch with a shudder. "It's Tonks."
"-Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," finished Lupin.
"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you 'Nymphadora,' " muttered Tonks. — J.K. Rowling

So many individuals in different places, all with the same good idea. All, in their own ways, attempting to use light on a wall to open a window into another world. And how odd is it that the two guys who made the first viable motion picture happened to have a surname that means "light"? Still just coincidence? — Gemma Files

My imagination? No, I don't think it's VIVID at all. On the contrary, it's not nearly potent enough. My poor imaginative faculties have always needed ... extentions. That's why I'm here with you. You're smiling again, or rather you're SMIRKING. Funny word, smirk. Rather like an extraterrestrial surname. Simon Smirk. How do you think that sounds? — Thomas Ligotti

As I said, it comes with a price." His grin was wicked and I suddenly felt a little breathless. "I'm a hard man to please. And I'm also a very busy man. You'll do what I want when I want and I won't always be nice about it. In fact, considering what your surname is, you can pretty much guarantee I won't be nice about it. — Samantha Young

In a fall, you only start from zero velocity if your surname is Coyote. — Hyphatia Cneajna

It's very hard to step into a job when people are just dismissing you as a pretty face, and saying you got your job only because your surname is McMahon. — Julian McMahon

Even so, as was his custom, he writes the name in an abbreviated form: "Wllm Shaksp." It also has a large blot on the end of the surname, probably because of the comparatively low quality of the paper. Though it is only a deposition, it is also the only document in existence containing a transcript of Shakespeare speaking in his own voice. — Bill Bryson

The Listener's editor when I first joined was Russell Twisk, a surname of such surpassing beauty that I would have written pieces for him if he had been at the helm of Satanic Child-Slaughter Monthly. — Stephen Fry

I prefer Ms. because it is similar to Mr. A man is Mr. whether married or not, a woman is Ms. whether married or not. So please teach Chizalum that in a truly just society, women should not be expected to make marriage-based changes that men are not expected to make. Here's a nifty solution: Each couple that marries should take on an entirely new surname, chosen however they want as long as both agree to it, so that a day after the wedding, both husband and wife can hold hands and joyfully journey off to the municipal offices to change their passports, driver's licenses, signatures, initials, bank accounts, etc. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Finally, the cognomen, a personal surname, was particular to its holder or his branch of the family. It often had a jokey or down-to-earth ring: so, for example, "Cicero" is Latin for "chickpea" and it was supposed that some ancestor had had a wart of that shape on the end of his nose. When Marcus was about to launch his career as an advocate and politician, friends advised him to change his name to something less ridiculous. "No," he replied firmly, "I am going to make my cognomen more famous than those of men like Scaurus and Catulus." These were two leading Romans of the day, and the point of the remark was that "Catulus" was the Latin for "whelp" or "puppy," and "Scaurus" meant "with large or projecting ankles. — Anthony Everitt

I hadn't known up to that moment that I had a surname that was recognizably Jewish, or that people named Marx would be unwelcome somewhere in the United States because of it. — Elinor Lipman

The phrase "the violent bear it away" fascinated the 20th century Irish-American storyteller Flannery O'Connor, who used it as the title of one of her novels. O'Connor's surname connects her to an Irish royal family descended from Conchobor (pronounced "Connor"), the prehistoric king of Ulster who was foster father to Cuchulainn and "husband" of the unwilling Derdriu. In the western world, the antiquity of Irish lineages is exceeded only by that of the Jews. — Thomas Cahill

We are a mixed up people. We have mixed up ways of naming, too ... When my father's brothers and sisters first went to colonial schools, they had to produce a surname. They also had to show they were good Christians by adopting a western name. They adopted my grandfather's name as surname. Wainaina. — Binyavanga Wainaina

There are many times where even I, at certain points in the evening, after a few drinks, can't pronounce my own surname. — Milla Jovovich

A Sikh woman takes the surname Kaur on baptism. Kaur was also a common surname for Rajput women and means both a princess and lioness. — Khushwant Singh

I am Reaylin de Voss," she said smugly, as if he should recognize her surname. He did not, which meant her family was not particularly wealthy, powerful or influential. "Well, — Kel Kade

I entered KC College in 1975. When I came here for my interview, for my admission, every person I spoke to spoke to me in Sindhi. Be it Kundanani, Bhambani, Nichani, Kevalramani ... and they also thought that Ambani was the same. For a moment, I thought that I got my admission at KC College because I have a 'ni' in my surname. — Anil Ambani

And then there is the matter of Fagin, routinely referred to as "the Jew." I needn't remind you that this was back in the day when the mere act of not being a Christian was to make one suspect, if not an outright potential criminal. These, of course, are far more enlightened times, when it is only acceptable to believe that not being a Christian is likely to mean one is a criminal only if one is a Muslim (or at least so we've been assured by people who claim to know such things), and therefore we shall refer to Fagin merely by his surname. — Peter David

Mitochondrial genes act like a female surname, which enables us to trace our ancestry down the female line in the way some families try to trace their descent down the male line from William the Conqueror, or Noah, or Mohammed. — Nick Lane

She sometimes wondered what her twenty-two-year-old self would think of today's Emma Mayhew. Would she consider her self-centered? Compromised? A bourgeois sell-out, with her appetite for home ownership and foreign travel, clothes from Paris and expensive haircuts? Would she find her conventional, with her new surname and hopes for a family life? Maybe, but then the twenty-two-year-old Emma Morley wasn't such a paragon either: pretentious, petulant, lazy, speechifying, judgmental. Self-pitying, self-righteous, self-important, all of the selfs except self-confident, the quality that she always needed most. — David Nicholls

People tend to try to find something to talk about Zuma. My surname is very nice and simple. Very simple, so they like pronouncing it all the time. So what's the problem? — Jacob Zuma

Amy Winehouse - her surname's beginning to sound like a description of her liver. — Russell Brand

A name is so important. A surname connects you to your past, to your family. Even a given name has meaning - why did your parents pick that particular one? — Kelley Armstrong

Yes," I said. "Temudjin Oh." I'd long got used to the fact that my Mongolian-extraction surname could cause some amusement amongst English speakers determined to extract a toll of discomfiture from somebody whose name was not as banal or as ugly as theirs. However, there was something about the way she pronounced it that immediately brought a blush to my cheeks. Perhaps the sunset would cover my embarassment. — Iain M. Banks

Speaking of people being foxy, do you mean? I'm George Lovelace," said George. "I say my surname without shame, because I am secure in my masculinity like that." "Oh, — Cassandra Clare

Fathers, sons, brothers, men everywhere: Your legacy will not perish if you take your partner's surname, or she keeps hers. — Zoe Saldana

He mused on this village of his, which had sprung up in this place, amid the stones, like the gnarled undergrowth of the valley. All Artaud's inhabitants were inter-related, all bearing the same surname to such an extent that they used double-barrelled names from the cradle up, to distinguish one from another. At some antecedent date an ancestral Artaud had come like an outcast, to establish himself in this waste land. His family had grown with the savage vitality of the vegetation, drawing nourishment from this stone till it had become a tribe, then the tribe turned to a community, till they could not sort out their cousinage, going back for generations. They inter-married with unblushing promiscuity. — Emile Zola

There's this common perception that having a famous last name is all you need. A surname may get you a meeting, but if there's no talent you won't get the part. — Lily Collins

I see my daft surname as a positive thing. It first dawned on me that I had a comical name when someone called me 'Fishface' on my first day at school. I've heard all the fish jokes since then, many times over. — Laura Haddock

Change of scene is the thing. I head of a man. Girl refused him. Man went abroad. Two months later girl wired him "Come back, Muriel." Man started to write out a reply; suddenly found that he couldn't remember girl's surname; so never answered at all, and lived happily ever after. — P.G. Wodehouse

I was advised by an American agent when I was about 19 to change my surname. — Rachel Weisz

I cannot feel like a duchess in my
mother's sitting room."
"What do you feel like, then?"
"Hmmm." She took a sip of her tea. "Just Daphne
Bridgerton, I suppose. It's difficult to shed the surname in
this clan. In spirit, that is."
"I hope that is a compliment," Lady Bridgerton remarked.
Daphne just smiled at her mother. "I shall never escape
you, I'm afraid." She turned to Gareth. "There is nothing like one's family to make one feel like one has never
grown up. — Julia Quinn

The Kapoor surname has legend, a passion for acting, respect and love attached to it. And I am very proud of that. — Karisma Kapoor

They soon lost interest in Sofya. She was just one more prisoner -with no more idea of her destination than anyone else. No one asked her name and patronymic; no one remembered her surname. She realized with surprise that although the process of evolution had taken millions of years, these people had needed only a few days to revert to the state of cattle, dirty and unhappy, captive and nameless. — Vasily Grossman

My surname for a mask to pretend!
I have no stand to protest,
but I will find it (in the poem 'Tatiana Naturova at Time's End' in the collection 'The Green Divorce') — Christos Rodoulla Tsiailis

Sir, this is absurd," he said. "You have the wrong Greenwood. There must be a lord or nobleman with the same surname. I have no association with whoever organised this meeting." The guard's face darkened. "This meeting has been organised by Her Majesty, the Queen. Unfortunately, there has been no mistake. Now, be seated and be silent. — Victor Kloss

Your lineage and surname become irrelevant after your first film. Audiences do not care. — Sanjay Dutt

Most curious is the way that Y/surname patterns differ between countries. In Britain, on average, a man who has the same surname as another is significantly more likely to have a similar Y chromosome, and therefore a common ancestor, than he would with someone of a different surname. But there's a twist: The Y similarity depends on the frequency of the surname within the population. If you are a Smith, for example, the rule does not apply. — Christine Kenneally

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire, and when again under the influence of its kindred desires it is moved with violent motion towards the beauty of corporeal forms, it acquires a surname from this very violent motion, and is called love. — Socrates

So anyway, change of subject; why would your parents name you Rosie if your surname was Right? I mean, that's just a little cruel," I asked, pretending to be serious.

She looked at me as if I'd lost the plot a little. "I'm not Rosie Right, I'm Rosie York."

I recoiled, faking shock. "Seriously? Damn it, I could have sworn you were Miss Right."

She rolled her eyes as she got it. "Nice. Didn't see that one coming so good job."

"You like that? I made that up on the spot, just for you. — Kirsty Moseley

Tommy Wirkola is Norwegian but has a Finnish surname - he comes from the one of the northernmost countries in the whole of Europe. It was easy working with him. The people in the north are all fairly similar. — Pihla Viitala

Koturovic's a surname," said Tim. "A patronymic. Not a middle name. — Peter Clines

Simon had to save the world, and the rest of us get in because we have the right surname?" George asked lightly. He winked at Simon. "Hard luck on you, mate. — Cassandra Clare

And Anne could have said much, and did long to say a little in defence of her friend's not very dissimilar claims to theirs, but her sense of personal respect to her father prevented her. She made no reply. She left it to himself to recollect, that Mrs Smith was not the only widow in Bath between thirty and forty, with little to live on, and no surname of dignity. — Jane Austen

var person = {name: "John", surname: "Smith", address: { street: "13 Duncannon Street", city: "London", country: "United Kingdom" }}; — Andrea Chiarelli

The surname Messi comes from the Italian town of Porto Recanati, in the province of Macerata, which saw the birth of the poet Giacomo Leopardi and the tenor Beniamino Gigli. — Luca Caioli

I have to go through auditions, and my surname has got me into rooms, but I'll never know if it gets me any jobs. There's a lot of sexism and objectification, and a lot of people put you down. — Oona Chaplin

The surname of an atheist is compound unfortunate plus being, therefore unfortunate-beings, making all atheists unfortunate beings because human beings are created by God and not products of big bang atoms undergoing evolution. — S. E. Entsua-Mensah

When I have you, sweet boy, it will be because you want me to. Not against your better judgment, not in spite of my surname, and definitely not to annoy your aunt."
Stephen went red, but his voice was defiant. "Well, what was that, then?"
Crane shrugged. "You seemed tense. — K.J. Charles

There's a scientific hypothesis that every person's name is a primary suggestive command that contains the entire script of their life in highly concentrated form ... According to this point of view, there is only a limited number of names, because society only needs a limited number of human types. Just a few models of worker and warrior ants, if I could put it like that. And everybody's psyche is preprogrammed at a basic level by the associative semantic fields that their first name and surname activate. — Victor Pelevin

Molly wants to know her father's name," Arch said to them. "Why don't you give her a hint?"
His first name with 'splatter,'" said Ripkins.
And 'matter'," said Blister.
Also 'fatter,'" said Ripkins.
Likewise 'chatter'," added Blister.
And his surname?" Arch asked.
It rhymes with 'that again'," said Ripkins.
And 'Flanagan," put in Blister.
Also, um ... 'pad a fin'?" offered Ripkins.
Arch and Blister looked at him.
'Pannikin!'" he said proudly.
Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Molly screamed. "You don't know what you're talking about! — Frank Beddor

Harriet Jones: When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't smell like a fart, pardon the word, it's like something else. What is it? It's more like um ...
Rose: Bad breath!
Harriet Jones: That's it!
The Doctor: Calcium decay! Now that narrows it down! Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium - living calcium - creatures made out of living calcium, what else? What else? Hyphenated surname! YES! That narrows it down to one planet: Raxacoricofallapatorius!
Mickey Smith: [dryly] Oh yeah, great. We can write 'em a letter! — Russell T. Davies

For my nymphet I needed a diminutive with a lyrical lilt to it. One of the most limpid and luminous letters is "L". The suffix "-ita" has a lot of Latin tenderness, and this I required too. Hence: Lolita. However, it should not be pronounced as you and most Americans pronounce it: Low-lee-ta, with a heavy, clammy "L" and a long "o". No, the first syllable should be as in "lollipop", the "L" liquid and delicate, the "lee" not too sharp. Spaniards and Italians pronounce it, of course, with exactly the necessary note of archness and caress. Another consideration was the welcome murmur of its source name, the fountain name: those roses and tears in "Dolores." My little girl's heartrending fate had to be taken into account together with the cuteness and limpidity. Dolores also provided her with another, plainer, more familiar and infantile diminutive: Dolly, which went nicely with the surname "Haze," where Irish mists blend with a German bunny - I mean, a small German hare. — Vladimir Nabokov

You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate. — Antonio Villaraigosa

When a man is made a spiritual peer he loses his surname; when a temporal, his Christian name. — Jonathan Swift

I am extremely proud to have the surname Ambani. I am proud to be a Gujarati, and above all, an extremely proud Indian. — Anil Ambani

These exchanges are reported without comment by the East Roman historian Theophylact Simocatta (charmingly, his surname means 'the one-eyed cat'). — Peter Heather

When I left my home to become an actress, my father didn't give me a single penny. I struggled a lot, and they had no idea what I went through. My grandfather even asked me to drop my surname when he learnt I was joining films. — Kangana Ranaut

Reyna marvelled at how peaceful he looked. The worry lines vanished. His face became strangely angelic ... like his surname, di Angelo. She could almost believe he was a regular fourteen-year-old boy, not a son of Hades who had been pulled out of time from the 1940s and forced to endure more tragedy and danger than most demigods would in a lifetime. — Rick Riordan

I read in desperate snatches in the interstices of the Quotidian, and dream of finding three uninterrupted quiet hours to think, moon, mentally maunder, and, above all, write. I am pursued by an anti-Muse; her name is Life. Her homely multisyllabic surname is often left unenunciated, but to certain initiates it may be whispered: Exigency. — Cynthia Ozick