Don’t Know Who to Vote For? Maybe This Surname Analysis Will Help.

Surnames
14 March 2016
by Ancestry®
Hillary_Clinton_vs._Donald_Trump_-_Caricatures
Photo credit: DonkeyHotey via Wikimedia Commons

Election season continues to heat up. The field of candidates is narrowing, and before we know it, the presidential general election will be upon us. Regardless of where you fall along party lines, taking a look at the meaning of each of the current candidates’ names can give you a glimpse into their family’s origin stories and how each of them became the Americans they are today.

Republicans

Donald Trump

HBO late night host John Oliver’s recent takedown of Donald Trump included mocking the origins of his name, so you may already know Trump’s family name started as “Drumpf.” According to “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built An Empire,” the original German winemaking family changed the name during the Thirty Years’ War. The Bavarian, occupational name means drummer, and given how Donald marches to the beat of his own drum, it seems nothing if not appropriate.

Marco Rubio

Born in Miami to working-class Cuban immigrants, Marco Rubio grew up in Florida and also spent time in Las Vegas. He went on to become Florida’s first Cuban-American House Speaker. His surname, from the Latin “rubeus,” is actually a nickname for someone with red hair. It can also be a place-based surname from Catalonia. First found in the Castilian region, the name is most common in Mexico, with Spain being a close second.

Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz

Ted Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and an Irish-American mother. His parents met in Texas at an oil exploration business and moved to Canada during the 1960s growth in the oil and gas industry. Eventually, the family relocated to Houston where Cruz was raised. With Spanish and Portuguese origins, Ancestry says the name comes “from a common and widespread religious Christian personal name from cruz ‘cross’ (Latin crux)” or a place with Cruz in its name.

John Kasich

The Ohio governor John Kasich, born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, was raised by two Democratic postal workers. After attending Ohio State University, he went on to become a managing director at Lehman Brothers. He also spent 18 years in Congress and ran for president in 2000. He descends from Hungarian, Czech, and Croatian immigrants. We haven’t found a meaning for the name Kasich.

 

Democrats

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton has already had quite the life in the spotlight. She went from being a lawyer to First Lady to Secretary of State to running a second time to become the U.S.’s first female president. Clinton, born and raised in the Chicago area, can tie her Rodham roots back to great-grandparents, who almost all immigrated here from Northern England and Wales. The last name Rodham, in fact, comes from the Old English “rod,” which means “clearing.” Though various spellings exist, the family can trace its lineage all the way back to the late 13th century.

Bernard “Bernie” Sanders

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish parents of Polish descent, Bernie Sanders went on to school at Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago. Living in Israel on a kibbutz after graduation, Sanders moved to Vermont after returning to the U.S. Interestingly enough, Sanders is not a last name steeped in Hebrew tradition. The name finds its roots in Alexander, or the Greek “Alexandros,” which means “defender of men.”

Though people may or may not read much into the last name of the United States’ potential next president, you can find your own meaning as you discover more about your last name or look into the names of others if you’re curious. Just check out the free Surname Finder at Ancestry and learn more about who you are and where you come from.

—Shanna Yehlen