The past had a LOT of smiths.
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Or maybe it was the sexiest profession back then.
It’s because most anvils were tuned to G. It was considered the original root scale step because anvils often worked best when tuned to G. But back in those days, it was called Sol (Solfège.) In french, Sol means ground, which is at the bottom. Ergo, every hammer driven by the smith was really just a sort of mating call that sent all the bottoms running to the smith’s doorstep. This is where the expression “she built like an anvil” comes from
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Metalsmith, Blacksmith, Gunsmith, Goldsmith, Silversmith, Locksmith, Coppersmith, Tinsmith, Wordsmith, Songsmith
Poopsmith
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Smiths were generally wealthier so they had a better diet and what amounted to medical care, and they were rarely put in combat because they were needed to make weapons. So more of them survived.
[smiths] were rarely put in combat because they were needed to make weapons. So more of them survived.
That's how it works for my dwarves, too.
People in cthe middle ages in ciities were wealthier and healthier, and free. People in the country were slaves or tools of the local lords. City air makes you free they would say, cities were filled with free people, and run by guilds generally, smiths chief amongst them. Other cities were more merchant ruled chiefly. The nobility forever looked down on commerce, everything except agriculture and war generally.
You couldn't just move into a city, you needed an in, like getting accepted as an apprentice in a guild.
Totally true, and there were also smiths scattered around rural areas in small towns like mechanics today.
Smiths and millers were common enough professions that basically every village had one but rare enough to be useful as a description. John the farmer would have been way too vague, leading to names that come from physical appearance, place of origin or relatives‘ given names.
John the farmer would have been way too vague
"De boer", or "the farmer" is the 10th most common surname in the Netherlands. Top three are "The young", "son of Jan" and "The Frisian".
Smith be smithing tho
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“Son, you come from a long line of Dontanswers. Now do your ancestors an honorable turn and impose the most annoying phone conversation in history on this near-stranger.”
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You forgot to add the location. John Philadelphia Carpenter.
Joseph Nazareth Carpenter
I have a friend whose surname is Fletcher. I learned recently that's just an arrow maker. That said I've seen in other regions people are named for what time and location they are born and by gender.
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I do this, too, and my best friend is in my phone by just his last name (the name he goes by), so when I added his wife to my phone when they got married, I put her in as "Name Hislastname," in that same way of association, like you would add someone as "bill plumber," or whatever. And I realized, wait, is this how married couples sharing a name started? Lol
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Lots of Dutch last names are ridiculous, allegedly in defiance of foreign empires forcing the people to adopt them for registration purposes.
according to Wikipedia it's a myth
Such as?
One example is; Naaktgeboren, meaning "born naked"
Naaktgeboren comes from the German "nachgeboren", meaning "born after the father died". Which is the same origin as Posthumus, except that came via latin.
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Japanese is more like 'bob from the long field', 'steve from the middle of the village', etc. and are often place references (certain classes had more rights before people had the right to surnames, so a bit different that far back).
There are a lot of surnames like that in English. Westfield, Norwood, Whitmore, Blackwell, etc.
In Danish you get some very precise locations of farms relative to villages and see names like Nordestgaard (North East Farm), Højgaard (high farm, i.e., on a hill), Bjerregaard (mountain farm)
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Eddie cocaine, mike shit weed.
Ah, you must be talking about Eddie White and Mike Greene.
Mike Shitfacer handles the booze.
Kenny can fuck off and get a job.
Landlord isn't a job.
Matamoros is the one I don't like thinking about.
Mr. Burns was not an accident on the simpsons.
everyone welcome Chad Shitbag McFuckFace to the chat
I'm a school bus driver. Our director of transportation is in my phone as "Patti Busboss". I genuinely have no idea what her real last name is.
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