Surname Origins (Clemens branch)

Click on a name to see all the individuals in the database with that surname.
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Atkins
An English patronymic derived from the Middle English personal name Atkin, one of the many pet forms of Adam. (Also Adams, Aitken). Thomas Atkins was born around 1810, likely in Ontario.

Brandow
Variant on the German Brandau, a place name from any of several places called Brandau, in Hesse, Bavaria, and former East Prussia. (Also Brandon). Johann Wilhelm Brandau came to New York around 1710.

Chmielewski
A Polish place name for someone from one of many places called Chmielew or Chmielewo, from chmiel, meaning hops. John Chmielewski’s children arrived in Chicago in the 1890s, although it is unclear if he ever emigrated from Poland.

Clemens
English, German, Dutch or Danish patronymic derived from the personal name Clement, meaning merciful. As an American family name, Clement has absorbed cognates in other continental European languages. (Also Clements). Abial Clemens was born in Pennsylvania around 1795 and arrived in Ontario before 1852.

Mabee
A prominent Dutch family name in NY, derived from French Mabille. Mabee is the most common form, but it probably developed through Mabie, as a phonetic spelling, in the Netherlands, into its present form in Schenectady, where spelling was influenced by English conventions. (Also Mabie, Mabey). Simon Mabie, a Loyalist, arrived in St. Stephens, NB in 1783.

Macumber
A variant of the Irish MacComber, an Anglicized form of the Gaelic Ó Ciaragáin or ‘descendant of Ciaragán’, a personal name based on a diminutive of ciar ‘black’, but erroneously identified with cíor ‘comb’. David Macumberwas born in New York in 1824.

Manuel
Americanized version of the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German names derived from the personal name Emanuel, or possibly a habitational name from Manuel in the Valencia province. Anthony Manuel was born around 1758 in New Brunswick.

Sinclair
A Scottish name of Norman origin, originally a habitational name from Saint-Clair-sur-Elle in La Manche or Saint-Clair-l’Évêque in Calvados, so called from the dedication of their churches to St. Clarus. Melva Joan Sinclair was born 1927 in Wisconsin.

Stone
Derived from the Old English stan ‘stone’, most commonly as a topographic name, for someone who lived either on stony ground or by a notable outcrop of rock or a stone boundary-marker or monument, but it is also found as a metonymic occupational name for someone who worked in stone. John Stone, a Loyalist, arrived in Ontario in 1793.

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