#Johnny Evil Tyrant would have been four different nationalities by age 41 if he lived that long

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

Okay, so I know this one is probably based on cumin/spice traders, but it reminded me of a fun fact something that was on a final exam when I was in 10th grade.

A lot of people's last names come from the fact that they had an ancestor left as a foundling, and had to be named by the local magistrate.

Sometimes that was the last name of whoever found them, or the current saint's day (more likely to be used for the first name, though), the name of an object the kid was left with, the location they were found, or even just the whim of the magistrate. There's records of people being named "unknown" and variations thereof.

In particularly foundling prone areas, it could even be whatever name was pre-filled out one the list, which was usually a way to line up a nice variety of mundane, socially acceptable last names no one would question. Usually. Occasionally, people used it to get... Creative. Or political.

Like one Louvain magistrate from 1789 who decided to get inspiration for 39 kids' last names from a protest pamphlet:

"Enfin alles gaet om zeep. En de maegere ratten worden vet met gestolen goed, zoodat stelen, herboots rooven, plunderen geene zonde en is. Helaes, onder wat tirannen leeven wij: galges, pruijsman, recruet, canon. Komt ons helpen uijt de slavernije van de booze tyran."

Loosely translated: "In the end, everything is going to pot. And the starving rats are fattened with stolen goods, making it so stealing, brazen robbery and looting is no longer sin. Alas, under what kind of tyrants do we live: gallows, [Prussian?], recruit, cannon. Come deliver us from the evil tyrant's slavery."

In defense of this magistrate: the kids were meant to be renamed if and when they were adopted, and this was a time and late 18th century Europe was not the greatest moment to be born and live to see 5 years old. Those are not names picked by an optimistic man. Still, if the kid lived and wasn't adopted or shoved into a religious institution, you'd end up with a census listing for Johnny Evil Tyrant, born 1789.

Which is to say: a fair amount of people named Cumming are descended from spice traders. But it's also entirely possible that a handful people are named that because someone in Ye Olden Days was thinking of, or doing, what OP is inferring.

two thoughts i had in tandem this morning

a lot of people's last names are loosely based on the job or trade of their ancestors

a last name that a fair amount of people have is Cumming