Vaughan

The origin of the surname Vaughan

Vaughan comes from bychan, “small” or “younger,” often to distinguish a son from his father.

What kind of surname is Vaughan?

As a descriptive surname (or nickname name), the surname Vaughan arose from a personal characteristic — a physical trait, a quality of temperament, or a distinguishing feature of its first bearer. Communities have always coined nicknames, and in the age before fixed surnames these vivid, affectionate or teasing labels — referring to hair colour, stature, complexion or character — frequently became hereditary. Descriptive surnames give an unusually human glimpse of an ancestor, hinting at how they looked or how they were regarded by the people around them.

How Welsh surnames work

Welsh surnames grew out of a patronymic system using “ap” or “ab” (“son of”), which over time fused onto the father's name — “ap Rhys” became Price, “ap Hywel” became Powell. Fixed hereditary surnames came relatively late to Wales, and because the patronymic pool was small, a handful of names (Jones, Williams, Davies, Evans, Thomas) came to be shared very widely.