Medieval Europe: Guilds & Surnames

 

If you had a trade in the Medieval Ages you could make higher and more regular income than a farmer. We talked about the various skills that would be passed through generations of families or learned through an apprentice (many of these we learned by looking at family surnames, below.) Each child chose their trade and we served as their apprentice while they walked us through A Day in the Life.

Miss O chose to be an armorer, producing and maintaining weaponry. She furthered her skill set by training apprentices to sword fight and took custom orders for daggers and swords.

We provided an alphabetical list of surnames that indicate a trade and had them decipher the job that matches the name:

Abbot

Archer

Bailey

Baker

Barber

Bishop

Brewer

Butler

Carpenter

Clark

Cook

Cooper

Fisher

Fletcher

Gardiner