I wonder why Edit: interesting, this seems to be mainly an English phenomenon, a lot of examples but they are all from other languages. The exception being Biggs, although I’ve never met a Biggs.
Long, Large, Biggs, Tall are all English surnames
True, I did think of Long, although the etymology of that one isn’t always clear. For Irish people apparently “Long” is derived from the Gaelic word for seafarer.
‘Nagy’ (which is one syllable, and ‘gy’ means something like a voiced, wet ‘d’, like the mid section of your tongue against the roof of your mouth) is one of the most common Hungarian surnames. It means ‘big’. I have never heard of (the equivalent of) ‘Tall’, but ‘Long’ exists.
Tangentially related… nicknames for tall. I have always like “stretch”. And of course calling a big man tiny is just great.
I had a teacher with the surname “Sizemore”
The exception being Biggs, although I’ve never met a Biggs.
What about Fred Bigass?
I knew a guy with the last name of long.
Mr. Biggs would like a word, too.
Cel-Mare in Romania aka “the big one”.
Apologies if mistranslated. I’m not Romanian but I work with a lot of em and one of them has that last name as well as a candy bar there.
Interesting observation!
Gross, Langemann, Legrande?
Armstrong also.
Fun fact, in Danish, we call the middle finger langemand.
Yeah I did think of Armstrong, although that’s not quite rhe same thing. Still a pretty sweet last name though I feel like you kinda have to be some kind of craftsman with a name like that.
Or a wrestler
The last name Grant comes from French and means grand or big or giant.
So Hugh Grant is just a large large person?
As we know, Ariana Grande is 6’8" and has biceps like a regular man’s thighs.
Talk about nominative determinism
Yeah, but there is “Grossman”. In German “gross” or “groß” means big.
Also Dick, as in Philip K. Dick. In German Dick = thick = fat
Long?
Yes, Long meant tall in Old English and Old French.
Maybe not in English? Plenty of people are named Groß in the German speaking world.
Yeah, I don’t think Groß (big) and Lang (long) are any less common than Klein (small) and Kurz (short)
Nonsense. There’s the famous John Bigbooté.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Biggs is a surname
