Carnes
A surname with several possible roots, including a place-name or an older personal-name form, and sometimes treated as a spelling variant of Carne or Carney.
The #2,493 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 21,312 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The name CARNES is not straightforward: in older surname books it is often grouped with Carne, Carney, and related forms rather than explained as a single, settled origin. One likely route is from a place-name or from the Celtic root seen in Welsh and Cornish names like Carne, itself often linked with a cairn, pile, or rocky hill; another possibility is that some families took it as a surname variant of other similar-looking names. In some cases it may also reflect an Anglicized or altered form of an Irish or Welsh surname.
History
19th-century surname writers record Carnes alongside families of Carne in Wales and Cornwall, and the name appears in U.S. census material in proximity to Carney and other similar surnames. Because the spelling was fluid, different Carnes families may not share the same origin. In American usage it has remained a relatively uncommon surname, with bearers distributed across several overlapping surname traditions.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Old surname indexes sometimes list Carnes right beside Carne and Carney, reflecting how loosely many spellings were fixed before modern standardization.
From the historical record
“from tlie Gael, carnach, a heathen priest. CARNE. The Carnes of Nash, co. Gla- morgan, " descend in an unbroken line from Ynyr, king of Gweut, brother of Ithel, who was slain in 846. His great- grandson, Thomas o'r Came, was brought up at Pen-carne, whence he was named”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom