It's fair to say that all family names at some point in their lineage and language conveyed meaning. To speakers of the English language many surnames continue to carry meaning. The words "foreman", "grant", "march" and "ball" are both common proper names and proper common names. In addition, certain surnames carry meaning if considered in their homophonous form, for example: Spitz = spits, Moore = more, and Whittier = wittier.

Each of the 200 names in this lexicon stands as a surname first and then doubles as a verb, noun or other part of speech. These "double duty" surnames make the word following redundant, and therefore expendable. Each sentence is crafted in a way that alludes to the identity of the well-known person. Check them out!

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For a greater challenge, you can guess the names.

If you're just curious, you can browse the names.