Surnames often don't mean anything. If mine means anything I don't know it. It's just a name.

> Surnames often don't mean anything.

That depends on where you're from. Often in the English-speaking world, they do.

To take the another commenter's example, "Smith" comes from a word meaning, roughly, "craftsperson", as in "blacksmith". The ancestor that the surname comes from was likely either a blacksmith, or some other type of crafter whose profession can be described as "smithing".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smith

Likewise, the surname "Wright" comes from a word with a similar meaning, as in "playwright", "wheelwright" or "cartwright".

It's more fair to say those names meant something at some point. Now they just mean you are descended from someone with that surname.

They haven't lost those meanings at all. They may not have any special significance for you, but the meanings of the names remain nonetheless.

When I meet a "Johnson", my mind immediately goes to "John's son" even though "John" is probably a distant ancestor of the person, not their father. The name's meaning has not changed.

"Johnson", and similar names in other languages, can also indicate connection with the early Christian church, not a literal connection with a person named John. "Johnson" in this sense means someone who is a 'son' of John the Baptist (aka, a Christian). Or so I've read.

I wasn't aware of the John the Baptist connection. Very interesting! Thank you.

> Now they just mean you are descended from someone with that surname.

Adoption exists. I'm the first in my patriline to be born with my surname. So yes, technically I am descended from a person with that surname, but my father wasn't.

Also, changing a name on marriage happens.

You're right. Those events just move you further away from any past meanings of the surname.

Sure, but I hope an etymological dictionary would be within the budgetary means of a bank's compliance department so that they don't have to lean on their customers for it.

Where does the name Dickinson come from?

"son of Richard"

https://www.houseofnames.com/dickinson-family-crest

This is likely cultural, but for almost everyone I know, their surnames mean something. Usually, like mine, it's the name of an occupation. Often, it's another surname with "son" added onto the end, meaning "son of x".

Most first names mean something as well.

I've got the full extended meanings of my first, middle, and last names memorized. I'd post them but I don't want to dox myself. You can call me "Glorificus" for short though :) .

Name dictionaries are common, I suggest you look into one and you'll be surprised.

Correct answer: "My surname, Smith, is a string of characters that identifies people in my family. It designates a person or set of people."

A set of people you say? Sorry, our policy does not allow x-smiths to use this service.

My surname designates a bag of people.

When you replace “Smith” with “ISIS” or “Bin Laden” that’s likely not enough of an explanation for them to lift the freeze.

Why is this included in the logic in the first place? Are terrorists sending payments via PayPal and including "ISIS membership fee, annual renewal" in the comments? It would seem to me that a keyword search like this is not an effective way to stop the flow of funds to sanctioned organizations. It's like scanning cancelled checks for the word "bribe" on the memo line.

"Yes, hello, I'd like to renew my subscription to Terrorist Weekly. Oh, you take Venmo? Great!"

On the other hand, if they did it would be very embarrassing for PayPal.

No it wouldn't. A cursory search indicates that about 80 million people have the surname 'bin Laden.' Paypal is an international company. If a name gives you a 1 in 80 million possibility of a connection to terrorism without any other details, it's not actionable. The end.

Too bad if you don't know what your surname means.

Or your surname is something like Al Qaeda (which is just "the base") or is "Ira" or any other combination of letters that could trigger very dumb 'watchlist' code.

I've lost jobs over getting flagged in automatic resume systems due to my last name seeming "fake".

Reminds me of https://www.wired.com/2015/11/null/

Similarly, Fnu: https://uxdesign.cc/what-the-fnu-fa72cf4ad5bd

My surname doesn't have any modern meaning, it's a middle age Slavic surname. It's pretty unique and only a few 100s people in the world have it. It's so wild to me that it got flagged by some kind of a list.

OP and the article OP's situations are relatively easy in that the company actually told them what triggered the ban, and that presumably an explanation is all that's needed. I don't understand making a big deal about it. Tell them you don't know what your surname means and that "ALEP" is just an acronym that means "A Less Evil Product" and be on your way. Why does everything have to be a fight?

Sure, when the company says "We're banning you and not telling you why. Hahahaha!" it's infuriating, and probably worth even more than an angry Twitter rant. But "Can you explain what this specific thing means?" is not worth the rant IMO. Just explain and go on living your life.

I think this is giving the companies involved a lot of credit. I'm assuming if it took multiple days to resolve it then they didn't find "it's a name, it has no meaning" as an acceptable answer. The companies have no real incentive to be reasonable.