And would the "roy" bit refer to "le roi", i.e. french for king, so "bastard son of the king"?

Incidentally it was perportedly Henry VIII who named the beef cut "sirloin". So the story goes, he was presented with some beef, liked it, asked the chef what cut it was. "Sur loin" (above the loin) answered the chef, and H, seeing the pun, knighted the cut "Sir Loin".

>I was thinking about this the other night when watching Showtime "The Tudors" and Henry VIII's bastard son was introduced formally at court as Henry Fitzroy. That's interesting about Esposito - didn't know that.
>
>>>>>Preceded by the grandparents's names preceded by the great grandparents' names preceded by ...
>>>>>
>>>>>Of course, that's how a lot of surnames are formed. Ben (son of) etc.
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>>>>As you know, Ben is the Hebrew version. Mac/Mc and O' are similar. Fitz is illegitimate son of. And, of course, we have names like Robertson, Smithson, Johnson, ...
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>>>
>>>And similar to Fitz, in Spanish there is the last name "Expósito" ("Esposito" in Italian). This comes from orphanages. The wording for orphanage in days of old (18th/19th centuries) was "Casa de niños expósitos" (home for orphan and abandoned children). Therefore anybody with Esposito as last name has ancestors that grew up in an orphanage and had no known last name, therefore they were given the word for orphans.
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>>Talk about being labelled from birth!