Lily Allen
Allen in 2011, photo by Prphotos.com
Birth Name: Lily Rose Beatrice Allen
Place of Birth: Hammersmith, London, England, U.K.
Date of Birth: 2 May, 1985
Ethnicity: Welsh, English, Irish
Lily Allen is a British singer, songwriter, actress, and television presenter.
Her father, Keith Allen (Keith Charles Howell Allen), worked as a comedian and actor. Her mother, Alison Owen (Alison Mary Owen), is a film producer. Her brother is actor Alfie Allen. She has a song about him, “Alfie.” Her half-sister is actress Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen. Her uncle (father’s brother) is actor Kevin Allen. Lily is married to American actor David Harbour. She has two children with her former husband, builder and decorator Sam Cooper.
Lily’s father is Welsh. Lily’s mother, who is English-born, has Welsh, English, and Irish ancestry.
Lily has also been described as having Romani ancestry through her paternal grandmother. It is not clear if this is accurate.
Lily’s paternal grandfather was named Edward Charles Allen.
Lily’s paternal grandmother was Mary E. E. John (the daughter of Howell James John and Beatrice Bowen). Mary was from Llanelly, Wales.
Lily’s maternal grandfather was Peter Ronald Owen (the son of Evan Rhys Owen and Hilda Rose Mason). Evan was born in Glamorgan, Wales, the son of David Henry Owen and Lucy Copeland. Hilda was the daughter of William Mason and Eliza Brown.
Lily’s maternal grandmother was Mary Kathleen Hitchiner (the daughter of Alexander James Hitchiner and Eileen Kelleher). Mary was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire. Alexander was the son of William Watkiss Hitchiner and Catherine Sarah Alexander. Eileen’s father, William Kelleher, was Irish, from Aghada, County Cork. Eileen’s mother, Eliza Elliott, was born in either Northern Ireland or England, the daughter of Frederick Elliott and Maria Carroll. Maria was from Cork, Ireland.
Lily is a third cousin of singer Sam Smith.
Sources: Family history of Lily Allen – http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Genealogy of Lily Allen – https://www.geni.com
It is more difficult to tell with those of African decent from Dutch/American/Latin American surname roots, as those were likely descendants of former slaves, who lost their real surnames if applicable in the first place, It was common for them to take on the surnames of their slave holding “masters”, or other local surnames instead.
The same is true of Native Americans, who took on surnames, often of European origins, due to the customs of the invading Westerners. Previously, they did not practice the use of surnames.
However in the case of long established areas of the world such as Europe and Asia, surnames can be fairly reliably used to determine both the area of origins, and ethnicity. There are MANY people of Scots, Welsh, and Irish descent living in England due to migration of the ancestors for jobs and a better life. Although they may consider themselves NATIONALLY as English, their roots are actually in the respective countries of origin suggested by their surnames.
Many names occur simultaneously in widely diverse countries due to conquer-ship, coincidence and migration however. The Norman conquest brought many otherwise French names to Ireland and Britain, and some names, such as Abbot, Martin, Miller, Alexander can be found in both Britain and Germany, with no immediate link between them.
Many caveats abound with analyzing surnames, but they are often a good way to determine family origins.
That’s interesting Cymru. Though a friend of mine was disagreeing with me about a lastname saying something about your ethnicity. In my opinion you can usually know a part of someone;s ethnicity if you look at just their last name (unless their adopted or have the lastname of their stepdad). Even if someone is of african american descent and has a dutch lastname the person can have distant or not so distant dutch blood.
And then he told me but if someone is portuguese what if their ancestors were chinese. But I didn’t find that a logical statement xD. I mean if you want to go that far than you’re getting to the celts and anglo saxons etc. And Gaelic? people. And I don’t know what the “original” portuguese people were. But you don’t have to necessarily go that far. I find his statement a little exaggerated.
What do you guys think about a last name saying something about your ethnicity? And how far we should go?
Her mother may have been born in England, but the surname Owen is of Welsh descent as well. That would make her 100% Welsh in ethnicity.
Ugly but talented
I’d say she’s average
awesome!!!