A’lot of beginning genealogists have an obsession with their surname and its origin. This in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it can lead down the wrong path. Many “genealogical” sites will purport to have your family crest and know exactly where your family’s from. 

For example take the Surname Nor, This is typically a Muslim Surname but their is also a large amount of Nor’s in the Neatherlands, Germany, and Poland, so are these Nor’s descendants of Muslims? Probably not, another possible origin is Norway.

There are some good ways to tell where your surname is from though. If your Surname ends in Sky, Ski or Ska then your family is Polish! The suffixes and prefixes Sch and Stein are often German. The suffixes Sen and Datter are from Scandinavia. For more I recommend looking at this wikipedia article.