Could you give some examples of this?
I just found it (partially) on Wikipedia, in case anyone else is still looking:
Foreign surnames are also widely used as given names such as Wagner, Mozart, Donizetti, Lamartine, Danton, Anderson, Emerson, Edison, Franklin, Nelson, Wilson, Washington, Jefferson, Jensen, Kennedy, Lenin, Newton, Nobel, and Rosenberg. Originally these names showed the political, artistic or scientific admiration of the parents who first used them to name their sons. (See also Spelling section of this article).