Why surnames were created

And from the church we have Pope , Bishop , Monk and Abbott. However, these are most likely to have been nicknames rather than actual occupations, as with King. Or possibly they originated from performers in the Mystery or other religious plays. Sometimes a nickname became a hereditary surname. Names such as Fox , from the crafty animal, or White , perhaps from the hair or complexion, are widespread.

However, the pronounced regional distribution of names such as Nice in Essex or Wildgoose in Derbyshire suggests single family origins. In some cases, nicknames are from Norman-French words, such as Papillon dainty or inconsistent, from butterfly or Foljambe deformed leg. Names deriving from plants and animals are almost certainly nicknames - such as Catt , Sparrow and Oak - but may also be location names or even occupations.

But most nicknames come from colour, complexion or form - names such as Armstrong and Strongitharm , Heavyside , Quickly , Slowman , Smallman , Fairfax and Blunt fair-haired. Other examples of nicknames derive from personal or moral qualities, for example Good , Goodchild , Thoroughgood , Allgood , Toogood and Goodenough. Other examples are Joly , Jolibois and Joliffe , or Kennard royal-brave. And some - such as Puttock greedy or Coe jackdaw - show contempt or ridicule. The surname Blake may seem fairly straightforward but there are two derivations.

Firstly as a variation of Black , a descriptive name for someone of dark appearance, and secondly originating as the Old English word, blac meaning wan or fair - two completely opposite meanings. In Wiltshire, the surname Black is not a common one, greatly outnumbered by Blake.

Many baptismal or Christian names have become surnames without any change. A son may have acquired his surname by adding -s or -son to his father's name.

The first method was favoured in the south of England and in the western border counties where the practice was later copied by the Welsh , while the second was preferred in the northern half of England and lowland Scotland, and was a late development.

Occasionally, -son was added to a mother's names, as in Mallinson and Tillotson - both from Matilda. The son of William might therefore end up with the surname Williams or Williamson. The small pool of personal names meant that pet forms and shortened versions were commonly used, and that many of these nicknames became surnames.

Some were rhyming forms, such as Dobson , Hobson and Robson based on the pet form of Robert. Others were pet forms with -kin, -cock or -ot added. In Wales the 'patronymic' system of taking the father's forename as the child's surname, therefore a change at each generation, continued in some communities until the 17th century.

Paul Blake is a professional genealogy and local-history lecturer. Foulsham, He is a past chairman of the Society of Genealogists, and currently serves on the executive committee of the Federation of Family History Societies. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience.

Good modern dictionaries of surnames are supposed to do this, but they have occasional lapses. The historical aspects of colonization of the country have to be tied in with the various languages and linguistic shifts.

One should look for etymological details such as early occurrences of the name, and reasoning of how the spelling and pronunciation have changed, as well as geographical distribution studies that should corroborate the linguistic studies. An interesting discussion on the value of linguistic versus distribution studies was carried on in the UK magazine, Family Tree Magazine Hodgson, Christian. It would seem that the surname Hodgson can be derived from two first names, the Norse Oddgeir and the French Roger , with introduction into England in the 9thth and the 11th centuries respectively.

Distribution maps based on 16thth century parish registers indicate concentration in Cumberland and Westmorland, known areas of Norse invasion. Further documented occurrences in other parts of England between the 11th and 16th centuries could well be derived from French sources. If the original word upon which a surname is based is no longer current in the language, then the meaning is not obvious today.

Examples are Holt for one who lived near a holt, an old name for a wood, Orme from the Old Norse personal name Ormr , and Peel a nickname for a tall, thin man. Other words have changed their meaning over time and now mean something derogatory or at least not so pleasant, thus a person with the surname Gay may well be tempted to change it this century, whereas long ago it was cheerfully accepted. Surnames derived from place names, or toponymics , are of two main types, topographical from a landscape feature and habitational from a named location.

Place names account for nearly one half of English surnames, but a smaller proportion in Scotland and Ireland, whilst in Wales they are rare. A person who lived at or near a feature of the landscape, or who came from there. The name was usually originally prefixed by:. These names reflect the rural landscape and are very numerous, including derivations from words no longer used.

The place-specific ones were derived from towns, villages, manors or farmsteads. They indicate either where a person had come from in the period during which surnames were becoming fixed and hereditary the majority or of what place he was lord of the manor or most important resident.

Many of these places are abroad and they were then adapted to the English language. The largest number of surnames introduced by the Normans were from their castles or villages in Normandy. Guppy , many of which have later been anglicized. Some who were awarded lands in England, especially the younger sons of Norman landowners, used the name of this English manor instead. A habitational name can be suspected if the surname contains one of the common place name suffixes such as -by, -don, -ford, -ham, -ley , or - ton.

In this category there are far more small places than large towns or cities for a very good reason. People were named after where they were from , and net movement was to the urban areas. The Norman counterpart to smith would have been a farrier, or ferrier , a worker in metal, which appears in surnames like Farrah or Farrar, whereas the Celtic version of the same occupation is gobha , from which come the surname Gow, Gowan and Gove.

But remember, if you have a French surname, it does not necessarily mean your family came from France. Most people were and continued to be of English descent, with only a small number of Norman nobles and their retainers living in England.

Instead a French derived name might have been taken for status, or because you were working for a Norman noble who listed your occupation in French, such as John the charpentier or Carpenter, which in English would have been Wright. However, if you have a surname which comes from a French place name you are much more likely to be descended from a Norman forebear.

You can find out more about the people of on the English Heritage website, and read a round up of the story of the Norman Conquest starting here on the blog. Take our quiz and discover your allegiance. Editors note: this post has been edited to properly attribute the building of Iron Bridge to Abraham Darby, rather than Thomas Telford.