In addition to Hill and Hills there are: Hull, Athill, Holt, Wold, Noll, Knollys, Knolles, Ness, Thill and Knill. There are very many names derived from hill. Thorpe means a village and there are numerous names derived from the word borough - examples are Boroughs, Bury, Burg, Burke, Bourke, Borrow and Burrowes.įeatures of the landscape gave rise to many surnames. Again, most are obvious, but there are some surprises - such as Bristowe (both Bristol and Burstow in Surrey), and Vyse (Devizes or a dweller on the boundary). Nearly every county, town, riding, hundred, wapentake, village, hamlet and even single house, at any date, has given its name. And it's interesting that Blackmore, Morys, Moris, Morris, Morice, Morrice, Maurice, Moorish and Mountmorris are themselves all further forms of Moore. This was particularly the case in those counties where occupation was scattered, and the Pennines and Devon have more than their share of distinctive names.Ĭountries give us names such as French, Beamish (Bohemian), Britten, Fleming, Hannay (Hainault), Janeway (Genoese), Lubbock (Lubeck) and Moore (Morocco), among many others. Many people took their name from their farm or hamlet. Standardised spelling did not really arrive until the 19th century, and even in the present day variations occur, often by accident - how much of your post has your name spelt incorrectly? It is more important to be aware that both surnames and forenames are subject to variations in spelling, and not only in the distant past. Thus you can see that only by tracing a particular family line, possibly back to the 14th century or beyond, will you discover which version of a surname is yours.
It comes from an Irish clan name, but it is also one of several English surnames derived from the personal name Nicolas. The fairly common name of Collins is an example of this. You could be in the position of Tony Blair, whose ancestor acquired his name from adoptive or foster parents.Īnother complication is that sometimes two different names can appear to be the same one, being similar in sound, but different in origin. Your surname may be derived from a place, such as Lancaster, for example, or an occupation, such as Weaver, but this is not necessarily of relevance to your family history. This could be for legal reasons, or simply on a whim, but points up the fact that although the study of surnames is vital in family history research, it is all too easy to place excessive emphasis on them. Many individuals and families have changed their names or adopted an alias at some time in the past.
This is all too far back to be helpful in researching family origins, although the study of a particular surname may be useful when the investigation points to an area where it appears often. Many Irish and Highland Scottish names derive from Gaelic personal names, as do those of the Welsh, who only began to adopt the English system of surnames following the union of the two countries in 1536. New surnames continued to be formed long after 1400, and immigrants brought in new ones. However, some names from before the Norman Conquest survived long enough to be inherited directly as surnames, including the Anglo-Saxon Cobbald (famous-bold). It was not fashionable, and possibly not sensible either, to bear them during those times, so they fell out of use and were not often passed on as surnames. Most Saxon and early Celtic personal names - names such Oslaf, Oslac, Oswald, Oswin and Osway ('Os' meaning God) - disappeared quite quickly after the Norman invasion. By 1400 most English families, and those from Lowland Scotland, had adopted the use of hereditary surnames. So trades, nicknames, places of origin, and fathers' names became fixed surnames - names such as Fletcher and Smith, Redhead and Swift, Green and Pickering, Wilkins and Johnson. Initially, the identifying names were changed or dropped at will, but eventually they began to stick and to get passed on. Over time many names became corrupted and their original meaning is now not easily seen.Īfter 1066, the Norman barons introduced surnames into England, and the practice gradually spread. When communities were small each person was identifiable by a single name, but as the population increased, it gradually became necessary to identify people further - leading to names such as John the butcher, William the short, Henry from Sutton, Mary of the wood, Roger son of Richard.
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