English Surnames: Their Sources and SignificationsBardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
History
English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations
Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
Names, English; Names, Personal -- English
‘Iveta Millisent,’ or ‘John fil. Ivette,’ serve to show us how familiar
was this appellation with both sexes.[20] Nor are its descendants
inclined to let its memory die. We have the simple ‘Ive’ and ‘Ives;’ we
have the more patronymic ‘Iverson,’ ‘Ivison,’ ‘Iveson,’ and ‘Ison,’ and
the pet ‘Ivetts’ and ‘Ivatts,’ the latter possibly feminine in origin.
‘Hamo,’ or ‘Hamon,’ requires a paragraph for itself. It is firmly
imbedded in our existing nomenclature, and has played an important part
in its time. Its forms were many, and though obsolete as baptismal
names, all have survived as surnames. Of these may be mentioned our
‘Hamons,’ ‘Haymons,’ ‘Aymons,’ and ‘Fitz-Aymons.’ Formed like ‘Rawlyn,’
‘Thomlin,’ and ‘Cattlin,’ it bequeathed us ‘Hamlyn,’ a relic of such
folk as ‘Hamelyn de Trap’ or ‘Osbert Hamelyn.’ Another change rung on
the name is traceable in such entries as ‘Hamund le Mestre,’ ‘Hamond
Cobeler,’ or ‘John Fitz-Hamond,’ the source of our ‘Hammonds’ and
‘Hamonds;’ while in ‘Alice Hamundson’ or ‘William Hamneson’ we see the
lineage of our many ‘Hampsons.’ But these are the least important. The
Norman-French diminutive, ‘Hamonet,’ speedily corrupted into ‘Hamnet’
and ‘Hammet,’ became one of our favourite baptismal names, and towards
the reign of Elizabeth one of the commonest. A ‘Hamnet de Dokinfield’ is
found so early as 1270 at Manchester (Didsbury Ch. Cheth. Soc.).
Shakespeare’s son was baptized ‘Hamnet,’ and was so called after ‘Hamnet
Sadler,’ a friend of the poet’s—a baker at Stratford. This man is styled
‘Hamlet’ also, reminding us of another pet form of the name. We have
already mentioned ‘Richard,’ ‘Christian,’ ‘Hugh,’ and ‘Hobbe,’ as
severally giving birth to the diminutives, ‘Rickelot,’ ‘Crestelot,’
‘Huelot,’ and ‘Hobelot.’ In the same way, ‘Hamon’ became ‘Hamelot,’ or
‘Hamelet,’ hence such entries as ‘Richard, son of Hamelot’ (AA 2), and
‘Hamelot de la Burste’ (Cal. and Inv. of Treasury). Out of fifteen
‘Hamnets’ set down in ‘Wills and Inventories’ (Cheth. Soc.), six are
recorded as ‘Hamlet,’ one being set down in both forms as ‘Hamnet
Massey’ and ‘Hamlet Massey’ (cf. i. 148, ii. 201). If the reader will
look through the index of Blomefield’s ‘Norfolk,’ he will find that
‘Hamlet’ in that county had taken the entire place of ‘Hamnet.’ Amid a
large number of the former I cannot find one of the latter. It would be
a curious question how far Shakespeare was biassed by the fact of having
a ‘Hamlet’ in his nursery into changing ‘Hambleth’ (the original title
of the story) to the form he has now immortalized. An open Bible, and,
further on, a Puritan spirit have left their influence on no name more
markedly than ‘Hamon.’ As one after another new Bible character was
commemorated at the font, ‘Hamon’ got crushed out. Its last refuge has
been found in our directories, for so long as our ‘Hamlets,’ ‘Hamnets,’
‘Hammets,’ ‘Hammonds,’ and ‘Hampsons’ exist, it cannot be utterly
forgotten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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