English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations — John Shaqi
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
The Angevine dynasty gave a new impulse to some already popular names,
and may be said in reality to have introduced, although not altogether
unknown, several new ones. The two which owe the security of their
establishment to it are ‘Geoffrey’ and ‘Fulke.’ The grandfather, the
father, a brother, and a son of Henry II. were ‘Geoffrey;’ and still
earlier than this, ‘Geoffrey Grisegonelle,’ ‘Geoffrey Martel,’ and
‘Geoffrey Barbu’ had each in turn set their mark upon the same. Apart
from these influences, too, the stories brought home by the Crusaders of
the prowess of Godfrey, the conqueror of Jerusalem, must have had their
wonted effect in a day of such martial renown. Such surnames as ‘Jeffs,’
‘Jeffries,’ ‘Jefferson,’ ‘Jeffcock,’ ‘Jeffkins,’ ‘Jephson,’ and ‘Jepson’
still record the share it had obtained in English esteem. ‘Fulke,’ or
‘Fulque,’ though there had been six so early as Domesday Book, when it
came backed as it was by the fact of having given title to five Angevine
rulers, got an inevitable place. Few Christian names were so common as
this in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But it was an ungainly
one, difficult to pronounce, and difficult to form into a patronymic.
Thus, ‘Faxson’ and ‘Fawson’ are the only longer forms I can find as at
present existing, while the variously spelt ‘Fulkes,’ ‘Foulkes,’
‘Fakes,’ ‘Faux,’ ‘Fawkes,’ ‘Faulks,’ ‘Fowkes,’ ‘Folkes,’ ‘Foakes,’ and
doubtless sometimes ‘Fox,’ serve to show how hard it was to hand it down
in its original integrity. The entries in our mediæval registers are
equally varied. We light upon such people as ‘Fowlke Grevill,’ ‘Fowke
Crompton,’ ‘Fulk Paifrer,’ ‘Fulke le Taverner,’ ‘Foke Odell,’ ‘Faukes le
Buteller,’ ‘Nel Faukes,’ and ‘John Faux.’ As an English historic name it
has given us two miscreants; the hateful favourite of John, outlawed by
Henry III., and the still more sanguinary villain of James I.’s day, in
whose dishonour we still pile up the blazing logs in the gloomy nights
of November. Henry, again, or more properly speaking Harry, owes much to
the Plantagenets, for but three are to be found in Domesday. With its
long line of monarchs, albeit it represented a curious mixture of good,
bad, and indifferent qualities, that dynasty could not but stamp itself
decisively on our registers. Thus, we have still plenty of ‘Henrys,’
‘Harrises,’ ‘Harrisons,’ ‘Hallets,’ ‘Halkets,’ ‘Hawkinses,’ and
‘Hawkinsons;’ to say nothing of the Welsh ‘Parrys’ and ‘Penrys.’[35]
(‘Thomas Ap-Harry,’ D. ‘Hugh Ap-harrye,’ Z.) The Norman diminutive was
early used, as such folk as ‘Alicia Henriot,’ ‘Robert Henriot,’ ‘Heriot
Heringflet,’ ‘Thomas Haryette,’ or ‘William Haryott’ could have borne
witness. ‘Harriot,’ or ‘Harriet,’ has been revived in recent days as a
feminine baptismal name. ‘Hawkin,’ or ‘Halkin,’[36] however, was perhaps
the most popular form. Langland represents Conscience as saying:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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