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
And now we come to what we may term the second branch of local surnames,
that branch which throws a light upon the migratory habits and roving
tendencies of our forefathers. So far we have touched upon names
implying a fixed residence in a fixed locality. We may now notice that
class which by their very formation throw our minds upon that which
precedes settlement in a particular spot, viz., removal—that which
speaks to us of immigration. Such a name in our mediæval rolls as ‘Peter
le Newe,’ or ‘Gilbert le Newcomen,’ or ‘Walter le Neweman,’ declares to
us at once its origin. The owner has left his native village to push his
interests and get a livelihood elsewhere, and upon his entrance as a
stranger into some distant community, alone and friendless, nothing
could be more natural than to distinguish him from the familiar
‘Peters,’ ‘Gilberts,’ and ‘Walters’ around by styling him as Peter, or
Gilbert, or Walter the ‘New,’ or ‘Newman.’ This it is which is the
origin of our ‘Stranges,’ descendants as they are of such mediæval folk
as ‘Roger le Estrange’ or ‘Roger le Straunge.’ There was ‘Roger the
Cooper’ and ‘Roger the Cheesemonger’ round the corner close to the
market cross, and ‘Roger atte Ram,’ so, of course, this new-comer as
distinguished from them was ‘Roger the Straunge’ or ‘Strange,’ and once
so known, the more familiar he became, the more ‘Strange’ he became,
though this may seem somewhat of a paradox. Thus, too, have arisen our
‘Strangers’ and ‘Strangemans.’ These, however, are the general terms. To
quote a name like ‘Robert de Eastham’ or ‘William de Sutton’ is, as it
were, to take up the plug from a never-ceasing fountain. We are thrown
upon a list of sobriquets to which there is no tether. Take up a
subscription paper, look over a list of speakers at a farmers’ dinner,
scan the names of the clergy at a ministerial conference, all will
possess a fair average of this class of surnames, early wanderers from
one village to another, Saxons fresh escaped from serfdom seeking a
livelihood in a new district, Norman tradesmen or retainers pushing
forward for fresh positions and fresh gains in fresh fields. It is
through the frequency of these has arisen the old couplet quoted by
Verstigan—
In ‘Ford,’ in ‘Ham,’ in ‘Ley,’ in ‘Ton,’
The most of English surnames run.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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