What's in a name? An awful lot, according to a group of British researchers who have analyzed the origins of more than 45,000 surnames.
The six-year project is the most comprehensive study of names ever undertaken. It has culminated in the publication of a 3,100-page Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland that includes the backstory to 45,600 names – from Smith and Jones to Longbones, Stilgoe and Lee.
"Everybody has a surname. Very few people know anything about the origin of their surname," said Prof. Patrick Hanks of the University of the West of England in Bristol and one of the editors of the dictionary. "It's a subject of tremendous popular interest and we need to bring modern scholarship to bear on the explanations because there's been so many errors and so much guesswork in the past because the evidence was not available. We now have the evidence."
The researchers examined the origins of every name in the U.K. shared by at least 100 people in the 2011 census. They worked with computer specialists in the Czech Republic to trace the history of each name through millions of parish records, many compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The team was able to follow the development of names through the centuries, tracking every little change along the way.
"We've really had to draw on a lot of expertise to investigate linguistic origins, the history of the name over the centuries, looking at historical records. So it's been quite in depth," said Harry Parkin, a research associate at UWE who worked on the project. "We've actually been able to trace the history of these names with a lot more certainty and that's allowed us to update these unsatisfactory explanations from the past."
The use of surnames in England dates back to the Norman conquest in 1066. Prior to then most people had only one name. The Normans introduced names like Robert, Richard and Henry, which became so popular that surnames had to be developed to distinguish between people with the same first name. "If you said you were going to see John over in the next village, no one would know which John. That's when surnames started," said Dr. Parkin.
Most surnames fall into four categories: Those based on location, such as Hill or Green, which relate to a village green; those based on relationship, like Jackson or Jenkinson; those derived from nicknames or descriptive words such as Goodfellow, Brown or Short; and those based on occupations like Tanner, Baker and Smith.
"A nice example of a Scottish name that lots of people will know is Cameron, which is Scottish Gaelic in origin and means something like crooked nose or bent nose," Dr. Parkin said.
Surnames "were non-hereditary and actually described something of their bearer until about 1350. From that time on the majority of people would have had a hereditary surname," Dr. Parkin added. His surname comes from the French form of Peter or Pierre, and the common diminutive suffix "kin," which means little. "Ultimately it means 'little Peter,'" he said.
The study found new explanations for thousands of names. Take Maude (or Maud). Previously, experts believed it derived from the Middle English female personal name Maud. And it was thought that anyone with the name simply had an ancestor with the same family name.
The new research has shown that it actually comes from a place in Flintshire, Wales, called Mold, which was recorded as Mohaut in 1297. That is a combination of the Norman French words for "mount" and "haut," or high mound. Over time, Mohaut morphed into Maude. While some Maudes may be based on ancestors, "it's much more likely that if you come across someone with the surname Maude they originally had an ancestor from this place in Flintshire," Dr. Parkin said.
The group also examined names that have been found in Britain more recently, such as Patel and Lee, or Li.
The study found Patel is a status name deriving from a Hindu and Parsi word for a village headman. Lee or Li has at least six different origins in a range of Chinese dialects, including "plum," "chestnut," "black" "fortunate" and "strict."
Other names can be misconstrued. For example, Prof. Peter McClure, the dictionary's chief etymologist, pointed out that the name Levison looks like a Jewish name meaning "son of Levi." That's true in some cases, he said, but in northeastern England it's a colloquial development of a Scottish surname, Livingstone, which is based on the town of Livingston, Scotland.
The researchers plan to continue their work and are now examining the origins of every name in the country shared by at least 20 people. That will add around 15,000 more names to the dictionary.
"It's going to take quite a while," said Dr. Parkin.
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