Writers The Elizabethan antiquary William Camden was the first to write about the history and development of English surnames in his Remains concerning Britain. He discerningly writes, in 1605: “And as to find the true original of Surnames is full of difficulty, so it is not easier to search all the causes of alterations of Surnames.” The study of British surnames has only recently started to be considered as a specialist area in its own right. Its development has been in the hands of specialists in other, related fields of study. There was a flowering of interest in the subject early in the Twentieth Century. First came the philologists, those who study the historical development of languages. See The Influence of the Philologists. From the 1950s some local historians both academic and enthusiastic amateurs took an interest in surnames. See The Influence of Local Historians. More recently, methods derived from cultural anthropology and bio-anthropology have been applied to surname studies. This looks to be a most exciting area for the immediate future. See The Influence of Cultural and Bio-anthropologists.