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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,555 members
    • 2,324 studies
    • 8,271 surnames

Area

By areas from the Norman invasion

“… and why did unstable bynames precede hereditary surnames if the Norman baronage had already developed hereditary surnames in the late eleventh century and we are confronted purely by downwards cultural conflation?”

(Postles, 2006, Naming the People of England, c. 1100-1350, p 4)

Normandy: Dabney, Mountford

Brittany: Brett, Britney, Brittain

Burgundy: Berkin

Gascony: Gascoigne

Le Contentin: Constantine

Champagne: Champion

Lorraine: Lorring

Maine: Maine, Mansell

Caux: Cawes

Picardy: Picard, Power (= Le Pohier)

Flanders: Flinders

Brabant: Bremner

By homeland nation

Britain

(not Britton, which denotes a person from Brittany)

Scotland

“Surnames were rare in the Highlands till the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the younger and minor clans escaped the tutelage of the Island lords and the ‘lieutenancies’ of Huntly and Argyll. Individuals were designated by a string of ancestors, ending usually with the name of the croft or farm occupied, such as John MacHamish vic Aonas vic Allister Reoch in Ballochroan (1679). After the ’45 matters rapidly changed; movements and expeditions to the Lowlands necessitated surnames and these were adopted, either from the clan to which the individual really belonged or to which he attached himself, or from the name of the district or place of origin. It has been a common thing for the smaller septs to sink their real surname in the bigger tribal or clan name.”

(Macbain The study of Highland Personal Names Celtic Review, 1905-6, p63)

Clan names from placenames

Bruce, Cunningham, Douglas, Forbes, Fraser, Gordon, Graham, Hamilton, Hay, Kerr, Murray, Ross, Sinclair, Sutherland.

By county

Scotland/Wales/England

“Many appear to be absent as surnames –Bedfordshire, Sussex, Yorkshire for example –whereas others Derbyshire, Devonshire Hampshire- are found quite frequently. It will be interesting to discover if many have died out.”

(Rogers, 1995, p57)

(but Derbyshire can relate to West Derby near Liverpool. And Hampshire can be a corruption of Hallamshire.)

By major town

Wooster, Lester (but Brighton derives from Breighton in Yorkshire, and most Sunderlands derive from a farm near Halifax) (Source: J Titford)
Edinburgh, _Edinbry, Edinborough.

Minor settlement

[There is a huge area here as I would think that most toponymic surnmames are from minor settlements. I am surprised that Philip has a blank here. -MS]

Origins obscure

Strange, Norris (= northerner), Southeran

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Modern British Surnames

ww1

  • Modern British Surnames
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Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

  • Members’ Websites Project
  • Surname Cloud
  • Guild Members’ records on FamilySearch
  • Guild Marriage Locator

Contact Us

Email: guild general contact
Address for correspondence:
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