Are you looking for a DATE or perhaps DATES?

My interest with the surname of DATE started years ago when I had to draw my family tree for a primary school assignment. It has turned in to an obsession!

My Grandmother’s surname of DATE was unusual and intrigued me. Over the years I traced the family from Perth to Victoria within Australia, and ultimately all the way back to 1640 in Cornwall, England. Along the way I noted all the other DATEs and put them in to their families. Eventually I discovered that nearly every DATE in Cornwall born before 1900 descended from the one man, Nicholas DATE, and his wife Jane. This intrigued me and I wondered where he had come from and why.

I looked further afield and found that there were DATEs in Devon and Somerset but mine didn’t fit in with these families. I let the research rest awhile and researched other branches of my family tree but every now and then curiosity overtook me and I’d see what else I could find.

The DATEs in Australia are descendants from those in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and to a lesser extent, London.

There is a family in Australia that descend from a Devon line that added an ‘S’ to the name to become DATES and this has flourished as a separate branch since about 1873.

Eventually I joined the GOONS in 2011. I decided it was time to make a concerted effort to track down the origins of this name and what better way than to join an organisation that is focused on One-Name studies.

I still haven’t found the origin of the name but I’m wondering if we link with the London DATEs who were Huguenots. Perhaps one of the DATEs in England, Europe, Canada, America, South Africa, India, or the Caribbean will know. And there are a lot of people with the name DATE in Japan…   and the mystery continues and I enjoy it!   

This study looks at the main names of DATE and DATES.

The spelling of the name has remained very stable since the 1500s with no other variations in spelling found. Occasionally a DATE will have an ‘s’ on the end but not very often, and that can be put down to spelling errors on the part of clerks.

Some DATEs were DATTEs. The Huguenots that arrived in London can be found in Parish Registers as DATTE in some entries and DATE in others, before finally settling down as DATE.

In Australia, one DATE from Devon added an ‘S’ to the name and from about 1873 that branch has always spelt it as DATES.

For America I am collecting a growing number of entries for the spelling of DATES, but have not completed much research in this country as yet.

I don’t know!

Here’s something to ponder for the time being, but it doesn’t account for the name appearing in other countries.

English: of uncertain origin; perhaps a nickname from Middle English date ‘date (the fruit of the date palm tree)’, but if this is right the application is unclear.

Source: The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure; Oxford University Press, 2016

The earliest occurrences I have discovered are:

Cornwall: Nicholas DATE ~ born about 1640

London: Gilles DATE ~ marriage 1610

Somerset: Gabriel DATE ~ baptised 1589

Suffolk: Isabel Date, daughter and heiress of William Date ~ named in a petition, 1399

So far~

England ~ main clusters of DATEs are in Cornwall, Somerset, Devon, and Middlesex.

Ireland ~ some, but not a notably number. Some are from England with Army connections.

Scotland ~ scarcely a DATE to be seen.

Wales ~  predominately descend from Cornwall, Devon and Somerset families.

Australia ~ DATEs and DATES descend predominately from the Cornish, followed by Devon, Somerset, and Middlesex.

America ~ has DATEs from all the above mentioned English counties, as does Canada. There are also DATEs from Japan and Hawaii in the USA. DATES names are also to be found here in significantly higher numbers than the United Kingdom or Australia.

I have trees compiled for:

~ DATE and DATES in Australia

~ DATE in Cornwall

~ DATE in Wales [partial]

~ DATE in Devon [partial]

~ DATE in Somerset [thank you to John Howe]

These are all sourced.

I am collecting DATE and DATES references worldwide ~

~~can we help each other?~~