![]() As first names they’ve receded into history, but they survive today as last names. Still other last names-Baldwin, Foulkes, Godwin, Osmond, Thurstan, and many more-were men’s first names long ago. In fact, some first names aren’t hidden at all but used intact for surnames, as with the last names Charles, Thomas, James, Henry, etc. Patronymic surnames, especially the kinds you ask about, can sound as if they had a first name hidden inside. But we haven’t written about patronyms until now. And we’ve also written about names based on occupation and on personal characteristics. We discussed names based on location-the most numerous type of English surname-in the post you mention. The written records of the manor or the parish might actually bear notations of such by-names for the sake of clarity.” (Comparative Studies in Society and History, January 2002.) “One ‘John,’ for example, might be distinguished from another by specifying his father’s name (‘William’s John’ or ‘John-William’s-son/Williamson’) by linking him to an occupation (‘John-the-miller,’ ‘John-the shepherd’) by locating him in the landscape (‘John-on-the-hill,’ ‘John-by-the-brook’) or by noting a personal characteristic (‘John-do-little’). Scott, John Tehranian, and Jeremy Mathias explain it this way: ![]() In their paper “The Production of Legal Identities Proper to States,” James C. This accounts for many last names of the type you mention-“son of Robert” and “Robert’s son” became Robertson and Roberts “son of Stephen” and “Stephen’s son” became Stephens, Stevens, Stephenson, Stevenson, and so on. (The genitive case indicates close relationships, including possession.) But they didn’t originate as plurals.Ī last name like Williams, for instance, can be traced to medieval times, when a first name might be followed by “son of William” or “William’s son.” Later, these descriptions became a single name: Williamson or Williams, which was not a plural but the genitive form “William’s” without the apostrophe. But you don’t mention a kind of name I’m curious about-a last name that’s the plural of a first name, like Williams and Roberts and Stevens.Ī: Names like those belong to a type known as patronyms: surnames based on a father’s or male ancestor’s first name. Q: Just read your post about how families got their names.
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