I’m fascinated by names, all names, names of people , names of places, names of things. I guess it maybe comes from having an unusual first name, surname and married name… only my middle name is quite ordinary. I was interested to reread an article I came across some time ago about English surnames; apparently they nearly all fall into seven categories.
- There are names which come from a trade or occupation a distant ancestor had, such as Baker or Carter. There are loads of names, some of which might be forgotten as occupations now, Cooper, Dyer or Fuller. A name which has an ‘s’ on the end might indicate that way back he was a servant to someone, Parsons for example…
- … similarly the patronage of a richer or more powerful person might give a name which developed into a surname, Rickman from Richard or Rick’s man
- Some surnames come from a distinguishing characteristic, such as colour of hair, complexion, size, or something about their personality… Mr Long, Miss Gray, Mrs Strong…
- Place names are often the origin of a surname…
- … and from the name of a building or estate, Castle, for example…
- … and a geographical feature of the landscape near where they lived, Hill, River, Brook, Wood, all of these could indicate a person’s location
- Like many Scandinavian countries, a surname might have derived originally from a father’s name, either by adding ‘son’, or just an ‘s’, Richards/Richardson, Watts/Watson for example
In some dictionaries of names my surname is said to come from ‘Elle’s den’… Other dictionaries say it is Scandinavian so it might of course be derived from something completely different!
Lois Elsden 
Hello, I love your blog (long time lurker first time ‘commenter’!) – this and few other of your posts made me think you might like mine https://bigharryunknown.wordpress.com/ – I’ve sadly neglected it of late, but am about to begin regular posting again soon 🙂 Also another of your posts struck a chord with me – ‘Lost at sea’ – My great Great Grandfather was on a ship that was lost at sea around Nova Scotia, My Great Great Grandmother also died within the year, which I thought was unusual because she was only 34, so I bought her death certificate. On it it said she died of Anorexia from Grief, she’d literally died of a broken heart! Apparently in the Victorian times to have a relative lost at sea was even more distressing as they placed great store in having the body to mourn and bury.
Sorry for the downer..! 😉
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Thank you! Thanks for the link too. What a tragic story of your great-great-parents… but also how very interesting!
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Apparently, my surname is descended from the french “pourcel” or piglet!
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I think that’s cute!!
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