|
Personal Names |
| More often called forenames or Christian names, have been used from an early time in our history, manuscripts dating back to 331 b.c. include the use of personal names. It was necessary for people to be able to identify other individuals in their village or settlement. Many of these personal names had religious connections such as Matthew', Mark Luke, John, Rebecca ,Mary etc., whilst other names were less inspired. The Romans sometimes resorted to numbering their children as a easy means of identifying a person within their own family group. The use of personal names for identification could only work in a very small community. If we imagine we live in a village, which might easily have a dozen or more men and boys using the same personal name John, we can see that when speaking about John, we would have problems making clear which John we mean. |
|
Surnames-Family names |
|
We might refer to 1) John who lives by the wood, 2) tall John, 3) John the carpenter or 4) John the son of Richard. |
| If we speak about John in this way any one else in the village will now recognise which John we mean. This description of John however was not a permanent feature, if John by the wood moved house he might then be described as John with the red hair, or John who lives down the lane, or any other suitable description which singles him out from the other Johns in the village.In fact many people had two or more descriptive names and it wasn't until late in the 1300's A.D. that these descriptive names started to become hereditory, (Family names which were passed on from the parents to their children).The thousands of surnames we have today were all formed in this way and fall into one of four general groupings. |
| 1. PLACE NAMES - 2. NICKNAMES - 3. OCCUPATIONS - 4. PATRONYMICS |