House explosions in Cheltenham 1904

Surnames

At the end of 2020 I was asked to write an article on Somerset Surnames - all for nothing which in itself created some debate amongst fellow researchers. I should have taken their advice and not stretched myself to do it as I was let down by the editor and the magazine in question. I pushed myself to research and write the article, submitted it by the deadline and to the best of my knowledge over one year on it has never been used. When is free publicity not free publicity? Exactly this. So, lesson learnt and I won't be doing it again.

Here is the article and I hope you find it interesting. Despite the angst of the treatment of writers by magazine editors I did enjoy researching the material.

SOMERSET SURNAMES

Secondary or by-names came into popular use during the 14th century having previously been the custom of those in privileged positions. Hereditary surnames were initially tied in with hereditary property so were in use earlier but it may have only be the beneficiary that took on that name with the siblings adopting different names. A man may have had several different by-names during his life particularly if he moved from one location to another and that by-line was a descriptor of where he lived. Development of surnames was prolonged and didn’t operate in the same manner from county to county, with the north being somewhat behind the south. There were distinct regional variations especially with local dialects. Social class also made a difference with those of a higher class adopting surnames well before the lower classes. As with many things it became a bit of a fashion statement and once it caught on everyone wanted one.

Surnames tend to fall into one of several categories which are at their basic level an original descriptor of the original holder of that name. For example, locative being a place name that the holder comes from which can be a town, village or even a farmstead. In Somerset there are a few excellent examples of this:

CLATWORTHY referring to a person from Clatworthy, that small West Somerset hamlet which dates to before the Domesday book. Variants include Clotworthy and Cloteworthy for example, and instances of the name can now be found worldwide, all stemming from one little Somerset hamlet.

CHIDGEY is again a surname variant of the place name Chidgley which is in the Old Cleeve parish of West Somerset. It’s so small it’s not even a hamlet with just two farms on the current map. A website that profiles surnames from the 1881 census has all instances of the surname in this spot and bizarrely Lundy Island! Harry Chidgey (1879–1941) was a Somerset born cricketer who played for the county team as wicket keeper before becoming an international umpire. Wherever you are in the world if you come across either of these two surnames you know that their ancestors came from Somerset, and even more specifically West Somerset.

A slight variation on locative names are those which originate elsewhere and are brought into use by migrants who settled into the area. A local example of this is:

DAMPIER can be found in an area east of the M5, with surname dictionaries stating that it comes from France, and refers to St Peter - Dampierre in Normandy, France, an example perhaps of this early immigration into England. There is also Dampier Street in Bridgwater. William Dampier 1651-1715 a famous explorer, naturalist and buccaneer of the 17th century was born in East Coker.

An alternative locative type of name is that which is descriptive of the place such as Wood, Forest, Asher (dweller at the Ash tree) and so on. Some of the older type of this surname can have ‘le’ ‘atte’ or ‘de’ as a prefix making Attwood for example. One of our own Somerset name of this type is:

POPLE which is the dweller at a Poplar tree. It’s mainly to be found east of the M5 corridor and now stretches up towards Birmingham. Sir John Anthony Pople 1925-2004 was Somerset born and winner of Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1998.

KIDNER is another such type which has the definition of belonging to the shore from the Anglo Saxon ‘Cytta’s Bank’ or shore, originally Kytenor. A person with this surname historically will hail from the Somerset shoreline on the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire down to the Exmoor coastline. There is of course the very well known and long established Kitnor’s Kitchen (formerly Kitnor’s Tearooms) in Bossington, West Somerset.

CROSSMAN may be the dweller at the Cross but could it also be a characteristic and fall into another category of surname? That is, that of the nickname.

Surnames derived from nicknames can range from the flattering, the descriptive – or not when used ironically, or sometimes downright rude. For example, in Somerset the name GREED appears in larger numbers than elsewhere in the country. The name is I think self explanatory. Names came from creatures too and CORP is from the Scandinavian for raven and was prevalent around Glastonbury.

WALROND or WALRAND is an old Teutonic word meaning battle shield therefore indicating perhaps a man who was a warrior, a fighter. In other regions this name can appear as Waldron and other variants. Does it however fall into the occupational class of names such as Thatcher, Groom and the most well known, Smith. One Somerset name is VIGAR that appears to the east of the M5 and may be a variant of Vicar, a well known occupation. Another school of thought is that is could be descriptive of a physical characteristic ‘vigour’, a word developed from the French. There are many variants of this. Frank Vigar 1917-2004 was another Somerset born cricketer.

As well as occupational names those who held responsible positions in society may have been endowed with a ‘post holder name’ Bailiff (one who was a bailiff), Reeve (the Reeve or Bailiff in the manor), Constable (the parish constable) and so on. As with all occupations unless an occupation is specific to a particular place these surnames tend to be more nationally spread with perhaps a variant spelling or two. The surname could also refer to status within society – Lord, King are two that come to mind.

A huge category that mustn’t be overlooked is that of the Patronymic or Matronymic name. Those are the ones which take the parents Christian name and expand it. The most common are those ending in ‘son’ e.g. Richardson, Donaldson, in other words ‘X’ son of Richard or Donald. These became contracted to the use of just the s, so Richards and Donalds but again this is regional with the use of ‘son’ being more prevalent in the north of the county. In Somerset we have: PHIPPEN, and variants such as Pippen etc. This is son of Phillip and has many many forms and variants most of which seem to be regional.

GIBLETT is another such, being son of Gibb, with many regional variations, it’s a shame that Somerset’s should also refer to the innards of certain animals!

MAPSTONE is another Somerset name and may be a derivation of Mabbs son.

One surname that shouldn’t be overlooked and is so specific to Somerset that it rarely exists outside of the area is MANCHIP. So unusual it doesn’t appear listed in any of the usual surname dictionaries and seems to be focused on the town of Bridgwater. Those of you who know Bridgwater will know all about the Bridgwater Manchip, a pastry or dough delicacy only found in that town. It is thought that this came from the French Manchett which was an enriched bread, and that the Manchip name for it may have come about when a Thomas Manchip was mayor of Bridgwater. But which came first – the name or the bun!

To find out more there are many books written on the subject, some of which will be available in the county library. Older out of print volumes can be downloaded from Google Books or the Internet Archive websites. There are also a couple of useful websites which help to locate the geographical density of names:

https://named.publicprofiler.org/ uses data from the 1881 census

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/learn/facts uses data from the 1891 census

Lynne is a professional genealogist and local history researcher based in Old Cleeve, Somerset. She had a background in reference and local studies libraries before launching her own research business in 2010. She has written 3 books and co-authored 2 all of which can be bought direct from her.

Tetbury through Time (2009)

Tetbury and district through Time (2011)

Cheltenham through Time (2011)

Cheltenham History Tour (2013)

A-Z of Minehead and Dunster (2019)

A-Z of Bridgwater (awaiting publication)