Surnames of the South Midlands

1. Surnames of the South Midlands Patrick Hanks Family Names Research Project Bristol Centre for Linguistics University of the West of England *** Email: patrick.w.hanks@gmail.com

2. Talk Outline • Surnames in the 1881 census that are most strongly associated with (respectively) Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, and Berkshire, according to Steven Archer’s British Surname Atlas. • Compare the results of FaNBI research into the origins and history of each of these surnames. • Did they originate in (or near) the relevant county, or were they immigrants from elsewhere? • HANDOUT & thanks to FaNBI colleagues, esp. Harry Parkin. • A few selected case histories. • (Tentative) conclusions • relative stability of population in the three counties vs. early migration into them?

3. Population statistics • In surname studies, we are generalizing across very large volumes of very unstable data. • Year Source Oxon Warwicks Berks • 1881 Archer 179,979 734,938 218,906 • 2015 est. Wikipedia 677,800 554,000 890,600 • Boundary changes throughout the 19th and 20th centuries affected all three counties . For this and other reasons, comparison of population over time is not meaningful. • Many changes to the boundaries of Warwickshire (some reflecting growth of the city of Birmingham. In 1974 the new county of West Midlands was created, taking a large chunk of Warwicks. • A large chunk of what had been north Berkshire was assimilated into Oxfordshire. • .

4. England: Administrative Counties 1890-1965

6. ‘Most associated’ surnames • Number of names with more than 50% of their 1881 bearers located in: • Oxon: 35 surnames • Warwicks: 116 surnames • Berks: 22 surnames • Threshold: minimum 50 bearers in the UK in 1881. • These are comparatively low numbers, compared with East Anglia, where the populations of Norfolk (268) and Suffolk (107) have a higher proportion of surnames that were probably formed there. • This finding implies that most surnames associated with the three South Midland counties are there because of migration, rather than local formation.

7. The Banwell Ratio • “The aim is to obtain a figure for each surname within a [county or other area] which will indicate how far it is above or below the number which you would expect from an even distribution.” – C. Rogers (1995, The Surname Detective). It is calculated as follows: 1. Let X be the number of occurrences of the surname in the selected county, divided by the total population of that county. 2. Let Y be the total number of occurrences of the surname in the census, divided by the total census population. 3. The Banwell number is X divided by Y. • The result varies from 0.0 in areas which have no instances of that surname, through 0.5 (in areas where you find only half the number of surnames compared with the figure you would expect if they were spread evenly thoughout the population), 1.0 (average), 2.0 (twice the number expected from a random distribution), and so on.

8. Oxfordshire surnames of locative origin • Comparatively few of the locative surnames most associated with Oxon can be derived with certainty from place-names in the county. • Locative surnames in Oxon from Oxon places include Benfield (<Binfield), Dunsdon (< Dunsden), Flexney, Ful(l)brook, Ledwell, Mullington (< Mollington), Salford, Stonor, and Witney. • The surname Ascott is more typical. It may be from Ascott-under-Wychwood in West Oxon, but is more probably from one of many other places called Ascot(t) or Arscot. In the 1881 census it has a statistically significant association with Devon. • Locative surnames, immigrant from elsewhere: Bargus (from a place in Cornwall), Lymath (?< Lynmouth, Devon), Scarsbrook (< Scarisbrick, Lancs), and many others.

9. What is an Oxfordshire surname anyway? In 1977, the late Richard McKinley published a book called The Surnames of Oxfordshire, which discusses some records of surnames that he had found while scrutinizing medieval and later Oxfordshire records. • Only one of Archer’s top ten Oxfordshire surnames (Serman) can be found in McKinley’s index. The other nine are not there. • On the other hand, of those surnames in McKinley’s index that survived into the 19th century, almost all have no measurable association with Oxfordshire in 1881. Some have died out completely. Others either have a statistically significant association with a county other than Oxfordshire or are widely distributed throughout England. How can this extraordinary contrast be explained? Are the “most associated” Oxfordshire names all late coinages? Or were they all late immigrants from other counties? Or were they lurking silently in Oxfordshire, unrecorded in medieval times? Or was McKinley’s approach fatally flawed? At the 1986 meeting of the Council for Names Studies, as it then was, I reported a similar problem with McKinley’s Surnames of Lancashire. The view of the FaNBI team at UWE is that an essential component of surname research must be to investigate statistical associations between surnames and localities. This is only one of several ways in which the study of surnames must differ from the study of place-names.

10. Some other typical Oxon surnames • Savins (probably Norman, from ONF personal name Savin, Sabin, Latin Sabinus) • Chaundy < Norman Cheneduit, from a place in Orne dept.) • Clinkard (< French Clinquart), more probably Walloon than Huguenot. • Ivings (local altered form of Anglo-Welsh Evans) • Woolgrave:. Could it be a var. of Waldegrave, Northants? • Fonge: Unexplained. • Pratley: Desperate speculation: most probably a local altered form of Bradley.

11. Migration and folk etymology • One of the surnames most associated with Oxon is Paintin(g). • There is no entry for Paintin(g) in Reaney and Wilson. • This name has nothing to do with the occupational name Painter, as inRichard the Paintur, 1240 in Feet of Fines (Yorks); Peter le Payntur, 1271 in Fine Rolls (Happisburgh); Thomas Peyntour alias Steynor, 1430 in Oseney Cartulary (Oxon). • One can imagine that it might be from Paignton in Devon -- but neither the early bearers nor the geographical distribution support this origin. • As an Oxon name, it is probably a migrant from Penton or Pennington in Hants: Nicollas Painton, 1540 in IGI (Goodworth Clatford, Hants); John Paynton, 1563 in IGI (Yattendon, Berks); John Painton, 1565 in IGI (Stanford Dingley, Berks); Edward Painton, 1649 in IGI (Coate, Oxon); Jno Painton, 1749, Thos Painting, 1766, Richd Paintin, 1801 in IGI (Charlbury, Oxon). • Painting is also found in Norfolk, where it ismost probably from Pointon or Great Ponton, both in Lincs: John de Peynton of Mundham (Norfolk), 1376 in TNA; Johannes Peynton', 1379 in Poll Tax (Norfolk); Gilbertus Peyntyng, 1379 in Poll Tax (South Creake, Norfolk); Henricus de Peynton', 1381 in Poll Tax (Moulton, Lincs); Johanna Peynton', 1381 in Poll Tax (Weston, Lincs); John Peynton of Schouldham, 1418 in Norfolk Record Office (Shouldham, Norfolk); John Paynton, 1474 in PROB 11 (Kingston upon Hull, Yorks); Jhon Paynton, 1549 in IGI (Grimsby, Lincs).

12. More folk etymology • The Berks name Eighteen has nothing to do with the number 18. • It is almost certainly an altered form of the locative surname E(a)ton. • Early bearers in FaNBI include: Jon. Eighteen, 1709, William Minns Eaton, 1837 in IGI (Hadleigh, Suffolk); Hannah Eaton, 1712, Rob't. Eighteen, 1740 in IGI (Billingford near Diss, Norfolk); Edward Eaton, 1859, Samuel Eighteen, 1884 in IGI (Reading, Berks). • Question: In 1881, it has a statistically significant association with both Suffolk and Berks. Did the surname arise independently in both these counties, or are these statistical associations a result of early migration?

13. From Argles to Hercules via Arkless and Argulus (more folk etymology) • The Lancs surname Hercules has nothing to do with the Latin name of the legenary Greek strong man Herakles – unless it be by folk etymology. A characteristically Birmingham form is Arculus. • The English surnames Argles, Orgles, Arkless, Arculus, and Hercules are all derivatives of the Old French adjective orguilleus or ergoillose, meaning ‘proud or arrogant’, applied as a nickname to one who was an ostentatious show-off -- in manner or dress. • This Norman French name is found in different anglicized forms in different parts of England.

14. Argles

15. Orgles

16. Arkless

17. Arculus

18. Hercules

19. Some methodological observations • Vast quantities of data (unmanageably vast for traditional methods) • Forms of surnames (spellings) are highly variable. • Locations, too, are highly variable, though statistically significant associations are observable: • People (unlike places) move around a lot—and have always done so • Sometimes over short distances, sometimes long • Epicentres move too. • Surnames can only be studied by computational analysis of “big data”. • Statistical methods (not yet developed) are needed. • Etymologies, etc., are hypotheses with varying degrees of probability

20. Conclusions • The names studied in this exercise were not a statistically valid sample. A fuller study of population stability and migration is needed. • Locative surnames tend to be derived from place-names in the region with which they are most associated (now and in earlier census data). • This is less true of the South Midlands than of other parts of Britain. • There is much evidence of migration into the South Midlands from elsewhere. • Even when they are found in the same geographical area, spellings of locative surnames often differ from the conventional spelling of the place-name from which they are derived, e.g. Didcock, Harbone, Poffley). • Migration is unpredictable, and somethiems extends of ver long distances.