ORIGINS OF SURNAMES

[Stanley]

SURNAMES
We tend to look at things through the frame of reference dictated by our own experience. It’s one of the biggest problems most people face when looking at history, they allow pre-conceptions to colour the view. Any study of family history is a case in point. The first pre-conception we have to get rid of in this case is that family names or surnames are fixed in stone or indeed, are ancient.

There are four main types of family name used in modern English speaking countries: Those based on geography, habitation, birthplace. Those based on personal characteristics. Those based on occupation. Those based on ancestry.

The next thing to realise is that Family or surnames as we know them are a fairly recent innovation. In the days when people were living in a feudal society and did not travel, the only people that needed to differentiate, say one John from another, were their neighbours. In this area the by-name given was something like John of John [the father’s name], which became John O’Johnny and which eventually became Johnson. There were many other examples, some of which used the mother’s name. Note that this only applied to the serfs. The aristocracy needed to have surnames long before then simply because they were property owners and needed something to distinguish them for legal purposes. Most of these were based on place and almost all the Normans who came over with William in 1066 had this type of name. Simon de Montfort is one famous example.

All this changed in the 14th century when the Poll Tax was introduced. Surnames became common even for humble folk because they needed to be listed as taxpayers. Round this area we see Bracewell, Brogden, Horton, and Coates all becoming surnames based on birthplace. The other big group used locally was based on occupation. Common ones were Webster [weaver].Fletcher [arrow maker] Mason, Turner, Carter, Shepherd etc. Some more obscure ones were Nutter [Neatherd, a neat is a deer] Hayward [someone who kept animals out of haycrops] etc. The most common were those based on the suffix ‘son’, like Johnson, Wilson, Peterson etc. There is another class of surnames which arose because of the necessity to submerge family connections during troubled political times. Many of these first appeared in Scotland when clan names were dropped for anonymity and colours used instead, our modern Browns, Greys, Greens etc almost all stem from this source.

Another problem is that over the years, spellings changed. This was not necessarily due to incompetent clerks making wrong spellings. Remember that very few people could read and all that was needed was a written representation of what the name sounded like. This is why Neatherd became Nutter, it was corrupted over the years and only became fixed in its present form when consistent spelling became important for record keeping.

So, anyone who is searching for their ancestors has to be aware that the surnames undergo changes over the centuries. A Bracewell could become a Brassell.

In the case of Anforth this is almost certainly what has happened. The Oxford Book of Surnames [Reaney and Wilson] notes Anford and Anforth and cites a reference to Richard de Aneford dating back to 1222. It speculates that this is most likely a habitation based surname stemming from Hanford, a village south of Stoke on Trent. There is also a Handforth in Cheshire which would fit the bill, this is not a precise science. As for the corruption of ‘ford’ to forth’, this is common. Salterforth near Barlick was originally spelt Salterford. Stockport in Cheshire was Stopford.

Ekwall [English place names] suggests that Hanforth is probably ‘Han’ [OE stone] and ford. There is also the possibility that it could be ‘Hana’s ford’ from an old English personal name. The bottom line is that you can take your pick. In terms of what you search for use all the possible spellings but take note of the vague connections like the fact that the Burnley Anfords almost certainly moved into the area from an agricultural region looking for work in the textile mills, there was a massive influx in the mid 19th century and a flit from a Cheshire town of Handforth or a Staffordshire village of Hanforth is a reasonable assumption.

SCG/07 July 2005