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David Hey

Family Names and Family History Hardcover – February 5, 2003

by David Hey (Author)

8 ratings

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Family names are an essential part of everyone's personal history. The story of their evolution is integral to family history and fascinating in its own right. Formed from first names, nicknames and occupations, names allow us to trace the movements of our ancestors from the middle ages to the present day. David Hey shows how, when and where families first got their names, and proves that most families stayed close to their places of origin. Settlement patterns and family groupings can be traced back towards their origins by using national and local records. Family Names and Family History tells everyone interested in tracing their own name how to set about doing so.

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Hambledon & London
Publication date

February 5, 2003
Dimensions

6.5 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1852852550
ISBN-13

978-1852852559
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Talk to very large number of people about their surname and you will find that the family came in with the Conqueror ... William evidently had a very easy time of it. It is clear that he had only a handful of opponents to meet, and that the story of the Battle of Hastings, is a gross historical fraud." --C. W. Bardsley

Book Description

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hambledon & London; 1St Edition (February 5, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1852852550
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1852852559
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,623,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11,915 in Genealogy (Books)
- #13,648 in England History
- #175,279 in World History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
8 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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avid reader U.S.Top Contributor: Coloring

Was hoping for more info on the families

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2014

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The book was interesting but did not provide the particular info I was looking for among my various English ancestors.

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Michael K. Smith

Fascinating and scholarly introduction to English names

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2002

One thing all family researchers necessarily have in common, regardless of ethnicity, is an interest in names. In this connection, you're fortunate if you have some English ancestry, for many less common surnames are still largely peculiar to one English county or another. The author's own surname places his origins in the West Riding of Yorkshire; he notes that he is quite used to seeing such names as "Staniforth" and "Broomhead," but that "southern" names such as "Gulliver" or "Loder" still catch his eye as being non-local -- which must seem very strange to most Americans. Hey, a professor of local history, leads the reader carefully through the historical immigration process -- Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman, Dutch, Flemish, Huguenot -- that affected the development of English surnames, outlines the methods available to determine the most likely place of origin of a family name not only in the 17th century (and earlier) but also in the modern mobile world. He traces many names as examples (they have their own index), and alerts the researcher to avoidable pitfalls; "Custer" is a common name in Berkshire, but the General's surname actually was anglicized from the Dutch name "Koster." Hey provides only the beginning of surname research, as his bibliography makes clear, but this engrossing volume is a good place to start.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Nicholas Casley

It's (Almost) All in the Name

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2013

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This is a review of the original 2000 edition. There are ten chapters arranged in three parts. There are also eight monochrome plates but none of these really add anything to the author's arguments. They just comprise pictures of famous people with a explanations of their surnames.

In his preface, Hey perhaps states the obvious when he notes how "Names can tell us a lot about the history of the peoples of our islands, about how they moved around or how they stayed rooted in a particular district. They also have much to teach us about the social structure of medieval and later England." But Hey also refers the reader to new research that has dramatically overturned some previous assumptions, research undertaken by a new generation of philologists and by the growing numbers of local and family historians.

In part one of his book, Hey provides an introduction to the history and study of surnames, taking examples drawn from his own work in and around Sheffield. (Much of the book contains summaries of Hey's and his colleagues' work at the University of Sheffield.) He informs us that surnames properly commenced with the Normans who used the place-names of their origins across the English Channel to distinguish themselves. But if it was the Normans who started the ball rolling, most names that came to be used as surnames were Anglo-Saxon in origin. Hey looks at the five standard types of surname: patronymic/personal, nicknames, occupational, and topographic, breaking down this last between actual geographic locations (e.g., London, Snowden, Avon) and mere topographical features (e.g., hill, brook, well).

The author then goes on to describe how surnames evolved in subsequent centuries, some surprisingly so. The choice of forenames is covered, as is the late arrival of surnames in Wales, where patronymics held greater sway than in England. The names of immigrants into Britain during the Early Modern period are also discussed.

The final chapter in this first part looks at changes in distribution patterns. Hey writes, "The apparent conflict between [on the one hand] the findings of historical demographers [whose evidence points to continual geographical flexibility of ancestors] ... and [on the other hand] the evidence of distinctive family names that were so often restricted in their distribution to recognisable neighbours has turned out to be unreal." Hey has long been an advocate of family names remaining geographically stable and persistent. He concludes that, "At the end of the twentieth century a person's surname can still be a badge of identity, as clear an indication of the family's place of origin as his or her way of speaking."

That's as may be, but I have ancestors that come from the Kentish Weald to the hills of mid-Wales, and from rural South Yorkshire to the tin mines of west Cornwall, and seven counties inbetween. This is indicative of at least some geographical flexibility. True, some of my ancestral families persisted generation after generation in the same place; but others continued to move between parishes almost every generation. And some of the evidence for surname stability that Hey invokes can, from a different angle, be used as evidence for surname change.

Part one covers well over half the book. Part two sees Hey use various sources to trace names back in time. (It is somewhat dated in that straightaway he refers to telephone directories published by BT and Mercury, and there is no reference to internet websites that have sprung up in the meantime that have analysed surname distribution.) Hey uses his research to trace the geographical distribution of a number of names, using telephone directories, electoral registers, census returns, and the registers of births, marriages, and deaths. For the seventeenth century and earlier, he sues the hearth tax returns as his starting point.

Part three is the shortest part of all and provides advice on tracing your own names. He provides suggested steps to take, but there is now much more available online since this book was published. Hey also provides a concise explanation for fifty common surnames and there are distribution maps of twenty other names, these maps amply demonstrating how some names are indeed clearly geographically constrained.

This is a fascinating book, well-written, and of much use even if written on the cusp of the explosion in genealogical information online.

3 people found this helpful

biddybuzz

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2017

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Happy with this book.

Helen

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2016

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Good book great service

Ms. Dorothy A. Edson

A book by a master on family history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2010

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Have been looking for this book for a while now,Really enjoyed reading it and it was a great help in researching my family history.

One person found this helpful

Keredeh

family names and family history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2009

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I can see it being of interest for people whose names appear in this book. But in my case our name does not appear therefore it was of no real value to me

One person found this helpful

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Family Names and Family History Hardcover – February 5, 2003

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