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Geni naming conventions - England

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Geni naming conventions - England


See the projects Geni naming conventions and Geni naming conventions - data entry for general guidance.

  • Use ordinary case. Name Preference Settings can be used to change how names are displayed to your personal preference.
  • Name as close to original name as possible, language, geography and time period to be taken into consideration.
  • Patronymics in the Middle Name field.
  • Adjust First Name field to avoid misunderstandings or mistaken identity where necessary, by adding order/number or byname.
  • All names a person is known by in any source listed in Nicknames: bynames (especially in English), additional titles, variations.
  • Document name sources.

English Naming Conventions
From “British Culture” < link >

  • British English naming conventions arrange names as follows: [first given name] [middle given name(s)] [FAMILY NAME]. For example, Jack Samuel ADAMS (male) or Emily Claire TAYLOR (female).
  • One’s ‘first name’, known as a ‘personal name’ or ‘given name’, is chosen at birth as the individual’s personal identifier. It always comes before the family name.
  • The ‘family name’, known as a ‘surname’ or ‘last name’, is inherited from one’s parents and shared with other members of the individual’s immediate family.
  • British names are traditionally patrilineal, whereby children are given their father’s family name. However, this is not an enforced custom.
  • Some parents may choose to give their children a hyphenated surname that contains the family name of both the mother and father (e.g. Jack Samuel ADAMS-BROWN).
  • It is traditional for women to adopt their husband’s family name at marriage. However, this practice is declining and less of a cultural requirement.
  • Many British also have a ‘middle name’, which is a secondary given name written between the person's first name and their family name. For example, Emily Claire TAYLOR’s middle name is ‘Claire’.
  • Middle names are optional and are rarely used in daily life. However, most British have one or multiple.

Names
Extracted from < Wikipedia >

English names are personal names used in, or originating in, England. In England, as elsewhere in the English-speaking world, a complete name usually consists of one or more given names, commonly referred to as first names, and a (most commonly patrilineal, rarely matrilineal) family name or surname, also referred to as a last name. The given names after the first are often referred to as middle names.[1]

Given names

Few given names used in England have English derivations. Most traditional names are Hebrew (Daniel, David, Elizabeth, Susan), Greek (Nicholas, Dorothy, George, Helen), Germanic names adopted via the transmission of Old French/Norman (Robert, Richard, Gertrude, Charlotte), Latin (Adrian, Amelia, Patrick) or Celtic.

A small proportion of given names have an actual English derivation (see Anglo-Saxon names), such as Alfred, Ashley, Edgar, Edmund, Edward, Edwin, Harold and Oswald. A distinctive feature of Anglophone names is the surnames of important families used as given names, originally to indicate political support or patronage. Many examples have now become normal names chosen because parents like them, and any political sense lost. Most are male names like Cecil, Gerald[citation needed], Howard, Percy, Montague, Stanley or Gordon, though some of those some have female versions like Cecilia or Geraldine. Other languages have few equivalents, although the saint's surname Xavier is often used by Roman Catholics.

Surnames
From “English Surnames Meanings and Origins” < link > Updated on July 17, 2019

English surnames as we know them today -- family names passed down intact from father to son to grandson -- weren't widely used until after the Norman conquest of 1066. Prior to that time there just weren't enough people to really make it necessary to use anything other than a single name.

As the country's population grew, however, people began tacking on descriptions such as "John the Baker" or "Thomas, son of Richard" to distinguish between men (and women) of the same name. These descriptive names eventually became associated with a family, inherited, or passed down, from one generation to the next.

While they came into use in the eleventh century, hereditary surnames were not commonplace in England prior to the era of the sixteenth-century Reformation. It is likely that the introduction of parish registers in 1538 played a role in the use of surnames, as a person entered under one surname at baptism would not be likely to be married under another name, and buried under a third.

Some areas of England came later to the use of surnames, however. It was not until the late seventeenth century that many families in Yorkshire and Halifax took permanent surnames.

Surnames in England generally developed from four major sources.

  • Patronymic and Matronymic Surnames. English surnames ending in -ing (from the British engi, "to bring forth," and -kin generally indicate a patronymic or family name as well.
  • Occupational Surnames. Many English surnames developed from a person's job, trade or position in society. Three common English surnames—Smith, Wright and Taylor–are excellent examples of this.
  • Descriptive Surnames. Based on a unique quality or physical characteristic of the individual.
  • Geographical or Local Surname. Surnames which begin with the prefix At- can especially be attributed as a name with local origins. By- was also sometimes used as a prefix for local names.

Compound surnames
Main article: < Double-barrelled name >

Double-barrelled names may be formed for a variety of reasons, including combining of spouses' surnames upon marriage or, more commonly in the past, adding another family's surname as a condition of inheritance.[5]

Compound surnames in English feature two or more words, often joined by a hyphen or hyphens: for example Henry Hepburne-Scott. A few families have three or four words making up their surname, such as Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton and Alexander Charles Robert Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry. However, it is not unusual for compound surnames to be composed of separate words not linked by a hyphen, for example Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative Party, whose surname is "Duncan Smith".


English women

Primary sources include:

  • Called (daughter of) without use of a surname in baptismal records and marriage contracts
  • Signed property agreements as (first name, wife of)
  • Widows signed wills as (first name, husband’s surname)
  • Monumental inscriptions described women as (first name, wife of)
  • Named with their husband’s surname in their parent wills (daughter [husband surname])

History
From < behindthename.com >

The Angles and Saxons were continental Germanic tribes who began settling in Britain in the 5th century. They absorbed or displaced the native Celtic population, who had for several centuries been under Roman rule. The Anglo-Saxons used Old English Germanic names.

In the late 8th century Vikings began raiding England. Eventually they started settling in the north and east, bringing with them Old Norse names. Some of these Scandinavian names permanently joined the pool of English names.

The Norman Conquest of England took place in 1066. The Normans became the new ruling class, and many of their Germanic names replaced the Old English ones. In fact most Old English names ceased to be used within the next several decades.

Though Christianity had long been established in Britain, Christian names did not become very common in England until the 13th century. The Church encouraged parents to give the names of saints to their children. These names were often of Ancient Greek, Latin or Hebrew origin.

The Protestant Reformation began in 1517. In England king Henry VIII split with the Catholic Church and created the Anglican Church with him as its head. Protestants generally placed more emphasis on scripture and revered the saints less, so biblical names came into fashion. The fundamentalist Puritans of the 17th century used even more obscure biblical names from the Old Testament and also virtue names, such as Charity and Patience.

The trend of using surnames as given names started in the following years. This practice has traditionally been more common in America than Britain.

References
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