Extracts from:
DICTIONARY OF SURNAMES by Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges.
Oxford University Press 1988.
ISBN 0-19-211592-8.Library classification number 929.42.
Ainslie
Scottish: apparently a habitation name, from an unidentified place. The surname is found chiefly in the border regions of Scotland and Northumberland. It may be that the placename source should be sought in this area, or the surname may have been brought in from elsewhere. If the name came from the South, it may derive from one of several places so named in the Midlands, such as Ansley in Warwicks. or Annesley in Notts. (The former is from Old English ãnsetl hemitage + lëah wood, clearing; the latter is apparently from the genitive case of a byname derived from Old English ãn solitary (see AINSCOUGH) + lëah.)
Variants Ainsley, Aynsley (More common in the border); Ainslee.
Sir John Ainslie is recorded as the keeper of Dolphinston Castle at Oxnam, near Jedburgh, in c.1275. The first known bearer of the name in Scotland is William de Haneslei of de Anslee of Glasgow recorded at the beginning of the 13th cent.
Bailey
English: 1. occupational name for a steward or official .......
2. topographical name for someone who lived in a district by the outermost wall of a castle ..........
3. habitation name from Bailey in Lancashire, so called from Old English bëg berry + lëah wood, clearing. Examples of the name derived from this source occur in the surrounding area from the 13th century.
Blinkhorn
no entry.
Brailsford English: Habitation name from a place in Derbyshire, so called from Old English brœgels, a metathesized form of bœrgels, itself a byform of byrgels tumulus, barrow + ford FORD. The name is still found chiefly in the East Midlands, especially Nottingham. Variants: Brel(lis)ford.
Brumfit
no entry.
Brunfit
no entry.
Booth
N English: topographic name for someone who lived in a small hut or bothy Middle English] bõth(e)), especially. a cowman or shepherd. The word is of Scandinavian origin (cf. Old Danish bõth, Oicel.büð), and was used to denote various kinds of temporary shelter, typically a cowshed or a herdsman’s hut. The surname is still today more common in N England, where Scandinavian influence was more marked, and in Scotland, where the word was borrowed into Gaelic as both(an).
Variants: Boothe; Boothman.
Cognnates: Swedish: Bodén, Bodin.
Cheesman
English: Occupational name for a maker or seller of cheese, from Old English cÿse, cëse cheese (Latin cãseus0 + mann man. [Numerous other variants, cognates diminutives and patronymics are given.]
Crummock
English: topographical name for someone who lived near a twisted oak tree, from Old English crum crooked, bent (see CROME 1) + äc OAK. There is no connection with Crummock Water in Cumbria, the name of which is of British origin.
Variants: Crummack, Cromack.
Cognative: Flemish: Cromeeke.
Crumock
no entry.
Fentiman
English: occupational name for a servant or retainer of a family called FENTON.
Variant: Fenteman.
The formation of a surname denoting a servant from another surname of local (habitation) origin is unusual in English; most servants’ names are based on the given name of the original master. All modern bearers of this surname seem to derive from a single source, a servant or steward of the FENTON family that held land around 1379 in Swillington, West Yorks., a few miles from Church Fenton.
Hardisty
English: habitation name from a place in Yorks., in the parish of Fewston. The placename is recorded in 1379 as Hardolfsty, from the Old English personal name Heardwulf (composed of the elements heard hardy, brave, strong + wulf wolf) + Old English stïg path.
Variant: Hardesty.
Heald
English (Lancs. and Yorks.): topograhical name for someone who lived on a hillside, from Old English hylde, hielde slope.
Variants: HELD, Hield(s).
Herleley
no entry.
Heyworth
English (lanc.): habitation name from an unidentified place probably deriving its name from Old English hëah high (see HAY 2) + worð enclosure (see WORTH).
Hodge
English: 1. from the medieval hiven name Hodge, a pet form of ROGER . For the change of initial, cf. HICK and HOBB, also HANN.
2. nickname from Medieval English hodge hog, which occurs as a dialect variant of hogge, for example in Cheshire placenames; cf. DODGE 2.
Diminutives: Hodgin, Hodge(o)n; Hodgett; Hod(g)kin, Hotchkin, Hodskin.
Patronymics: Hodges, Hod(g)son, Hodgshon.
Patronymics (from diminutives): Hodgins, Hodgens; Hodgetts (common in the W Midlands); Hodg(s)kins, Hodgki(e)ss, Hadgkiss, Hotchkins, Hotchkis(s); Hodg(e)kinson, Hodgkis(s)on, Hodgeskinson, Hodkinson.
The Name Hodgkinson has always had two main areas of concentration; in W Lancs. around Preston, and in N Derbys. around Ashover. It appears in the Preston Guild Rolls in 1582 in the spelling Hogekynson.
Jones
1. English and Welsh: patronymic from the Middle English given name Jon(e) JOHN. The surname is especially common in Wales.
2. Jewish: Anglicized form of some like-sounding Jewish surname.
Variants: English: Joynes, Joans. See also patronymics of JOHN.
John
English: from the Hebrew name Yochanan ‘Jehova has favoured (me with a son)’, [considerable other information given].
Rishworth
no entry.
Rushforth
English (W Yorks.): habitation name from an unidentified place, possibly Rushford in Devon, Norfolk, or Warwicks. However, in view of the distribution of the surname, a more likely source is Ryshworth in Bingley, W Yorks., which was earlier called Rushford (from Old English rysc rushes + ford Ford).
Var.:Rushfirth
Rushworth
English (W Yorks.): habitation name from Rishworth in W Yorks., so called from Old English rysc rushes + worð enclosure (see WORTH).
Rysseworth
no entry.
Shane
Irish: 1. Anglicized form of Gaelic MacSeáin ‘son of Seá n’, a form of JOHN.
2. Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Seanaigh ‘descendant of Seanach’, a byname meaning ‘Old’, ‘Wise’.
Variants (of 1): McShane. (of 2) O’Shanna, O’Shann(e)y, O’Sheny; Shannagh, Shann(e)y, Sheeny
Diminutives (of2): [several given]
Worth
English: habitation name from any of the various places, for example in Cheshire, Dorset, Sussex, and Kent, so called from Old English worð enclosure, settlement. The vocabulary word probably survived into the Middle English period in the sense of a subsidiary settlement dependent on a main villiage, and in some cases the surname may be a topogrphic name derived from this use.
Variant: WERTH
Cognnate: Du.: Verwoerd.
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16 March 1999