Popular surnames

Sadly I missed the Loughborough Car Show 2018, taking place in the Market Place today, but I hope you can forgive me as I took time out to visit the motorbike show and post loads of pics a couple of weeks ago.

This week I found myself on the outskirts of Coventry, an interesting experience as we were near a place called Cannons Park (complete with a canon from the 1600s) and Canley, having driven along Gibbet Hill Road, and walked along Lynchgate and De Montfort Way. The area around Canley has an interesting history (more here) and I was right to be interested because there was a lot of Civil War action here, just as there was at Cotes near Loughborough. But what caught my eye most was the information board at the entrance to the Prior Deram Park, which talked of the land being inhabited from Anglo-Saxon times, and once owned by Henrys I and VIII. Land around the area was known as Fletchamstead, after the trade of arrow-making which was prevalent in the area.

Here's a few pictures before we get onto the main content of this post:

A beautiful car I saw on Saturday

The 1600s canon

The dedication plaque

Information about Prior Deram Park

This got me thinking about surnames, and what they mean, and what our popular local Loughborough ones might mean, or where they originated. So, Fletcher comes from the trade of arrow-making, but what about others?

Not quite knowing where to start, I had a think about some popular surnames of which I was aware, and tried to identify where families bearing these names were mostly living. Varying degrees of success with this, so, for example, there were not enough Lemyngtons and Burnabys to produce any conclusive evidence, but other names were easier to locate. Note of caution: this work is in its infancy and I've only checked in a few sources, not comprehensively - yet!!

Adcock

• centred around Grantham and radiating outwards

Adkin

• most popular slightly north of Nottingham, and predominantly between Nottingham & Loughborough. Also around Lanarkshire

Alcock

• Stoke-on-Trent and radiating outwards

Amatt

• Reading, Nottingham, Dorset and Wolverhampton

Barrowcliff

• mostly Dorset, and ranging from Nottingham to Kingston-Upon-Hull

Beaumont

• predominantly Leeds

Birkin

• Nottingham and radiating outwards

Bumpus

• only found in Norwich

Burder

• around Ipswich, slightly in Hastings, Luton, Oxford and Leicestershire

Burton

• Northampton to Stoke-on-Tret to Lincoln to Kingston-on-Hull, and Dundee

Cartwright

• Wolverhampton and radiating outwards

Corah

• Leicestershire & Nottinghamshire

Corcoran

• Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Northern Ireland and Kirkcudbright

Cotton

• Stoke-on-Trent and Lincoln

Craddock 

• Stoke-on-Trent

De Lisle

• Leicestershire

Dean

• Stoke-on-Trent and York

Eddowes

• predominantly Telford/Birmingham, with bits in Northamptonshire and Holyhead

Fearon

• South of Belfast, and Carlisle

Garton

• Grantham and Peterborough

Grey

• North of Newcastle and between Gloucester and Bristol

Griggs

• predominantly Suffolk, heading towards Peterborough

Grudgings

• slightly west of Andover, mostly Northern Ireland, south of Londonderry, near Enniskillen

Hames

• Nottinghamshire and radiating outwards, and Telford 

Hastings

• Dumfries

Heathcoat

• Worcester, Swindon and Wilton

Hepworth

• Leeds and radiating outwards

Hodson

• east of Leicestershire and predominantly Peterborough

Lowe

• band across the middle of the country Birmingham up to Manchester, through Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to Lincoln

Messenger

• Carlisle

Middleton

• slightly west of Kendal and radiating outwards

Moss

• between Stoke-on-Trent/Manchester, and south of Londonderry

Onions

• slightly east of Wolverhampton and radiating outwards

Paget

• predominantly west of Aberdeen and a few near Bristol

Paltridge

• Carmarthen and radiating outwards and Exeter

Peberdy

• Glasgow and a few in Nottingham

Storer

• Leicestershire and radiating outwards

Toon

• Leicesterhire and radiating outwards

Tucker

• Devon

Vavasour

• predominantly Wye in Kent then Leicestershire

Wakerley

• Melton Mowbray and radiating outwards

Warner

• Gloucester and radiating outwards, and Ipswich

Wills

• Bodmin and radiating outwards

Woolley

• Stoke-on-Trent

Ok, so now it's the witching hour and I should be away! I'll update further next week!

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2018). Popular surnames. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/06/popular-surnames.html  [Accessed 17 June 2018]

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