David McKie - Whats in a Surname?: A Journey from Abercrombie to Zwicker

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Epub ISBN: 9781448149056

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Published by Random House Books 2013

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Copyright David McKie 2013

David McKie has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work

This book is a work of non-fiction based on the experiences and researches of the author. In some cases names of people and the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others. The author has stated to the publishers that, except in such minor respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of this book are true.

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781847946942

To the memory of my brother Robert, and

Margaret, his wife, born Margaret Ling

who are buried in the churchyard of

St Nicholas, Elmdon, Essex

Jabez: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Rogue

Great British Bus Journeys: Travels Through Unfamous Places

McKies Gazetteer: A Local History of Britain

Bright Particular Stars: A Gallery of Glorious British Eccentrics

Surnames are much more than convenient identity tags; they are windows into our families pasts. Some suggest ancestral trades (Butcher, Smith, Roper) or physical appearance (Long, Brown, Thynne). Some provide clues to where we come from (McDonald, Evans, Patel). And some Rymer, Brocklebank, Stolbof offer a hint of something just a little more exotic or esoteric.

All are grist to the mill for David McKie who, in Whats in a Surname?, sets off on a journey around Britain to find out how such appellations have evolved and what they tell us about ourselves. En route he looks at the surnames tentative beginnings in medieval times, and the myriad routes by which particular names became established. He considers some curious byways: the rise and fall of the multi-barrel surname and the Victorian reinvention of embarrassing surnames among them. He considers whether fortune favours those whose surnames come at the beginning of the alphabet. And he celebrates the remarkable and the quirky, from the fearsome Ridley (the cry of which once struck terror in the hearts of their neighbours) to the legend-encrusted Tichborne, whose most famous holders were destined to suffer misfortune and controversy. Elegiac and amusing by turns, he offers a wonderfully entertaining wander along the footpaths of the nations history and culture, celebrating not just the Smiths and Joneses of these islands but the Chaceporcs and Swetinbeddes, too.

David McKie formerly worked for the Guardian as a political reporter, deputy editor, chief leader writer and author of the Elsewhere and Smallweed columns. His much-praised account of a Victorian conman, Jabez: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Rogue, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Award. He has also written such widely acclaimed books as Great British Bus Journeys and McKies Gazetteer.

On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor... Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray mare, who, as he rode, hummed a wandering tune.

Good night tee, said the man with the basket.

Good night, Sir John, said the parson.

The pedestrian, after another pace or two, halted, and turned round.

Now, sir, begging your pardon; we met last market-day on this road about this time, and I zaid Good night, and you made reply Good night, Sir John, as now.

I did, said the parson.

And once before thatnear a month ago.

I may have.

Then what might your meaning be in calling me Sir John these different times, when I be plain Jack Durbeyfield, the haggler?

The parson rode a step or two nearer.

It was only my whim, he said; and, after a moments hesitation: It was on account of a discovery I made some little time ago, whilst I was hunting up pedigrees for the new county history. I am Parson Tringham, the antiquary, of Stagfoot Lane. Dont you really know, Durbeyfield, that you are the lineal representative of the ancient and knightly family of the dUrbervilles, who derive their descent from Sir Pagan dUrberville, that renowned knight who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror, as appears by Battle Abbey Roll?

Thomas Hardy, Tess of the DUrbervilles

Who in the world am I? Ah, thats the great puzzle.

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

THEY ORDER THESE things much more neatly in South Korea. There, almost half of a population of nearly fifty million share five surnames: Kim (which alone accounts for more than a fifth of them), Lee, Park, Choi and Chong. Much the same is probably true of North Korea one cannot be sure because the North is so secretive but certainly when the two nations held their historic meeting in 2000 to try to settle their differences, the leaders on either side of the table had the same surname: Kim.

And yet, how tedious it would be if British surnames had this same neatness and terseness: Park is a longer than average name in Korea. Koreans dont have names which ramble away into the distance like Featherstonehaugh or Haythornthwaite or McGillicuddy (and even ours look pinched compared with some of those common in Sri Lanka). They dont have the rich profusion of names you find in any big city phone book here. We no longer possess some of the more extraordinary names of people you might have met in the streets of medieval England: Chaceporc, Crakpot, Drunkard, Gyldenbollockes (centuries before David Beckham), Halfenaked, Scrapetrough, Swetinbedde though the London phone book still serves up many that can amuse and surprise. Here, within ten columns, you can find an array that, even when you discount those that do not sound home-grown, such as Slabberkoorn, Slagmuylders, Slobodzian, Sluzsky and Slysz, still leaves us with a fine crop of surnames, some enticing, some soothing, but others, names that their owners might not have chosen had they been given the choice. Here, for instance, are Slaby, Slankard, Slapp (and Slapper), Slark, Slatcher, Slay, Slaymaker, Sledge, Slee, Slingo and Slogan, not to mention Sloggem and Sloggett, Slomp, Slood, Slorance, Sluce, Sluggett, Slutter and Sly.