Comments on: The origin of English surnames 2: patronymics or father’s first name

By: Blog author

Blog author — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:04:29 +0000

Looking it up in my surname book, it reckons Smitten as a surname comes from a number of places, in both England and Scotland. It reckons that the origin is “Smith’s Tun”, or town of the Smith (blacksmith, probably, rather than goldsmith or silver smith). that makes it a derivative of Old English, rather than Welsh or Scots Gaelic.

However, it also points to a number of Smittens coming from both Scotland and Wales. That makes me suspect there is more than one origin of the name, and there could be a Welsh origin, as well as the Old English one.

The census from England & Wales can help establish origins. A quick search of that shows 14,118 occurances of the name in 1881, too many to get any idea of where they were living.

A search of 1837 to 1870 birth records in England and Wales (not fully transcribed, yet) shows a total of 113 births with that name. A search of all the Welsh counties only shows 3 birth records for Smitten. That doesn’t suggest a Welsh origin to me.

By: Mark Smitten

Mark Smitten — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:00:22 +0000

As you can see my name is Smitten and i was told this was Welsh and i have found evidence such as:A census of people leaving for America had a family of around 30 Smitten’s leaving from Porthmadog however i typed my name into a origin finder and it said it was a Anglo-saxon name. Do you know if my name is Welsh or English?

By: David Edelen

David Edelen — Fri, 28 May 2010 01:37:06 +0000

Hello,
My mom’s last name was Rodgers. I have it back to a FitzRogers. Any info about that name or history? One as a Norman knight I think.

By: JONATHAN

JONATHAN — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:09:38 +0000

I was fascinated to hear about the origins of the “FITZ” surname. So does this mean that every person with Fitz as part of their surname is descended from Norman aristocratic stock?

Or illegitimately descended from an ancient line of kings?

Could someone please give me a list of the different versions of the Fitz surname like Fitzroy, Fitzsimmons, Fitzgerald, Fitzpatrick, etc and what they mean and which ones could indicate royal origins?

By: David Edelen

David Edelen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:04:46 +0000

Hello,
My mother’s maiden name was Rodgers, also spelled Rogers off and on. I have their line back to the 1300s in England to a FitzRogers. I would like an explanation of this. I was told they were Norman. But why did they drop the Fitz eventually?
Thanks,
Dave

By: g

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:15:25 +0000

it’s iolo ap dafydd, not iono. interesting sheizah though. heddwch

By: Aaron Ikin

Aaron Ikin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:31:09 +0000

My surname could be location based with a slight modifacation, as there is a place called Iken ( I think thats it, lol) in the north east of England

By: Darby Penney

Darby Penney — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:57:18 +0000

I’ll be interested in further pieces on the origins of English surnames – like where mine came from!

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:32:42 +0000

Haha, just posted on ‘part 1′ about ab (or ap) pugh, only to see you’ve already covered it here! Nice one Had no idea that Probert and Pritchard were based on the same rule. Interestingly (Rosie) Probert, (Mrs Ogmore-)Pritchard, (Myfanwy) Price, (Mr and Mrs) Pugh and (Curly) Bevan are all names used in “Under Milk Wood” by Dylan Thomas, as well as (Gomer) Owen (but not Bowen). Perhaps he was trying to be quintessentially Welsh?

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:03:47 +0000

very interesting post, i’ve always wondered how many of the names we have today originated