The origin of English surnames 2: patronymics or father’s first name
Introduction
In the Origin of English surnames 1: work and status, I included a general summary of the history of English surnames, and how they came into being in 11th century AD, and became normal, in the 13th and 14th centuries, for the whole English population.
The first post in this series was about surnames deriving from occupations, work, trades, and status.
Just as in the case of people named after their trades (John the Baker, or Henry the Carpenter) a father’s name was often used to tell different people with the same name apart. So a village might have had John, son of David / Davidson as well as John the Baker and John from-another-village.
As trades turned into surnames, the son of John the Baker came to be known as Henry Baker, even if he made barrels for a living. Similar, John Davidson’s son became Henry Davidson, instead of Henry Johnson.
Adding -son to the end of a first name
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, illegitmate son of Henry VIII
In England, the most common patronymic (or matronymic, as some surnames derived from a mother’s name) surname was to add “son” to the end of a name.
If the father’s name was a long-ish one, such as Andrew, Simon or William, it was often contracted over time in the surname. The following “son” names are all among the most common 100 surnames in England today:
- Anderson (Andrew’s son)
- Harrison (Harry’s son)
- Jackson
- Johnson
- Richardson
- Robertson
- Robinson
- Simpson (Simon’s son)
- Thompsom / Thomson (Thomas’ son)
- Watson (Wat was a common name in the 14th century, for example, Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants’ Revolt in the 1380s. Wat was sometime short for Walter, sometimes a name on its own)
- Wilkinson (son of Wilkin, often short for William)
- Wilson (son of Will or William)
Contractions of “son”
Sometimes the English “son” suffix just became an “-s” or “-es” at the end of a surname. Both version often survive, so “Harris” and “Harrison” or “Roberts” and “Robertson” are both found frequently, and were often used by the same family interchangeably in the 14th or 15th centuries.
The “s” or “es” endings were more common in Wales, so many modern surnames with this ending are either more Welsh than English in origin, or are both. “Jones” is an example of a surname which is usually thought of as Welsh (and there are one hell of a lot of Welsh Joneses) but it was also sometimes used in England instead of “Johnson”.
The following surnames are in the top 100 today:
- Adams (English)
- Davis (son of David, also sometimes Davies, both English and Welsh)
- Edwards (occasionally Welsh, more often English, probably because Edwardson is a bit of a mouthful)
- Evans (son of Evan, a mostly-Welsh first name originally spelled Ifan, and a version of John)
- Griffiths (son of Griffith, a Welsh name and /or title meaning “Lord”" or Master”)
- Hughes (son of Hugh, English and Welsh)
- Jones (son of John or Jonathan, also a very common Welsh surname)
- Matthews (mostly English, can be Welsh)
- Phillips (mostly Welsh, but a few English origins)
- Roberts (English sometimes, more often Welsh in origin)
- Rogers (English)
- Stevens (son of Stephen, mostly English, sometimes Welsh)
- Williams (both English and Welsh)
The Norman “Fitz”
King Henry II, often known as Henry Fitzempress before he became King
The Norman word “fitz”, similar to the French “fils”, for “son of” was commonly found in 11th and 12th century families.
It wasn’t always used in relation to a first name, though. Henry II, for example, was often known as “Henry Fitz Empress” before he became King, because his mother, Matilda, had been Empress of the Germans by a first marriage.
Some surnames developed out of this, such as the current UK names Fitzgerald and Fitzalan, neither of which is particularly common, but both of which certainly still exist.
The use of Fitz as a patronymic surname was most often retained by Anglo-Irish families, for some reason.
Over time, “fitz” came to be used as “son of royalty” rather than son of any old person. It was used for royal bastards, often. Examples include Richard Fitzroy, illegitimate son of King John, Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII and some of Charles II’s many bastards. “Roy” in this sense derives from the Norman French for “King”.
Welsh surnames from a father’s first name
Welsh surnames deriving from a father’s first name (or, occasionally, a mother’s) often used the “s” or “es” suffix as above. Others used “ap”, meaning “son of”. There are still some examples of UK surnames with “ap” in them, for example, the Welsh actress Llinor ap Gwynedd, and the BBC Wales journalist Iono ap Dafydd.
More frequently, the “ap” became subsumed into a single surname, such as the following which are still surnames in the UK today:
names and naming
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Will you be writing about surnames based on locations or areas?
Yes, place-names and local origins are coming up.
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
In addition to your info about “Fitz”, I have read that Ireland became full of Fitz’s because the bastard sons of royalty could get some kind of inheritance in Ireland and thus they flooded there. Of course, this is how the Norman blood and the Irish maidens matched up; creating the Irish class of ascendant folks. I am a Fitzsimmons and a Fitzgerald. Love your hubs. Fun to read a Londoner.
You could well be right, but off-hand, I can’t think of too many bastard royal sons who ended up in Ireland. King John did, when he was about 16, and made a mess of it all and got recalled home, but he was legitimate. I think it’s more that the Anglo-Norman aristocracy in Ireland adopted the Fitz prefix for surnames (for legitimate families) more than happened in England.
very interesting post, i’ve always wondered how many of the names we have today originated
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? 
I’ll be interested in further pieces on the origins of English surnames - like where mine came from!
it’s iolo ap dafydd, not iono. interesting sheizah though. heddwch
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
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?
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.
Hi
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?
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.