Great British Family Names and Their History

Book excerpt: A reference guide to hundreds of surnames that reveal the story of the United Kingdom across generations and centuries. To some extent, we are all products of our family history, the many generations before us. So it is with nations. The history of Great Britain has been largely defined by powerful and influential families, many of whose names came down from Celtic, Danish, Saxon or Norman ancestors. Their family names fill the pages of history books, indelibly written into events we learn about at school. Family names like Wellington, Nelson, Shakespeare, Cromwell, Constable, De Montfort, and Montgomery reflect the long, checkered history of Britain, and demonstrate the assimilation of the many cultures and languages that have migrated to the British isles over the centuries. This book is a snapshot of several hundred such family names and delves into their beginnings and derivations, making extensive use of old sources, including translations of The Domesday Book and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, as well as tracing many through the centuries to the present day.