There’s a lot of material on this site about surnames, their type, their frequency, their geography and what they tell us about the Cornish language. But there’s not much about forenames or baptismal names.
Forenames tell us nothing about those who bear them but can reveal considerable information about those who bestow them and on the society in which they are given. Different patterns of forenames might inform us about the influence of status or wealth differences or attitudes to gender for example, or the influence of events, personalities or broader movements.
What were the most common baptismal names borne by boys in Cornwall in the 1520s? This was just before the long drawn out process of the religious Reformation began. Let’s take the lay subsidy of 1524/25, a tax assessment, and examine the forenames in Penwith hundred, the most westerly, and in Trigg (excluding Bodmin borough), Lesnewth and Stratton in the north-east of Cornwall. This gives us near enough the same number of men in each district for purposes of comparison.
The pattern in the west was more diverse. In Penwith the five most common names accounted for 69 per cent of all men; in north Cornwall as many as 82 per cent. The 1,123 men in Penwith shared 84 different names; the 1,224 in north Cornwall just 53, a significant difference.
Nevertheless, the same names turn up in both parts. John was well out in front. A third of men in Penwith in the 1520s were called John, while in north Cornwall this reached 43 per cent, getting on towards a half. Thomas, Richard and William appear in the top five in both districts, these forenames giving rise in the west to the most common surnames. Interestingly, this restricted corpus of popular names – with a concentration on John, Richard, Thomas and William and the addition of Robert – was also found in London around 1400.
But how do we explain the difference between west and north Cornwall? For that you’ll have to wait for the next post.
If you have found the material on this site of use then you may be interested in my recent books published under the Coserg imprint. For a list see here.
Cornish studies resources 