[The Surnames of Cornwall is now published. For more see here.]
So what exactly comprises a Cornish surname and how is this different from a surname in Cornwall? The old saying tells us that ‘By Tre, Pol and Pen, you shall know the Cornishmen’. Actually, you won’t. At most, you’ll only know about one in 20 Cornishmen (or women) by these criteria. Even in the later 19th century, only around 4-5% of people in Cornwall had surnames beginning with Tre, Pol or Pen. This proportion did however vary, from less than 2% in parts of the east to over 10% in parts of the west.
In addition, we could look for those surnames that were most frequent in Cornwall prior to the in-migration that began in the 1960s. In the 1861 census, the following were the 20 most common surnames in Cornwall. The figure in brackets shows their rank in England and Wales, as provided by a parliamentary report from the Registrar-General in 1853 that lists the top 50 surnames at that time.
- Williams (3)
- Thomas (7)
- Richards
- Rowe
- Harris (26)
- Martin (33)
- James (35)
- Roberts (9)
- Pearce
- Stephens
- Johns
- Pascoe
- Hicks
- Harvey
- Bray
- Phillips (44)
- Rogers
- Mitchell
- Hocking
- Jenkin
As we can see, the names differed in Cornwall although the only relatively unique Cornish language name on the list is Pascoe. Most of our forebears had names that could also be found in England and/or Wales, although they were far less popular east of the Tamar. Nonetheless, as we know, those bearing these names can be as ‘Cornish’ as anyone with a Tre/Pol/Pen type name. As Robert Morton Nance put it in the late 1940s,
‘the most aristocratic of Cornish surnames may record only the loot, by a Norman, of the estate of a Saxon, who dispossessed the heir of a Cornishman, who founded it and gave it his own name with Tre- before it; while the Cornish founder’s heirs may still walk among us bearing perhaps, like so many Celts in Wales, some name such as Williams, Thomas or Richards.’
While we could quibble about Nance’s definition of an ‘aristocratic’ Cornish surname, and while archaeologists and historians have revised the picture of a simple takeover by the English, now preferring a process of cultural change, the point stands. If your parents and a grandparent or two were born in west Cornwall and you possess one of the common names of the 19th century, then there’s a very good chance that your forebears were Cornish-speakers into the 1500s and 1600s.
Moreover, there’s a third possible way of identifying ‘Cornish’ names. We might ask which names were most unique to Cornwall. In 1881 the likelihood of encountering someone of the ten names listed below was around 90 times greater in Cornwall than in England.
- Beswetherick
- Daddow
- Keverne
- Medlyn
- Oxnam
- Penlerick
- Sturtridge
- Tellam
- Tremewan
- Vellanoweth
Some of these have their origin in Cornish placenames, for example Tremewan, Vellanoweth or Penlerick. Others like Medlyn and Daddow originated in personal names. Meanwhile, Sturtridge and Oxnam come as more of a surprise. These names are presumed to have originated in places in Devon, but had become restricted to Cornwall by the late 19th century.
If we assume that the purpose of identifying ‘Cornish’ surnames is to add to our credentials as Cornish, a people now recognised, however belatedly or reluctantly, by the UK Government as an indigenous national minority, then we must surely draw the boundaries as widely and inclusively as possible. That means including the most common and the most unique names in addition to those that more obviously have their roots in the Cornish language or Cornish placenames. This provides us with a distinct stock of surnames, some exclusively Cornish, some commonly Cornish and some frequently Cornish, but all borne by Cornish people or their descendants.
Cornish studies resources 
The full version of the rhyme was: “By Tre, Ros, Car, Lan, Pol and Pen, Ye shall know the Cornishmen.”
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I agree with the 6 words but in my family it went – by Tre, Pol, Pen, Ros, Cor, Lan……………..
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Hi My children’s great-grandmother’s maiden name was NANCARROW, Any ideas please?
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Also in my book The Surnames of Cornwall. It means valley of the stag in Cornish and comes from a placename.
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Nancarrow in my ancestory as well…please feel free to contact me! ALSO Symons and Marshall and Wickett…
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Hi, I read a while ago – but lost the reference – that my maiden name, Kease was ancient Cornish, as it was listed in a book of ancient Cornish names. Do you have any knowledge of such a book please?
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You might be thinking of John Bannister’s A Glossary of Cornish Names, which lists Kease as a placename, although I can find no actual place of this name in other sources. Kease was not a surname in Cornwall in 1861 or in 1641, although of course Keast is a well-known Cornish surname. The book is online at https://archive.org/stream/glossaryofcornis00bann/glossaryofcornis00bann_djvu.txt
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My grandmother’s maiden name was Magor, we have documents and pictures of family living in Truro. Any suggestions to find further links would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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There’s a few of Magor’s in Cury / Helston, although might be spelt Maegor?
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My name – “Wearne” – is from (much shortened and smoothed out) the pre-Cornish Brythonic language that once was spoken throughout Southwestern Britain in the Dumnonian Kingdom. It refers to a place with alder trees growing near a marsh, and originated at the Easternmost edge of the Dumnonian lands, in what is now Somerset, near the river Parrett. There is a hamlet there called Wearne, in which I like to think my ancestors originated.
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Hello Jim Wearne!
I’m looking through some
Ancestry things and found this. My name is Heidi Wearne and my Cornish ancestry comes from
Redruth and the surrounding area. I’ve lived briefly in England and visited the village of Wearne. It is lovely. I’d like to think that many generations ago my family came
from there as well. Would you like to compare genealogies?
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I also have Wearne ancestry from St Erth, Cornwall 1400 to 1750
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I have been trying to find the origin of my surname. Do you think it could be Cornish from chei tes meaning heat house? Have you ever encountered this name in Cornwall or its records?
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Hi Hamish, Sorry but there’s nothing resembling your surname in any 16th Cornish source that I can find. It’s an unusual name that also doesn’t appear in any of my surname dictionaries. You’re unique! However, it’s unlikely to be chy, as chei was a very late spelling derived from Lhuyd’s orthography in the 18th century. Earlier names with chy would usually be spelt chy- or che- as in Chynoweth/Chenoweth.
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I heard there is a cornish surname spelt in English “Fear/Feer” which is similar to my own breton surname “Fur” : both mean “Wiseman”. “Jewell” originated from Breton surname “Juhel” (<*Iud-hael)
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‘An fear’ in Gaelic means ‘the man’
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While not listed in this article, I believe Crago is a very likely unique Cornish surname. I’d like to know how to produce a map like the one in this article. Can anyone tell me how to get that done?
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The maps were produced using gimp (free photoshop software) and various templates. And yes, Crago is a Cornish locative name, from either Cragoe in Ruanlanihorne or Creggo in Mylor.
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Often wondered about Hosking but can’t find anything definitive.
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It’s one of those puzzles – very common in Cornwall but with supposed derivations (OE personal name or Co for sedgemarsh) that aren’t exactly convincing. The -ken/-kin/-king suffix is typical of patronyms and I would lean in that direction but unsure what the original given name would be.
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Hoskin is probabley a patronymic diminutive of Henry.
Joe Flood, CORNWALL DNA Project
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There was significant migration from Cornwall in the years before the 1861 Census – making it likely that the proportion of ‘Cornish’ surnames would be higher in those of 1851 and 1841 respectively.
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Not sure this follows, Owen. You’re right that mass emigration began in the 1840s. But if there was no net in-migration, which there wasn’t at that time, it wouldn’t affect the proportions of surnames in the population, just the absolute numbers. Unless people with ‘Cornish’ surnames were more likely to leave that is.
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My famly name is Bennetts and most of my forefathers included the name Vivian as a forename, I have traced them to Leylant, St Ives and to Camborne and have noted that it still is a common name. Can you tell me where my name originated please?
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The surname Bennetts is a patronymic from a popular medieval first name – Benedict, or in the vernacular Bennet. It was originally from the Latin Benedictus (blessed) and was the name of St Benedict who founded the Benedictine order of monks around 500. Bennet was already a common byname/surname across Cornwall in the early 16th century although at that time usually without the -s
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My maiden name is Trewolla. There are not many of us left. My ancestors came to the USA in 1841. I believe Trewolla means lower manor in the old language.
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Yes, there are a couple of places in Cornwall with this name and it could have originated in either. Tre- was more of a hamlet than a manor though, although manor sounds posher.
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I have able to trace my EDYVEAN family in Cornwall back to the mid 1700’s. And my LAMPSHIRE/LAMPIER family back to mid 1600’s – where do suppose they originated from going by this blog
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Lampier first appears in the 17th century in St Clement. I can’t find anything resembling this name in the 1500s. In the 1700s it was still restricted to the Truro area but seems to have spawned the name Lamshear, which appears in Gerrans in 1771. By 1861 Lampshire was more common than Lampier. Although I have no idea what it could mean!
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if confused with English ‘shire’ (OE ‘scir’), or French ‘scire’ (=’wax’), lamp wax or lamp oil, or a rushlight. But probably had nothing to do with it, when it was first a surname.
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Edyvean or Udyvean is a patronymic surname meaning (son of) Eudy junior, literally Little Eudy in Cornish.
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I am a Lampshire!!
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I would love to know more about the Edyveans in St Clement. My paternal grandmother’s father was James Edyvean who married Katherine Moran. I think he arrived in the USA circa 1891. His occupation was hostler. I know nothing else about the Edyveans. I’ve done two different DNA tests but no relatives/matches from that branch of my family were in the results. Would also love to know the correct pronunciation of Edyvean. We were told it was ED-duh-vane.
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In my experience the name is pronounced Eddieveen but in practice people brush over the second syllable and it ends up more like Edduhveen. The last element “vean” seems like the Cornish word for little or small. Used a lot in place names e.g Trewirgie Vean.
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I would be interested to discover if my surname is originally Cornish. CHIVERTON. Obviously there is a fair amount of land east of Redruth which bears that name but according to an Uncle [no longer with us I’m afraid] it was previously spelled Chywerton at one point and I have seen an awful lot of Chy-Wer-Tha named houses etc.
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In fact, there are at least four, possibly five, different places in Cornwall with this placename (which means house on pastureland) at St Buryan/Sancreed, Lelant, Perranuthnoe and Perranzabuloe, which is the one east of Redruth you refer to. All the others were further west and they all tended to be spelt Chywarton in the 14th century. So the surname Chiverton could have come from any of these places and its origins could well be further west. In 1524 we find a Richard Chywarton living at Camborne and a Thomas Chywarton at Paul.
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Have you any idea about the derivation of the surname Basher (My paternal ancestors”)? It seems to be almost solely (?) present in the Lizard at least back until the 16th century (spelled Bassher) and later moved up (as work became available in the mines). “Basher’s Harbour” at Rinsey Head also had a Basher’s cottage nearby.
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Sorry, Dominic, but I’m not able to add much to your research. The name doesn’t appear in the early 16th century subsidies and I can find no example earlier than yours. In the marriage registers from 1730 to 1780 there are just three examples of the name (2 spelt Bashar for what it’s worth) but all in Grade, which reinforces your view that the origin of the name was on the Lizard. As for the meaning, the surname dictionaries make no suggestion. The -er suffix can sometimes mean an occupational name, or perhaps a nickname. Or perhaps, given its location, it’s from a Cornish word. But what word I haven’t a clue!
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Thanks for checking this. There is a tenuous family tradition that the name came from a shipwrecked Breton or French sailor which might be consistent with it being so localized on the Lizard. If that is true there might be some connection to the old French word Bosch (now spelled Bois) meaning wood. (I found an old document where the name is spelled alternatively Basher and Boscher) Seemingly Boscher meant something like woodsman or lumberjack in old French. I didn’t want to complicate the original query with my random speculations but as it is a name at least associated with Cornwall for some centuries now you may find this of some interest.
Very good to discover all your work on Cornish surnames!
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Hi Dominic,
There is definitely at least one gravestone at Landewednack Church in the Lizard with the name Richard Basher on, he’s buried next to my grandparents.
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Hello
My surname is Jenkin. Which I believe is a Cornish name. My grandad and all his family were born in illogen.
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Fascinating article, my maiden name was Bodilly, and yes I did once go out to the village to see what it was like. The usual narrow Cornish lane eventually got us to Bodilly, one manor house, 16th century, a farmhouse and a small cottage. Plus one farmer, who delightedly entered into the favourite Cornish pastime of working out who I was related to. Having established that es he thought he did know my father, but definately knew his younger brother.
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Interesting article. My great grandparents were Cornish. Have heard that the Chellew surname has strong cornish roots. Is it true?
Thanks!
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Chellew is most definitely a surname with Cornish roots. In 1881 it was 73 times more likely to be found in Cornwall than elsewhere. Originating in the placename Chellew in Ludgvan (which may mean either house of colour – chy+lew or Lew’s house), in the 17th century it was still only found in and around Ludgvan parish. By the 19th century the name had spread but in Cornwall only as far as parishes to the west in West Penwith..
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Eustice was my maiden name and my Fathers family from Crowlas, while doing my family history there are numerous variations many without the ‘E’, Ustice etc….In my early years nobody knew how to spell it and even sometimes pronounce it My son-in-laws Gundry family from Portsmouth I have found a few of these in Ludgvan. It is a fascinating subject. Thank you.
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Maybe late but we have in west Normandy (Cotentin peninsula) a common family name given by our Viking ancestor: Eustace.
Some may have cross the channel with William the conqueror?
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My surname is Cocking, I’m 55 Years old and my family has been based in the north east of England since at least the mid-1700s. I have traced it back to that period directly from father to son so far.
As a child I was taken to Mevagissey, and while walking around I received the most massive, and only, belt of deja vu that I have ever experienced. So powerful that I still picture it over 40 years later.
It may be that my family migrated north to follow the coal when tin mining declined in Cornwall, though as yet I have no evidence of this.
I have always felt ‘stateless’, as though something is missing, though by birth nail my colours firmly to the English mast.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll find a bit of Cornwall running through me someday!
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Cocking was more likely to be found in Cornwall in 1881 than anywhere else. Although there was a secondary concentration in south Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, which would be a bit nearer the north east. You’ve probably seen the website at http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Map.aspx?name=COCKING&year=1881&altyear=1998&country=GB&type=name
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Fascinating post – and so many interesting comments!
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Kellow on my father’s side, Trenhaile on my mother’s and Tregunna on cousin’s side. I know there is a West Kellow near Polruan but I think the family were from Pensilva area. Trenhailes were from King Harry Ferry/Feock area but unsure of that. Tregunnas from Grampound are but unsure again. Any ideas please?
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Sorry for the delay in replying – moving home! Yes, Kellow is from a placename meaning grove or groves or a small wood, There are places called Kellow near Looe, but also further west at Kea and Cornelly, The placename also gave rise to Kelly, which could also become Gelly, as in Angelly. So it’s possible the surname originated in lots of different places. This seems to be borne out by its early distribution. In the 1520s Kellows were found in the west (Wendron, Helston, Illogan), mid-Cornwall (Luxulyan, Lanhydrock, Bodmin), in north Cornwall at St Teath, and in the south east at St Neot, St Cleer, Warleggan, Lanteglos by Fowey and Lansallos. By 1861 the name was widespread but with a concentration in St Teath.
Trenhayle is a placename in St Erth (farm on the estuary), although it could have been confused with, or fallen together with Trenhale (meaning farm on the moor) at Newlyn East. In 1523 we find a John Trenhale at Lelant and a James Trenhaylle at Truro, This name never ramified and in 1861 there were only four families called Trenhail or Trenhaile in the Census, 3 at Feock and 1 at Kenwyn, They look to have been descended from James at Truro and my bet is that he had gone to Truro from St Erth, given the spelling in 1523.
Tregunna comes from the placename Tregonna or Tregenna (farm on the downs, originally spelt something like Tregonyowe). This placename is found in several places (Blisland, St Ewe, St Breock, Breage). At least three of these seem to have given rise to the surname by the early 16th century, when it was quite common, in the west at Phillack, St Ives, Ludgvan and Breage, on the Lizard at Mawgan in Meneage and St Keverne, in mid-Cornwall at Gorran and St Ewe, plus another cluster at Mawgan in Pydar, St Columb Major and Little Petherick. By 1861 there were very few Tregonnas or Tregennas and the surname had given way to Tregunna. However, by this time it was concentrated entirely on the Roseland peninsula, with a particular focus on Veryan. Perhaps the western Tregenna name was not hereditary as early as the 1520s. But your ancestor in Grampound had almost certainly come from the Roseland.
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I have always assumed Kellow derived from Cullow, and Cull/Culla. These spellings are common in Tintagel from the late 15th century. Trenhalil is a farmstead-hamlet there too.
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Interesting. I hadn’t come across the name Cullow before but I see it was found in two widely seperated areas in the early 1500s – Tintagel/Trevalga and south east Cornwall between St Germans and Rame. These were both on the edges of districts with the surname Kelliow or Kellow at that time so there could be a connection. However, I’d think the relationship was the other way around if there was, Cullow or Collow being a variant of Kellow as there were many more of the latter. On the other hand it could well have an entirely different origin.
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My grandfather was from Cornwall. How does the Basher surname fit into the info from this article?
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Hi,
See my reply to Dominic O’Ceallaigh above – the origin of Basher is a bit of a mystery at present.
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Beshiri, Beshere, Bashi, are Albanian family names.
bwdeacon, just one very important question: do you really tell the purely Cornish surnames and Manx surnames apart ?
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Interesting. I haven’t seen any examples of Albanian migration to Cornwall in the C16th century but nothing’s impossible. Definitely looks like an imported name.
As for the Cornish/Manx distinction have you any examples in mind?
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And also do you distinguish the Welsh surnames so well in order to correctly define Cornish ones ?
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I’m not sure what you mean by ‘distinguish’ here. Patronymics such as Williams, Thomas etc would have arisen independently in both Wales and Cornwall. Locatives will be peculiar to each country, nicknames and occupational names will usually be different. The only way to know whether a particular family called Williams or Thomas, or Prowse come to that, had Welsh or Cornish (or English) origins would be through detailed genealogical research.
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Intrigued by your post as I worked with Derek Basher in Cornwall in the late 1970’s.
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If any other Bashers see this we now have a small Facebook group called “Basher family of Cornwall”. Anyone with, or descended from, that name and with definite Cornish roots is welcome to join.
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Hi my fiancee’s name in Trembath, and we have traced it to Madron ,just outside PZ , meaning ( we believe?) Farmstad by the pool / pond
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Yes, Trembath is a farm in Madron. But it was spelt Trenbagh before the 16th century and is usually read as meaning farmstead of the nook or corner (Tre an bagh), possibly relating to its position at the edge of the parish.
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I’m wondering if there might be any connection between the Cornish hamlet Downinney and my surname, Downing. It would be easy to transform one into the other – even unintentionally via unclear handwriting. I am in the U.S., by the way. My great-grandfather Richard Downing and 4 brothers left Cornwall for North America in the early 20th century. They came from a tiny little place called Cutmere, in St. German’s parish.
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My grandfather’s name was Wearne Ivey.He was born in St.Erth Parish in the 1860’s but arrived in Swansea at the age of nine.His family is traceable in Cornwall until at least as early as Elizabethan times. He was my maternal grandfather,the other three grandparents were Welsh.
Thomas/Williams/Williams.
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i think I might be related to you distantly, Wendy Ivey – My mother’s maiden name is Ivey and i know from our family in Swansea that our family came from Cornwall; possibly relating to the Mother Ivey’s Bay legend? Bernard, can you shed any light on the surname Ivey?
Carrie Burton
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Hi Carrie, There’s a brief entry on Ivey in the book – page 83. I suggest it may be a version of Eva.
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Bernard, you’ve replied to so many people about their surnames I hesitate to add mine but here goes: I’m researching the name Leane, sometimes spelt Lean but when the family emigrated to Australia the ‘e’ was still there. I can trace the family to Sheviock, Looe and Quethiock as far back as the 1600s. Family oral history claims the Leanes were Huguenots, the name originally something like D’Leane or Delaenus but I haven’t been able to find any evidence for that. Various stories also link them to the Treloys in the north west and the Trelawnys of Menheniot. Leane doesn’t seem to be a common name these days in Cornwall but I am hoping you know something about it.
Thanks, Wendy, Australia
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Hi Wendy. I’m afraid the origins may be a little more mundane. The name is definitely NOT a Huguenot name as it was well established by the 1520s, a century and a half before the Huguenot migration. The obvious origin of the surname Lean is as a nickname for a thin or lean person. Indeed, we find this is the explanation given in the surname dictionaries, which state that the name is particularly common in Devon. In fact it was equally common in Cornwall. In 1881 you’d have been 44 times more likely to find someone called Lean here than elsewhere in the UK.
In Cornwall there may also be a different origin for the name. Pawley White suggested the surname originated in the placename Lean, which was originally lyn or leyn, and meant a stitch of land. It appears in several field names but also at hamlets in Liskeard and St Martin in Meneage parishes. Sure enough, in the earliest records (1520s) we find a Robert Lene at St Martin and a John Lene at Liskeard. The name was also spelt Leyne (which could have led to confusion with Lane), Len and Lenne. At Tregony William Lene’s surname was spelt Lene, Lenne and Len in three differing records.
In the early sixteenth century Leans were found mainly in south east Cornwall, with a couple around Launceston and a handful in mid-Cornwall at Probus and St Issey. By the 1640s, the name had ramified and become fairly common. There were 72 examples, usually spelt Leane or Lene, in the 1642 Protestation returns. These were spread over mid and east Cornwall, but there was a concentration around Liskeard, suggesting that at least some Lean families had their origin in the placename there rather than as a general nickname. Meanwhile, the mid-Cornwall Leans were focused on Lanlivery while those in the far west on the Lizard had largely vanished. As surnames were more prone to change in the Cornish-speaking west into the 1500s, this may explain the disappearance of the family name in that area.
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Hi Wendy ..another Australian here. I hope when researching you have accessed Australian War Memorial records as Leanes from WA played a huge role in WW1…also written up extensively in Bean’s history of WW1
regards Susanne
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Hi Bernard, I have an ancestor (early 17th century) whose byname surname was ‘Williams als Cornish’. I have been reading about bynames (and this is how I found your informative blog – thank you for your efforts, here) and understand the various possible reasons people had bynames. Two things: I have heard my family has Norman ancestry, and have read the name Cornish is Norman, but the byname (with ‘Williams’, it being Welsh) stumps me. Both names’ commonality is challenging – Williams being common and ‘Cornish’ being the name of our ethnicity. Any light you may shed on this would be appreciated. Thank you, Michele USA
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Hi Michele,
Aliases were common in the 16th/17th centuries and your ancestor is a good example. Williams is not especially Welsh, but is common in Wales because of late hereditary surname formation. For the same reason, it’s almost as common in Cornwall and arose seperately at the same time. A patronymic based on the first name William actually makes it the Norman bit! Cornish is an ethnic or regional name, presumably originally applied to someone from Cornwall. As such we’d be more likely to find it outside Cornwall. That was indeed the case in 1881 when it was twice as frequent in Devon than Cornwall. Within Cornwall it was more likely to be found in the east, which makes sense. However, there were quite a few in the west, notably at Gwennap, which makes me wonder whether at some point it was a nickname for someone who had particularly ‘Cornish’ characteristics, or was a Cornish-speaker when those around were switching to English.
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Bernard, Thank you so much. You have me thinking and I’m going to investigate further. I am grateful! Michele
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Bu the way, you may be interested in my list of ’20 oldest Cornish surnames’. It is by no means easy to get onto this list, as reasonable continuity within Cornwall to the present needs to be established.So far, no-one new has managed ot get onto the original list.
http://coadcoode.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/oldest-surnames-in-cornwall_26.html
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Hunkin/Hunking or similar was recorded in Cornwall in the 1200s. I’m away from home for a while, or I could give you a little more info….
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My mother’s family are Hunkins and come from Mevagissey we have a family tree dating back to the 1460s
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Good afternoon.
My husband’s grandmother was a Hunkin from Lostwithiel/Megavissey and we are seeking the family history. Any information you might be able to provide would be most helpful.
Very many thanks.
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Hi Susan, Hunkin is listed in my book – page 85.
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Grose is a common surname in Cornwall in the 1700s. Is it likely a ‘Cornish surname’ in some cases? Or more likely derived from Gross, Grosse, Le Gros etc.
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Cornish surname dictionaries assert that the Cornish Grose has no connection with the nickname Gros (for a big man). But little evidence is offered. The explanation usually given is a derivation from a placename Crows, which would be An grows or An grouse after the definite article, as it’s feminine. The earliest 16th century distribution of the name is in three districts. The most westerly is around Newlyn East and St Columb, the second is to the west and north of Bodmin Moor, from Braddock to St Teath, and the third is along the Tamar, from Warbstow and Launceston in the north to Antony in the south. Some at least of these may come from a now lost eastern placename with the element crous. This distribution seems to lend itself to multiple origins, but these could be nicknames, or they could be placenames.
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Hello, It is 14th April 2017 & I am just Googeling Sturtridge Cornwall.
My maiden name is Sturtridge. My father was William Alfred Sturtridge. His grandfather was Elijah Sturtridge who came to Australia & was a tin miner in
Emmaville NSW Australia. Love to hear from any of my relatives in Cornwall.
I live in Sydney Australia. My email is oldtrout@optusnet.com.au Cheers Margaret Dyer (née Sturtridge)
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I was told the last name Triste was Cornish, is it true?
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Sorry if it disappoints you, Eileen, but the answer is no. The name is usually spelt Trist in Cornwall but doesn’t seem to appear until 1774 at Rame. By 1861 there were still only four Trist families in the Census, all on the margins of Cornwall, at Rame, Launceston and Veryan, which suggests to me they had arrived from elsewhere.
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Of course I wasted money on a surname sight that insisted the name Triste was Cornish. Thanks so much for the information. I am now checking on French or Spanish roots!
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1748 is the earliest I have found the Trist name In Cornwall. Though the Veryan Trists and the Rame Trists are, at least in my research, completely separate. My family is from the Rame Trists, who all seemed to be fisherman, or Royal Navy seamen.
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Hi Bernard. Hope your well Mate. So Champion as I have been told is a name from North Cornwall. I have seen it called a Celtic/Cornish name on a few websites. Love to have your input on it…… Thanks
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Hi Mike. Champion could be classified as a Cornish name as you’d have been 10 times more likely to meet someone with the name in 19th century Cornwall than in other places in the UK. I’m not sure why it was relatively more common in Cornwall though, as it’s supposed to derive from someone who acted as a champion for others.The name is known in various places in southern England in the C12/13th centuries and the first example I’ve found in Cornwall was James Chaumpeon, a servant of the Rector of Creed in mid-Cornwall in 1448. It’s not particularly associated with north Cornwall. By the 1520s it was found in various places scatrtered across Cornwall from PZ to Warbstow, but was most common at Madron and around Crantock and Newlyn East. By the 19th centuiry there’s a marked concentration south of Camborne, especially at Breage.
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There are a lot of folk in Cornwall with the surname Odgers. Not sure of its origins though.
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The surname dictionaries tell us Odgers is derived from the Old English personal name Edgar. I find this difficult to believe given its geography though. It was definitely most common in the 19th century in Cornwall, but also in Denbigh in north Wales, which seems strange for an Old English name. The first examples of Odger, spelt Ogger,Oger or Oyger in Cornwall, appear in the mid-16th century and it becomes Odgers, with the -s, during the 1700s. I wonder whether there’s a connection with Rogers, which was frequent in the same areas and also gave rise to the name Hodge.
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This is fascinating 🙂 I’d love to hear your thoughts about my name, Hunkin, before it arrived in Mevagissey?
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In 1544 there was only one person with that name in the tax returns – John Hunkyn at North Hill. By 1641, when the name is found in Mevagissey, it’s heavily concentrated in the far south east of Cornwall around Saltash. But by the middle of the 18th century the Mavagissey branch has become the most numerous.
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My husbands family says they are Cornish through and through and their last name is Paull.
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Yes, in 1881 Paull was 31 times more likely to have been encountered in Cornwall than elsewhere in Britain, though it was also relatively more frequent in Somerset and Dorset.
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Hi Bernard, my Olds ancestors left St Just just before the end of the 19th century, moving to Durham to work in the mines there, before eventually my grandfather and his brother moved to the Hunter Valley in NSW in the 1920s to work in the mines (we would still have relatives upcountry as there were three other siblings who stayed. I would think we’d also have relatives still in Penzance although it doesn’t appear that the family kept in touch to my knowledge, apart from one old family photo Dad had of a relative in Mousehole).
In his book A Glossary of Cornish Surnames on p.103, Bannister records the name as being of Cornish origin: “Olds, n.f,’\ = als, a cliff” (https://archive.org/stream/glossaryofcornis00bann/glossaryofcornis00bann_djvu.txt). Public Profiler records the name as being Cornish/Celtic, but most anglocentric sources simply record it as ‘English’ coming from the word ‘old’. Americans in particular tend to interchange Old/Olde/Olds without any differentiation between the names.
Do you have any further information on the name and its prevalence or otherwise in the St Just/Penzance region, and its origins?
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I wouldn’t put too much credence in the derivations given in Bannister, which like those in Pawley White’s book on surnames tend to look for any similarities with Cornish words and stop there. It’s more likely that Old/Olds derives originally from the English ‘old’, in the sense of ‘senior’ rather than aged. Moreover, it’s unlikely to have a Cornish language derivation, as the first examples in Cornwall were found in the English-speaking east, In the far north east Robert Olda and Thomas Yolda (also spelt Old) were found in 1525 at Launcells and North Tamerton. And in 1549 a Richard Olde and family owned land at St Columb Minor in mid-Corrnwall. But the name ramified rapidly in Cornwalland became a lot more common here than in England. It was still mainly spelt Old in the 1700s with a scattering of Olds and Ould. By the 19th century half the spellings were Old, a quarter Olds, and a quarter Ould. It was widely spread – the association with St Just and Sancreed doesn’t appear until the mid-1800s, presumably having drawn migrants to the mines there from further east from the 18th century onwards. But it was equally common in the Constantine district and mid-Cornwall at Padstow.
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Butchers ‘ shop in St. Just I think
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My Cornish surnames are Ellery from Mawgan-in-Pydar and Jacka from Perranzabuloe. Do you have any information about these surnames?
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Ellery comes from the name Hillary, a saint’s name. It was found in the 16th century around the Camel estuary and Bodmin Moor in east Cornwall and was later most common in the Newquay area.
Jacka was a pet form of John, the additional -a being quite common in Cornwall (cf Rodda, Tomma, Mata) and particularly in the Cornish-speaking areas. It was confined to Cornwall west of Perranporth and Truro in the early 16th century which bears out its link with the language.
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Hi Bernard, what a great site. I know you must be fed up with all the surname questions by now, but what about Gilbert? I have heard it is also Gilbart or even Jelbert. I have managed to trace my ancestors back to Phillack near Hayle continuously until the 1650’s. There are definitely other Gilberts in the surrounding villages before that but not my line. Any ideas where they could have come from and why they would have ended up in Phillack for over 400 years? Thanks for your time.
Also, to add to the mystery, the Gilbert that I cannot find his birthplace married a ‘Verchell’ in Pjillack. I cannot find that name anywhere. I have found one or two Verchills in Jacobstow ( a long way away), and suspect it might be linked to Berchell, or Berchill or Burchell/Burchill. Any clues to that?
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My Cornish relatives were the Watts family as far back as 1650 in Hayle and western Cornwall, the Cock/Cox/Cocks family of Penzance, and Simmons/Symons/Simmonds also of western Cornwall. I’ve always taken Watts to be ultimately Scottish, but with no evidence to date specific to my family. Is there a Cornish Watts? And are there known derivations for Cock and Simmons?
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Both Watt (later Watts) and Simmons are patronymics. Watt was a short form of Walter, Simmon being more obvious. Cock was a nickname and seems to have been a generic term for youth in the medieval period, also added to other names (e.g. Hancock, Sincock). All three were found widely across Cornwall in the early 16th century. Watt was more favoured in the east, while Watty was the preferred form in the Cornish-speaking west. By 1861 the Wattys had declined and converged with the Watts.
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Interesting site – thank you!
I am descended from Cocks in Truro, but having got back as far as a William b.c.1750-65ish, it starts getting almost impossible to guess which William Cock he is, as there is none recorded as baptised in Truro, as all of his children were. (His wife was born in Egloshayle 1767, and the nearest William Cock was born in 1752 in St Minver, but I haven’t found any evidence to connect them so might have to call a halt there for now.)
Going back further just to find the earliest Cock records I could find on OPC in the Truro area just out of interest, there are some children born 1602-7, giving father’s name as Humphredi, but further back no record of a Humphrey type name.
I did come across the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in England and Ireland (2016) entry for Cock (via Google Books) which says that there are only 575 Cocks left in Britain.
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What an amazing site! I’ve recently discovered many of my Cornish ancestors on my Mother’s Paternal Grandmother’s side. I was born in Swansea South Wales but always had a feeling of affinity and peace whenever I went to Cornwall. My ancestors migrated during the height of the copper trade. Surnames that are most popular in my family are Seymour, Hoskin, Hocking, Lathon which became Busvargus due to the inheritance of a village and right back to 1400 with my 13th GGF Simon Sparrnon. Marriages have included Godolphin, Besanco, and Tressulyan. Besanco sounds Spanish to me so I was wondering if it had anything to do with The Armada?
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Sorry but the Spanish Armada link is a stubborn myth but one with no basis in fact as the name Bosanko is found in Cornwall in the 1540s, a generation before the Armada! It’s from a Cornish placename bos+anko (house of death) or possibly bos+cos (house in the wood). There was a John Bossancow living in Truro in 1543 which looks like the first, and a Willam Bossancott in Mousehole, which seems more like the second. (These could have two different derivations of course). By 1608 Bosancoes are found in Wendron as well as Truro and the name then ramified in Crowan and Wendron, although also spreading into east Cornwall. The mystery is that no actual placename of Bosanko has been found.
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Thank You so much for your reply. Your knowledge astounds me! It has however encouraged me to do more research. My Besanco is Anne b,abt 1760 and married in 1784 in Illogan to James Hoskin. They are my 5th GGP. I am still trying to find her birth certificate. I have verified the marriage. Thanks once again!
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Hello, I’m not looking for any specific information but was interested to see that my maiden name, Rowe, is #4 on the list of common Cornish names. I know my father’s family came from Cornwall though not precisely when. I have a 1996 letter to my father (Willis Rowe) signed “George (cousin) from Cornwall” but don’t know if the cousin’s surname was also Rowe. My grandfather was George Oscar Rowe, born sometime in the 1880s; I’m not sure if he was born in Cornwall or the US.
What I also find interesting on your blog are the articles about Methodism in Cornwall. Though now a Methodist myself, I never knew of any family connection to Methodism.
While I’m not asking for any particular information, any thoughts relating to my father’s family or to the “Methodist connection” would be appreciated.
Martha (Maryland, USA)
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My surname is Kopylow .
Is it Cornish ?
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Sorry Dan but no.
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My surname is Behenna.I have seen it spelt with an ” h” on the end but I believe it is of Cornish origin. Am I correct?
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It is indeed. It turns up in the early 16th century as Behennow. There’s no consensus as
to the meaning but the -ow ending suggests a patronymic like Clemow, Sandow. Maybe son of Bennet, which was a not uncommon first name in Cornwall at the time?
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Thinking further about this, the suggestion it was a patronymic from Benet can’t be right, as that gave Benetto. So it was either an unidentified first name or a name from a placename with the meaning obscure. Given that all the early examples are found fairly close together on the Roseland peninsula I’d suggest it was from a placename in that area.
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My grandmother’s maiden name was Varcoe supposedly an old Cornish name. Family lived in and around Roche and St. Dennis. Is
Varcoe a common Cornish name? Thank you
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Varcoe (and its spelling variant Vercoe) is most certainly Cornish. It was found in St Ewe and St Dennis as early as the 1520s and has remained heavily concentrated in mid-Cornwall and the clay country ever since. It’s a Cornish language patronymic, meaning son of Mark (Markow was also a surname in the 16th century). For some reason the m became permanently lenited to v (which was not uncommon – a similar process occurred for bean/vean in placenames). As for ‘common’, it depends on how you define it. It’s fairly common in mid-Cornwall but not very common elsewhere. In 1861 there were 144 families in Cornwall headed by a Varcoe/Vercoe. Compare that with the over 1,600 Williamses (the most common surname) or even the 400 or so Hicks.
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I have these names in my Family Tree: Trewax, Pengwern, Wallys and something that sounds like “amps-snee” (spelling unsure) all claim to be Cornish. what do you think?
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My mothe’s maiden name is Verrent. (Verran, Verrant). The line originally came from Bodmin Moor. It was supposed to be French, but don’t see any evidence for that. Then again, perhaps it’s related to the original Cornish meaning of Veryan, as in Veryan Bay.
So suspect it comes from a Cornish word. Any ideas?
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An interesting one (aren’t they all). Over the centuries Verran and Verrant spellings have interchanged confusingly and erratically. From the 16th to 19th centuries they were around half and half. However, by the 1861 census almost all spellings had become Verran or variants without a while the two households of Verrants were found in the far west. But that distribution is a very misleading guide to earlier ones. In fact, in the 1540s there were 13 men in the subsidy lists called Verant or Verent and six named Varyn, Veryn, Varryan, Varhen or Varion. ALL of the Verrants were found in east Cornwall, five in a north-south line from Lansallos to St Neot with an outlier at Treneglos to the north. ALL the Varyns etc were in mid and west Cornwall, Helston, Crowan and Redruth in the west and St Issey and St Stephen in Brannel in mid Cornwall. That distribution suggests to me that maybe there were two separate original names. The ones in the west could be from the Cornish given name Meryon or Meryn (permanently lenited to Very(o)n). It’s unlikely to be from the parish of Veryan as that was known as Severian into the C16th and anyway the distribution doesn’t immediately suggest an epicentre on the Roseland. As for Verrant, I have no idea! The usual surname dictionaries offer no help. More early and medieval examples are needed to shed more light.
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In my family tree my 10th great grandfather’s name was Verrant, but his father’s surname was documented as Verante. Might this be the ‘French’ link be it Breton or Norman?
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I think I have a possible answer to the Verrant riddle, assuming this was originally a different name from Verran. There was a Middle English name – Ferrant – in the 12th/13th centuries which is supposed to have given rise to surnames such as Farrant and Farrand. In the Devonian (and east Cornish) dialect the sound often became . (For example the name Facy became Vacy.) The early geography of Verrant would fit this theory, suggesting it was a local variant of Farrant/Farrand etc.
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Can you tell me about Rescorla? That is the name of an 18th century ancestor of mine. My middle name is Binnie (spelled Binney on old records) and my maiden name is Endean. My great grandparents Phillips were from Chacewater near Truro. Can you tell me about these names?
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Rescorla and Endean are names from the Cornish language. Rescorla is from the placename Rescorla. This is found in two places, at St Austell and neighbouring St Ewe in mid-Cornwall. They may however originally be different names as the St Ewe Rescorla was spelt Roscorlan in the 14th century, while the St Austell Rescorla was Roscorle. The family name Roscorlan appears at St Ewe as early as 1385 but it didn’t spread far beyond those two parishes 9within Cornwall at least). Endean means ‘the man’ (maybe a nickname equivalent to the English family name Man(n)). The name Endean emerged quite late – during the 16th century – as a surname in mid-Cornwall and was found in the 1800s in the district between Truro and St Austell.
Meanwhile Binney is probably a spelling variant of Benny, which was a short from of Benedict. There were only two Bynnys in the early 16th century lists (in St Keverne and St Just in Roseland) but several Bennys in the same areas. Phillips is a patronymic from the saint’s name Philip, popular in medieval times.
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From the research my brother and I did starting in the year 2000, Roscorla, Rescorla, Rescorle and Rescorl are Cornish surnames born out of locality. As far as we can tell, in the old Cornish language it means ‘enclosure (Korlann) by the ford (Res)’. We can trace the Rescorle/Rescorl family back to the mid 1750s but cannot go further due to a missing link. We have not found any family link between those with the Res prefix and the Ros prefix and indeed no link with those ending in ‘a’. There is a small Hamlet in Brittany called Rescorles but its origins and the meaning of the name are open to challenge. Our research found thriving Rescorla/Rescorle families in America, Canada and Australia with families emigrating in the late 1880s through to the 1920s.
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There were already people called Rescorla and similar living in Kenwyn, Veryan, Gerrans and St Austell in the early 1500s, as well as St Ewe, so the name must have been hereditary fairly early.
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Hi, my surname is Dusting. I have traced it back to early 1700s in Cornwall around St Michael’s Mount (they were fishermen for many generations). It may have originally been spelt as Dustan or Dunstone. Do you have any information as regarding this surname? Thanks.
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The etymologists tell us Dunstone is supposed to have come from either the place called Dunstone on the south-east edge of Dartmoor in Devon, or from the given name Dunstan. If the former, then they migrated very early to Cornwall, as we find people called Dunstan/Donston in St Mawgan and St Eval in mid-Cornwall as early as 1480. In the 1520s the name is still clustered in that part of Pydar hundred, which makes me think it originated there and be from Dunstan not Devon. John Dunstan at St Mawgan in 1524 is spelt Duston in 1543 which could give rise to Dusting later.
On the other hand Reaney suggests that Dusting has a separate origin in the name Thurstan. Not that there is anyone with the surname Thurstan (or Dustan or anything close) in Cornwall in 1641.
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My name is kerry, I live in Australia and desperatly traking my gr gr grandfather and where he is from. His name is John Henry Treloyn and states his father is william treloyn and his mother is ann reid. he married in scotland then left in the 1860s to come here. My feeling is he has changed his name i know he has to be cornish it has been spelt treloyne on some certs and treloyn on others he stated on some certificates he from cornwall then he states on others he from scotland only treloyns i can find is in australia and we are all related and go back to john henry treloyn, any help on variations to this name would be greatly appreciated
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Sorry, Kerry but there’s no surname in the 1861 Cornish census resembling Treloyn. I wonder if it might have originally been Tregloyn, as there are people in both 1861 and in the 18th century called Tregloyne, Tregloyn, Tregloin and similar.
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I have an ancestor Mary Roberts who married John Treglohan in 1719 at St. Antony Cornwall. His family were from Constantine. They changed name to Tregloan. Diane Penberthy nee Roberts
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I have a book called Cornish Family Names.On my mother’s side there’s Fidock and it’s variant include fiddick The name actually has a celtic meaning Budhek= Victorious in the same way as Biddick which is Budek same meaning. If there’s any fidock’s,fiddock’s fiddick’s out there we are all related to one another. The name Fidock did come from Newlyn East near Newquay. My family came to South Australia in 1839. John Fidock and his wife Mary Catherine Fidock nee Casey.
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Hello Louis, my Dad was William Fidock born at Marazion Cornwall. I can remember in the late 1960s a relative from Australia visiting us when we lived at Camborne but I was too young to remember who they were.
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Greetings from DownUnder cousin Sharron by the way l can trace another two surnames that are of Trenerry and Arthur my great great great father was a John Wills from Cornwall came to settle in Australia after 1830s.
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What was your relative’s full name that came to visit you “cobba” cornish for mate l know 😉”oggie oggie coi coi coi” “dhys da cobba” l been looking up my mother’s side Fidock family tree for a while thinking that it was either German or Scottish because the name isnt a common one and were alot of german settlers in South Australia.
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By the way there is also a Tredinnick in my family also so my family on both sides have roots in Cornwall so that being said l’m Cornish- Australian😉I have to try a proper cornish pasty and what is Scrumpy?
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Hi Are you able to provide origin of surname polglaise or polglase
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Yes, it’s from the placename Polglaze, originally spelt Polglas, which means blue/green/grey pool or stream. So someone living at Polglas. But which one as there were at least 11 examples of this placename in late medieval times – at Altarnun, Creed, Crowan, Cuby, Fowey, Mylor, Philleigh, St Austell, St Erme, St Mabyn and St Veep?
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I am an American Polglaze from Immigrant ancestors who came here in the mid 1800’s. I have been to Cornwall to see the homeland of the patriarchical family, and noted many Polglaze scattered both east and west and otherwise. It would seem to me that if this is a place defined name, that there might be many lines of Polglaze maybe slightly related back long ago, but also long ago they might not be traceable to one ancestor. Is this a likely scenario, or are most of us somehow likely to have shared genetics? Ancestry dna shows a large percentage of SW English, Irish, Welsh in half my heritage. the other half is largely SW eorope, where my mothers ancestors came from a family traceable back to the late 1400’s at least in Belgium.
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You’re right. As there are at least 12 places in Cornwall called Polglase or Polglaze, it’s likely the family name had multiple origins. There are quite a few Polglases listed in the early 16th century subsidy rolls, so that also suggests several of the places had given rise to unrelated lines.
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My ancestors and my maiden name is Huthnance. I have records for Cornwall going back to the 1600’s in Breage, Truro, Redruth areas. I have heard rumour that there are church records showing the original person was a viking with the name Huth in the 700’s but I’m dubious about that as i havent seen any records myself. I live in Australia. Any insight greatly appreciated
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The rumours about Huth the Viking are just that – rumours – as hereditary family names in west Cornwall date from the 1400s or 1500s. Your name is a locative one, from the place Huthnance in Breage. This was spelt Huthenans in the 15th century and there was a Thomas Huthnans living in Breage parish, undoubtedly at Huthnans, in 1524. He’s probably your distant ancestor.
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Incidentally the name means peaceful or pleasant valley.
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My surname is Toy and I can take my direct line back to the Lizard pre 1613. Also mentioned is a Robert Toy in Helston 1549 answering the Muster roll. From what I can determine most Toys at the time of the census were Cornish those that weren’t tended to be in and around Birmingham which may suggest a mining back ground as most of my line we’re tin or copper miners.
Darryl Toy
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I’ve got a family bible which was started by a Richard Toy of Wendron, born 1839. Around 1900 the family moved to Troon in Camborne so I got the mining idea too. Supposedly my grandad always said something about how someone in the family left the E off the end of the name, from what I gathered its an Irish name.
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My maternal granddad was Wm. John Toy, from Camborne. I was informed years ago that the E was indeed dropped from the Toy name, not sure when, and it was originally Breton/French. Any thoughts on this?
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The -e doesn’t mean it was French. It was the normal English spelling to denote a preceding long vowel in the 16th century but tends to get dropped in the 17th. The name Toy/e doesn’t turn up in Cornwall until the end of the 1500s in the Constantine/Wendron area but then expands quite rapidly over the following 200 years.
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My Mother’s maiden name was Toy. Her father Wm. John Toy, was originally from Camborne,Poole. Later in St. Austell area. His father was Robert Toy and served with Queen Victoria’s forces in India. Are we related?
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My grandmother is from south / central Cornwall around the St Austell area, her maiden name was Whetter is that a Cornish name?
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Yes, there were Whetters in St Austell (and also further east in Duloe) as early as the 1520s. By the nineteenth century you’d have been 70 times more likely to bump into someone called Whetter in Cornwall than you’d have been if you were anywhere else in the UK.
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hey I wondered where some of those ‘strange’ names came from.
my recently found fathers side back to 1750 so far has family names in bodmin and lewwanick,
like collins, harris, harrison, and mullis.
any of those cornish? and if so, does that make me cornish?
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Depends on how you define ‘being Cornish’. Names like Collins and Harris were certainly found from the earliest days of hereditary surnames in Cornwall in the 15th century.
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I would be interested to know about mt surname, it is Tremellen.
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It’s from the place now called Tremelling in St Erth, in the 1500s spelt Tremelyn.
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Hi…thank you for all your great work. Your site is a tremendous resource. Regarding Tremelling of St Erth…. in the family I am researching it is also written as Tremelyn, Tremelane and Tremellin
Regards
Susanne
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My grandparent were Hoopers, from Calstock. I looked up the mean and found that Hooper meant “water sprite “ in ancient Cornish.
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News to me. The alternative explanation for the family name is that its origin lay in the English occupational name meaning someone who made or fitted hoops, another name for a cooper.
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do you have any ideas about the name gribble? our family came from the redruth/camborne area. there are other spelling variations – an early one, i believe, was grybell.
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Yes,the name ramified in the Camborne-Redruth area (in fact I have a great-grandparent called Gribble who lived in IIlogan). But its origins are a bit of a mystery. There’s nothing similar in the early 16th century, by which time bynames had become or were becoming hereditary in the west. The only Gribbles in 1641 were found to the west in Sancreed. Did those early Gribbles migrate east to the central mining district? Or was there a separate origin? the name was spelt Gribble and Gribbell in 1641and I haven’t come acoss any with the spelling Grybell. If you have a source for that do let me know.
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Hi Bernard, thanks for your information, very fascinating. Thanks Gretta for your question. My maternal grandfather was a ‘Gribble’, according to shipping records they came to Australia in the 1840’s pre-goldrush boom to Ballarat and we were told they were a prominent families in these areas including until WW1 in mining districts throughout Victoria, Australia. Particularly in Bendigo with the last Gribble in our family line working at a pyrite works there until his mid 40s when he left to join the fight with his his sons in WW1. All thankfully returned.
They are noted as being members of Cornish associations with huge family roots in Australia and celebrating Cornish traditions, recorded on numerous occasions in local papers. So their Cornish roots ran deep. They might have indeed moved over from west Cornwall to the tin mines and brought their mining skills in turn over to Australia, where they are listed as miners on many a record. What we are finding difficult is tracing the family in Cornwall with a high level of accuracy! A folk story in our family is that the grybell spelling is German/ Prussian in origin and meant ‘helmet’ and they migrated to Cornwall through the ports?
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The Gribbles in the Feock/Mylor/Perranarworthal area came from Little Torrington in Devon and were almost certainly descended from those in Barnstaple in the 17th century. I have DNA matches with a couple of Gribbles in the Camborne area but the match be through another common ancestor.
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My grandad was cornish and I have often wanted to Research our family name of Henwood is there a go to trust worthy site to go to
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Depends on what your research questions are, Alan. A good starting point for the statistics of the 1881 Census can be found at http://www.britishsurnames.co.uk/
You could also try out http://named.publicprofiler.org/
And keep your eye out for my forthcoming books on The Surnames of Cornwall. Henwood is on my list.
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I am from an Essex/Suffolk family called Growse – the earliest trace was a John Growse knocking around in the 1430s. I have often wondered where the name is from, but now suspect it might be Cornish. Could I be rig
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I mean, could I be right? (!) Any thoughts would be welcome.
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I can see where you’re coming from, Nick. Crows is Cornish for Cross and becomes Grows after the definite aricle ‘an’. Unfortunately however, I can find no examples of the byname or surname Grows/e (or Crows/e) in Cornwall in the 16th or 17th centuries. And if you’ve found a Growse in East Anglia as early as the 1430s I’d be pretty confident the name originated there. (That early bynames had often still not become hereditary in mid and west Cornwall anyway.)
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Many thanks for your quick and interesting reply. The reason why I suspected a Cornish origin is that I found mention of Growse among the tenants of the Arundel family in Carminow in the 14th century as well as the mention of a Gurlyn de Growse in the early 16th (also in Carminow). I noticed that in the later 16th century and afterwards there is no mention of Growse in the area but several people called Grose or Grosse who hadn’t been mentioned in earlier records. I am not at all sure of myself – I am just rummaging about on the internet – but if there were people called Growse in 14th century Carminow it would be the earliest mention anywhere … There is no trace of Growse in Suffolk before the 1430s. Did Cornish people ever sail down the coast? In the early 16th there was a Growse family in Bradwell on Sea, including one renting a tidal mill there …
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Thanks, Nick. I was once attracted to the theory that perhaps Grose had come from Crows but hadn’t found the examples to prove it. But your find suggests there may be something to it. (Do you have a reference?) And yes, there would have coastal shipping movement, although more usually along the Channel coast as far as London.
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Many thanks again for your reply, I am glad you find the subject interesting! It seems possible that the name Growse – a place-name given to people who lived near the old crosses such as the one at Carminow, became Grose or Grosse during the 16th century inconveniently just before parish records began! Maybe those who emigrated early enough, such as my own family, kept the original version of the name? As for references, luckily I copied the relevant bits off the site. I am not too sure what you need so here they are wholesale cut and paste with a bit of editing:
1.(I thought these were 14th century records, but am no longer sure)
• 21 – Cornwall Record Office
• AR – Arundell of Lanherne and Trerice
• AR/2 – MANORIAL RECORDS
• COMPOSITE RECORDS
• Arundell Rentals
• AR/2/1336 – 1391 – Cornwall
• AR/2/1338/1 – (ff.1-4) Rental or Survey Bodbrane; Carmynow; Pengwenna; Prespynnek; [Repery] 22 folios and membranes.
…
Carmynow (tenants named): Redalen, Huthnans, Caryohall, Treveor, Redewer, Kellygowe, Treveglyse, Treve…, Tregenn…, Tregedell, Growse [?], Vosmeder [?], Polgrene [?], Helstone borough.
…
2.
Rental or Survey Cornwall estate (Jan 14 Hen VII) Extent [of the manors of Sir…
Arundell of Lanherne and Trerice. MANORIAL RECORDS. COMPOSITE RECORDS. Arundell Rentals. Cornwall. the same as Trevemed’], Tregynryth, Tregedill, Gurlyn, Trevillian, Growse, Rosmodr’, Polgren, Helstonburgh; (conventionary tenants) Lannargh, Bronywik Wartha, Bronywik Wolas, Chynythen, Hendre
Held by: Cornwall Record Office
Date: 1499
Reference: AR/2/1340
3.
Court roll Carmynow 1513, Friday 7th Oct = cl 1514, 12th Feb = c2 1514,…
Arundell of Lanherne and Trerice. MANORIAL RECORDS. SINGLE MANORS. Cornwall. Carminow Manor. tithingman and John Godolhan as reeve; civil plea. c2. Court; heriot from Chywarlo. c3. Law court; John Kelwey held from heirs of Gurlyn ‘de Growse in Habebreyowe’ [scribal error for Hale-?] 1 furlong, namely 3s 6d, died; relief 3s 6d; transfer of tenements at Chywarloo, and of lord’s mill at Carmynowe; toll of tin found at Chywarlo below the shoreline (apud Chywarlo sub litus maris), 8s; 6 oaks there sold to Ralph Willis, chaplain for 6s.
Held by: Cornwall Record Office
Date: 1513 – 1514
Reference: AR/2/221
4.
There is a mention of a early 16th century John Growse in a lease document of a tidal mill in Tollesbury, on the Essex coast:
Lease by Elizabeth Grene, abbess of the monastery of Barking, Essex, to Robert Roos of…
Court of Wards and Liveries: Deeds and Evidences. 60 years after the current 17 year lease expires (granted on 10 January 1515 by the abbess to John Growse), for the sum of £20 and for 53s 4d annual rent, paid quarterly. Seal of the abbess of
Held by: The National Archives – Court of Wards and Liveries
Date: 26 November 1520
Reference: WARD 2/57A/205/27
Subjects: Manors | Religions
5. I don’t have the references but there was a Grose/Grosse family in the early 16th century on the Suffolk coast around Theberton/Kelsale, apparently with links to Cornwall, including a Laurence Grosse, son of John Grosse. Some years later in mid-16th century, just down the road, there is a parson of Fordley called Laurence Cruse, cited in a will, and a Rector of Middleton-cum-Fordley called Lawrence Growse, all probably the same? Did Lawrence, an educated man, end up deliberately using the archaic spelling of his name? He might be the missing link, proving the Grose/Grosse/Cross/Crows/Cruse/Growse connection!
Sorry to clutter up your site with all these references! I look forward to your comments.
Nick
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Thanks, Nick. I’ll chase them up.
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Incidentally, Lawrence Growse is named as rector of Middleton-cum-Fordley in 1530 in The Histories and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk Vol 2 by Alfred Suckling page 316 (it is online). And in a will as Laurence Cruse, parson of Fordley in an abstract of wills of the Payne family in 1548 (again on line if you need it). I think the mention of Laurence Grosse or Gros is only at the Suffolk records office.
Good luck and tell me if you find anything interesting or draw any conclusions.
Nick
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I would be interested to know if you have any information on the origins of the surname Bennetto – which was my mother’s maiden name. I have traced our family records going back to the early 18th century (when my ancestors were living in the Parish of St Stephen in Brannel) and although the spelling of the surname varies from one Parish Register to another (Bennata, Benneto, Bennetto) our background appears to be solidly Cornish. I am aware of the possible derivations from St Benedict but I am curious to know if t any research exists to help pinpoint when the name entered common usage ?
Thanks in advance for any advice that you may be able to offer.
Gerald (Lewis)
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Bennetto was a Cornish language diminutive (or possibly patronymic) of Bennett. It appears well before the 18th century. In the early 1500s however it was restricted entirely to west Penwith and usually spelt Bennettow. By the mid-17th century it was still confined to three parishes there – St Just, St Buryan and Paul. But maybe one bearer of the name at least had moved east, as there is a Stephen Bennetto in St Enoder in 1641. (The situation is a bit complicated by the presence of a few Bennetts in St Enoder, so it’s just possible that the name arose separately in mid-Cornwall.) The name then ramifies in that area but strangely disappears from Penwith by the 1700s.
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Thanks Bernard, that is very interesting and helpful. The earliest Bennetto ancestor that I have been able to verify was John Bennetaw from St Just – who died in 1596 – but from their west Cornwall origins, subsequent generations of my family moved very slowly east over the course of the next two centuries. The Stephen Bennetto that you refer to in St Enoder in 1641 is, I think, probably my Great Grandfather x 8 (his name is spelt Benetta on some documents that I have seen) and his son Edward (my Gt Gdfr x 7) moved to St Stephen in Brannel a few years after his marriage in 1671. My branch of the Bennetto family then seems to have remained in and around St Stephen for most of the next century before a second wave of movement sent them first to Fowey (where my GT Gdfr x5, James Bennetto, was Vicar from 1784 until 1818) and then on to almost all points of the compass during the 19th Century. The use of Bennetto as a consistent form of spelling for the family name seems to have occurred sometime around 1800.
Thanks again for your help.
Kind regards,
Gerald.
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Many thanks for that. It’s good to know that my data based on aggregate occurrences of the name is confirmed so well (and enriched) by your family research. If you don’t mind, I may use some of your examples in my forthcoming book on Surnames in Cornwall, properly accredited of course.
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Hi Bernard. If any of my Bennetto family research is of interest, you would be very welcome to reference it. The earliest Bennettos / Benettaws that I have been able to trace (three males – who may have been brother or cousins – called, Richard, Benat (or possibly Benedict) and John) seem to originate from St Just in Penwith in the mid 1500s but their marriages, and the baptisms of their children, all occurred in Sancreed Parish. Over the next 200 years my family line seems to have travelled from Sancreed (late 1500s) to St Enedor (mid 1600s), then St Stephen in Brannel (late 1600s) and eventually Fowey (late 1700s). I can chart the C18th family history with a good degree of confidence – we have been able to trace a few family wills and papers in the Cornwall County archives – but the earlier names and dates are based on a combination of Cornwall OPC database searches, Phillimore and some individual Parish Transcripts – so my pre-1700 research is almost certain to contain a few gaps and errors of detail.
Post 1800, the Bennettos started to explore the wider world – with the adventurous ones travelling to Australia and North America whilst the more timorous tiptoed across the Tamar into Devon (which is where my Grandfather, my Mother and I were all born).
Happy to correspond further if you think that I may have information that would be of use to you.
Kind regards,
Gerald.
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What about the surnames Mills? Any history on that name?
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Yes, for instance in Cornwall the -s begins to be added in numbers to Mill around the 1620s/30s. In 1641 only 7% were Mills, the rest still Mill. By 1861 the proportions were 54-46 in favour of Mills.
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any thing on the Martyn family name? know its been around in Cornwall for a very long time
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Hi, Malcom. Martyn was the original spelling of Martin. It’s from the personal name, which was also a saint’s name and one of the most popular bynames and surnames across Cornwall in the early 1500s.This spelling lingered longer in Cornwall than elsewhere, making it 40 times more common in Cornwall in 1881 than the UK as a whole (Martin was three times more common incidentally).
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Anything on the name ‘Treverton’? It’s an old family surname that I’ve carried. I moved to Cornwall last year as a student and then started seeing names like ‘Trevenson’ appear mostly in Pool, Camborne and Redruth.
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Treverton is a spelling variant of Trevarthen, which comes form a place at St Columb. There’ll be a map of the distribution of Trevertons in 1861 on this site sometime soon and it appears in my forthcoming book.
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Hi Bernard, Interesting piece you have here that I have found fascinating, thank you. I have been researching my THOMAS family that goes all the way back on my peternal line to Richard Thomas of St Key (my Great Grand father x 13) in 1520 his father, also Richard, would have been born around 1500.
What is interesting is that over the period from 1500 – this day all the names that my Thomas’s have married into and been married to are all represented in your collection of Cornish names. Together with information I gleaned from Professor Charles Thomas prior to his death and others have given me much insite into Cornwall, although I was born across the border in Devon.
Thank you
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Hello, this is an interesting article! What’s really interesting is that it comes right on the heels of my brother insisting to me that our last name is Cornish. I had spent most of my life believing we were Dutch on my paternal grandfather’s side, and then (due to some admittedly dodgy surname origin sites) began to tentatively think it was Welsh, so when he said “Cornish” it really knocked me for a loop. However, prior to hearing him say that I had read that “Traywick” came from “Trevithick” (I *think*), and so, even though the focus of this article was more on what Cornish surnames *don’t* begin with, for example, “Tre”, I’m now interested to know: *Is* this a Cornish name? Do you know? And if so, what exactly does it mean? I have read it means “Tree of the little village” but I’m not sure now.
Apologies if you’re tired of surname comments! :S
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Traywick is not a variant of Trevithick that I’ve come across before. If it was, then the emphasis must have shifted from the second syllable to the first at some point, which makes it less likely. The meaning of the place-name is either ‘farm at a place of trees’ or Budock or Bidic’s farm.
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Hello again Bernard, did you ever reach an opinion about the origin of the family name Growse in Essex and Suffolk?If you remember I thought there were traces of the name Growse in Carminow (which subsequently seem to have become Grose). I would be very interested in hearing your verdict.Best wishes,
Nick Growse
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I think I must remain sceptical Nick. I’d look for similar names in East Anglia for the origin of Growse before coming back to Grose/(an) Growse as a possibility. Only detailed family history could answer this and I admit I have no evidence either way
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okay, Bernard, many thanks. It is true the family has always assumed we come from the Gros/Grose/Groos family in Norfolk, except that there is no obvious reason why they would suddenly put a w into the name in the 15th century and stick with it consistently – especially as the Grose/Groos family were still knocking around East Anglia at the same time with their original spellings. “Growse” was never widespread, and seems to have come from one person. And there is this strange connection to the sea (their seal was always an anchor, even in the 17th century) which makes me suspect the Cornish origin. But I will defer to your judgement!
Nick Growse
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Hi. I’ve traced my Cornish Mitchell/Michell ancestors back directly to the late C16th in West Cornwall. From Gwinnear, St Hilary, Marazion and Perranuthnoe. Also I’ve found a Mitchell in the list of Priests in Perranuthnoe church from the late C15th. My question is were these names connected to St Michael’s mount which is in that area?
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Michell, the medieval vernacular form of Michael, was a popular name across Cornwall and in the 19th century Cornwall’s 8th most popular name. For a time Michael was regarded as Cornwall’s patron saint. So the Mount was renamed from the general popularity of the saint’s name rather than the name coming from the Mount.
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How about Wadge, the name being recorded in Lewannick at least from the early 17th century.
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Yes, it was present in Lewannick (and North Hill) from at least 1544 and then never moved very far.
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Hi – very interesting all of these comments on Cornish names. My family name is Blee which appears mainly around the Breage/Germoe area although not so numerous now. Do you have any information on this name to confirm (or not) that it is a Cornish name?
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I haven’t found examples earlier than the 1700s and assume it must be a local spelling variant of Bligh.
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My maiden name was Opie. My g-grandfather and his two brothers emigrated to Australia in 1860s from Perranarworthal and their grandparents were from Stithians. I’m very proud of my Cornish heritage, names include Opie, Michael (apparently pronounced Mitchell), Rawling, Bath, Collings and Trevillian. Can you tell me what the origin of Opie/Oppy/Opy is, please?
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It was a first name in the middle ages, supposedly a shortened form of Osborn or Osbert or similar.
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Thank you for that. I read in a book on Cornish surnames in the library in Truro about twenty years ago (during a holiday that included a pilgrimage to Cornwall) that anyone called Opie (all spellings) was a direct descendant of Celtic King Oby. I thought it was a bit fanciful and I’ve never been able to find anything on Oby. I think your answer sounds more plausible.
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More boring though!
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Hi there. Though my surname ‘Mathews’ appears to be a corruption of ‘Matthews’, it actually came from Breton ‘Mathieu” (or similar) and is therefore distinct. We’ve been on St Michael’s Mount since the late 1600’;s….and almost any ‘Mathews’ in West Cornwall is likely related to us.
Another older surname (who we’re also descendant of) is ‘Gubbs’, though I think it is long extinct in West Cornwall (at least the descendants of Pz mayor Anthony Gubbs, anyway).
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Hi Bernard, what a great site. I know you must be fed up with all the surname questions by now, but what about Gilbert? I have heard it is also Gilbart or even Jelbert. I have managed to trace my ancestors back to Phillack near Hayle continuously until the 1650’s. There are definitely other Gilberts in the surrounding villages before that but not my line. Any ideas where they could have come from and why they would have ended up in Phillack for over 400 years? Thanks for your time.
Also, to add to the mystery, the Gilbert that I cannot find his birthplace married a ‘Verchell’ in Phillack. I cannot find that name anywhere. I have found one or two Verchills in Jacobstow ( a long way away), and suspect it might be linked to Berchell, or Berchill or Burchell/Burchill or Verchild, or even Fairchild. Any clues to that? is that a Cornish name?
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Gilbert/Jelbert etc. is another of those first names introduced by the Normans that then became fairly common surnames – like William and Richard. In the C16th there were Gilberts (of various spellings) all over Cornwall so their presence in Phillack is hardly surprising. I can’t really add anything more than can be found in my book..
Verchell is more intriguing. As you say it could be from Berchell (or Merchell) with the or becoming a , a common change in the Cornish language. The lack of any Verchell/Berchell or Merchell examples earlier than the 1600s might also suggest a corruption of an imported name. Just guesses!
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Great site – Thank you for your work. I’m finding all the reading to be informative to the point of fascinating.
Like many of the other posters I found the site because of Cornish roots. My pedigree is full of Cornish names on both sides – Guy, Gray, Rowe, Elliott, Hoskin, Hawking/Hawken, Worden, Calloway, Mallet, Grose, Lang, and on and on. But not a Tre, Pol, or Pen among them……
Thanks for all the time you’ve obviously put into this.
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What an interesting site and I believe your book is now available? I wonder if you can shed any light on when and where the name TICKEL or TICKELL first appeared in Cornwall?
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Yes, the name is in the book. The first example I have is an Ann Tickle, married at Lawhitton, near Launceston in 1676. The name then spread quickly in east Cornwall.
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Hello Bernard, greetings from Australia. Thanks for your very interesting and informative work. I’ve so much enjoyed browsing your site. I haven’t seen any mention of Sleeman, or variations of that spelling in your lists . I had always thought it was a Cornish name. My great grandfather was born near St Sampson’s church in Southill and was called Sampson Sleeman. I wondered if the origin was a corruption of Solomon or even Sulaiman? I have read somewhere there were many Jews living in Cornwall as reflected in Jewish sounding place names. Is that possible, do you think? Many thanks for your time.
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Hi Layo,
Sleeman is there in my book. From the early distribution of this surname – well to the east – I concluded its origin was as in England and rather more mundane – probably from various sources. Soloman was more of a mid-Cornwall name. And, while there were small Jewish communities in the 1800s in Penzance and Falmouth, the Jewish sounding place-names are actually Cornish, for example Marazion.
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Hi! Such an interesting article. My 7th grandmother has the surname Pasco. To my knowledge she is Jewish, but I am really looking to prove it! Do you know anything about the Jewish origins of the surname Pasco or how I could figure that out? 🙂
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Hi Lexi,
I wasn’t aware Pasco had any Jewish origins. None of the main surname dictionaries mention it. Its fairly common in western Europe as a nickname for someone born around Easter, which also makes it unlikely to have connections with the Jewish faith. It’s possible however that Pasco was a spelling vaiant of another Jewish surname.
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I can trace my Goad line back to James Goad and Jane Crowzier Marriage 1676 Gwennap. The tree says they were both from Gwennap but not sure if that’s right. Is Goad a Cornish name? I see it in the Cornish names on this site but it says the 1800’s. It appears my Goad was there much earlier but I don’t see Crowzier. Any clue on Goad or Crowzier origins?
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In my book I hedge my bets on Goad, not sure whether it was a spelling variant of Coad or from another personal name. Your example is indeed an early one. The earliest I’ve found are marriages in east Cornwall at Menheniot (1638) and St Winnow (1664). Nearer to Gwennap the surname appears at Mabe and Budock in the early 1670s. The name was more common in Devon, where in the medieval period there were people called Goda, presumably an old English personal name. But as Coad was found, in east Cornwall at least, from an earlier date my hunch is still that it was a re-spelling of that name. (This needs proving by a family historian!)
As for Crowzier your guess is as good as mine. The name doesn’t appear in either the 1641 Protestation lists for Cornwall or the 1861 census and there’s nothing obviously close. There are suggestions it could be a spelling variant of Crawshaw. But as this is from a place in Lancashire that seems unlikely.
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I was surprised not to see the name of Friggens or Fryggens mentioned here. I have just been researching the Friggens family tree for a relative, and found almost 13 generations of them in Cornwall, in fact I found so many in the village of Gulval, there must surely still be a lot of them there.
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It’s in mybook – pages 63/64 – see https://bernarddeacon.com/the-surnames-of-cornwall-a-forthcoming-book/
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The further I go back, the more the names seem to become more Latin sounding, like Richardi, Richardus, Cypriani, Honoria and the glorious one of Georgius Gregorius. Would this initially be anything to do with supporting the Prayer Book Rebellion?
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The reason is the clergy were more likely to use Latin than English as you go back in the records. I’m not sure about the connection with the 1549 rising but it would be interesting to hypothesize that priests who stuck with Latin would be more likely to support the rising on the grounds that they were more conservative in outlook.
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Thank you.
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Thanks so much for such a wonderful site!
My great Grandfather Samson Jane came to Australia in 1870 from Bodmin in Cornwall. I have traced the family back to the early 1700’s and they were mainly around Lanlivery and Lanhydrock with other associated names of Hugo, Vyvyan/Vivian, Symons/Symons, Vague.
Have you any insight into these names as originating in Cornwall please.
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They’re all good Cornish surnames, Lynne, and have been found in Cornwall since the 1500s, although, as I suggest in my book, in Cornwall Hugo may have evolved from the Cornish name Higow, which meant son of, or family of Hick (a form of Richard).
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Thanks Bernard,
Of course the family story always told was that Victor Hugo’s sister came to Cornwall and married a Jane. 😂 I debunked that story many years ago.
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Hello again Bernard, always interested in your posts. I remember you writing that at one time you had believed that the Gross (or Grosse) family might come from Crows/an Grows (the place-name). Putting aside the origins of my own family, it occurred to me that in Carminow there were Arundell tenants called Growse at the end of the 15th and early 16th centuries, and then none afterwards except but various people called Grosse (Gross) – and nobody of that name before the 17th century. Does that not suggest that they are one and the same family?
Best wishes,
Nick Growse
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It does indeed, Nick.
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I find your site very interesting as I am in the process of tracing my William Waters of St. Buryan tree and the names of Borlase,Pawley, Keigan,Tresteane,Godolphin,Maddern Arundell and many more and the history of Cornwall is absolutely fascinating. We are hoping to visit next year to see the churches and villages of my ancestors. Thanking you , Bernard Hodges ( Australia)
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Hello Mr. Hodges, I’ve just discovered this site and have no idea if you’ll see this. I too am related to a William Waters from St. Buryan. My Great Grandfather, William James, b1884, immigrated to The U.S. in 1905. His 3x Grandfather was also a William Waters b 1796. Earlier are several generations of Daniel Waters’. I found several William Waters in St. Buryan while piecing together my family. None of the other names you mention are familiar to me from my research, although your name, Hodges, is. I believe a Hodges woman married into my family. I mistakenly followed your line in fact for time.
I hope you’ve gotten to St. Buryan, it is, from pictures I’ve seen, a lovely place. Best of luck to you in your search.
Sandy Witter, USA
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G’day mate, many thanks in advance for producing the book. ..Question, can i ask does my family surname of JOB/JOBE appear in your book..?….. Earliest record in Gwennapp parish register 1672 has him(JOBE) as a miner, later his 3rd great grandson took his family to Australia in 1848, with a consignment of miners & families to the copper mine at Molong NSW
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G’day Warren. Yep, it’s there, on page 89.
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Hi Bernard,
Some great reading on your website. My name is Martin Vellenoweth, born in Truro 1968. As you are aware Vellenoweth is as Cornish as it gets. Meaning New Mill in English. Of course a slightly different spelling to Vellanoweth of other place names in the county.
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Hi Martin!
I’m Lauren Vellanoweth from California! I’m traveling to our ancestors hamlet, Vellanoweth Cornwall, this august to learn more about my3rd great grandfather, John Vellenoweth, and his family. Nice to run into you on this blog!
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What a great post and fascinating comments. My name is Prowse. Family is divided over origins with one person saying its French-derived (Prouz) claiming earliest reference to the Prouz family having it’s seat at Gidleigh Castle inDartmoor… One relative claiming it was gifted after assistance given in 1066. But what I DO know is my great great grandfather was James Prowse who came to Australia in 1857, born in Penzance in 1836 and noted in the census when he was 14 as a miner in Gulval. The family historian was able to trace back from my great great grandfather to about 1740 to Robert Prowse of St Buryan. So is that enough to make the name Cornish? 😄 Are we in your book? I tried to purchase it but it doesn’t ship to Australia… Unlike my ancestors it would seem 😂😂
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Yes, Prowse is in there so it’s Cornish by my definition! For what it’s worth, in the nineteenth century there were more Prowse/Prouses in Devon than Cornwall however. Incidentally, I think you can get the ebook version of my book in Australia.
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Fascinating stuff! Wish I’d found all this sooner. My nan was a Porter/Knuckey from Mylor but whose dad was a Williams from Wales. They moved to London for work, hence I’m a Londoner but consider myself Cornish 😉 Will be ordering your book 👍
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Great site. I am researching the surname ‘West’ in Cornwall. The earliest instances I have found was 1544 in St Just in Roseland and in Roche (1555). It is associated with Redruth from 1562 and Camborne from 1564. Any information would be greatly appreciated
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There are earlier examples in the subsidy lists – at Cubert, Crantock, St Gluvias, Germoe, St Merryn in 1524, Philleigh in 1525 and Roche and Ladock in 1543. As we might expect with this name it was fairly scattered but at the same time appears to be restricted to mid-Cornwall at this date.
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Thank you for the information. Seeing as Cornwall is as far west as you can get, the usual explanation ‘a person from the west’ may not apply. Could the name be a toponymic of Cornish origin or a case of Somerset or Devon in-migration?
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Ingenious. But I suspect the usual explanation – someone who lived to the west -applies to Cornwall as much as to elsewhere. Moreover, the word for west in middle Cornish was … ‘west’! We should also assume the ‘west’ here applies to a very small scale – in the west of a parish, to the west of a village etc., rather than from a western region of the British Isles, which is a scale people wouldn’t think in. Clearly however, the name was most prevalent in an area from Breage and Camborne in the west to St Merryn in the east whereas it was unknown in earlier times to west and east of that district. So it has a particular Cornish geography, rather than being scattered the length and breadth of the land, like some others. This might suggest a limited number of originating points in that mid-Cornish district somewhere between 1350 and the 1520s.
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I was pleased to see two of my ancestral surnames mentioned: Growden and Stephens. The given names were unusual:Jael and Degory, respectively.
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My surname is Ivey and I know we were English, just not sure where. Could use some help. My paternal Grandmother’s last name was Sears, and my maternal Grandfather, I believe is Welsh with the surname of Shackley. The Ivey family came to America rather early and landed in Virginia and moved down into North Carolina, near where the Lost Colony is, and then eventually some of them came back to Virginia in my father’s generation and I believe they came back to the place we started which is today Portsmouth, Virginia, which is not too far from Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg.
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My mother’s family is mennear and we know her family was cornish….would be nice to know some history if you can find it
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It’s in the book, Alison. And there’s a map of the name (with its various spellings) in 1861 here – https://bernarddeacon.com/the-surnames-of-cornwall-a-forthcoming-book/surname-maps-1861/ladner-to-oxnam/
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Your research is fascinating, I’ve just lost hours reading through the queries and your responses on this page!
My surname is Trego and I’ve always been told it’s Cornish, and indeed my family are all from the Westcountry, but I’ve struggled to trace it beyond 150 or so years ago, and even then it doesn’t take it all the way back to Cornwall or a specific location. I notice it’s not in your list but thought you might have insight?
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An interesting one. There is a place called Trago, in Cornwall between Liskeard and Bodmin, spelt Treagoe in 1530 when surnames had become fairly comprehensive. The earliest reference to someone in the parish registers called Trago is Polider Trago at Bodmin, not that far from the place, in 1621. However, there’s no-one called Trago or Trego or Treagoe in the Protestation returns of 1641. The surname crops up intermittently in the 17th and 18th centuries, usually spelt Trago but occasionally Trego. One or two are close to the place but several are miles away, for example a William Trego at St Martin in Meneage on the Lizard in 1676 and a Jenkin Trago even further west at Paul in 1697. The lack of a pattern makes me wonder if the name is a variant spelling of another surname, but which I have no idea. And then rather mysteriously there are no Tregos or Tragos at all listed in the 1861 census.
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I was wondering if the surnames such as treglawn, tregunning, tregloyn, treglion. if when pronouncing the surname the G is mute
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My 3x great grandfather with the surname West came to the US from St. Breock. I traced back census and birth records for my family back to the late 1600s in Roche. I am not having any luck finding links to that surname as far as history or origin. Any ideas? Thanks
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The origin of the surname West is usually taken to have been someone who lived to the west of a place, or someone who had moved to that place from the west. As you might expect the name was found fairly widely over the British Isles. It was present in Cornwall in the early 1500s but interestingly only in mid and west Cornwall. The most easterly example then was found at St Merryn, a few miles north of Roche.
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That makes sense. Thank you for your response, that insight is helpful. Why back then was it so common to change your surname based on where you moved from or other reasons, instead of carrying on the previous surname? I imagine this would make it near impossible for me to trace lineage any further back if the name had changed.
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This page explains when bynames became hereditary surnames – bernarddeacon.com/cornish-surnames/where-surnames-come-from-a-brief-history/
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Hi Bernard…I was wondering if I could procure a copy of your book. Also having read through this page and the comments I didn’t see any mention of the names Lemall (Lamall) and Botterill. In the family I am researching these names come together in marriage…which makes me think there is a cultural connection….they sound French but are not Huguenot (from what I can gather), both families come from around St Ives. Have you come across either name? Many thanks.
Susanne
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Hi Susanne, Yes, I’ve come across both but can’t help with the origin. Lemall was late to arrive, the first example I can find is a baptism in 1723 and then it remained a very specifically St Ives name although strangely there appears to be no household headed by someone with this name in 1861. Bottrell (there are many spellings) is in the book, although I conclude there that its origin is ‘uncertain’! I’m afraid the only way to get the book in Australia is as an e-book from Amazon.
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Such an interesting article/post! This clarifies my ancestry research a bit more. I recently found my father and have traced his lineage up to William Udy (ancestor of Huddy, last name possibly Eudy, from 1505 who was the father of William Udy in 1522, from Luxulyan, Cornwall). I was interested in tracing it back from this article, but I can’t seem to find anything further. Any idea what the last name could have been prior to this?
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Hello. My Cornwall relatives were surnamed Ivey and Eva and Stoneman and Halse. It’s Ivey I’m interested in. Is this a Cornish name? areas uh i know Pool, Redruth, Illogan being American I only know they were from these places in Cornwall.
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My name is Patricia Guynup Corbus. I believe that the first Guynup (so many variant spellings!) came to America in 1686 on the ship Desire. I’ve met Guynups in Cornwall, but they had little information. Is it simply a place name? Could it go back to Guingamp in France? So many thanks! Pat Corbus
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There’s no place I know of in Cornwall called Guynup. Do you mean Gwennap, which is a surname from a parish neighbouring Redruth?.
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Yes , I mean Gwennap, same pronunciation, and one of the 16 ways to spell the name. I’m happy to find your website. Have you come across any Gwennaps? Yours, Pat Guynup Corbus
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Yes, there was a John Gwenep at Sennen in 1545, although the name doesn’t show up in the parish registers until the 1650s. When it does it was confined to West Penwith which suggests it originated not in the parish of Gwennap as I’d assumed but in the placename Gwennap (Head) at St Levan.
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Hello,
Some of my family names in Cornwall are Trewhella, Hampton, Cock, Uren, and Glasson. Most were tin miners.
Any ideas about the meaning of Trewhella and Urens?
Thank you for this very interesting topic!
Amy Brown
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Hi Amy, Trewehlla is from a place name meaning farmstead of the beetles!. Uren was originally a first name. There’s (a bit) more in my book.
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My family name Nancholas is a spelling mistake When one member of the Nancholas family moved from St Austell to Falmouth at the end of the 1700’s aitch was added at a birth registration. There are now two traceable branches. Interestingly, my mother was a Merton but the name was originally Murton. I imagine that people who were illiterate gave their name to the registrar and the spelt it how they heard it.
As far as I know Nancholas means dweller in the hazel valley. The earliest record of it I have found is in th muster rolls of the 1300’s.
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Hi Des. I am also a Nancholas. I’ve always been told that we were LL until a member of the family joined the army in the First World War. The name was then spelt with one L.
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Hello Bernard, My name is Geoff Provis. I know my direct line of Provis ancestors have been in Cornwall since at least 1600 almost always in West Cornwall until later years. I’m interested in your view of my surname which occasionally was mis-spelt in church records as Proves or Probus. Thank you.
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I’d be interested to learn if you’ve found any examples earlier than the 1600s as, in my book, I accept the usual explanation that it evolved from the word provost, in which case it would have been a nickname, like Bishop, or Deacon come to that. There was a John Probest at Creed in 1543 who may be connected.
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Hello Bernard, We think we were descended from French Huguenots, but we do not know exactly when they arrived.
Regards,
Geoff Provis.
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Hello there, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about the surname Trezona. I have heard that it is from Cornwall , however I am struggling to find any background history and I was wondering if you might know anything? Kindest Regards – Amy
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I AIM TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT A JOHN BROWN GRIBBLE WHO WAS BORN AT REDRUTH IN 1847. HE CAME WITH HIS FAMILY TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA AS A YOUNG BOY AND WENT ON TO FOUND SEVERAL CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. MY MATERNAL GRANDFATHER WAS BORN ON ONE OF THESE IN 1901 BUT GRIBBLE HAD LEFT THAT MISSION BEFORE. THE MISSION WAS WARANGESDA. I KNOW THAT GRIBBLE’S FATHER, BENJAMIN, WAS A MINER IN REDRUTH. HOPE YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP ME.
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Hi I was wondering if you could give information on the roberts surname in cornwall I have an ancestor by the name of John roberts born at newlyn in 1839
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So where does the name Curnow come in your book ?
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Page 49.
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My maiden name was Stone; my father is Cornish, his father and mother (Thomas) both Cornish and their parents etc. I know they were from the Lanivet, Bodmin later moving to Truro area but the name doesn’t appear to show up much. So is Stone a true Cornish name and if so where might it originate from?
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What’s a ‘true’ Cornish name? Stone was as likely to be found in 19th century Cornwall as in most other places so in that sense it wasn’t uniquely Cornish like the Tre/Pol/Pen names. However, the surname was already established here in the earliest tax records of the early 16th century so it has as much (or more) claim as others to be regarded as a ‘true’ Cornish name as long as you can extend your family tree back a few generations. And it features in my book so it must be a true Cornish name!
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Interesting comments. My surname is KERNICK & I can trace my paternal lineage back to late 1600s in West Cornwall from St Breward then to Perranzabuloe. However I found the name from 1220 with various spellings only because of some misbehaving monks.
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I have had problems locating a name KESTLACK / KESTLAKE & wondered if it is a form of KESTELL/KESSELL which I have in my tree. CARRALLACK is another blank wall. I found various spellings for CARVOSOW & wondered if it is the same as CARVETH which I also have. CAROLE KERNICK
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Kestlake is a new one to me. The first reference I can find to it in Cornwall is in the 1630s and there are a few examples in east Cornwall after that date. It’s most likely to be a spelling of the English name Carslake or Keslake and introduced to Cornwall in the 17th century or thereabouts. Carallack is from a placename in St Just in Penwith. Carvosow and Carveth are not the same but two seperate locative names from places in either Probus or Ludgvan for Carvosow and Cuby or Mabe for Carveth.
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On a totally different matter. My husband, John Floyd (Welsh, Huguenot etc) died last year and I am sorting out the family papers. His mother’s father came from Liskeard area? where his family ran a school. His surname was Sanders. I have found a print from a publication showing the school along with other material. Can you help?
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Hi, as a South Australian descendant of Cornish families, I count Blewett’s, Carthew’s, Tippett’s and Chygwidden’s among my ancestors, all names which I had been led to believe were distinctly Cornish (as well as my Grandfather, a Roberts mentioned above).
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Hi We have Trenerry. St Newlyn East. Can’t find where it originates before 1534.
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No doubt the place Trenerry in St Allen parish, spelt Trevenery in 1327 and of uncertain meaning.
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Good Morning, Bernard. I’ve just found your work whilst bumbling about on the internet around my Lavars of Penzance and Roberts/ John’s of Falmouth ancestors. The earliest Lavars I’d come across is Austin Lavars born circa 1560. However, Thomas Lavars born 1796 is the earliest definite census record I could find. Thomas must have moved to London sometime before 1820 as he married Eden Roberts in Bermondsey that year. Eden was born in Finsbury, London in 1802 but her parents Jacob Roberts and Mary Johns were from Falmouth. I’m hoping that this thread is still up and running, and if so, do you know of the origins of the Lavars in Cornwall and, were there Cornish enclaves forming in London around early 1800’s? Just curious how and why my ancestors met and married in London when they came from separate Cornish roots. Thank you. Linda of Paignton( gradually moving back to my roots!)
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Your research is amazing and I’ve just spent a lot of time reading through it – finding that I’m far more Cornish than I realised – Cox on one side and Oke on the other!
My question is was it common for kids to be given their mother’s maiden name as a middle name in Cornwall? I’ve found it on both sides of my parents’ lines – I’ve got a William Soady Gardiner Oke (St Columb) and also a Catherine Stribley Growden (Egloshayle). My grandfather’s middle name was Stiveley (which I’ve never seen anywhere else before) – perhaps a misspelling of Stribley, as I’ve also seen Catherine’s name misspelt as Grauden.
Finally (sorry), I grew up in Trevethan St – does that show up in Cornish records?
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I’m not sure exactly how common it was to give children the mother’s maiden name as a second name but I’ve also come across it several times in 19th century census returns when it was not uncommon. It would be interesting to see some proper research done on the topic.
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