One afternoon over the Christmas/New Year period I watched the 1964 film Zulu starring inter alia Michael Caine and Stanley Baker. It wasn’t the first time I’ve watched it and it probably won’t be the last, but I was reminded how soldiers with the same surnames, like Williams or Jones, were referred to in the 24^th Regiment of Foot, a regiment recruited exclusively from Wales. (See my postscript below)

Got me thinking and, delving into my ‘Notes for future PCs’ folder, I pulled out some examples of serendipity. For instance, on the fifth of November, Guy Fawkes Night, we have expend an enormous amount of money igniting fireworks, to remember the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ of 1605. Guy Fawkes and fellow Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up Parliament and assassinate King James. They were betrayed and the barrels of gunpowder in the Parliamentary cellars made safe, presumably by an EXPO (Note 1). Sadly for Guy and the others, they were executed. That evening last year I was watching the early BBC News & Weather and the weather presenter was, appropriately enough, Chris Fawkes. My daughter says Chris lives in the same village and is really nice!

There are apparently some 45, 000 different English surnames (Note 2) and their origins can be grouped into seven subsets:

Firstly, patronymic names reflect the male line; names such as Davidson or Richardson, just like adding -sen in Scandinavia. The alternatives are matronymic ones following the female line, such as Madison, from Maud, and Marriott, from Mary. We are surrounded by occupational surnames such as Carpenter, Knight, Taylor and Fisher; others, such as Cartwright, someone who fashioned wooden wheels for carriages and carts, reach back in history.

One rather interesting set are those fashioned by the characteristics of the person, their appearance for instance giving us White, Black or Grey. If your family lived near some recognisable geographical feature, it might be you’re called Hill, Moor, Lake or Wood, or connecting you with a physical town or county like Essex or Hampshire. One small set’s surnames reflect the land they owned and another the fact that they worked for a certain family, for example ‘Kilpatrick’, someone who worked for the Patrick family.

Notorious errors were created when the person entering the details of a baptism was literate enough to write but when hearing a surname like Smith for example, didn’t know whether it was Smith, Smyth, Smithe or Smythe. They all vaguely sounded the same and, not wanting to show personal uncertainty, wrote it how they thought it should be spelt!

I worked with an Antony Cook, undertook my officer training with David Miller, known to everyone as Dusty, and my bestest friend is called Stewart Baker, who may or may not love bread? I saw an artisan baker’s van the other day; the company was called Coburn & Baker – seemed very appropriate.

Lovely to have our weather forecasters with names like Amy Freeze, the BBC’s Sara Blizzard and Greg Dewhurst; nothing like the dew of an early summer’s morning, glistening on the grass and inviting a bare-foot walk.

The medical professions have their share of appropriate-sounding surnames, such as a clinical neurologist Lord Brain or an ophthalmologist Ashley Seawright; Joshua Butt would have to work in gastroenterology wouldn’t he (?)  and a Trauma Team was led by Dr Michaela Blood. In ‘All The living and the Dead – a personal investigation into the Death Trade’ – Hayley Campbell recalls a master embalmer working in the mortuary in Margate, Kent called Dr Gore. A Professor of Viruses at the University of Kent is called David Strain and my dentist in Bath in the 1950/60s was a Mr Sharp; memories of needles and chain-driven drills!

The other day on Facebook a chap was looking for recommendations for a local electrician. His surname? ‘Cable.’; felt he could have done it himself! And some months ago on a news item, an investigative journalist was commenting on the country’s ‘Open Door Policy on Immigration’ – seems appropriate she was called Ms Knocker.

More research on Google finds a firefighter in the USA called Leo McBurney, a lawyer called Sue H Yoo, a cashier named Ka Ching, a music teacher called Ms C Sharp and a librarian whose name is perfect – Wilbur Bookendorf. One of Edinburgh’s top restaurants is run by chef Tom Kitchin and a lecturer in weight loss from University College London doesn’t need to say anything, as his name is Dr Mike Loosemore.  

Singer Olly Murs was the subject of “A Life in The Day” in The Sunday Times and told us readers his girlfriend Amelia is a competitive bodybuilder. Her surname? Tank. Sort of goes with her passion! Again in that paper, a letter  caught my eye; the writer commented that the title of the Style Section’s Barometer column, which identifies products or trends that are getting ‘hotter or colder’, was a misnomer. He asserted it should correctly be called Thermometer. His name? Roy Muddle!

Here in the United Kingdom the Member of Parliament for Tamworth was suspended after accusations of groping and bottom-pinching were found to be true. His name? Chris Pincher. A ‘Dementia Research & Support Centre’ is run by a Professor Crutch and why wouldn’t Wake & Paine and Grieve & Son be two companies of undertakers? My parents’ cleaner in Balcombe was a Dolly Bacon and judging by her size she enjoyed rashers enormously. And what about Katherine Gill, narrating a news story about the huge resurgence in the global number of Blue Whales, showing these huge creatures surfacing, blowing, and submerging. Finally I could mention an Andrew Drinkwater at our Water Research Centre, two winners in an international tree climbing championship Josephine Hedger and Scott Forrest, and from my service days, Major Major.

So did my wife’s surname, Burn, originate from a geographical location, a stream for instance or, was it something altogether more firey?

Richard 16^th February 2024

Hove

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

PC Seemed appropriate to visit my local Audi garage yesterday and meet Jacob Gwilliam. I suspect in some long-ago baptism the Recorder asked for the surname and was given the ‘family name’ initial G and William as the surname, hence Gwilliam.

Note 1 Explosives Police Officer. In the British Army known as Felix

Note 2 This postcard is purely focused on English surnames, for I have no knowledge of other nations’ name characteristics, especially those of Arabic, Chinese etc origins!