The Origin Of Some Names

    • TNN
    • Publish Date: Nov 30 2016 12:12PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Dec 18 2016 11:53AM
The Origin Of Some Names
Harry Styles, Singer, One Direction

HERE'S an unusual branch to exploring family trees - finding the origin of a surname. For example, new research shows Cowell, as in X Factor boss Simon, comes from charcoal, used to describe someone with dark hair. And Styles, as in One Direction singer Harry, means someone living at the bottom of a hill.

After a four-year study of 45,000 surnames by the University of West England 8,000 new derivations and 37,000 corrections have gone into the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. Samuel Lambshead, of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, said: "We're all naturally fascinated about where our family names originate from and what meaning they might have."

So here are just some of the origins of many of our everyday surnames...

Chakrabarti: The surname of BBC presenter Reeta comes from the Sanskrit word cakravart, literally meaning wheels rolling. The word was used metaphorically for a powerful ruler whose chariot wheels were free to roll across the land without obstruction.

Starbuck: This is not linked to coffee, the chain is named after the first mate of the Pequod ship in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The name is a variant of Tarbuck, from a place called Tarbock in Lancashire. The addition of the S was common with many medieval surnames and was first noted in the 14th century.

Farah: In English, the name derives from the northern pronunciation of farrier, meaning ironworker or blacksmith. Farah's Muslim definition is from the Arabic for joy, happiness and delight.

Patel:  has it origins in the Hindu and Parsi word for a village headman.

Li/Lee: Li often written Lee, can be a Chinese immigrant surname and has at least six different origins from Chinese dialects. It can mean plum, chestnut, black, fortunate and strict.

Snow: As in Jon, Dan and Peter is from the middle English snou, to describe someone with snow-white hair or a very pale complexion.

Styles: Thought to originate from a person or family who lived at the bottom of a steep hill. Stile in middle English means steep ascent. Cleary Not to be confused with Julian Clary, may mean clerk or cleric.

Beckham: Becks' surname is from East or West Beckham in Norfolk and means the homestead of a man called Becca.

Middleton: Kate's maiden name has many origins, numerous places are called Middleton, which means middle farmstead in old English. Winslet Actress Kate's surname is from Winslade in Hampshire or Winslade in Devon.

Cowell: From the Gaelic phrase, man cathmhaoil, meaning son of the battle chief. Its English origin may also date back to the middle English nickname of 'Cole' or 'Col', meaning 'charcoal' and possibly used to describe someone with dark hair.

Comments

Sarath Kumar RM Bethel Mat Hr Sec School

Amazing.

Kashish Verma Bharti Public School Swasthya Vihar

Nice!

Onkarpreet Bhavan Vidyalaya

This is really interesting.

Himanshi Dhawan Saffron Public School

Quite surprising!

EKNOOR BHATTI Bal Bharati Public School

AMAZING.........

Rajvi HOLY PARADISE ENG. SCHOOL

Amazing!!! 😃 The Surnames are the pride of a person .... Origin of some Names is the best topic for CULTURE....and to talk about Harry Styles for this than he is the best one to be choose because his surname itself has a remarkable origin .......

Priya M G NEW BALDWIN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL

AWESOME!!!!!!!

Sagarika Sharma LITTLE FAIRY PUB.SCHOOL(HUDSON LANE

that was incredible! and LOVED the example of Harry!

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