Origin
Tell : 1: North German: from a pet form of Dietrich.2: South German: topographic name from Middle High German telle ‘gorge depression’. The name of the Swiss hero Wilhelm Tell has not been explained.3: North German (mainly Westphalia): topographic name from Middle Low German telg(e) ‘branch twig undergrowth’.4: Catalan: topographic name from tila ‘linden’ (from Latin tilia) denoting someone who lived near a conspicuous linden.5: English (northern): possibly a variant of Teale. This form of the surname is rare in Britain and Ireland.
Backshall : 1: either from Paxhill (Park) or from Buxshalls both in Lindfield (Sussex). The first of these is from the Old English given name Baca or Bacca + scylf ‘(land in the form of a) shelf’ or ‘shelving terrain’ and the second from Old English bōc ‘beech’ + geselle ‘buildings’; the two place-names are sometimes difficult to tell apart in the parish records and both may contribute to the surname. 2: variant of Boxall with unrounding of the vowel.
Bajek : Polish: nickname for a story teller from bajać ‘to tell stories’.
Blake : 1: English and Scottish (England and central Scotland): variant of Black 1 meaning ‘swarthy’ or ‘dark-haired’ from a byform of the Old English adjective blæc blac ‘black’ with change of vowel length.2: English: nickname from Middle English blak(e) (Old English blāc) ‘wan pale white fair’. In Middle English the two words blac and blāc with opposite meanings fell together as Middle English blake. In the absence of independent evidence as to whether the person referred to was dark or fair it is now impossible to tell which sense was originally meant.3: English (Norfolk): nickname from Middle English bleik blaik> blek(e) (Old Norse bleikr) ‘pale or sallow’ (in complexion).4: Irish: Anglicized form of Ó Bláthmhaic ‘descendant of Bláthmhac’ a personal name from bláth ‘flower blossom’ (also meaning ‘fame or prosperity’) + mac ‘son’. In some instances however the Irish name is derived from Old English blæc ‘dark swarthy’ as in 1 above. Many bearers are descended from Richard Caddell nicknamed le blac sheriff of Connacht in the early 14th century. The English surname has been Gaelicized as de Bláca.
Boy : 1: English: from the Middle English personal name Boie which may be from ancient Germanic Boio (see Boye 1 and 2) or an Old English Boia. The latter is common as a first element in English placenames and is difficult to tell apart from the ordinary word boy to which it may be related.2: English: from Middle English boy ‘young man servant’ also ‘knave’ or ‘rogue’. Compare Ladd.3: Scottish and Irish: variant of Bowie.4: German: variant of Boye.5: Germanized form of Sorbian Boj: from a short form of a Slavic personal name containing the element boj ‘fight’ such as Bojsław.6: French: variant of Bois.7: Americanized form of Croatian and Slovenian Boj: probably from a short form of a Slavic personal name containing the element boj ‘fight’ (compare 5 above).8: Burmese: apparently a variant of Bo 5.
Crispin : 1: English; Spanish (Crispín): from the personal name Middle English Crispin Spanish Crispín from Latin Crispinus derived from crispus ‘curly-haired’ (see Crisp). This name was especially popular in France in the early Middle Ages having been borne by a Christian saint who was martyred at Soissons in AD c. 285 along with a companion Crispinianus (whose name is a further derivative of the same word). Compare Crespin and 3 below.2: English (of Norman origin): from Old French and Middle English crespin crispin ‘curly-haired’ also found as Crepin; see Crippin. It is difficult to tell this apart from the personal name in 1 above. According to Lanfranc archbishop of Canterbury (1070–1089) the Norman Gilbert Crispin was the first man to receive this nickname and two of his sons adopted it as their surname. His grandson Gilbert Crispin became abbot of Westminster in 1085. Members of the Norman family were said to have inherited a shock of hair that stood up stiffly like a bristly pine as though the name derived from Latin crispus pinus but this derivation is a medieval invention.3: Americanized form of German Krispin and possibly also of Dutch Krispijn or Chrispijn Czech Kryšpín or Krišpín and Polish Kryszpin cognates of 1 above.
Dodson : English:: 1: patronymic from Dodd; ‘son of Dod(d) or Dud(d)’ from Middle English Dodd(e) Dudd(e) Old English Dodd(a) Dudd(a) + -son. Alternatively the name may arise from a Middle English form of Old English Dodesunu a compound personal name formed from the same elements as above and impossible to tell apart from the Middle English patronymic.2: post-medieval variant of Dodgson with simplification of the medial dgs.
Doggett : English: variant of Duckett with voicing of the medial consonant. Alternatively the name may also be from a Middle English rhyming pet form of Roger (see Dodge) + the diminutive suffix -et. But whether the medial -g- was pronounced as a stop /g/ (as in dog) or an affricate /dʒ/ (as in Roger) is impossible to tell.
Dunham : English: habitational name from any of the places called Dunham (Norfolk Nottinghamshire Cheshire). Most are named from Old English dūn ‘hill’ + hām ‘homestead’. A place in Lincolnshire now known as Dunholme appears in the Domesday Book as Duneham and this too serves as a source of the surname; here the first element is probably the Old English personal name Dunna. Dunham is often difficult to tell apart from Downham.
Graveson : ‘son of the steward farm bailiff or village headman’ largely confined to northern England. From the north Midlands through Yorks to the north-west the source is Middle English greyve grayve greve a borrowing of Old Scandinavian greifi see Grave. In Durham and Northumb the source is Middle English greve from Old (Northumbrian) English grǣfa see Grieve. The two forms are difficult to tell apart except that the post-medieval spelling Grieve- usually reflects the Northumbrian term. Pronunciation developments have sometimes obscured the origin of the name. Grayveson frequently lost the -v- becoming Gra(y)son and Greeson; see Grayson.
Hayes : 1: Irish (Cork): shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAodha ‘descendant of Aodh’ a personal name meaning ‘fire’. Compare McCoy. In some cases especially in County Wexford the surname is of English origin (see below) having been taken to Ireland by the Normans.2: English: variant of Hay with post-medieval excrescent -s.3: English: topographic name from the plural form of Middle English hay(e) heye heghe ‘enclosure’ (see Hay) sometimes used as a collective noun for a farm especially in Devon where it is a frequent minor placename. Compare Hain.4: English: habitational name from either of two places called Hayes (Middlesex Kent) or a topographic name for someone who lived near land overgrown with brushwood or underwood especially young oak or beech. The etymon in each case is Old English hǣse hēse Middle English hese ‘brushwood’ which is also the source of the lost minor placename Heys in Hellingly (Sussex) Northease and Southease (Sussex) and Heys Wood (Kent).5: English (of Norman origin): habitational name from one of the French hamlets named La Haise (Eure Ille-et-Vilaine Sarthe). The original sense like that of Old English hǣse (see 4 above) was ‘land overgrown with brushwood or underwood’ and the Norman and English names are difficult to tell apart. The French surname was reintroduced to England after 1685 by Huguenots.6: English: variant of Ace with hypercorrect initial H-.7: French: topographic name for someone who lived by an enclosure a variant (plural) of Haye. Compare Deshayes">Deshayes.8: Jewish (Ashkenazic): metronymic from Yiddish name Khaye ‘life’ + the Yiddish possessive suffix -s.
Hayland : 1: for someone who lived at a place known as ‘the hay land’ or ‘the enclosed land’. Middle English hai hei can represent either Old English hēg ‘hay mown grass’ or Old English gehæg geheg ‘fence enclosure’. The 1255 example below is apparently formed with Middle English (Old French) la(u)nde ‘open space in woodland woodland pasture’ but the term is sometimes difficult to tell apart from Middle English (Old English) land ‘piece of land’. The 1279 Surrey name refers to Haylands Farm in Lingfield. Some of the following post-medieval bearers may alternatively belong with (2) or (3). 2: perhaps sometimes an altered form of Hayling. Compare Thomas Hailing 1799 in IGI (Tanfield Durham) but the example below may alternatively belong with (1). 3: see Hyland. 4: see Ayling.
Hodge : English (Norfolk and Suffolk): from the Middle English personal name Hogge a rhyming pet form of Roger. In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer's cook ‘highte Hogge of Ware’ is invoked ‘Now tell on Roger …’. Since Middle English spellings of the personal name are often impossible to distinguish from the nickname Hog(ge) ‘hog’ some early examples may be variants of Hogg.
Potten : 1: see Potton. There may have been confusion with the names in (2) or (3). 2: from the Old French personal name Potin an elliptical form of Philipotin a pet form of Philip. This name is difficult to tell apart from Old French Pothin; see (3). 3: see Potham.
Sager : 1: English (Lancashire): variant of Sawyer from Middle English sager sagher ‘sawyer’. Pronounced to rhyme with vaguer sager is a dialect variant that was still current in late 19th century Lancashire and Yorkshire as were saag saig and sague for ‘saw’ (noun and verb). The Yorkshire name may be partly indigenous to the county but it is mainly associated with a family that moved in the 16th century from Burnley (Lancashire) to Rimington and then Bradford (Yorkshire).2: German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) (also Säger): occupational name for a sawyer from an agent derivative of Middle High German segen sagen German sägen ‘to saw’. Compare Saeger.3: German: nickname for an announcer or speaker in a legal matter or for a chatterer or a braggart from Middle High German sagen ‘to speak tell chatter’.4: German: habitational name for someone from a place called Sage in Oldenburg.5: Germanized and Americanized form of Slovenian and Croatian Žagar ‘sawyer’. Compare Sagar and Zager.6: French: from the ancient Germanic personal name Sagher composed of the elements sag- (an element related to Gothic and Old High German words meaning ‘quarrel law-suit’) + hari heri ‘army’. However in Alsace and Lorraine this surname may be of different German origin (see above).7: Jewish (Ashkenazic; also Säger): nickname from an agent derivative of German sagen ‘to say’ (compare 3 above).
Seggerman : Americanized form of North German Seggermann: possibly a variant of North German Segger an occupational name for a sawyer Middle Low German segger or a spokesman or head of a corporation such as a guild from Middle Low German segen ‘to tell speak’.
Skakle : unexplained; possibly a nickname from Scottish Gaelic sgagaire ‘coward’ but the eastern distribution as well as the final consonant may tell against this.
Snape : English:: 1: habitational name from Middle English snap (Old Norse snap) ‘poor pasture or winter pasture’. Of the many minor placenames containing this word in northern England it was most probably Snape in Ormskirk (Lancashire) Snape in Well (North Yorkshire) or Snape in Sowerby (Yorkshire) that gave rise to the surname.2: from Middle English snap snep (Old English snæp) possibly meaning ‘boggy piece of land’. This may be the source of Snape in Suffolk and of numerous minor places called Snap or Snape in Cheshire Devon Nottinghamshire Sussex and Wiltshire but it is difficult to tell this apart from the word in 1 above. Snape (Farm) in Weston (Cheshire) is the likely source of the surname in Staffordshire while one or other of the Sussex places gave rise to the Sussex surname Snepp. In Sussex the dialect term snape is still used to denote an area of boggy uncultivable land.
Speller : 1: English and South German: occupational name for a reciter speaker or story-teller from an agent derivative of Middle English spell(en) Middle High German spellen ‘to tell or relate’. In the case of the English surname there has probably been some confusion with Spiller.2: German: habitational name for someone from Spelle near Rheine (Lower Saxony).3: English: variant of Spiller 1 and 2.4: English: occupational or nickname from Middle English speller(e) ‘one who can spell’ perhaps also ‘interpreter one who can explain the written word’ a derivative of Anglo-Norman French espeleir ‘to mean signify; to explain interpret’. Such a name would be suitable for a clerk or for someone who pretended to have clerical skills but it is unlikely to be the main source of the modern name.
Tuplin : 1: perhaps identical with Toplin from Old French tut plein ‘all plain completely’ although the early -pp(e)- spellings tell against this. 2: perhaps a variant of Turpin with l/r substitution giving Tulpin and then Tuplin by metathesis. Compare Grace Turpin 1608 Mathew Turpin 1613 William Tupling 1673 in IGI (Benington Lincs) and Johannes Turpyn 1381 in Poll Tax (Freiston Lincs) Yzabella Turpin 1566 Anne Turpin 1634 Thomas Tuplin 1764 in IGI (Freiston Lincs). A similar change of Turpin to Tulpin and Tuplin in the equivalent French and Flemish surnames is noted in Debrabandere at Tulpin(ck). However Turpin and Tuplin(g) could be names of different origin coinciding in the same parishes; see (1).
Turkel : 1: Jewish (from Ukraine): nickname for a chatterer from the Ukrainian verb turkaty ‘to tell over and over again’ + the agent suffix -el.2: English: from the Old Norse personal name Thorkell a shortened form of a name composed of the elements Thórr the name of the Scandinavian god of thunder + ketill ‘sacrificial cauldron helmet’. The personal name Thurkill or Thirkill was in use throughout England in the Middle Ages; in northern England it had been introduced directly by Scandinavian settlers whereas in the South it was the result of Norman influence.
Vizor : from Old French viseor ‘scout spy’. This seems to be confirmed by the definite article in the earliest name forms which tell against derivation from Middle English viser vis(o)ur (Anglo-Norman French visere visure Old French visier) ‘visor of a helmet; mask’ athough the surname may have been confused with this word once the definite article was dropped.
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Source : DAFN2 : Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, ©2022 by Patrick Hanks and Oxford University Press
FANBI : The Oxford Dictionary if Family Names in Britain and Ireland, ©2016, University of the West of England
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