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Our Surnames O-P-Q
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O
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OARDE.
See ORD
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OATON. This is a variant of either ORTON or ORD, q.v.
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O'BRIEN. An Irish name: son of Brien (or Brian). BRIAN is itself a typical Irish
name, having arrived there possibly via early Vikings.... or it may be even
older! The name is so old that experts try not to guess at a meaning. As BRIAN
the name also came to England with the Normans, who had acquired it from
Brittany so it could be Celtic!
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O’CONNOR. Of Irish origin, meaning a descendant of Conchobar,
“the high-willed one”.
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OGDEN. A locational name, possibly from Ogden in
Calderdale, Grid Ref. SE069309, Landranger Sheet 104.
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OLD. More or less what it sounds like but probably in a comparative sense. Given
two people of the same name in the village, one becomes OLD, the other YOUNG.
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OLIVER This comes
from the French OLIVIER and therefore probably arrived with the Normans. Beyond
that, the derivation is difficult. It could mean olive merchant, olive-tree or,
symbolically olive-branch. It is also the name of a character on the epic poem
Song of Roland. (see RAWLINSON). The name has a long history in Scotland, back
to the time of William the Lion in the 12th C. and is said to be
associated with the Fraser clan.
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OLLEY. This name also crops up as D'OYLEY with or without the apostrophe and in
many spelling variations. The D' is the giveaway, for it is Norman, from one of
the five Ouillys in Calvados.
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OMBLER.
No data yet available.
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OPIE.
This appears to be a Cornish name. The family owned barton (?) of the manor
of Lancarffe or Lancoff, held of the honor of Bodmin, or of S. Petrock, in the
15thC.
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ORD,
OARDE, HOURD, OURD.
Henry de ORDE turns up in Northumberland in 1209. There is a village of East Ord
(Landranger Sheet 75, NT980510)just outside Berwick upon Tweed. The name also
occurs in various parts of Scotland as a village and district name, such as H(o)rd
in Pebbleshire which is now Kirkurd. (on the A701, 6m. NE of Biggar
Landranger Sheet 72/3)
(map). We have record of eight generations ORDE/OURDE in Hexham. NBL.
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ORMEROD.
From Ormerod in Lancashire. The place-name means “Orm’s or Ormarr’s
clearing”; the names are Old Scandinavian given names and rodd has
developed into modern English “road”.
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ORR. A name with various origins. There are villages in the south of England but
they are a bit out of our region. There is also a Scottish origin from Gaelic, Odhar,
“the sallow-complexioned one”. The nearest to the North Pennines is,
however, a nickname, Orri, Old-norse
for the black-cock recorded in Wakefield in the 13th C.
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ORTON, OVERTON. The
surnames are derived from place-names and there is considerable overlap between
them. Orton in Cumberland is “Orri’s Tun”, while Orton in
Westmorland was Overton in the 13th C and is “the Tun on the higher
or the sloping ground” (Grid Ref:NY624082)
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ORWINE. An alternative to ERWIN, q.v., for which
the local dialect may be responsible!
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OSWALD.
From the Old English Ōsweald, God-ruler. The head of the Saint of
that name was contained for many years in the coffin of St Cuthbert, which is
why statues of the latter often show him carrying it. (ONS).
Oswald@one-name.org (Mr
J Oswald)
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OURD. See
ORD
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OUSTON.
From one of three villages of that name, one in Durham, (Landranger Sheet 88, NZ
259545) and two in Northumberland (Landranger Sheet 87, NY 776530, and
Landranger Sheet 88, NZ 073705
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OVENTON, OVINGTON. Probably from Ovington, Co. Durham, (Landranger Sheet 92, NZ
131147)
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OWEN(S).
A variant of EWEN, although the names diverged very early so many genealogists
treat them separately. The meaning comes from the Greek for well-born. (See
COWAN)
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P
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PACE.
From the Old French for peace.
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PALFREYMAN. One who was in charge of the palfreys i.e. saddle-horses.
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PALMER One who has made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, deriving from the
palm-frond symbol..
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PAPE, POPE. Just what it sounds like! PAPE is the
Old French form, POPE its Anglicised equivalent. The name would be applied
either as a pageant name or as a nickname for an austere, dignified person.
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PARGITER. A plasterer. Nowadays pargetting is the name for decorative, external
plaster on buildings but the term seems to have been more general in the Middle
Ages. (check OED)
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PARK. Usually synonymous with PARKER (q.v.) or perhaps just a dweller in or near
the parkland without necessarily being an official.
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PARKER. A park-keeper. Don’t let’s let our 21st C minds get the
image of municipal herbaceous borders! Mediaeval deer-parks were partly cleared
area of the forest where the PARKER could keep an eye on his deer. His friend
the PALLISTER maintained the palisade between the park and the open forest
(patrolled by FORESTERs and WOODWARDs), into which the deer could be released
for his lordship to hunt.
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PARKIN. A diminutive of Peter; see PEARS.
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PARKINSON. Peter’s son; see PEARS and PARKIN. Some PARKINSONs (or PERKINSONs)
trace their descent from Peter FEATHERSTONE, who inherited lands in
Lancashire some time before 1362. Similarities on the family crests give
strength to this line of reasoning.
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PARNABY.
This sounds like a place-name but has not yet been located.
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PARR.
From Parr in Lancashire (map), or “dweller at the enclosure”. The
conjectural Old English word pearr is the root from which the modern
“parish” derives.
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PARSONS. The
Parson’s servant or follower.
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PATRICK,
PATRIKSON. The name comes from PARTIDGE, which is itself a surname as well as a
bird. While the name could be a nickname, it is more likely to be from one who
nurtured or hunted the birds; an early gamekeeper, in fact. Alternatively, may
be derived from the Saint’s name, which is from the Latin “the patrician”.
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PATTERSON, PATTINSON, PATTISON. These are all forms of PATRICKSON, q.v.,
although there is an example from York, 1758 of George BATTISON alias PATTISON.
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PAXTON. From Paxton in Huntingdonshire. A long way from home, perhaps, but a
Richard de PAXTON is recorded in Yorkshire in the 13th C.
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PEACOCK. From the bird, but more likely to be a nickname than an occupation
name; cf. PATRICK.
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PEARCE, PIERCE. See PEARS.
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PEARS, PEARSON. An abbreviation of PETERS. PARKIN is a diminutive form. PEARSON
and PARKINSON follow naturally. PEARSONs can be traced back to Alston 1730. Part
of that family emigrated to Canada where many descendants live today.
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PEARSELL. From Pearshall in Staffordshire.
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PEART. The skilful one, from the Old French apert.
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PEAT. Probably a pet form of Peter, rather than a turf-cutter.
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PEEL. Either a dweller by a tower (pele) or a palisade, or perhaps a nickname
for a tall, thin person, a pel being a
stake from which palisades were built.
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PENMAN. Possibly either a dweller by a fold or even a scribe.
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PENNISON. From Penistone near Barnsley in Yorkshire, perhaps.
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PERCIVAL. A Norman-French name of uncertain origin. Most probably it comes from
the place-name Perceval, of which there are two examples in Calvados. The
place-name means “pierce-valley”; make of that what you will!
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PERCY. The surname
of the Dukes of Northumberland, going back to the Conquest. There seems a
question of origin before that as there are several places in France, three in
Calvados and one on La Manche which may be implicated. Maud PERCY was the first
wife of John NEVILLE, 5th Baron of Raby.
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PETTER.
Either a dweller in a hollow, or the holder of a mediaeval serjeantry required
annually to “leap, whistle and fart” for his lord’s pleasure!
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PETTY. The small one, from the French petit.
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PHILIPSON, PHILLIPSON. Son of Philip, an ancient name going back to the Romans,
and the Greeks before them. The meaning is “horse lover”.
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PICKERING. The name derives from
the town in N Yorkshire, (Landranger Sheet 100, Grid Ref. SE805840). An early
reference is Reginald de PICHERING,
1165. The origin of the town’s name is conjectural; the -ing means
people and the pic- prefix might mean “living at the edge of the
hill”. But then it might not!
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PICKNETT. It is not often we get a definite origin for a name, but we can
pinpoint PICKNETT exactly! John PICKNETT was an orphan, “rescued” by James
Menakan, Mariner, of Marsk (sic) from the care of the Parish of St. Mary
Whitechapel and apprenticed to him for the sum of £2 “of lawful money of
Great Britain”. His first task was to be the picking over of fishing nets;
hence the name! The indenture for the apprenticeship is lost (we hope
temporarily!) but a fair copy exists in the family records. The date was the
“13th day of September in the sixteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign
Lord George the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and
Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith and so forth, and in the year of our Lord
1776” and John was “aged eleven years the 20th day of June last”. John
clearly thrived in his new environment as his many descendants can testify!
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PICKUP. From Pickup in Lancashire.
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PIGG. A keeper or
pigs; the name has a pedigree back to the Domesday Book. The legendary Billy
PIGG was, in his time, the ultimate virtuoso of the Northumbrian Pipes. Our PIGG
family were from Hexham NBL.
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PINKNEY.
A Norman name, from Picquigny, Somme. Adulphus de Pichengi is mentioned in
the Domesday Book.
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PLACE. The word, place, has had the same meaning since the Middle Ages so the
surname may well denote a dweller in or near a town's market-place. In addition,
the Old French plais or pleix could be a forest clearing so the name could be an
alternative to PARKER of FORSTER. Given variations of spelling, we also need to
consider PLAICE, deriving from a seller of (or resemblance to!) the flatfish.
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PLANTAGENET. Surname of the dynasty that ruled England from 1133 to 1485. The
first PLANTAGENET king was Henry II, grandson of Henry I and successor to
Stephen (of Blois), cousin to his mother Matilda. The name comes from the badge
of his father Geoffrey IV, count of Anjou (1113-51) who always wore a sprig of
broom (planta genista) in his cap. One of Henry’s more notorious acts was the
murder by four of his knights of St Thomas a Becket. One of the four was Hugh de
MORVILLE (see VIPOND). The dynasty ended with the death of Richard III at the
battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and the succession (on very dodgy grounds) of
Henry TUDOR a.k.a. Henry VII.
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It is said that, given the prolific families of the PLANTAGENETs, and the fact
that the number of our 24xgreat grandparents exceeds the 12thC population of
England, we all have a little PLANTAGENET blood. Some of us even have links that
demonstrate it.
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John of Gaunt, founder of the BEAUFORT family (q.v.), was Henry II’s 4xgreat
grandson.
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PLETTS. Not in the “Standard Works”. However, just as “path” becomes “peth”,
it is not too fanciful to suggest that PLETT(S) is the same as PLATT(S) which is
a name with a pedigree back to the 13th C. It probably means
“dweller by the footbridge” or perhaps “dweller on the flat land”, with
a possible origin in Lancashire where there is a Platt Bridge (map).
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POLLARD. Probably a nickname for someone with a close cropped head – like a
pollarded tree.
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PORRITT. One of several names derived from extensions of Peter or Pierre.
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PORTER. Not necessarily a carrier of things, more
likely a doorkeeper.
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POTTINGER. A seller of pottage or soup. Doubtless very popular on cold, wet,
Northern Market Days.
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POTTS. Either a potter, or derived in two stages from PHILIP: PHILIP-OT is a
diminutive, then the first half is dropped to POTT or POTTS.
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POULTON. From the place name. There are several
Poultons to choose from, our nearest being Poulton le Fylde. (353);
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POWELL. Three choices. A variant of PAUL, a dweller by a pool, or an
abbreviation of the Welsh AP HOWELL (HUWELL was a Welsh king in the 10th
C).
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PRATT. The ancient meaning was “astute or cunning”. Enough said.
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PREST. Synonymous with PRIEST, but more likely to be a nickname for a priestly
person (or the exact opposite!) than a relic of the married priests of the early
Celtic church. Our PRESTs have been traced back to York in 1650, from whence the
name travelled to Stockton, Frosterley, Stanhope then to Durham City.
(ONS).
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PRICE. Either a market price-setter or an Anglicisation of the Welsh AP
RHYS.
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PRIESTMAN. Servant to the priest or priests.
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PROUD. The proud one; Old English prūd. References go back to the 11th
C. We have a well-documented family of PROUDs in Knaresdale, NBL (Landranger
Sheet 86/87, Grid Ref. NY678538) in the 18th C. They intermarried
with CARRICKs, FOSTERs and WAUGHs.
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PROUDFOOT. One who walks proudly. The earliest record of the name is Gilbert
PROUDFOOT, a Sheriff in London in 1140. (187);
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PRUDDOM. The same as PRIDHAM and PRUDHAM, deriving from Old French prudhomme,
an expert or wise man.
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PUGMIRE. Probably deriving from Pugg's Mire, i.e.
swampy land belonging to Mr Pugg - whose own name is of ancient and uncertain
origin. Where Pugg's Mire was, is also conjectural. The only known candidate is
Puggmyre Farm, recorded in Yardley, near Birmingham in 1645. However, there are
very few PUGMIREs in the West Midlands and the name clusters in Lancashire and
Cumberland in the late 19thC.
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PURVIS. Most probably a lay officer for a convent or hospital who purveyed or
acquired supplies.
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PYBUS, PYKEBUSH. A dweller at the prickly bush or on the bushy, pointed hill
(e.g. Pontop Pike, from OE pic) In an area where prickly, bushy hills are the
norm that could mean almost anywhere! However there is a cluster of the name in
North Yorkshire where an ancient gravestone to Eleanor PYKEBUSH(E) has been
observed. Bob PYBUS married Kathleen VICKERS b. about 1891 in Teesdale, but we
have yet to trace his ancestry further.
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QUIN.
A nickname, as quin is Old French for
monkey or alternatively from the Irish personal name Cuinn.
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