The Origin Of English Surnames
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What's in a name? For P. H. Reaney, the answer is centuries of history, migration, occupation, and identity, all crystallised into the surnames we carry today. The Origin of English Surnames is a landmark work of onomastics — the scholarly study of names — that systematically traces the roots of British family names back through the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon era, and beyond, illuminating the rich linguistic and cultural tapestry from which the English-speaking world was woven. From the occupational (Baker, Mason) to the toponymic (Hill, Brook) and the patronymic (Johnson, Richardson), Reaney presents a meticulous and authoritative classification of how and why surnames came to be fixed in England during the medieval period. Reaney writes with the precision of a seasoned philologist and the accessibility of a gifted storyteller, making this volume equally rewarding for the academic researcher and the curious genealogist. Drawing on an extraordinary breadth of historical records, place-name studies, and linguistic analysis, he argues compellingly that surnames are far more than mere labels — they are living fossils of a vanished world, preserving the accents, trades, and landscapes of our ancestors. A foundational text in the field of English historical linguistics, this work remains an indispensable reference that will leave any reader marvelling at the hidden histories embedded in even the most familiar of names.
Author: P. H. Reaney
Format: Paperback
Genre: Reference & language
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What's in a name? For P. H. Reaney, the answer is centuries of history, migration, occupation, and identity, all crystallised into the surnames we carry today. The Origin of English Surnames is a landmark work of onomastics — the scholarly study of names — that systematically traces the roots of British family names back through the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon era, and beyond, illuminating the rich linguistic and cultural tapestry from which the English-speaking world was woven. From the occupational (Baker, Mason) to the toponymic (Hill, Brook) and the patronymic (Johnson, Richardson), Reaney presents a meticulous and authoritative classification of how and why surnames came to be fixed in England during the medieval period. Reaney writes with the precision of a seasoned philologist and the accessibility of a gifted storyteller, making this volume equally rewarding for the academic researcher and the curious genealogist. Drawing on an extraordinary breadth of historical records, place-name studies, and linguistic analysis, he argues compellingly that surnames are far more than mere labels — they are living fossils of a vanished world, preserving the accents, trades, and landscapes of our ancestors. A foundational text in the field of English historical linguistics, this work remains an indispensable reference that will leave any reader marvelling at the hidden histories embedded in even the most familiar of names.