Katie Heaton reveals how you can discover the meaning and history behind your last name, as well as some famous Dorset surnames and the connections between an Elizabethan spy, a Dorset dynasty and James Bond 007
Is it possible to discover the history behind your own surname? Today in Britain and Ireland there are 45,000 surnames. However, until the end of the 14th century most people in England were only known by a first name or nickname - they didn’t have a hereditary surname. This gradually changed after the Norman conquest of 1066 when, according to the BBC Family History website, Norman barons introduced surnames into England.
On the familytreemagazine.com website they suggest four main origins of a surname:
- Occupations (such as ‘Smith’ for a blacksmith)
- Nicknames or physical characteristics (such as ‘Short’)
- Places or landmarks (such as ‘Hill’)
- Patronymics, or father’s name (such as ‘Johnson’ son of John)
Hidden Meanings: There are several websites which can give you an idea about the meaning of your surname and its distribution, both today and historically. For example, Your Family History (your-family-history.com) allows you to search for a surname (the list is not exhaustive) and results comprise of a meaning, distribution around the UK according to census records and other statistics such as the top professions for people with that surname.
I had a go using the popular Poole surname - Skinner. The results included: ‘Skinner meaning - occupational name for someone who made a living with animal skins in the production of fur garments. A derivative of middle English skin 'hide' or 'pelt'. Of all the great medieval guilds the company of 'skinners' was among those of great honour.’
Over all the available census years (1841-1911) there were never more than 200 Skinners in Dorset. And Skinners were most likely to be living on their own means or be a general labourer, so spanning all classes. This is an interesting tool for beginners, so see what you can discover about your family surname.
A Tale of Two Hardys: The Internet Surname Database (surnamedb.com) is the culmination of years of research, mostly undertaken before the age of the internet. A search of the database can typically result in: the original meaning of the surname, when it might have first become a surname, and examples of historical records where it appears.
I investigated Dorset author Thomas Hardy and the roots for his surname. These were the results:
‘This interesting surname is of early medieval English and French origin, and is derived from the nickname for a brave or perhaps fool-hardy person, one who would risk all for ultimate success. It derives from the Old French, Middle English (1200 - 1500) "hardi", meaning bold or courageous.
Examples of the surname recordings include William Le Hardy of Lincoln in 1206, and somewhat later, the marriage of John Hardy and Agnes Payce on November 11th 1563.
An interesting namebearer, recorded in the Dictionary of National Biography, was Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769 - 1839), who was the flag captain of Nelson in the ‘Vanguard’ and ‘Foudroyant’ (1799), in the ‘San Josef’ and the ‘St. George’ (1801), and in the ‘Amphion’ and the ‘Victory’ (1802 - 1805), on which Nelson died. He was made a baronet in 1806 and became a vice-admiral in 1807.
The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Hardi, which was dated 1194, in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Richard 1, known as ‘The Lionheart’, 1189 - 1199.’
© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2022
This uncovers a wealth of information about the surname's origins, and provides an intriguing introduction to another Dorset born Thomas Hardy, Thomas Masterman Hardy. Vice Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy was born to Joseph and Nanny Hardy (nee Masterman) at Kingston Russell House, near Long Bredy in 1769. Famously, he was the flag captain for Nelson on the ‘Victory’. The Hardy Monument, erected in 1844 by public subscription, is a 22m high monument atop Black Down, at Portesham overlooking the English Channel. It’s visible from a distance of 60 miles and used as a navigational aid for shipping.
The World Is Not Enough: It is speculated that John Bond, christened in 1555, in Steeple, Dorset was the inspiration for literature’s most famous spy, James Bond. 007’s creator, former Naval Intelligence officer Ian Fleming (1908 – 1964), was enrolled at Durnford Preparatory School in Langton Matravers on the Isle of Purbeck, from 1915.
In 2008, the 500-year-old journal of Denis Bond (1588 -1658) was discovered. In it he wrote about the feats of his father, John Bond (1555- 1632), an Elizabethan spy. It was on one of his missions against the Spanish that John Bond discovered a stone globe inscribed with ‘Non sufficit orbis’ or ‘The World Is Not Enough’ and John Bond adopted this as his family’s motto.
The Bond estate, at Creech Grange in Steeple, was close to Fleming’s prep school. It’s very likely that the young school boy would have heard this local legend and seen the coat of arms with its motto. Was this the inspiration for James Bond? Certainly, the ‘Non sufficit orbis’ motto features in the 10th book of the series On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963), when Bond comes across it at the College of Arms as the family motto of Sir Thomas Bond. However, it is also documented that Fleming loved birdwatching and named his dashing hero after the author of Birds of the West Indies, ornithologist, James Bond.
There’s a second Dorset surname in Fleming’s Bond books. Another great landowning dynasty from Dorset is the Drax family, whose family seat is at Charborough Park near Lytchett Matravers. It’s believed that Sir Hugo Drax, the villain from Moonraker, was named after Admiral Sir Reginald Drax (1880 –1967) one of Fleming’s acquaintances from his time working in the admiralty.
What a great coincidence that two Dorset surnames, an Elizabethan spy and his family motto should be found in the world of 007.
Surname Hotspots: If you’re curious to find out where your surname is most commonly found then it’s worth looking at named.publicprofiler.org. This website maps places in the UK where surnames have an historically unusually high local population.
I typed in a familiar local surname, Diffey. The site revealed that hotspots for Diffey are indeed Dorset, as well as Devon and South Wales. A search of the early parish records identifies that there have been Diffeys in Dorset since at least the 17th century. One of the earliest records is Thomas Diffey, baptised in Frampton on 28th March 1647. His father is Richard Diffey. If we leap ahead nearly three centuries, we find Bill Diffey (born 1943) living in Swanage. We can trace his ancestors easily back to 1820, with Edward George Diffey born in Swanage, and maybe further back to Edward born in the 1790s. At this point it would take much more detailed research to follow this family tree due to the abundance of Diffeys in the area!
Bill’s father, Charles George William Diffey (Charlie) was born in Swanage in 1905 to William George (George) and Frances Jane (nee Brown). In 1921 the family were living at The Square, Herston in the parish of Swanage. George and Frances had six children living with them, the oldest was Charlie. George worked for a local builder, Frank Smith. There were another seven local men employed there, who all resided in Swanage.
Charlie Diffey married Alice Maud Windebank in 1934. By 1939 she was living with her mother-in-law, Frances and two children at Steer Road, Swanage. Charlie was in the military and his son Bill would be born in 1943.
Surnames and Street Names: Often street names give a clue to the history of a place and the people who once lived and worked there. I have often been curious about Hoyal Road in Hamworthy. Interestingly, A History of Hamworthy by Ann Smeaton reveals that ‘the name of Hoyal Road is derived from the motor body works of Chalmer and Hoyer’ who were there from the late 1920s. The bungalows built along Hoyal Road were built by Randolph Meech who owned the factory premises on Hoyal Road before Chalmer and Hoyer. He built the homes for his workers as one of the largest employers in the area.
One Name Studies: The Guild of One Name Studies is the place to go if you decide to focus your research on one surname, as their website one-name.org reveals.
‘A one-name study aims to research the genealogy and family history of all persons with a given surname (and its variants). As part of this, it attempts to ascertain such things as:
- The origin of the name or early references
- The name’s meaning: is it patronymic, topographical, toponymic, occupational, etc? Or a mix of these?
- Relative frequency
- Distribution in geography and time
- Patterns of immigration and emigration
- Name variants and deviants’
The website also has useful material and indexes that are publicly available for your own research. Do check it out if researching your family name in depth appeals.
This has been a brief introduction and whistle-stop tour through some places to learn more about your surname. I found it fascinating to look up various names from my own family tree and unearth more about local names. When I first came to Poole as a Local History Librarian, I loved discovering the new local names to research, very different to those in my previous locality. Some that have always struck me as unique and local to Poole are Sweetapple, Musslewhite and Tilsed, although perhaps you know of other localities where they reside!
Katie Heaton is a Local History Librarian at Poole Museum, more at poolehistory.org.uk
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