Stephenson is a medieval patronymic surname meaning "son of Stephen". The earliest public record is found in the county of Huntingdonshire in 1279. There are variant spellings including Stevenson. People with the surname include:
Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English name means "son of Hob". Hob was a diminutive of Robert, itself deriving from the Germanic warrior name Hrod-berht, translated as "renowned-fame". The Robert spelling was introduced to England after the Norman conquest of England.
Byrne is an Irish surname and less commonly a given name. It is derived from the Gaelic Ó Broin or Ó Beirn, which are also linked to the surname O'Byrne.
Cooke is a surname of English and Irish origin derived from the occupation of cook and anglicisation of various Gaelic names. Variants include Cook and McCook.
Melville is a surname and a given name.
The surname Collins has a variety of likely origins in Britain and Ireland:
- English and Scottish: A patronymic surname based on the English and Scottish name Colin, an English diminutive form of Nicholas.
- Norse: From the Old Norse personal name "Kollungr", a form of "koli" which in Old English became 'Cola', meaning swarthy or dark.
- Irish: The medieval surname was Ua Cuiléin, which has usually become Ó Coileáin today.
- Welsh: Collen; "hazel, hazel grove".
Mason is an occupational surname of Scottish and English origin, with variations also found in Italian and French, generally referring to someone who performed stonemasonry work.
Wilkinson is an English surname of Norman origin. It is a variant of Williamson, derived from a variant of William, Wilkin, brought to the Anglo-Scottish border during the Norman conquest. At the time of the British Census of 1881, the relative frequency of the surname Wilkinson was highest in Westmorland, followed by Yorkshire, County Durham, Lincolnshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire. People named Wilkinson include:
Curry is a common surname used in Ireland, Scotland and England. Currey is a less common variant. In England and Scotland, the is thought to derive from local place names and, in Scotland, also possibly from MacMhuirrich.
Carter is a family name, and also may be a given name. Carter is of Irish, Scottish and English origin and is an occupational name given to one who transports goods by cart or wagon ultimately of Celtic derivation. It may also appear as an English reduced form of the Irish and Scottish Gaelic derived McCarter or the Scottish-Gaelic Mac Artair with Mc meaning "son of." Its appearance and pronunciation as Carter may also be the Anglicized form of the Irish Mac Artúir, Cuirtéir, or Ó Cuirtéir. The name is related to the Gaelic word cairt meaning cart, and ultimately from the Latin carettarius. Additionally, in Gaelic, the word "cairtear", which means tourist or sojourner, is also related. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 1100s Roman Catholic English derived Carter's also arrived in Ireland and settled into walled towns established by the Normans. These Anglo-Normans assimilated into Irish culture, adopting Irish Gaelic customs, language, and religion unlike later English and Scottish Protestant planter settlers in Ireland who arrived between the 1550s and 1700 and mainly settled in Ulster during the plantation of Ulster, establishing the Ulster Protestant community.
Hughes is an English language surname.
Richards is a Celtic Welsh, or Cornish surname based on the English version of the parent's name ending in -S. In 1881 people with this surname were mainly located in Wales, Cornwall and adjacent South-West counties of England. By 1998 many Welsh and Cornish people had migrated to cities in England particularly those adjacent to these areas. The name is derived from the Germanic ric ("power") and hard ("brave"/"hardy").
Martin may either be a given name or surname. In Scotland, Martin or McMartin is a common surname of Scottish Gaelic origin. Martin is, however, more common as a masculine given name in many languages and cultures. It comes from the Latin name Martinus, which is a late derived form of the name of the Roman god Mars, protective godhead of the Latins and, therefore, god of war. The meaning is usually rendered in reference to the god as "of Mars", or "of war/warlike" ("martial"). Alternatively, it may also be derived from the Proto-Germanic elements "mar", meaning famous and "tank", meaning thought, counsel.
Howard is a common English surname. One source for this surname is with the Gaelic names Ó hOghartaigh and Ó hIomhair. Other origins also exist. The dominant theory pertains to the French personal names Huard and Houard adapted after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is from a Germanic source similar to Old High German *Hugihard "heart-brave," or *Hoh-ward, literally "high defender; chief guardian." Also probably in some cases a confusion with cognate Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Haward from Hávarðr, which means ha(r) "high" and element varðr, meaning "guardian", and sometimes also with unrelated Hayward. In some rare cases from Old English eowu hierde "ewe herd." In Anglo-Norman the French digramm -ou- was often rendered as -ow- such as couard → coward, tour → tower, flour → flower, etc. The first public record of the surname is dated 1221 in Cambridgeshire. There are several variant surname spellings.
Owen is usually an anglicised variant of the Welsh personal name Owain. Originally a patronymic, Owen became a fixed surname in Wales beginning with the reign of Henry VIII. Etymologists consider it to originate from Eugene, meaning 'noble-born'. According to T. J. Morgan and Prys Morgan in Welsh Surnames: "the name is a derivation of the Latin Eugenis > OW Ou[u]ein, Eug[u]ein ... variously written in MW as Ewein, Owein, Ywein. LL gives the names Euguen, Iguein, Yuein, Ouein. The corresponding form in Irish is Eoghan." Morgan and Morgan note that there are less likely alternative explanations, and agree with Rachel Bromwich that Welsh Owein "is normally latinised as Eugenius", and that both the Welsh and Irish forms are Latin derivatives.
Forrest is a surname of English and Scottish origins. This name derives from the Old French "forest". The word was introduced by the Normans, and referred to a Royal Forest. Variants include Forest, De Forest, De Forrest, DeForest and DeForrest. Forrest is associated with Clan Forrester and Clan Douglas. Variants of the name are first recorded in England in the early 13th century. Hugh de Foresta is mentioned in the Curia Regis rolls in 1204. There was a Templar knight, Guy de Foresta, who was Master of the Temple, n 1290–1294. One Adam ate forest appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Kent in 1300. In Scotland the name is first mentioned in the Morton Register of 1376 where William de Forest is found in Newlands, Scottish Borders. Morgan de Forest is found in Aberdeen in 1402, and a William of Forest was physician to the Queen in 1430. In 1505 John Forrest is recorded as succeeding his father John as owner of Gamelshiel castle in East Lothian. The name is first recorded in Ireland in 1566 where Piers Forest was a merchant in Cork. The Forrest baronets of Comiston in Edinburgh had a coat of arms containing three oak trees and the motto "vivunt dum virent". The prominent pioneer family of Western Australia, including Sir John Forrest, also have this motto and similar arms in their history.
Drake is an Old English surname of Latin origin.
Cassidy is a common Irish surname and is sometimes used as a given name. The surname translates to "descendant of Caiside". Variations include: Cassady, Cassiday, Cassedy, Casadei and Cassedey. The family was originally a Munster sept called Uí Chaisín but in the 12th century a branch moved to Devenish Island in County Fermanagh, where they became a medical and poetic family, hereditary physicians to the Maguires.
Berry is a surname with numerous etymological origins.
Reilly is an Irish surname, and is derived from the Gaelic Ó Raghallaigh Sept that was based in Counties Cavan and Westmeath. Reilly is among the ten most frequently found surnames in Ireland and although they are very widespread they can be mostly found in the region of the ancestral homeland. The Riley spelling is an anglicized version and not found originally in Ireland.
