Willis is a surname of English, Norman French, and Scottish origin. The oldest extant family of the name, the Willes family of Warwickshire, formerly of Newbold Comyn and Fenny Compton, has used the spellings 'Willis,' 'Willys,' and 'Wyllys' and appear in records from 1330. [1] In this case, the name derives from the name de Welles (under which name the family were Lincolnshire noblemen) which comes from the Norman name de Vallibus (meaning 'of the valley'), which in turn was derived from the Vaux family tree. The Vaux family, established in England by Harold de Vaux, a close relative of William the Conqueror, appears in French records from 794. They had held power in their own right and through royal intermarriages. [2]
There are other derivations of the name, including, particularly in Scotland, 'son of William/ Will' (whereby the name has developed from 'Wills', and is similar to 'Wilson' and other related names); [3] because of the popularity of the name 'William' since the Norman conquest, it is clear that by no means are all people with this surname related, even very distantly. [4]
Sources of the name notwithstanding, specific notable Willis families (aside from those in Warwickshire, aforementioned) were of: Halsnead, Lancashire (now in Whiston, Merseyside); Atherfield, on the Isle of Wight (and subsequently of an estate named after it at Woldingham, Surrey); and Monk's Barn, Petersfield, Hampshire. The Willis (later Willis Bund) family were of Wick, Worcestershire, a cadet branch of the Cambridgeshire family from which also came brothers Thomas and Richard Willis (also Willys), each created a baronet, both titles being extinct at the failure of their descendants by 1732. [5] Humphrey Willis, Sheriff of County Donegal and County Fermanagh, was the ancestor of the Willis family of Florencecourt, County Fermanagh, later also of Monmouthshire, of which came the physician and foreign advisor to Japan, William Willis, and the writer Anthony Armstrong (born George Anthony Armstrong Willis); [6] [7] George Willis, who farmed at Florencecourt, discovered the Florencecourt Yew in 1767. [8] [9] Another Humphrey Willis, often conflated with the above Humphrey, was an English soldier and prominent English Civil War clubman, was of a yeomanry/ minor gentry family [10] of Woolavington, Somerset, related on his mother's side to the Pophams of Huntworth. [11] [12]
Notable persons with this surname include:
Vaughan and Vaughn are surnames, originally Welsh, though also used as a form of the Irish surname McMahon. Vaughan derives from the Welsh word bychan, meaning "small", and so corresponds to the English name Little and the Breton cognate Bihan. The word mutates to Fychan an identifier for a younger sibling or next of kin. It can also be used as a first name Vaughan.
Doyle is a surname of Irish origin. The name is a back-formation from O'Doyle, which is an Anglicisation of the Irish Ó Dubhghaill, meaning "descendant of Dubhghall". There is another possible etymology: the Anglo-Norman surname D'Oyley with agglutination of the French article de. It means 'from Ouilly', the name of a knight who originated from one of the places named Ouilly in Normandy, such as Ouilly-le-Tesson, Ouilly-le-Vicomte, etc. The relationship with the family D'Oyly is unknown.
White is a surname either of English or of Scottish and Irish origin, the latter being an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic MacGillebhàin, "Son of the fair gillie" and the Irish "Mac Faoitigh" or "de Faoite". It is the seventeenth most common surname in England. In the 1990 United States Census, "White" ranked fourteenth among all reported surnames in frequency, accounting for 0.28% of the population. By 2000, White had fallen to position 20 in the United States and 22nd position by 2014
Woods is a common surname of English, Scottish and Irish origin.
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.
Henderson is a surname of Scottish origin. The name is derived from patronymic form of the name Henry and Hendry, which is a Scottish form of Henry. It means "Son of Hendry" and "Son of Henry". In Scottish Gaelic it is rendered MacEanraig (masculine), and NicEanraig (feminine).
Bell is a surname common in English speaking countries with several word-origins.
Pickett is an English surname. It is a variant form of Pigott. Notable people with the surname include:
Griffin is a surname of Irish, English and Welsh origin. Griffin was the 75th most common surname on the island of Ireland in 1891. It was estimated in 2000 that Griffin is the 114th most common surname in the U.S., with a population in the order of two hundred thousand.
Long is a surname, with people coming to have the surname through various origins.
Lyons is a surname with several origins. It is the name of an eminent Anglo-Norman family that is descended from Ingelram de Lyons, Lord of Lyons, who arrived in England with the Norman Conquest, and from his relation, Nicholas de Lyons, who emigrated from Normandy to England in 1080 and was granted lands at Warkworth, Northamptonshire by William of Normandy. The family originated in the district of the Forest of Lyons, north of the town of Lyons-la-Forêt, in Norman Vexin, where their seat was the Castle of Lyons. The original surname was 'de Lyons' : subsequently, the 'de' was removed from the name, and some branches removed the 's' from the end of the word, producing 'Lyon'.
Scott is a surname of Scottish origin. It is first attributed to Uchtredus filius Scoti who is mentioned in the charter recording the foundation of Holyrood Abbey and Selkirk in 1120, the border Riding clans who settled Peeblesshire in the 10th century and the family lineage of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Knight is an English surname.
Warren is a common English and Irish surname and a masculine given name derived from the Norman family "de Warenne", a reference to a place called Varenne, a hamlet near Arques-la-Bataille, along the river Varenne in Normandy. The river name is thought to be derived from the continental Old Celtic Var- / Ver- "water, river", with a Germanic influence on the initial V- > W- after Warinna, from the Proto-Germanic war-, meaning "to protect or defend".
The English language surname Hawkins is said by FaNUK to have three possible origins.
The English family name Payne originates in France as a variation of the name Payen. The name was brought to the British Isles as a result of the Norman Conquest of England, and is now common in English-speaking countries. Hugues de Payens from the town of Payns near Troyes moved to London in 1128 to set up a house for the Knights Templar in England.
Hudson is an English surname. Notable people and characters with the surname include:
Doug is a male personal name. It is sometimes a given name, but more often it is a hypocorism which takes the place of a given name, usually Douglas. Notable people with the name include:
The Maguire family is an Irish clan based in County Fermanagh. The name derives from the Gaelic Mac Uidhir, which is "son of Odhar" meaning "dun", "dark one". According to legend, this relates to the eleventh descendant of Colla da Chrich, great-grandson of Cormac mac Airt, who was monarch of Ireland about the middle of the third century. From the 13th to the 17th centuries, the Maguire family were kings of Fermanagh.