ANSTHRLD - Name Question (fwd)

[tmcd at jump.net]

Kendall Johnson <avalon at arn.net> wrote to me personally, but I suspect
meant it for the list:
> Can someone tell me on what page William is listed in Withycombe's
> Dictionary of christian names.

Mr. Pedantic Person notes that it's _The Oxford Dictionary of English
Christian Names_.  It's a miracle nobody has soundly *THWAPPED*
Mr. Pedantic Person for a while.

William is on pp. 293-4 (3rd ed.).  Dated spellings:
    Willelm, c. 1067
    Willelmus, 1086, 1199-1220
    Wilecoc, 1273
    Wylymot, 1379
    Gillet, Gillot(in), Gilliame, Guillot, 1306
    Wyll, c. 1515
    Gilow, Gylaw, 1379
    Gilmyn, 1379
Oddly enough, she doesn't give a date for the spelling "William"!

Reaney and Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_, 3rd ed, p. 493,
have
    Robertus filius Willelmi, 1086
    Richard William, 1279
    John Wylyam, 1296
    Rauf le fuiz William, 1299
    Henry Fitz William, 1300
    Ralph Willem, Willeam, 1304
    ...
    Thomas William, 1327

R&W is fine as a source for given names in given-name positions.  For
example, those citations above are great for the spellings Richard,
John, Henry, Ralph, and Thomas.  An apparent given name in a surname
position is dicier.  For example, the first example is probably in the
genitive case or something.  However, where the surname is derived
from a given name, and the name appears not to have been "mutated" in
some way, I think you're on pretty reasonable grounds.  (By
"mutation", I refer to changes like "Williamson" (or "Williams", which
means the same thing.)

So (assuming the client wants "William" in that exact spelling), I'd
write it as

    William: Withycombe (3rd ed., pp. 293-4) says it was introduced to
    England by the Normans and has been popular to the present time.
    Reaney and Wilson (3rd ed., p. 493, under Williams) date this
    spelling as a given name from 1279.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at jump.net; 
if that fail, my work address is tmcd at us.ibm.com.
 "To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting every-
 thing up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)

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