ANSTHRLD - Name Question (fwd)

[Kathleen O'Brien]

>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.  

Yep.  Latin genetive, I think.

>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.
                   ^^^^^^^^^^

"byname" not "given name".  Yeah, it's probably the same spelling, but this
is a matter of unintentionally mis-representing your source.  If you want
to be truly pedantic, you could say, "... date <Richard William> to 1279.
As this seems to be an unmarked patronymic byname, the support for this
spelling in a byname should also support its use in a given name."

But if you want something much easier to write up, you can simply quote
whichever of the following is most appropriate for the submitter's desired
country and time. (culled from old commentary I've worked on)

Reaney & Wilson (p. 374 under Read) date the spelling <William> to 1176 as
a given name.
Reaney & Wilson (p. 220 under Hatchett) date <William Hachet> to 1165.
Reaney & Wilson (p. 410 under Simeon) date <William Symeon> to 1278.
Black (p. 325 under Gray) dates <William de Grey> to 1255.
Black (p. 325 under Gray) dates <William Gray> to c1280.

Note that the angle brackets <  > represent exact spellings from the source
quoted.

Mari  
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