SURNAMES are fascinating. They are a family history researcher’s most vital tool to prise open the secrets of the past.
Mapping the distribution of some surnames across the country can also reveal a great deal about historic patterns of migration: where and why our ancestors left their homes to start a new life elsewhere.
Some budding family history researchers are lucky enough to have unusual names, which help narrow down the search.
Others are burdened with the name Smith, or Jones, and can never be sure they’ve found the right Smith or Jones when confronted with hundreds of them.
In Devon there are surnames which are also common elsewhere, and others found virtually nowhere else.
The top ten most common surnames in Devon today are said to be Williams, Smith, Wright, Johnson, Bailey, Bennett, Cox, Wickens, Roberts and Harrison.
All of them, except Wickens, are among the most common surnames nationally, but in 1881 it was a different story, according to statistic-filled website britishsurnames.co.uk.
Then, the top ten were: Harris, Williams, Tucker, Smith, Hill, Baker, White, Martin, Taylor, Webber.
While all of these were also commonly found elsewhere in the country, Harris was much more common in Devon, and Tucker and Webber were found in huge numbers.
In 1881 there were two and a half times more people with the surname Harris in Devon than the national average. If your name was Harris, you shared it with almost 4,000 other people.
Tuckers were 10 times more common and Webbers were 13 times more common than in the rest of Britain.
The top ten 1881 surnames found more often in Devon than anywhere else – some of the real historic Devon names – were: Damerell (Ringmore), Greep (Cornwood), Cruze (Frithelstock), Retter (Talaton), Dodridge (Stoke Damerel), Foxworthy (Paignton), Sellek (Colaton Raleigh), Holberton, Stabb (Berry Pomeroy) and Satterly (Ashburton), with the places in which they were most concentrated in brackets. All were roughly 40 times more common here than the national average.
Each town and village also had its own concentrations of surnames. In Tiverton the most common surname in 1881 was Davey, shared by 110 people, closely followed by Wood, Baker and Tucker.
Cullompton had 41 people with the surname Baker, and almost as many with White, Brooks and James, while Crediton’s most frequent surname was Elston, shared by 104 people and an astonishing 372 times more common there than the national average. Lee, Burridge and Steer were the next most frequently found.
The surnames which were found most frequently in Tiverton than anywhere else in the country in 1881 include: Chanin, Purrington, Grater, Kibbey, Eastmond, Woodbury and Bidgood.
In Crediton the same included: Manor, Bucher, Setter, Elston and Layne. While Cullompton had Force, Bivens, Rutley, Denner and Mondy.
Further information about surnames in Devon can be found on the following websites.
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DevonSurnames/
This website creates maps showing the distribution of particular surnames in either 1881 or 1998: www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/
Richard Shimell offers a family history research service specialising in Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, and can be contacted by email rs@kennet.eclipse.co.uk
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