English names are personal names used in, or originating in, England. In England, as elsewhere in the English-speaking world, a complete name usually consists of one or more given names, commonly referred to as first names, and a (most commonly patrilineal, rarely matrilineal) family name or surname, also referred to as a last name. The given names after the first are often referred to as middle names.^[1]

Given names

Few given names used in England have English derivations. Most traditional names are Hebrew (Daniel, David, Elizabeth, Susan), Greek (Nicholas, Dorothy, George, Helen), Germanic names adopted via the transmission of Old French/Norman (Robert, Richard, Gertrude, Charlotte), Latin (Adrian, Amelia, Patrick) or Celtic.

A small fraction of given names have an actual English derivation (see Anglo-Saxon names), such as Alfred, Ashley, Edgar, Edmund, Edward, Edwin, Harold and Oswald. A distinctive feature of Anglophone names is the surnames of important families used as given names, originally to indicate political support or patronage. Many examples have now become normal names chosen because parents like them, and any political sense lost. Most are male names like Cecil, Gerald, Howard, Percy, Montague, Stanley or Gordon, though some of those some have female versions like Cecilia or Geraldine. Other languages have few equivalents, although the saint's surname Xavier is often used by Roman Catholics.

During the majority of the 19th century, the most popular given names were Mary for girls and either John or William for boys. Throughout the Early Modern period, the diversity of given names was comparatively small; the three most frequent male given names accounted for close to 50% of the male population throughout this period. For example, of the boys born in London in the year 1510, 24.4% were named John, 13.3% were named Thomas and 11.7% were named William.^[2] A trend towards more diversity in given names began in the mid-19th century, and by 1900, only 22.9% of the newborn boys, and 16.2% of the newborn girls in the UK shared the top three given names for each gender. The trend continued during the 20th century, and by 1994, these figures had fallen to 11% and 8.6%, respectively. This trend is a result of a combination of greater individualism in the choice of names, and the increasing ethnic heterogeneity of the UK population, which led to a wider range of frequent given names from non-European traditions. Oliver and Olivia were the most popular baby names in England and Wales^[3] in 2018.

Surnames

According to Christopher Daniell, in From Norman Conquest to Magna Carta, 1140 marked what might be the first recorded use of a modern surname, inherited by multiple generations. These were not always regularly formed: for example, the sons of a certain Norman named Robert used a modern inheritable surname, FitzGerald, in honour of an earlier relative, named Gerald.^[4]

While it is normal for a child to be given one of their parents' surnames, traditionally the father's (or increasingly some combination of the two), there is nothing in UK law that explicitly requires this. Under English common law, a person may use any name as a legal name, though most people use their birth name (as registered on the Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, regulated by the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987, which allows only characters that are used in English or Welsh), often using a spouse's surname (proved with a marriage certificate), or (if an adult) a name formally declared by deed poll. No regulations include any specific provisions regarding what names are acceptable. Nonetheless, the General Register Office and various organizations that help with creating and enrolling deed polls will reject anything that is unreasonable (racist, offensive, fraudulent, implying a title of nobility not held, unpronounceable, not in the Latin script, etc.).

See also

• List of the most common surnames in Europe

References

External links

• English Surnames (about.com)
• Given Names in England Before 1800
• Seven Types of English Surnames
• Baby names in England and Wales: 2018 Most popular first names for baby boys and girls in 2018 using birth registration data (Office of National Statistics)