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Front Matter
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Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain
Edited by: Harry Parkin
Over 43,000 entries
‘“What’s in a name?” Juliet asked as she and Romeo tried to puzzle their way around the troubling problem of their warring families. Well, plenty, the most detailed investigation into surnames in the UK and Ireland has found.’
Steven Morris, The Guardian (of The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland)
This new dictionary provides up-to date and authoritative explanations of family names found in Britain. It is an edited version of The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names of Britain and Ireland, published to great acclaim in 2016, which provided evidence for the origins, history, and geographical distribution of tens of thousands of family names current in Britain, many of them never explained before. The Concise Dictionary includes almost all the names originally covered, plus some additional rarer names, in a more concise and accessible format, and will be a key research tool for those investigating their family history.
Each entry includes British frequencies and main locations as evidenced in the 1881 Census, as well as etymological detail and variants of the name. It tells you what type of name it is – perhaps an occupational name such as Taylor, or a nickname such as Short – the name’s original language and culture, and any multiple origins.
