Extinct surnames

[JohninSussex]

My family name of Sedgwick first appears in records as Siggiswycke, and then undergoes various transmogrifications: Sidgwick - Shedwick - Cedric - Siggsworth - Sidgwick until it finally settles down to Sedgwick as a result of a mistranscription in the 1901 census.

That's not how it works though, is it?  If the family calls itself Sedgwick today, and did so in 1901, that means they changed the name earlier than that date.  It isn't the census entry that prompted the change in name, it is the change that prompted the census entry.  After all, no-one in the family saw that census form, whether the original or the transcription, for close to 100 years after it was filled in.  It could even be that voters' lists or similar could help pinpoint a point in time where that particular family changed the spelling and/or pronunciation.

You might remember John Major, whose brother was known as Terry Major-Ball.  Or boxer Chris Eubank, whose other family members use the spelling Eubanks.  So the process still goes on.

But none of that relates to surnames becoming extinct.

[Rena]

The subject is "Extinct surnames" and I haven't come across any person with the surname "Crumbewell" since the last recorded marriage on FS in the 1800s.

That spelling started to disappear when the first "Cromwell" was recorded.

[Top-of-the-hill]

   Reply 6 - The name Strongi(n)tharm without the n is still around, just about. I remember someone of that name in Canterbury years ago, and there are recent births recorded.

[Maiden Stone]

   Reply 6 - The name Strongi(n)tharm without the n is still around, just about. I remember someone of that name in Canterbury years ago, and there are recent births recorded.

A northerner would pronounce it strong i' th' arm.
Is there a list of extinct surnames?

[CarolA3]

My family name of Sedgwick first appears in records as Siggiswycke, and then undergoes various transmogrifications: Sidgwick - Shedwick - Cedric - Siggsworth - Sidgwick until it finally settles down to Sedgwick as a result of a mistranscription in the 1901 census.

The Sedgwick insurance broking firm was founded in England in the 19th century I believe - now part of something bigger.  Any connection with your family?

Carol

[Andrew Tarr]

I don't think it's a case of a name becoming 'extinct' as such - just that particular spelling variant has died out or become unfashionable.  While most given names became standardised because many were taken from the Bible (printed, so clerics knew how to spell them), most surname spellings were made up by the recorders as they heard them.  Needless to say, allowing for regional accents, there were many variants until those spellings also settled down as literacy spread, and different clerics standardised them in their own way.

There are still Wolstenholmes around, but some have become Woosnam; also Birkenshaws including the MP Brokenshire.  But the true 'original' spellings would have been early English, perhaps Chaucerian.

The name Haworth has been mentioned in a parallel thread.  In one of the parishes I have transcribed, both Haworth and Howarth appear concurrently.  I don't know whether that indicates different pronunciations, or uncertainty by the recorder.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  My gr grandmother's name was Coltham, and as I started working back through her ancestors, I came across an entry "Codham". I thought this was a very understandable mishearing, but it turned out to be the original - Codham/Coddam/Coddom etc. Around 1820 Codham variants almost disappear, and Coltham becomes the norm. It is a very local name - I think they all got together and changed it!

[josey]

To me it does seem possible that surnames can become extinct if a man who is the last of his name line only has daughters, then the name dies out [if daughters have taken husband's surname]. As I understand it, also just as maternal DNA lines can die out if a woman in a family of otherwise sons only has sons. My mother's maiden name, once part of a large family, now has only 2 males bearing the name as grandchildren from her brothers. Her sister did not have a daughter, & ; I only had sons; my sister did not have children, so our mother's maternal DNA has died out.

I could be wrong here - not unknown...

[Top-of-the-hill]

  One of my family names is probably about to die out in our branch, because of a surfeit of daughters for the last few generations.