Barbara’s answer to “I’ve never come across the names Blessop and Tyballis before. Where do they come from?” > Likes and Comments
1 like · Like
My experience, in going through old manuscripts, was to find an acute shortage of fifteenth century names. This led to some difficult choices in my Wolf Wood Series of books. I wanted to stay close to the historical record but avoid too many Johns and Elizabeths. A Dutch friend told me that people in the Low Countries had the same problem and compounded it with a lack of family names. The Spanish Netherlands was alive with people calling themselves Johan from Amsterdam etc. and that was not helpful to officialdom. Their Spanish masters insisted that they adopt surnames in the Spanish fashion and gave Barbarossa (Redbeard) as an example. The locals turned up at government offices and showed their contempt by signing in as Bigbum etc. These names were duly written down. Some survive to this day.
back to top
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Mike
(new)
Nov 26, 2015 12:06PM
My experience, in going through old manuscripts, was to find an acute shortage of fifteenth century names. This led to some difficult choices in my Wolf Wood Series of books. I wanted to stay close to the historical record but avoid too many Johns and Elizabeths. A Dutch friend told me that people in the Low Countries had the same problem and compounded it with a lack of family names. The Spanish Netherlands was alive with people calling themselves Johan from Amsterdam etc. and that was not helpful to officialdom. Their Spanish masters insisted that they adopt surnames in the Spanish fashion and gave Barbarossa (Redbeard) as an example. The locals turned up at government offices and showed their contempt by signing in as Bigbum etc. These names were duly written down. Some survive to this day.
reply
|
flag
