Dear all,

Welcome to the English Surname List (ESL), a forum for discussion of the
etymology, history and significance of surnames in England. Here are some
initial pointers...

The main ESL page (worth adding to your bookmarks/favourites) is

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/esl.html

from which you can post to the list or visit "Subscriber's Corner" (in
order to suspend or resume your mail-delivery, leave the list, and so on).

Alternatively you can post to the list without visiting the ESL page, by
sending an email from the address at which you are subscribed (only
this address will work) to [log in to unmask]

A summary of user commands for the list is available at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/docs/

Any problems with the list, do feel free to email me at
[log in to unmask]

Let me kick things off with a quotation from Bardsley's 'English Surnames'
(1873), lifted shamelessly from the dust jacket of David Hey's
excellent 'Family Names and Family History' (2000):

 "Talk to a very large number of people about their surname and you will
find that the family came in with the Conqueror ...  William evidently had
a very easy time of it. It is clear that he had only a handful of opponents
to meet, and that the story of the Battle of Hastings is a gross historical
fraud."

Cheers,
Paul


Dr Paul Cullen
School of English Studies
University of Nottingham
Nottingham
NG7 2RD

+44 (0)115 951 5898

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/staff/cullen.htm