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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Yorkshire (West Riding) => Topic started by: joopow on Sunday 12 June 11 15:12 BST (UK)

Title: Friend as a name
Post by: joopow on Sunday 12 June 11 15:12 BST (UK)
Friend is an unusual first name Can anyone tell me anything about it please ?
There do seem to be others in Yorkshire but I have found them in others parts too.
Is it in any way connected to Quakers ?
Or was there a famous person that this child might have been named after ?
He was born 1913 Barnsley.
Thankyou
Title: Re: Friend as a name
Post by: dave the tyke on Sunday 12 June 11 22:46 BST (UK)
Hi joopow

Not sure if this is relevant but Khalil which means friend in Arabic is a popular first name amongst Arabic speaking countries.

Dave
Title: Re: Friend as a name
Post by: KGarrad on Monday 13 June 11 09:19 BST (UK)
The 1901 England & Wales census has 655 people called Friend!

Mainly in West Riding of Yorkshire.

Apparently came from the surname Friend?
Title: Re: Friend as a name
Post by: jillruss on Monday 13 June 11 11:45 BST (UK)
Could the family have been Quakers? (Society of Friends)

Jill
Title: Re: Friend as a name
Post by: pityackafromblyth on Monday 13 June 11 12:27 BST (UK)
joopow,
I am from the North-East of England, and moved to Yorkshire in 1961.  Initially I lived in the Dewsbury area, ' the heavy woolen district."  One acquaintance, who frequented the same pub I used, had the Christian name of 'Friend'.  I forget his surname.  I thought it was an unusual name at that time, having never come across it before.  I do not believe the family had any Quaker connection.  He would be in his early 20s at that time(1961), yet his older brother had the Christian name of Harold.
Title: Re: Friend as a name
Post by: avm228 on Monday 13 June 11 12:28 BST (UK)
"Friend" comes up quite a bit in my West Riding family branches as a male given name in the 18th and 19th centuries.  None of them were Quakers. I suspect it started off as a "surname as first name" and then became more popular locally as a nice friendly (!) name.
Title: Re: Friend as a name
Post by: bykerlads on Monday 13 June 11 22:26 BST (UK)
It is the case that there was a very strong tradition in WEst Yorkshire of using the mother's surname as the Christian name for one of her sons- giving rise to such names as Sykes Briggs, Ranfield Mellor, Schofield Sykes.
This might explain the use of Friend as a name except that I don't really think that Friend is/was a local surname- I've never actually come across it as a surname.
Other unusual names in our area- Shepherd Hill, Original Bower.....any others?