1861 lookup - Holden - Darwen

[Glenn]

I have encountered many instances in Darwen where a male child's forename was what would now be considered a surname. Examples include:

Fish FISH
Cooper COOPER
Wellington WOODCOCK
Fish ECCLES
Eccles GRIMSHAW

and tangentially in my own family tree

Duckworth ENTWISTLE

I'm sure that this was widespread in Lancashire generally. I once met a Harrison CLEGG, a Wright SHAW and, of course, not fogetting that the composer Harrison BIRTWISTLE comes from Accrington.

Glenn Taylor

[oldecrone]

In fact this practice was so widespread in Darwen, and resulted in so many people who had the same odd names, that everyone was given a nickname, e.g.

Owd Timothy o' Timothys

Peg o' Bettys, Peg o' Titus, Ralph o'th'back o'th' heights

Jack of Ralph's Kay
Ealph o' Jack's Kay

Fish o' Fishes

and many more such completely useless identifiers!

OC