ALPHABETICAL SERIES
OF
NORSE, NORMAN, AND ANGLO-NORMAN,
OR NON-SAXON, SURNAMES.
Derived from
English Official Records
and from other Authentic
Sources.
[The learned Canon of Carlisle assures us that not only has Normandy supplied us with many of our family names, but it enjoys the distinction of having been the first to establish an hereditary surname. Few stop to consider that a surname thus conceived is not merely an heraldic vanity or device to give social dignity and distinction to those who bear it, but is in reality a scientific advance in the working nomenclature of a race. If to "name" is but to classify, the addition or introduction of the surname simply adds completeness and precision to the racial classification. Here, then, we have in the following list a large body of surnames coming almost directly from the land in which surnames are said to have originated. If a name, therefore, be merely that by which a thing is known, it would seem that a people who have borne these names continuously (as is historically attested) for eight hundred years have in all likelihood inherited the characteristic traits, as well as the distinctive surnames, of the antique Norman race. In Kentucky, the original tone and vigor of the Norman people are unimpaired. Changes there have been; changes there will be; but, whatever changes may occur, there remains this one unalterable characteristic of the Norman race, that "the more you change it, the more it is the same.">[
Abbett, a form of Abbott.
Abbey, for l'Abbe.
Abbott, or Abbot, Abbas (1180, Normandy), Abbot, Abbet, Thirteenth Century.
Abel, Aubeale, Normandy, Twelfth Century; Sir John Abel of Kent, 1313.
Aberdeen, Aberdern, Abadam, from Abadon. Normandy, 1180.
Achard, 1238, Berks.
Ackin, from Dakin.