As you look through the great range of Kings & Queens, Dutchesses & Dukes, Earls & Countesses, Dames & Barons, Knights & Ladies, Gentlemen , Masters & Mistresses, Goodwomen & Goodmen of the Tudor period you will see that there is little variety in what were then called "given" or "christian" or now called first names.

In these pages we have tried to distinguish between different people with the same name by adding their individual TITLE, e.g.Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The problem here is that people can change their title e.g. when Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond becomes Henry VII or Richard, Duke of Gloucester becomes Richard III. There is also a problem on the death of a Duke (or Earl, Baron etc) because the late Duke's widow is still the Dutchess. This can lead to confusion with the wife of the current Duke (her son). To distinguish between the two Dutchesses we call the widow "Dowager" Dutchess.

Children were often named after their father/mother, grandfather/ grahgndmother an uncle/aunt, a godparent or a rich and powerful figure. This was possibly done to flatter that person in the hope that they might give preferment to the child in later life. There are lots of Johns, Annes, Thomases, Elizabeths, Henrys, Margarets, Edwards, Catherines, Richards, Marys and Williams and not much else. If you check your own family tree you might even see a similar pattern of the same few names repeating down the generations. In fact it got so confusing that people started using "familiar" names or as we say today "nicknames". Edward could be Ed or Ned, Henry could be Hal or Harry, Elizabeth could be Lisa, Betty, Eliza, Bet or Beth.

Or possibly you could be distinguished by:

your occupation, - Thomas the Smith or Will Barber

what your father was called, - Robin Robin's son (Robinson) or William Thomson.

the house (sign) where you lived - Will at the Hartshorn (the antler of a deer hung out as a business or location sign) or John Bell

where you came from - Lisa of Coventry or Will Sudbury

the colour of your hair or complexion - Meg (Margaret) Brown

These often became recognised as surnames or family names during the late Medieval and Tudor periods and went with you and your family wherever you went. So then you might be called Smith but work as a shopkeeper!

QUIZ - SURNAMES

Think about your friends and work out what their ancestor's job was. Can you guess what Wakeman, Walker, Greaves, Hayward or Sherman might mean ? ANSWERS