What's in a Name?

Fig 1: Trendell's Wood, Bucks.  Was the family named after the wood or the wood after the family?

One of the advantages of the lockdown is that some organisations have given free access to their reference materials.  For a short period the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (2016) was made freely available on line.  This fine work normally costs £375.99, so free access was a real treat.  Normally if I want to look at it I do so in the British Library.  It is one of the most used books on open access.

Surname dictionaries have been around for many years.  Unfortunately very few are based on original research and most copy the mistakes of previous publications.  This is what marks out the Oxford Dictionary – it is built from scratch and is a pleasure to use.

The dictionary reflects the fact that spelling has only become fixed in the last hundred or so years, indeed family names are proof of this.  As far as the TRENDALL family is concerned there is little new information.  TRENDALL is a variant spelling and has the same origins as TRENDELL, TRUNDLE and TRENDLE.

 

A few highlights:

1.        Using the spelling TRENDALL we can see that there were 155 holders of the name in Great Britain in 2011 and none in Ireland.  This compares to 110 in 1881 – not a big increase for this variant.

2.       In 1881 the biggest concentrations of this version of the name were to be found in London, Kent and in Oxford/Bucks.  This reflects our own ancestry as we have researched it.

3.       The name derives from the Old/Middle English for a circle or sphere and was given to people who lived near such features or were from places named after circular features.  The Dictionary quotes the example of Trendell’s Wood near Stokenchurch (noted as Trindele in 1227).  The word was also used to describe a wheel and a similar word means to bounce or revolve.  ‘Our’ branch of the family has some roots in the Stokenchurch area (more on this to follow in a future blog, but this will have to wait until I can do a bit of fieldwork).

4.       The earliest holders of the name in paper records appear in 1177 when Ernald TRENDEL appears in the Pipe Rolls for Suffolk.  Several TRENDELS/TRENDALES etc appear in the records of the Poll Tax in the 1370s.  I wonder if any of them were involved in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 which was, in part, caused by the Poll Tax?  This reminds me of being in  the Poll Tax riot of 1990 – but this is another story.

Another reference work (see below) describes a Trendle as a round or oval container of uncertain size for the storage of wax with references to the same from 1393 onwards. (B)

TRENDALL and TRENDELL are sometimes used as first names in the United States.  Given point (3) above I note that there is a gentleman called Trendell WOODS living in Chicago and working in property redevelopment.  Life can get complicated.

From time to time I will make reference to other entries in the Dictionary relating to the families that constitute my ancestors.

Philip Trendall

23^rd May 2020.

Acknowledgement & References

 

(A)    The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (Patrick Hanks, Richards Coates, Patrick McClure).  Oxford 2016.

(B)    A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century.  Ronald Edward Zupko, American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia  1985.