The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

In Chapter 13, Bryson examines naming traditions in the English language. He begins the chapter by discussing some of the unique pronunciations of British surnames, and the historical aspect of names for British streets and pubs. For much of the history of the English language, surnames were not considered necessary, but they began to be adopted as a way to distinguish identically named people in the same location (223). According to Bryson, “in England last names did not become usual until after the Norman conquest” (223). Most surnames stem from one of four sources: place names (like Worthington), nicknames (like Whitehead), trade names (like Carpenter), and patronymics, names indicating a familial relationship (Johnson or Robertson) (223). Two aspects of medieval bureaucracy resulted in virtually everyone adopting a fixed surname: The first was the introduction of a poll tax in 1379, and the second was the Statute of Additions in 1413 mandating that all legal documents include a person’s occupation and location (224).

While the majority of the most common surnames in America are British, plenty are also of Swedish or German origin. According to Bryson, many immigrants to America “modified their names in some way to accommodate American spellings and phonics” (226-27).