ABSTRACT

Locative surnames are defined here as surnames derived from the names of specific places. They are to be distinguished from surnames originating from words for general features of the landscape, which are treated as topographical surnames. Locative surnames were particularly liable to change if they migrated away from their areas of origin to other regions, where the place-names from which they originated were unknown. A characteristic of locative surnames in some parts of England is a tendency for individual names to ramify and to increase greatly in numbers within a limited district, with only occasional individuals occurring elsewhere. The ramification of some locative surnames in Lancashire and Yorkshire appears very striking to anyone who examines the history of surnames in either county, all the more so because the proliferation of surnames, whether locative or in other categories, did not take place on the same scale in most parts of England.