What’s in a Name

Learning about local heritage and personal family history was applied to create a collection of images from the locality that represented a letter from each surname to form a complete piece!

Photography by Jade Horton

HORTON is an Anglo-Saxon name particularly common in Yorkshire and belongs to the large category of Anglo-Saxon habitation names which are derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages and parishes, farmsteads.

Photography by Sam Jarvis

JARVIS is a name that was brought to England by the ancestors of the Jarvis family when they emigrated following the Norman conquest of 1066.
Some of the Jarvis family moved to Ireland. Different spellings of the surname include Jervis. The surname is a popular name within Europe in the middle ages because it was originally that of a Christian saint. Jarvis originally meant ‘spear’ and ‘vase’ and came from Northern Yorkshire.

Photography by Stacey Maclean

MACLEAN is a name widely recorded in Scotland and Ireland. It is a developed form of the Old Gaelic name ‘Mac gille Eoin’ which translates as ‘the son of the devotee of (St) John’, from ‘Mac’ meaning son of, and ‘gille’, literally translating as servant or follower.

Photography by Amy Montgomery

MONTGOMERY was first found in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Some of the Montgomery family moved to Ireland. 17 countries in the USA as well as districts, neighbourhoods and streets around the world, have been named after people named Montgomery. Montgomery is a surname of Norman Origin. The original family was prominent in early Anglo-Norman England and gave their name to Montgomeryshire in neighbouring Wales.

Photography by Sammy Russell

RUSSELL was a name carried to England in the enormous movement of people that followed the Norman Conquest of 1066. The first British Russell family lived in Dorset. Their name however is a reference to Roussel, Normandy, which was the family’s place of residency prior to the conquest of England. Over the centuries different variations of spellings have been documented such as Russel, Russell, Russil, Rousel, Roussel, Roussell and Roussel.

Photography by Tonika Spiteri

SPITERI of Southern Italian and Greek (Spiteris) origin. Occupational name from a derivative of medieval Latin hospitarius, denoting someone who was employed at a lodging house.

Photography by Cheyenne Mckane

McKANE is a Scottish name and in the mountains of Scotland’s west coast the ancestors of the Mckane family where born. The name comes from the given names Ian or John. John is the most common personal name in the highlands.The Gaelic form of the name is Mac lain

Photography by Viki Dangerfield

DANGERFIELD dates back to mid 12th century introduced into England by followers of William the conqueror after the Norman invasion in 1066.

Photography by Rebecca Cater

CATER was originally a name taken by someone who worked as a caterer and is one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon names of Great Britain