Norman Descendants

[normanorc]

After researching all four branches of my family tree I was struck by the high number of Frankish and Norman surnames on all sides. In my case family surnames such as Amond, Jordan, Mayor, Morris and Vincent all have a Norman etymology, yet today we only ever think of these as English and Irish names.

So, I'm wondering just how many of we 'English' have a Norman ancestry and whether we ought to be labelled Anglo-Norman just as much as being called Anglo-Saxon? Of all the family surnames that I researched only one was 'Saxon' the name 'Donston' the rest were either of Norman or Kernowyon-Keltic surnames such as 'Penrose' and 'Hendra'. Why are English people always labelled Anglo-Saxon when we have so much Norman and Keltic ancestry too.

Incidently my facial profile is fine red hair, grey light eyebrows, small blue eyes with thick gray inner strands, very short sharply upturned nose, very small wavey mouth and retreating chin. Skin colour very pale, unable to tan in the summer. Can anyone suggest which definitive racial/sub racial category I fall into.

[Méldmir]

It's difficult to know yet how many people descend from where, different DNA-tests and so on give different results. But I think the number of Normans was pretty low.

As for English being Anglo-Saxon, remember that the word English stems from Anglo and thus they (English and Anglo-Saxon) are the same word, although Anglo-Saxons is more specifically the medieval people. Although, I believe the Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as just "English".

[NicoFreyasman]

The term 'England' comes from the Anglo-Saxons as they called England, 'Angloland' so basically the term 'English' comes from the Saxons.
The reason why we're never considered Celtic or Norman is because the Romans drove the true English celts into Wales - well a large amount of them anyway - and the Normans were a French-Norse hybrid so if anything, if we were to be considered Norman, we'd just be getting considered as French Vikings.

[Axewolf]

Greetings everyone. This is my first post so hopefully I don't come off sounding like a know it all idiot right off the bat. ;-) Surnames are a touchy subject. Many were based on place names and some were completely changed to fit the country of settlement, therefore surnames don't always reflect true origin. For instance; The Russells of Bedford, England were Normans yet Russell wasn't their original surname. They took this surname from where they settled in France. Originally it is said they came from Norway where the last surname they held was Ragnvaldsson. Another interesting one is a certain line of the surname Eaton. The name itself has an Anglo-Saxon origin yet there is some debate on whether they were originally FitzAlans which is a surname of Norman origin. Of course then again many (but not all) family histories are more romanticized conjecture than actual hard evidence.

[Matamoros]

You might be interested in this book: http://forums.skadi.net/local_links....17&linkid=2083

I have just started reading it, it is about the origin of English names, and may help your investigation.

[Sigurd]

The term 'England' comes from the Anglo-Saxons as they called England, 'Angloland' so basically the term 'English' comes from the Saxons.

Umm...they didn't call it Angloland, they called it Englaland, by haplological contraction this became England. In any case, it is named for the Angles, not for the Saxons (it'd be ending on -sex now, as do Middlesex, Sussex, Wessex and Essex). By further observation even the term Anglo-Saxon isn't quite correct, it's long been known that a whole bunch of Jutes also migrated across.

[NicoFreyasman]

I was just going by what I was taught in history many, many years ago