Origin of Family Names....

(Unpublished article; published to WINDOW TO THE PAST website in February, 2014)

From: "Directory of Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700" by Holmes

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ALLEN (aka Ailing, Allyn) ---------------------------------------------

ATKINSON ---------------------------------------------------------------

BAILEY --------------------------------------------------------------------

BELLEW -------------------------------------------------------------------

BOYDEN -------------------------------------------------------------------

BOYES-BOYCE ----------------------------------------------------------

CLARK/CLARKE---------------------------------------------------------

COKER --------------------------------------------------------------------

FARMER ------------------------------------------------------------------

FREEMAN ----------------------------------------------------------------

GARDNER ----------------------------------------------------------------

JENKINS -----------------------------------------------------------------

KEITH---------------------------------------------------------------------

LOVEALL -----------------------------------------------------------------

LAWSON -----------------------------------------------------------------

PHIPPS -------------------------------------------------------------------

ROWDEN -----------------------------------------------------------------

SMITH --------------------------------------------------------------------

WHITTLESEY -----------------------------------------------------------

British origin, part of Latin Aelianus (sunbright) Irish origin - Alun; English - Allen or Allan

Joseph at Exeter, NH (1657); Luke at New Haven, CT (1639); Theodore--feltmaker in Boston (1636) from Bury, England; Thomas-brother to Theodore [above], lived at Concord, Mass. in 1636.

(corruption of Bailiff from French Bailler); Henry--of Falmouth, Maine (1690) [English]

(Normandy French--DeBellew--came from Italy--on to England and then to Ireland.

Thomas born Suffolk, England--lived in Boston (1650)

French origin from Bois, meaning "wood"

A learned man who could read and write ancient and medieval lore. Many in Early America, mostly in Mass. and from England... settled in the 1600s.

Richard-- resident of Hartford, CT (1640); Robert--resident of Newbury, Mass. (1634)

Edward--resident of Billerca, Mass. (1671)

A Teutonic race from Firesland or Zuyder Zee. Invaded England in the 5th century.

Edmund (1640) in Ispwich, Mass. The name is of Gaelic origin meaning an enclosed place, a hill, or a fortress. Many settled in Mass. in the 1600s.

From Jenks or John and "ing" meaning "son of John". Settled Mass. and Conn. in 1600s.

Name of a parish in Banffshire, Scotland. From the Gaelic "Gaoth" meaning wind. Family came from Germany in the reign of Emperor Otho and from Hesse. James Keith -- first minister of Bridgewater, Mass., born in Aberdeen, Scotland (1643); died (1719)

Original family name of Lovel--and once called Percival from a place in Normandy in the 12th century. Some ancestors born in Ireland and some England.

Son of Law, abbreviation of Lawrence... English name... ancestors from England.

James ... a gunsmith, founded Phippsburg, Maine before 1649; his father was Sir William Phipps; and,Solomon...carpenter, at Charlestown, Mass. (1641).

John...resident of Salem, Mass. (1652-1668)

The most common name. Among the Highlands of Scotland, the smith ranked 3rd in dignity. In Wales, there were three sciences a man could teach his son without consent from his lord--scholarship, bardism, and smithcraft (a liberal science). Many Smith's in early America.

Taken from the people at Whittlessea Fens in England in the 10th century.