I've been reminded recently of how 'complicated' surname studies can be.
At the end of last year, one of the Guild members posted that the Kindle version of the "Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland" was available free of charge to people in the UK, so I took advantage of this and downloaded it.1
Obviously, I began by looking up PARRY. No major surprises in the entry - although it is interesting to note that the frequency of the surname appears to be reducing, with only 27,276 PARRYs shown for Great Britain in 2011, as opposed to the 35,614 that were shown in the Taliesin-arlein database in 2002.2 Even adjusting the figures in the Taliesin-arlein database, as was recommended in order to obtain a better estimate of the number of living PARRYs at that time, by allowing for potentially duplicated entries, deaths not yet removed, etc, only brought that 2002 figure down to 33,121.
Clearly, the surname is not yet in danger of "extinction", but it is an intriguing reduction, nevertheless.
Both the distribution information - "widespread in Wales and England: esp. Lancs and N. Wales" - and the suggested origins - "Welsh: relationship name from ap Harry 'son of Harry'" - are as I would expect.
The list of early bearers has some interesting individuals, since one of the earliest entries is given as a Thomas Parrye, who appears in the 1377 Poll Tax for Birdforth, in North Yorkshire.
I wonder who he was, since that's not exactly a PARRY hotspot!
As well as that reference from 1377 with the spelling as Parrye, there are several other variations to the spelling among the list of early bearers. These include 'ap Harry', as would be expected, but also Apharry, Upharry, Aperry, Parrey, and Parey. While these might have been consistently used as surnames at the time, if I came across them in modern day records, I would suspect they were just a 'deviant' spelling, as those versions are no longer in common use.3
But it was the comment in the Dictionary to "Compare HARRY" that reminded me of just how complicated surname studies can be - and the fact that I really must try to resurrect my web pages this year!
Back in 2006, I was planning a web page about why not every "son of Harry" became a "Parry" in Wales. In it, I commented on the changes to the patronymic system over the years, ie from the initial use of the terms ap or ab, meaning 'son of' (which led to the surname Parry, as the 'ap' and 'Harry' became combined), the subsequent loss of those terms between the names, despite maintenance of the patronymic system (which resulted in the surname 'Harry'), and how this was followed later by the addition of the possessive ending 's, ie "Harry's son", leading to surnames such as Harris, and Harries. These changes combined with the adoption of fixed surnames, which occurred at different times, in different places, (and was also affected by a family's status and involvement with the English), to result in several different surnames, across the country, which all derive from the personal name, Harry.
One of the aims of a One-Name Study is to consider the origins of the surname, and its relevant variants. Since Harry is a common form of Henry, the factors mentioned above also produced a variety of surnames based on that name. And, when one includes the Anglo-Norman use of the term 'fitz', which also means 'son of', from which surnames such as Fitzharris and Fitzhenry developed, one realises that it's not easy to produce a 'simple' summary of the 'sons of Harry' surnames!
1 "Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland," 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
2 The Taliesin-arlein database held figures on the frequency of surnames in England and Wales based on information from the Office of National Statistics as at September 2002. Unfortunately, although the base domain still exists (https://www.taliesin-arlein.net/), the link to the Surnames of England and Wales no longer works.
3 For information about the difference between surname variants and surname deviants see the Guild page at
https://one-name.org/variants-and-deviants/
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