A Dictionary of English Surnames (Oxford Paperback Reference) @ richardeward.com

A Dictionary of English Surnames (Oxford Paperback Reference)
by Percy H. Reaney
from Oxford University Press

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• The Oxford Dictionary of Minimal Information?
  Yes, this was quite disappointing. No serious etymology, no deep origins, no accounting for names that appear to be variants of English surnames yet are not included, i.e., there is a Houston but no Huston. Really? What a narrow net the editors cast! A waste of shelf space.

• Another English Chap
  After buying this book with great expectations I was very disappointed. Out of curiosity I thought I would check the reviews which may have been left for it. I was astonished to see how highly others had rated it. (They can't all be related to the author or the publisher!). I don't normally feel inclined to criticise other people's work but this book left me feeling very disatisfied. I know it is a dictionary but I wanted more plain language explanation not just a string of technical jargon after each... more info

• Indispensable if needed for research
  Obviously someone who wishes to give a first name to a child is not the most likely person to consult this very learned tome: for those people P. Hanks and F. Hodges's *Dictionary of First Names* (also published by Oxford) is the appropriate book (though David Pickering's *Penguin Dictionary of First Names* is also very good). Obviously, if the first name you have in mind is also a surname, then this reference tool, too, is likely to be useful.

  The amount of work that has gone into this volume is... more info

• Fascinating and well-documented
  The Dictionary of English Surnames is wonderful -- tons of information about surnames both common and rare, with many dated examples of early spellings. Sources are always given. This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the origin of English surnames, especially re-enactors and others interested in names that would have existed in the late medieval/Renaissance period. Since the examples are dated, it is easy to find names from a particular time.

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