A major new research project launched today aims to create the largest ever database of the UK’s family surnames. The database, which is being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will contain the meanings and origins of up to 150,000 UK surnames, will be made publicly available and will be of enormous interest to home genealogists, family historians, and anyone interested in learning more about their family name.
The research will be carried out over the next four years by Professor Richard Coates at the Bristol Centre for Linguistics at University of the West of England (UWE) with lead researcher Dr Patrick Hanks, an eminent lexicographer who is a visiting professor at UWE. The project will be carried out with the technical collaboration of the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University, Brno, in the Czech Republic.
Professor Coates and the project have been featured on the Radio 4 Today Programme and the segment can be listened to on the Today Programme website until April 8th.
This is the largest project in scale and scope ever undertaken in the UK on family names. There are currently approximately 150,000 surnames in Britain - including very common ones such as Miller or Williams - but there are also large numbers of uncommon surnames with a hundred bearers or fewer.
Using published and unpublished resources, dating from as far back as the 11th century, a team of researchers will collect information about individual names such as when and where they were recorded and how they have been spelled. This information will be used to give new and detailed explanations of those names. This new knowledge will be far more reliable and up to date than that found in the books on surnames currently available.
This resource will be a permanently publicly accessible database that people can use for a range of information.
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Editor’s notes
AHRC Media contact: Jake Gilmore, 0117 9876 773 j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk
Family Names of the United Kingdom – FaNUK - is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Listen to Professor Richard Coates discuss the FaNUK project on this specially recorded podcast
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £105 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,300 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.