900 years ago, thanks to the Norman Invasion of 1066, England was nothing more than a colony of Normandy.
These days, the French like to brag, wrongly, that England was once a French colony (though huge swathes of France were an English colony just a few centuries after the Norman Conquest). However, in those days, unlike now, Normandy was not part of France.
The Normans were actually Norsemen and Vikings who settled that area to raid areas of France after the English deflected them away from their land. It wasn't until 1204 that Normandy, which by that time was virtually unified with England as one kingdom, was seized by the French under King Philippe II who took it from England's King John (who, like other English kings of the time, was also the Duke of Normandy), and made it part of France (the only part of Normandy that Philippe II didn't seize was the Channel Islands, which England still possesses).
After the Conquest, England became completely changed.
It became ruled by a line of Norman Kings, the last one being King Stephen, who reigned from 1135 to 1154, and Norman noblemen. Norman French became England's official language, though it was only spoken by the King and the nobles. They looked down on English - spoken by the majority of the people of England - as nothing more than a second-rate tongue of peasants.
Eventually, the Norman language and Anglo-Saxon merged to form the language that eventually became the English we know today.
In fact, most Norman names are more familiar to English speakers than Anglo-Saxon names. How many people are familiar with the Anglo-Saxon names Aethelred, Eadric and Leofric compared with those who recognise Norman names such as William, Robert, Henry, Alice, Matilda? You'd be hard-pressed to fight an Englishmen, American or Canadian called Aethelric.
As these sophisticated Normans took over England and interbred with Anglo-Saxon women, there was more of a chance that they would give their children a Norman name rather than a name from a language spoken by peasants.
Another result of English being a combination of Anglo-Saxon and Norman is that, uniquely among European languages, it often has two words for foods (particularly meats) and other items, one originating from Norman (the type of meat) and the other from Anglo-Saxon (the animal it came from).
For example, pig is Anglo-Saxon in origin and its meat, pork, is Norman French. Sheep is English, and its meat, mutton, is Norman French. Cow is English and beef is Norman French. In other words, due to English being seen as a language of peasants, when it's in a cold and muddy field covered in dung, it's named in English. When it's been cooked and carved and put on a table with a glass of wine, it's referred to in Norman French.
Eventually, though, especially after the Black Death in the 1300s killed off a large part of England's ruling Norman nobility, the Anglo-Saxons started fighting back, and so, too, did their language. In 1362 English again became the official language of Parliament, for example, and 500 years later England was the world's richest and most powerful nation.
But the fact remains that today English is a combination of both Anglo-Saxon and Norman Frence and, thanks to Norman and Anglo-saxon intermarriage, so too, mostly, are the English people. And one Norman legacy that remains is the plethora of Norman castles dotting the English landscape.
1066 and all those baby names
By Megan Lane
BBC News Magazine
4th August 2010
England's King Harold II died after being shot in the eye during the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normany (and the cousin of King Harold II's predecessor King Edward the Confessor), was victorious
Back in time with the BBC
Norman names such as William, Henry and Alice have been popular for 1,000 years. Why did the English copy their invaders?
The date 1066. William the Conqueror. King Harold with the arrow in his eye. Soldiers in those nose-protector helmets.
But many people will struggle to come up with more than these sketchy facts about how the Normans invaded England and overthrew the Anglo-Saxons on one bloody day almost a millennium ago.
But it was then the seeds were sown for the English language as it is today, including names.
"If you ask where did the Normans come from and what was their impact, most people run out of steam pretty quickly," says historian Robert Bartlett of the University of St Andrews.
"It's not like the Tudor era, which people are much more familiar with thanks to TV dramas and historical novels."
Further wreathing the 11th Century in mystery, says Professor Bartlett, is how unfamiliar the names of the Anglo-Saxon protagonists are to modern ears - Aethelred, Eadric, Leofric.
By contrast, the names of the Norman conquerors quickly became popular, and remain common to this day - William, Robert, Henry, Alice, Matilda.
As these French-speaking, wine-drinking, castle-building conquerors swiftly took over England and intermarried with Anglo-Saxon women, it was not just newborns named in their honour.
"The ruling elite set the fashion and soon William was the most common male name in England, even among peasants. A lot of people changed their names because they wanted to pass in polite society - they didn't want to be mistaken for a peasant, marked out with an Anglo-Saxon name."
Look at baby name league tables today, and the Anglo-Saxon name of Harold languishes far below the French-derived Henry in popularity. William, meanwhile, was the second most popular name for boys 200 years ago, the most popular 100 years ago and has held its place in the top 10 in England and Wales since 2000.
In Scotland, where the fiercely independent rulers invited Norman lords in but refused to assimilate in the way the English had, the name William maintains a respectable mid-table result at number 34 (20 places above Robert in the most recent baby names list).
William, Alice, Robert
"Fitz comes from the French 'fils', meaning 'son of'. So Fitzsimmons once meant 'son of Simon' and Fitzgerald 'son of Gerald," says Prof Bartlett, whose own first name Robert is solidly Norman in origin.
And it is a legacy of the Normans that modern English has many words with similar meanings, as French words were assimilated into everyday language. The same goes for the long-standing association of all things French with the upper classes, and all things Anglo-Saxon with coarseness.
"Pig is English in origin, pork is French. Sheep is English, mutton is French. Cow is English, beef is French. When it's in a cold and muddy field covered in dung, it's named in English. When it's been cooked and carved and put on a table with a glass of wine, it's referred to in French."
Not only was there an almost immediate impact on English names and language, the landscape changed rapidly as the new Norman elite set about building stone castles and churches across the land - robust defensive structures like nothing seen before on these shores.
And just as few traces of the less permanent Anglo-Saxon structures remain today, the same goes for Old English.
"English was scarcely written down in this time - writing acts as a brake, and a language that isn't written down changes much faster. The grammar simplified, case endings were lost, and many French words were absorbed," says Prof Bartlett.
Within 150 years of 1066, English had changed almost beyond recognition. "Just think of pre-Norman texts such as Beowulf or Anglo-Saxon laws - you must study Old English to be able to read these. But by the time of Chaucer or Shakespeare, it's a lot more familiar."
Even their names are reassuringly familiar (and Norman in origin) - Geoffrey and William.
news.bbc.co.uk
These days, the French like to brag, wrongly, that England was once a French colony (though huge swathes of France were an English colony just a few centuries after the Norman Conquest). However, in those days, unlike now, Normandy was not part of France.
The Normans were actually Norsemen and Vikings who settled that area to raid areas of France after the English deflected them away from their land. It wasn't until 1204 that Normandy, which by that time was virtually unified with England as one kingdom, was seized by the French under King Philippe II who took it from England's King John (who, like other English kings of the time, was also the Duke of Normandy), and made it part of France (the only part of Normandy that Philippe II didn't seize was the Channel Islands, which England still possesses).
After the Conquest, England became completely changed.
It became ruled by a line of Norman Kings, the last one being King Stephen, who reigned from 1135 to 1154, and Norman noblemen. Norman French became England's official language, though it was only spoken by the King and the nobles. They looked down on English - spoken by the majority of the people of England - as nothing more than a second-rate tongue of peasants.
Eventually, the Norman language and Anglo-Saxon merged to form the language that eventually became the English we know today.
In fact, most Norman names are more familiar to English speakers than Anglo-Saxon names. How many people are familiar with the Anglo-Saxon names Aethelred, Eadric and Leofric compared with those who recognise Norman names such as William, Robert, Henry, Alice, Matilda? You'd be hard-pressed to fight an Englishmen, American or Canadian called Aethelric.
As these sophisticated Normans took over England and interbred with Anglo-Saxon women, there was more of a chance that they would give their children a Norman name rather than a name from a language spoken by peasants.
Another result of English being a combination of Anglo-Saxon and Norman is that, uniquely among European languages, it often has two words for foods (particularly meats) and other items, one originating from Norman (the type of meat) and the other from Anglo-Saxon (the animal it came from).
For example, pig is Anglo-Saxon in origin and its meat, pork, is Norman French. Sheep is English, and its meat, mutton, is Norman French. Cow is English and beef is Norman French. In other words, due to English being seen as a language of peasants, when it's in a cold and muddy field covered in dung, it's named in English. When it's been cooked and carved and put on a table with a glass of wine, it's referred to in Norman French.
Eventually, though, especially after the Black Death in the 1300s killed off a large part of England's ruling Norman nobility, the Anglo-Saxons started fighting back, and so, too, did their language. In 1362 English again became the official language of Parliament, for example, and 500 years later England was the world's richest and most powerful nation.
But the fact remains that today English is a combination of both Anglo-Saxon and Norman Frence and, thanks to Norman and Anglo-saxon intermarriage, so too, mostly, are the English people. And one Norman legacy that remains is the plethora of Norman castles dotting the English landscape.
1066 and all those baby names
By Megan Lane
BBC News Magazine
4th August 2010
England's King Harold II died after being shot in the eye during the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normany (and the cousin of King Harold II's predecessor King Edward the Confessor), was victorious
Back in time with the BBC
- Prof Robert Bartlett presents BBC Two's The Normans, starting 4 August, 2100 BST
- Other BBC documentaries will focus on King Arthur, the Domesday Book, Norman walks and chapels
Norman names such as William, Henry and Alice have been popular for 1,000 years. Why did the English copy their invaders?
The date 1066. William the Conqueror. King Harold with the arrow in his eye. Soldiers in those nose-protector helmets.
But many people will struggle to come up with more than these sketchy facts about how the Normans invaded England and overthrew the Anglo-Saxons on one bloody day almost a millennium ago.
But it was then the seeds were sown for the English language as it is today, including names.
"If you ask where did the Normans come from and what was their impact, most people run out of steam pretty quickly," says historian Robert Bartlett of the University of St Andrews.
"It's not like the Tudor era, which people are much more familiar with thanks to TV dramas and historical novels."
Further wreathing the 11th Century in mystery, says Professor Bartlett, is how unfamiliar the names of the Anglo-Saxon protagonists are to modern ears - Aethelred, Eadric, Leofric.
By contrast, the names of the Norman conquerors quickly became popular, and remain common to this day - William, Robert, Henry, Alice, Matilda.
As these French-speaking, wine-drinking, castle-building conquerors swiftly took over England and intermarried with Anglo-Saxon women, it was not just newborns named in their honour.
"The ruling elite set the fashion and soon William was the most common male name in England, even among peasants. A lot of people changed their names because they wanted to pass in polite society - they didn't want to be mistaken for a peasant, marked out with an Anglo-Saxon name."
Look at baby name league tables today, and the Anglo-Saxon name of Harold languishes far below the French-derived Henry in popularity. William, meanwhile, was the second most popular name for boys 200 years ago, the most popular 100 years ago and has held its place in the top 10 in England and Wales since 2000.
In Scotland, where the fiercely independent rulers invited Norman lords in but refused to assimilate in the way the English had, the name William maintains a respectable mid-table result at number 34 (20 places above Robert in the most recent baby names list).
William, Alice, Robert
- For a long time after 1066, English boys were named after William the Conqueror
- William means 'resolute protector'
- Other Norman-era names like Alice and Robert remain popular
- But not Norman itself, except as surname
"Fitz comes from the French 'fils', meaning 'son of'. So Fitzsimmons once meant 'son of Simon' and Fitzgerald 'son of Gerald," says Prof Bartlett, whose own first name Robert is solidly Norman in origin.
And it is a legacy of the Normans that modern English has many words with similar meanings, as French words were assimilated into everyday language. The same goes for the long-standing association of all things French with the upper classes, and all things Anglo-Saxon with coarseness.
"Pig is English in origin, pork is French. Sheep is English, mutton is French. Cow is English, beef is French. When it's in a cold and muddy field covered in dung, it's named in English. When it's been cooked and carved and put on a table with a glass of wine, it's referred to in French."
Not only was there an almost immediate impact on English names and language, the landscape changed rapidly as the new Norman elite set about building stone castles and churches across the land - robust defensive structures like nothing seen before on these shores.
And just as few traces of the less permanent Anglo-Saxon structures remain today, the same goes for Old English.
"English was scarcely written down in this time - writing acts as a brake, and a language that isn't written down changes much faster. The grammar simplified, case endings were lost, and many French words were absorbed," says Prof Bartlett.
Within 150 years of 1066, English had changed almost beyond recognition. "Just think of pre-Norman texts such as Beowulf or Anglo-Saxon laws - you must study Old English to be able to read these. But by the time of Chaucer or Shakespeare, it's a lot more familiar."
Even their names are reassuringly familiar (and Norman in origin) - Geoffrey and William.
news.bbc.co.uk
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