This thesis builds on previous studies of English by-name and surname history. Many have identified the regionally specific nature of name development in England (McKinley, 1990: 20; Hey, 2000: xi; Redmonds, 2004: xiv), yet most of our knowledge comes from national name surveys (see Reaney, 1967; McKinley, 1990), or research carried out at county level (see Redmonds, 1973; McKinley, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1988; Postles, 1995, 1998). While it has been recognised that our understanding of by name and surname development ‘will need to be focused on particular parts of the country, looking at how groups of names were formed at different times in particular local communities’ (Hey, 2000: xi), there have been no studies of this kind. By carrying out a diachronic study focused primarily on the influence regional identity has had on surname development in the Cotswolds, a region with its own distinct cultural, economic and topographical history, it has been possible to reach a greater degree of accuracy on the causes of regionally specific name development than previously achieved. The names from a time when hereditary surnames had only recently been established, 1381, have been compared with those from a period of greater surname stability, c1600, showing that there had been considerable change in the names of the Cotswolds between these two periods. Often, this change can be related to the regional wool trade. Within the Cotswolds, changes in name distribution, name frequency, the names of migrants, dialect lexis in naming and the incidence of inherited surnames can all be linked with the change in focus from raw wool exportation to cloth production, as well as other historical factors. Through this research project, it is clear that there had been major changes in the names of the Cotswolds between 1381 and c1600, many of which have not been identified in previous research. This suggests that there are some aspects of English by name and surname history that are not yet fully understood, such as the precise period when hereditary surnames became more common than non-hereditary by-names, and any regional variation. The national significance of these changes cannot be known without further regional studies for comparison, and it is hoped that such research will be carried out in response to the findings of this thesis.

The personal naming system of England underwent a profound transformation during the medieval period. In the eighth century, a large number of unique, dithematic names of Old English origin were created for individuals. These names were rarely shared by people in the same family or community. By the fourteenth century, this system had changed into one where very few names, predominantly of continental or biblical origin, were shared unequally by the majority of the population, often combined with a byname or surname. The changes which took place have generally been examined through the prism of the Norman Conquest, and the change of system has often been seen to coincide with the imposition of Norman customs. This thesis reexamines the English case in the context of recent continental research. It carries out quantitive studies of 14 corpora of names collected from 11 different medieval English sources dating from c.800 to c.1300. These studies reveal a number of broad trends in the changes that took place to naming across the period. This quantitative analysis is combined with micro-analytical studies of naming decisions within specific families and communities. The results presented in this thesis suggest that the transformation to the English naming system was similar in many ways to that which took place across much of continental Europe during the same period, and it argues that the changes on both sides of the Channel had related systemic causes which had their roots in a fundamental reorganisation of the lived environments of the people of medieval Europe and the communities of which they were a part. As such, it has implications for the history of personal naming in both England and Europe, as well as the wider historiography of England during this period.

Personal names are a human universal, but systems of naming vary across cultures. While a person’s name identifies them immediately with a particular cultural background, this aspect of identity is rarely researched in a systematic way. This thesis examines naming patterns as a product of the society in which they are used. Personal names have been studied within separate disciplines, but to date there has been little intersection between them. This study marries approaches from anthropology and linguistic research to provide a more comprehensive approach to name-study. Specifically, this is a cross-cultural study of the naming practices of several diverse communities in Scotland, United Kingdom. The purpose of the project is to compare and contrast the personal naming systems of a range of indigenous and immigrant communities whose social and linguistic contexts vary extensively. In doing so, it investigates links between personal names, social change, cultural contact and linguistic systems, and hopes to contribute towards examining universal features of naming systems and developing a theory of names.

This dissertation examines the uses, functions, and meaningfulness of traditional personal names and naming practices in Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Indian) culture. The current study indicates that Niitsitapi personal names appear to play a major role in capturing and conveying various aspects of traditional Niitsitapi sociocultural knowledge. Niitsitapi personal names thus appear to form an integral part of Niitsitapi oral tradition, and also seem to play a powerful role in establishing and maintaining Niitsitapi conceptualisations of individual, as well as social and cultural, identity. This dissertation supports the position that, in addition to their nominative function, names contain and communicate sociocultural meaning, based on their associations with a wide range of non-linguistic factors which form part of the sociocultural environment within which they are used. The methodological approach stresses the importance of studying personal names in cultural context and strongly emphasises the use of indigenous knowledge as a means of explaining personal naming phenomena from a native cultural perspective. / Linguistics / M. A. (Sociolinguistics)

Personal names form one of the most important sections in the system of proper names that are traditionally studied within the field of onomastics. Personal names contain history, tradition, culture as well as all characteristic features of each ethnic community. The general aim of this research project is to have a cross-cultural approach to personal naming based on the systems of Vietnamese and English. Due to the broad scope of the topic of personal names, my research focuses on given names only. First of all, to establish a theoretical background, I dwell on onomastic problems with the focus on the semantic characterisation of proper names, and cultural issues in the study of personal names. I then argue that the views on meaning of names espoused by the Millian and Fregean schools can be reconciled, and that as a cultural universal, names convey both denotational and connotational contents but the content of names can only be determined in each specific language community based on clarification of traditional and cultural values embodied in naming process. Next, the thesis approaches Vietnamese and English given names by reviewing their historical and linguistic characteristics and then classifying them into relevant groups and subgroups. The main purpose of these taxonomies is to bring out the topological characteristics of Vietnamese and English given names as well as the naming trends and forces that have formed the two cultures over the past centuries. Finally, I present a comparison and contrast of Vietnamese and English given names covering all the aspects on the basis of which I institutionalise the theoretical reconciliation of Vietnamese and English personal naming systems, and establish that a reconciliation of the two naming systems is possible within a single overarching framework for their theoretical discussion.

This dissertation examines the uses, functions, and meaningfulness of traditional personal names and naming practices in Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Indian) culture. The current study indicates that Niitsitapi personal names appear to play a major role in capturing and conveying various aspects of traditional Niitsitapi sociocultural knowledge. Niitsitapi personal names thus appear to form an integral part of Niitsitapi oral tradition, and also seem to play a powerful role in establishing and maintaining Niitsitapi conceptualisations of individual, as well as social and cultural, identity. This dissertation supports the position that, in addition to their nominative function, names contain and communicate sociocultural meaning, based on their associations with a wide range of non-linguistic factors which form part of the sociocultural environment within which they are used. The methodological approach stresses the importance of studying personal names in cultural context and strongly emphasises the use of indigenous knowledge as a means of explaining personal naming phenomena from a native cultural perspective. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (Sociolinguistics)

Nicknames have been analysed, recorded and processed in many diverse ways by different languages, scholars and communities. In Zulu, many works of similar type have all been the size of an article up until 1999. This research on the subject is one of the first done in this depth. Nicknames form part of a Zulu person's daily life. They identify him/her more than the real or legal name. They shape him/her more than any other mode of address. They influence behaviour, personality, interaction based activities and the general welfare of an individual. They discipline, they praise, they mock too. Surprisingly, they are regarded as play items. They are even termed playnames (izidlaliso). But they are as serious as any item that makes an individual to be a significant figure in the community. They are unique in the sense that they stick more obstinately on the victim should he/she try to get rid of them. They are capable of staying for life. They only vanish to give others a chance to feature on the same individual. They are so poetic. A talented onomastician can tell a full story about an individual without him grabbing what is being said about him just because the story is spiced with just a single figurative nickname. They haunt the whole arena of the parts of speech in a language, especially the Zulu language. They modify the well known meaning of words into special references that paint in bright colours the character of an individual. Zulu nicknames processes visit all possible languages and adapt items from into Zuluised special terms that a capable of inheriting an onomastic status. They originate even from the most sensitive sources like people's private lives. The only challenging area about nicknames is that bearers do not want to expose them to peale who are not known to them, even if they do not fall into a category of nicknames for ridicule. Finally, nicknames have been exposed here as linguistic items that organise the community into makers and bearers, and then users of nicknames. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Nicknames have been analysed, recorded and processed in many diverse ways by different languages, scholars and communities. In Zulu, many works of similar type have all been the size of an article up until 1999. This research on the subject is one of the first done in this depth. Nicknames form part of a Zulu person's daily life. They identify him/her more than the real or legal name. They shape him/her more than any other mode of address. They influence behaviour, personality, interaction based activities and the general welfare of an individual. They discipline, they praise, they mock too. Surprisingly, they are regarded as play items. They are even termed playnames (izidlaliso). But they are as serious as any item that makes an individual to be a significant figure in the community. They are unique in the sense that they stick more obstinately on the victim should he/she try to get rid of them. They are capable of staying for life. They only vanish to give others a chance to feature on the same individual. They are so poetic. A talented onomastician can tell a full story about an individual without him grabbing what is being said about him just because the story is spiced with just a single figurative nickname. They haunt the whole arena of the parts of speech in a language, especially the Zulu language. They modify the well known meaning of words into special references that paint in bright colours the character of an individual. Zulu nicknames processes visit all possible languages and adapt items from into Zuluised special terms that a capable of inheriting an onomastic status. They originate even from the most sensitive sources like people's private lives. The only challenging area about nicknames is that bearers do not want to expose them to peale who are not known to them, even if they do not fall into a category of nicknames for ridicule. Finally, nicknames have been exposed here as linguistic items that organise the community into makers and bearers, and then users of nicknames. / African Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)