• Family Names and Family History - (Book - Amazon.co.uk) : Family names are an essential part of everyone's personal history. The story of their evolution is integral to family history and fascinationg in its own right. Formed from first names, place names, nicknames and occupations, names allow us to trace the movements of our ancestors from the middle ages to to the present day. David Hey shows how, when and where families first got their names, and proves that most families stayed close to their places of origin. Settlement patterns and family groupings can be traced back towards their origins by using national and local records. Family Names and Family History tells everyone interested in tracing their own name how to set about doing so.
  This book is also available from Amazon.com (United States) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details. -

• Family Names and Their Story - (Book - Amazon.com) : The Tattoo and Tribal Name. Sire Names. Totemism and Names. Castle and the Manor. The Village. The Town: Trade Names. Place Names. Anglo Saxon Names. Scandinavian Names. The Roll of Battle Abbey. French Names: Early; The Huguenot Refugees. Nick and Descriptive Names. Prefixes and Suffixes. Name Stories. The Evolution and Disintegration of Surnames. Scottish and Irish Surnames. Changed Names. Compound Names.
  May also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada) -

• Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings, Third Edition - (Book - Amazon.com) : Published by the Polish Genealogical Society.
  This book may also be available from Amazon.ca. Click on link for details. -

• The Scottish Surnames of Colonial America - (Book - Genealogical.com) : The Scottish Surnames of Colonial America attempts to identify Scottish names, provide explanations of their meaning and significance, give examples, and where applicable, name the clan to which the family is linked. -

• Special Report On Surnames in Ireland together with Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames and Christian Names in Ireland - (Book - Genealogical.com) : These two works-in-one are a valuable instrument for tracing Irish family origins. The first, the Special Report, shows the areas in Ireland with which family names are most frequently associated. In fact, it has a 39-page table listing of about 2,400 surnames, alphabetically arranged, indicating the number of occurrences of each surname in the various provinces and counties of Ireland. Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames, the second report, consists of a 32-page list of 2,091 names and their variations as well as a separate key to the Registers' Districts and Unions in which the surnames are located. -

• Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History -

  (Book - Amazon.com) : This major reference work, first published in 1946, is a fully documented alphabetical listing of over 8,000 Scottish family and personal names and is an invaluable source of information for genealogists, historians and families interested in their Scottish ancestry. May also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada)

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• A Dictionary of English Surnames - (Book - Amazon.co.uk) : This fascinating dictionary covers the origin and meaning of over 16,000 surnames, giving detailed information on early name-forms and how names have changed over the centuries. Alternative forms of names are cross-referenced to make it easy to find variants. Popular names such as Brown, Clark and Smith are all covered, alongside rarer names from Clapper to Cutterbuck, Stocking to Twitchen.
  This book is also available from Amazon.com (United States) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links to check for availability. -

• A Dictionary of Pseudonyms and Their Origins, With Stories of Name Changes, 3rd. ed. -

  (Book - Amazon.com) : This greatly expanded and completely updated version gives the changed names of over 8,000 people (up from 4,000 in the earlier edition) who have “made a name for themselves.” Arranged by pseudonym, the entries give the true name, vital dates, country of origin or settlement, and profession. Many entries include the story behind the person’s name change. Also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada)

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• A Dictionary of Universal Biography of All Ages and of All Peoples - (Book - Genealogical.com) : This remarkably ambitious work is a guide to biographies of eminent or prominent men and women cited in more than fifty encyclopedic publications in existence at the time of the work's original appearance in 1916. With coverage of all countries and all generations, and drawing on sources in English, French, and German, A Dictionary of Universal Biography can claim to encompass all persons of celebrity from the dawn of history until the early twentieth century. In order to confine the work within manageable limits, the author was constrained to limit his coverage, in the majority of cases, to the subject's name, nationality, country of adoption, and profession. In all, a staggering 110,000 biographies can be found within the pages of this vast work. -

• An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on Their Derivation and Import - (Book - Amazon.com) :
  Also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada) -

• Dictionary of American Family Names - (Book - Amazon.com) : Where did your surname come from? Do you know how many people in the United States share it? What does it tell you about your lineage? From the editor of the highly acclaimed Dictionary of Surnames comes the most extensive compilation of surnames in America. The result of 10 years of research and 30 consulting editors, this massive undertaking documents 72,000 surnames of Americans across the country. May also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). -

• Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames With Special American Instances - (Book - Amazon.com) : This is the classic reference work on English and Welsh surnames, with dated and documented examples given in the text and American instances cited in many cases where the name appeared in the directories of such cities as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. It contains over 30,000 entries in dictionary form, three columns to a page, giving the origin and history of each surname, lists of persons bearing the name in various centuries, and the frequency of the name and its variants in certain nineteenth-century English and American directories.
  May also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada) -

• Directory of Family Associations (4thEd) - (Book - Amazon.com) : There are many uses for a directory of family associations but undoubtedly the best use for it is for genealogical research--for making contact with family members, sharing information about family history, developing common ground between people of the same surname, arranging reunions, discovering who's out there and where you connect on the family tree, and finding out where you can go with your own research. Based largely on data received in response to questionnaires sent to family associations, reunion committees, and one-name societies, the Directory of Family Associations puts you in touch with all these possibilities, offering access to approximately 6,500 family associations across the United States.
  May also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada) -

• Encyclopedia of Surnames: The Complete Companion to Tracing Your Name's History -

  (Book - Amazon.com) : With entertaining coverage of more than 7,000 surnames, this book provides a complete and accessible companion to tracing the history of names. Written by John Ayto, a respected lexicographer and author of Word Origins, this is the ideal research tool for historians, journalists, genealogists, researchers, and anyone interested in tracing their family history. This book is also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details.

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• Irish Names and Surnames - (Book - Genealogical.com) : In compiling this authoritative dictionary, Fr. Woulfe spent 25 years in the field collecting names, communicating with native Irish-speakers, and studying the different forms of Gaelic. The work begins with an illuminating history of Irish names, followed by the great dictionary--700 pages of Irish names in two arrangements: English-Irish and Irish-English. Besides personal names, there is a section on Irish clan names, which are of great importance in tracing the early history of Irish families. -

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