Christmas (surname)

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Christmas family crest

Christmas is an uncommon English-language surname. The origin is uncertain; some genealogy books state that it was given to people born near Christmas, while this is disputed by researchers, and DNA tests performed on men with the surname show that the majority of those descend from a common ancestor. Others suggest it was given to people who organised Christmas festivities, or has a Norman origin. Most prominent in Southern England, various notable people from around the world have had the surname, and it has been given to a number of fictional characters. The William Faulkner character Joe Christmas, from Light in August, has a much-discussed name. The blood disorder Christmas disease or haemophilia B was first described in (and named for) a boy with the surname and is observed in other people of the name.

Etymology

The linguistic

Χριστός". The word "Christmas", used to denote the celebration of the nativity of Jesus on 25 December, appeared around the 12th century.[1]

Origin

There is no certain origin of Christmas as a

byname[4] or given name[5] which became a patronymic and then an inherited surname.[6][7] Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley, writing in the 1870s, noted that Noel had been a common given name for boys born on Christmas, but as the French meaning became obscured in England, the name Christmas replaced it.[5] By the 1990s, the given name Christmas had been replaced by Noel again, when used in this way.[8] Bardsley did report finding record of a child named Christmas unrelated to the season: having the surname Day, his parents had given him the name to make him Christmas Day.[5] Genealogical researcher Henry Christmas contends that the "one born at Christmas" proposal is "too easy" and does not make sense with the rareness and localization of the surname.[2]

Records stating the "one born at Christmas" origin include A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Bardsley[9] and Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison.[10] The earliest record of this origin is in Patronymica Britannica (1860) by Mark Antony Lower, which sources it to speculation by Tudor historian William Camden, stating: "CHRISTMAS, CHRISMAS. Originally imposed, Camden thinks, as a baptismal name, in consequence of the individual having been born on the day of the festival."[11]

In 2005, geneticists in Oxford led by Bryan Sykes found that, of a selection of men with the surname, 70% were descended from one 13th-century Yorkshireman. Henry Christmas traced lineage of the surname; spelt "Chrystmasse" in the earliest records he found, he suggested that it is Norman in origin.[2] In The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States of America (1874), published by Henry Samuel King, the surname is said to be a direct translation of the French surname Noel.[12]

The Dictionary of American Family Names (2003) by Patrick Hanks notes two origins of the surname: given to someone with a relation to Christmas, e.g. a leader of festivities, and a translation of French Noel.[13]

History

The name is principally found in Essex and Sussex counties in England;[2] in Henry B. Guppy's 1890 Homes of Family Names in Great Britain it is described as an "ancient name" in this area, also present in Cambridgeshire, surviving into the 13th century as "Cristemasse". Guppy notes that John Crystmasse was a nobleman of the area in 1433.[14] The name has been recorded with spellings "Cristemass" in 1185 and 1191, and "Cristesmesse" in 1308.[15] The Norman People notes a Richard Christmasse in c.1272.[12] Hanks also noted the name as pertaining to Southern England, but found an established family in County Waterford, Ireland, in 1622.[13]

During the time of James I, Gerard or Garrett Christmas[16] and his sons, John and Matthew, were involved in producing entertainment. They were trained carvers but, thanks to their craft, also staged the Lord Mayor's Show annual pageants for the Lord Mayor of London, with royal approval. Their positions cumulatively lasted for twenty-one years, and their work was well-respected.[17][18] In the 17th century, a Thomas Christmas was a trumpeter in Charles II's court;[19] he and another Christmas from Waterford have their names written as "Christmas" in a royal record printed in 1691, while the celebration itself is written with the spelling "Christmass".[20] A different Thomas Christmas, whose will was dated 1520, was a merchant and major philanthropist in Colchester.[21]

In the 20th century, William Herbert Turner compiled two volumes of Christmas families based in South Carolina and the East Coast of the United States.[22][23]

Christmas disease

Main article: Haemophilia B

The blood disorder haemophilia B is also known as Christmas disease, named after

Stephen Christmas, the first patient described with the condition;[24] the Journal of Haemophilia Practice said that Stephen Christmas's parents, in naming him Stephen and his brother Robin with the surname Christmas, had a sense of humour.[25] Other men named Christmas have been found to have the condition, which is inherited.[26] A deficiency of Factor IX, or: the Christmas factor, also named for Stephen Christmas, causes Christmas disease.[27] The condition was first published in a journal at Christmas, leading some to assume it was offensively named for the holiday and demand its name be changed. As a result, the condition is now formally known as haemophilia B.[25]

Notable people with the surname Christmas

Fictional characters with the name Christmas

Joe Christmas

Faulkner's character of Joe Christmas has a lot of his identity based on his name. The name had been given to him when he was left at an orphanage on Christmas, but he claims it over the surname of his

Jesus Christ.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ Fink, Jenni (2019-12-25). "Why is it called Christmas? The origin and meaning of the name explained". Newsweek. Retrieved 2021-12-26.
  2. ^ a b c d e "DNA search for 'father' Christmas". BBC News. 2005-11-23. Retrieved 2007-12-25.
  3. ^ Anderson, William (1865). Genealogy and Surnames: With Some Heraldic and Biographical Notices. Ritchie. p. 62.
  4. ISBN 978-1-317-90146-4
    .
  5. ^ a b c Bardsley, Charles W. (1877). "The Romance of the London Directory, Chapter IV. The Bible and Nomenclature". The Fireside annual, pictorial annual; conducted by C. Bullock. pp. 473–475.
  6. ISBN 978-0-8063-1516-4
    .
  7. ISBN 978-90-5183-312-6
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-7735-6741-2
    .
  9. ^ Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley (1896). A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames. p. 180.
  10. OL 17313721M
    .
  11. OL 7067015M
    .
  12. ^ a b The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States of America. Henry S. King & Company. 1874. p. 198.
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-508137-4
    .
  14. ^ Guppy, Henry Brougham (1890). Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. Harrison and Sons. p. 84.
  15. ISBN 978-0-415-05737-0
    .
  16. ^ Related text can be found Works related to Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Christmas, Gerard at Wikisource
  17. JSTOR 2872281
    .
  18. OCLC 783148796
    .
  19. ISBN 9780809305179
    .
  20. ^ King, William (2004). The state of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's government in which their carriage towards him is justified, and the absolute necessity of their endeavouring to be freed from his government, and of submitting to their present Majesties is demonstrated. pp. 273–274, 311–312.
  21. S2CID 144230568
    .
  22. ^ Turner, William Herbert (1999). Some Christmas Families. Vol. 1. W.H. Turner.
  23. ^ Turner, William Herbert (1999). Some Christmas Families. Vol. 2. W.H. Turner.
  24. PMID 12780784
    .
  25. ^
    S2CID 76812649
    .
  26. PMID 10498242
    .
  27. PMID 12997790
    .
  28. S2CID 163936514
    .
  29. ^
    S2CID 144679171
    .
  30. ^ Winkleblack, Carole Booker (1976). "Joe Christmas: A Hero in Conflict in Faulkner's Light in August."
  31. ^ Lamont, W. H. (1957). "The Chronology of "Light in August" ". Modern Fiction Studies, 3 (4): 360.

External links

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