NEWMAN
This is a copy of an article published in
The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper,
on 24th May 1993,
reproduced by kind permission of the author, the late Desmond Holden.
The “What's in a Name” series was a regular
feature in the Advertiser over the period 1993‑2004,
taking a refreshing look at the derivation of some typically
Derbyshire surnames.
Articles are confined to the origins and meanings of surnames,
and do not indicate any particular interest on Desmond's part in
the genealogy, descent, or family history of individuals bearing
the surnames featured.
Editor's Note: Articles are provided for general interest and
background only. They are not intended to provide an exhaustive treatise
for any individual family history - investigations of which may yield
quite different results. Or, in Desmond's own words:
“In the end it must remain with individual bearers of the names to
draw upon family traditions and to seek out such documentary
evidence as is available to decide the matter for themselves.”
WHAT'S IN A NAME …
Are you called NEWMAN?
People who have recently arrived in a place are often referred to
as being "new". There are plenty of examples: in a street one hears
allusions to "those new people at number -" or "those new people
who've taken over so-and-so's old place." And, most certainly, we
have all gone through the process of being "new boys" or "new
girls" as we went up from one school to another.
So it is not surprising that when strangers were brought into a
community, our ancestors referred to them collectively as "the new
people", and, no doubt, individually as "the new man". It is, of
course, a situation that was not special to this country: it was
happening all over Europe and the name "Newman" has its equivalents
in many other languages, as, for example, the Germanic "Neumann"
and the Nordic "Nieumann."
Where the newcomers came from in the first place and why they
"came" anyway is something which has long been forgotten. It is
just possible that some people from the Low Countries settled in
the East of England because the earliest record of the name can be
found in Norfolk for 1166. It might well be that the "new men"
possessed some special skills because the name is prevalent in the
West Midlands, and this suggests that whoever or whatever induced
them to come to this Island in the first place caused them to move
away from the coastal districts towards the centre of England.
The name "Newman" seems to have assumed its present form by the
Twelfth century and has admitted of very few variations, of which
"Nyman" is one. Although many surnames are based on place-names,
"Newman" is not one of them and the similarity between it and names
such as "Newnham", "Newnam", and "Newnum" as well as our local
"Newholme" is quite misleading because these words refer to "new
sites" or "new settlements" and not new arrivals.
The most famous bearer of the name is Cardinal Newman ("Lead Kindly
Light") whose ancestors had come over from the Netherlands and
settled in Cambridgeshire - but whether this has any real bearing
on his name is not certain. There are about. 200 families listed in
the local directories.
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© Desmond Holden
From "The Peak Advertiser", 24th May 1993.
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