Are People Named “Abbott” Descended from Celibate Abbots?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Good morning. This is Marina Abbott calling from the beautiful Valley of the Moon, Sonoma, California.

What’s up, Marina? What’s on your mind?

Well, actually, I have a question about my last name.

As we know, many last names in English come from someone’s ancestor’s type of work, for example, Baker or Smith or Cook and so forth.

My last name, Abbott, comes from the head of a monastery, at least that’s my understanding, which I’ve always wondered, aren’t they supposed to be celibate, not getting married and passing on their name?

So how did myself and many other people end up with the last name Abbott?

Sometimes people stray, Marina.

No, that’s shocking.

But no, but it’s a good question, Martha, right? Because people have names like Parsons.

My in-laws have the name Parsons.

Oh, that’s true.

That’s true.

Although Parsons can be married, but what are we to do with all the bishops out there?

Or nuns and monks.

Oh my goodness, of course.

Right.

Yes.

What do we do with Thelonious Monk?

What do we do with all the people out there named Pope, for heaven’s sake?

What is going on?

This is a bigger story than I ever imagined.

It may be that people named Abbott were named Abbott because they were employed in the household of an Abbott.

You know, they had big households, the church had a lot of money.

Or it may have to do with the fact that they lived near an Abbott.

You know, we have all these names in not only English, but other languages that have to do with where you live.

You know, somebody named Hill lives near a hill.

Somebody named Woods lives near the woods.

Or in French, Dubois, you know, they live near the woods.

Or in Spanish or Italian, Rivera, you know, they live near the rivers.

So it could be that somebody lived near the abbot’s home.

And I’ve also seen suggestions that maybe it’s just that someone acted as pompous as an abbot or as pious as an abbot.

Oh, I love that one.

Would that fit with the rest of your family, Marina?

You know, we’re a pretty freewheeling bunch, but I think that that’s a really fun idea.

The idea of proximity did occur to me, but the personality trait aspect of it had not occurred to me.

I just think that’s really funny.

Yeah, so it’s that simple.

It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

Well, they didn’t have to stray.

Let’s just put it that way.

Yeah.

They could have kept their vows.

Well, thank you both so much.

I just, I love your show and I get so much pleasure out of it.

And it’s really a treat to be able to talk to you.

We got a lot of pleasure from your question.

We don’t get to talk about onomastics very much, you know, the study of names.

No, we love talking about names and naming.

And that’s a good one.

All right, take care of yourself.

Okay, well, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Yeah, let’s put the call out, Martha.

We love talking about names and naming, whether it’s an Anglophone name or a Hispanic name or a French name or from somewhere else.

We’d love to give it a shot and help you find out more about it.

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