Surnames
of Primary Interest
Our variants are
confined to modern (post-1500) English.
This would exclude surviving Scandinavia versions of the name
such as Oddeson or Oddgeirson. If versions in other languages are included
we would have to go further back in the surname family tree to include
the earlier and common roots of all Hrodgar/Roger/Oddgeir forms. We
would then have to include Dodgson, Hudson and Rogerson in modern English.
Therefore, the society will confine itself to a single group of post-1500
surnames. This group can be readily confined to a discernable subset
of those beginning with 'Ho'.
Second, the Scottish
or Irish prefix 'Mac' or 'Mc' is excluded. Gaelic naming patterns
are very different from those in the Anglo-Saxon world, and the closest
possible names in this Gaelic tradition (like McOttar or perhaps McLeod)
are a long way from 'Hodgson'.
Third, names such
as Hodge, Hodges, Hodgkins, Hodgkinson and Hoddesdon and their close
variants will be excluded. All of these names have a very difficult
geographical distribution from Hodgson. Hence they may have a very different
etymological origin.The first three and the fifth are excluded because
there is no 'son' at the end. In the third and fourth names, the 'kin'
(at least) is likely to be of Flemish origin. The fifth name, Hoddesdon,
is a place name in Hertfordshire and hence is radically different type
of surname.
Fourth, the list
of variants should sound similar to Hodgson or its vernacular contractions,
such as Hodgeon. In the North of England the 's' is often dropped when
the surname is pronounced. Thus . . .
Rule 1 - The name
should always begin with 'Ho'.
Rule 2 - Always
a 'd' or 'dg' or soft 'g' sound should also be retained, without the
intrusion of a (harder) 'k', 'c' or 'kin' sound or syllable.
Rule 3 - There
should always be a 'n' or 'ne' (where the final vowel would be silent)
ending. Hence there would be at least a remnant of the '-son' suffix.
'Hodgin' and other closely similar '-in' variants are acceptable because
they are likely to be closely related to 'Hodgeon'.
From these rules,
we can construct our list of Hodgson variants by breaking down the surname
into three elements:
First element:
'Ho' - fixed in all cases.
Second element:
'dgs' and variants that comply with the above rules. These would include:
ddes, ddg, ddgs, dds, des, dg, dge, dges, dgg, dggs, dgh, dghs, dgs,
dgsh, dhgs, dhs, dis, ds, gs, ges, geis, gges, ggi, ggis, ggs, ghes,
ghs, gis
Third element:
'son' and variants that comply with the above rules. These would include:
in, ion, on, one, onn, onne, oon
If these rules
and options are strictly applied then we get no more than 1 x 28 x 7
= 196 variants.
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