Charles Wareing Bardsley’s English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations is a classic study of how English family names came to be. Bardsley traces surnames to their origins in occupations, places, nicknames, and personal names, illuminating the social history embedded in everyday names.
Drawing on medieval records, the book shows how fixed surnames emerged and what they reveal about the lives of ordinary people. It is written with clarity and a genuine delight in its subject. For genealogists, historians, and the simply curious, Bardsley’s work remains an authoritative and engaging guide to the meanings hidden in English surnames.