Origins


Where does the name come from?


Many British surnames have an obvious origin: some are related to a trade or craft like Butcher, Baker etc; others are related to a place and others to a physical attribute like red hair or being tall or small. But what am I to read into Chicken as a name? Is it related to being a poultry keeper? Or is it, as some have suggested, related to being as brave (or not!) as a chicken? Or did it arrive in England with the Norman invasion as a corruption of Chicon? I'm no closer to knowing the answer to that question than I was when I started on this family tree research more than 2 decades ago.
What I do know is that it is found in much of the English-speaking world though it's still not a very common name. Some of those in other countries are definitely descendants of families that I've traced here in England. Others have no known link at present. The search is endlessly fascinating, and I fully accept that I might never know the answer.

#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
A Favourite Photograph This week's prompt came in the same week as the 10th anniversary of my mother's death so it seemed appropriate to share this photograph, one of the nicest ones I have of her. It was taken by one of her nephews who visited from Ireland less than 6 months before she died. It captures perfectly her lovely smile. I know she'd be saying to him "What on earth are you doing with that camera".  He had copies of it made and gave them to my sister and me before the funeral. It now sits on top of the piano near the dining table and her smile is there with us at every meal.  She was an amazing woman, though also very ordinary. Her childhood was spent on a very small farm in Ireland and as a teenager she made the journey to England where her aunt arranged a job in the local hospital as a ward maid - making beds, emptying bed pans, scrubbing floors, all the jobs that are needed to keep a hospital clean and operational but none of them exciting or easy. A ...
Read more

The First Chicken to win a VC

George Bell Chicken was born in March 1833 in Howden Pans, close to Wallsend in Northumberland. His father, George, was a mariner and George Bell followed in his footsteps. It seems he was a natural, as he was certified Competent as Only Mate shortly before his 18th birthday and by the time he was 20 he'd been certified as a Master. His travels as mate took him from his native Tyneside to the West Coast of America, Valparaiso, the Baltic and Copenhagen.  As Captain of the Hastings he travelled to Madras and then to Calcutta. In 1855 he transferred to the East India Company, or the Indian Navy - there is some confusion over the details. Quite what he did for the next couple of years is unclear, but he saw in the Indian Mutiny or Rebellion of 1857-8 an opportunity to win a name for himself. He is said to have declared an intention to win a medal.   The book "The Victoria Cross at Sea" by John Winton, published in 1978 gives this description of his success: "On 27 th  S...
Read more