''Hamnett'', and its spelling variants ''Hamnet'' and ''
Hannett
Hannett is a surname of United Kingdom descent.
Etymology
According to the ''Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland'', the modern name ''Hannett'' originates in two different medieval names, which came to sound the same around ...
'', is a personal name (now usually or only found as a surname).
Etymology
According to the ''
Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...
'', the modern name ''Hamnett'' originates in two medieval names, which came to sound the same around the sixteenth century.
The first is the personal name ''Hamunet'': its use as a second name originated to indicate that a person was a child of someone called Hamunet. The earliest attested forms of this name occur in
Old German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
, as ''
Haimo Haimo, also spelled Hamo, Heimo, Hamon, Haim, Haym, Heym, Aymo, Aimo, etc., is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. The Old French forms are Haimon, Aymon, Aimon, Aymes. It is a hypocoristic form of various Germanic names beginning with the r ...
''. This Old German name was borrowed into
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
, including into the
Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to:
*Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066
* Anglo-Norman language
**Anglo-Norman literature
* Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...
dialect spoken in England, as ''Haim'', ''Haimes'' (in the
nominative case
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
), and ''Haimon'' (in the
oblique case
In grammar, an oblique (abbreviated ; from la, casus obliquus) or objective case (abbr. ) is a nominal case other than the nominative case, and sometimes, the vocative.
A noun or pronoun in the oblique case can generally appear in any role exc ...
) — along with variant pronunciations and spellings, which became sources of English surnames like ''Hame'', ''
Haim
The name ''Haim'' can be a first name or surname originating in the Hebrew language, or deriving from the Old German name ''Haimo''.
Hebrew etymology
Chayyim ( he, חַיִּים ', Classical Hebrew: , Israeli Hebrew: ), also transcribed ''Haim ...
'', ''Haime'', ''
Haimes
Haimes is an English language surname.
Etymology
According to the ''Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland'', the modern name ''Haimes'' originates in two different medieval names, which came to sound the same around the sixtee ...
'', ''Hains'', ''
Haines'', ''Hayns'', ''
Haynes Haynes may refer to:
People
*Haynes (surname)
Places
In Australia:
* Haynes, Western Australia
In Canada:
* Haynes, Alberta
In the United Kingdom:
*Haynes, Bedfordshire
** Haynes Church End
In the United States:
*Haynes, Arkansas
* Haynes, Nort ...
'', ''Hammon'' and ''
Hammond''. The form ''Haimon'' was then combined with the Anglo-Norman
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''-et'', giving the pet-name ''Hamunet''.
The second source of the surname ''Hamnett'' is the place-name ''Hampnett'', found
in Gloucestershire and in the forms ''
Westhampnett
Westhampnett (or West Hampnett) is a village and civil parish in the district of Chichester in West Sussex, England, located northeast of Chichester on the former A27 road, now by-passed. The village is pre-Norman and is home to many listed bui ...
'' and ''East Hampnett'' in Sussex. It thus first came to be used as a second name to indicate that a person came from one of these settlements. These names come in turn from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
words ''hēah'' ('high') and ''tūn'' ('estate, farmstead', thus meaning 'high farmstead') with the later addition of the Anglo-Norman diminutive suffix ''-et''.
Distribution
As of around 2011, 1543 individuals had the surname ''Hamnett'' in Great Britain, and 21 in Ireland. In 1881, 991 people in Great Britain had the name, being clustered in the south-west of England, especially Devon. Meanwhile, Irish bearers of the name around the middle of the nineteenth century clustered in Dublin.
[''The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland'', ed. by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), II, p. 1183 .v. ''Hamnett'' .]
Notable people
*
Hamnet Shakespeare
Hamnet Shakespeare (baptised 2 February 1585 – buried 11 August 1596) was the only son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and the fraternal twin of Judith Shakespeare. He died at the age of 11. Some Shakespearean scholars spe ...
(1585–1596), son of William Shakespeare
*
Ade Hamnett
Ade Samuel Hamnett (1882 – 1956) was an English footballer who played for Stoke.
Career
Hamnett was born in Chester and played for Birkenhead before joining Stoke
Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom.
Stoke may refer to:
...
(1882–1956), English footballer
*
Belinda Hamnett
Belinda Hamnett (; Cantonese: Hon Kwun-Ting) born 28 September 1975 in Hong Kong is an actress, model and ex-beauty queen. Being crowned Miss Asia Pageant 1997 effectively launched her career in the fashion and entertainment industry. The mode ...
(born 1975), Hong Kong actress and model
*
Bob Hamnett
Robert Hamnett (1889 – 1967) was an English footballer who played for Stoke.
Career
Hamnett was born in Manchester and began his career playing for Fenton in Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, commonly called Stoke is one of the six town ...
(1889–1967), English footballer
*
Cyril Hamnett, Baron Hamnett
Cyril Hamnett, Baron Hamnett (20 May 1906 – 17 March 1980) was a British journalist and politician.
He was the son of James Henry Hamnett and was educated at Manchester Technical School. In 1950 and in the following year, he contested Knutsf ...
(1906–1980), British journalist and politician
*
Katharine Hamnett
Katharine E. Hamnett (born 16 August 1947, in Gravesend, Kent) is an English fashion designer best known for her political T-shirts.
Early life
Hamnett was born on 16 August 1947, the daughter of James Appleton, a group captain. She attende ...
(born 1947), English fashion designer
*
Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia.
Early life
Hamnett was born in Shirley House, Picton Road in the small c ...
(1890–1956), Welsh artist and writer
*
Olivia Hamnett
Olivia Jane Hamnett (1942/1943 – 2 November 2001) was an English actress known for numerous television roles in Australia, primarily in soap operas and miniseries. including '' The Sullivans'' as Meg Fulton in 1979, in ''Prisoner'' as Dr. K ...
(died 2001), English actress
See also
*
Hamnet (disambiguation) Hamnet Shakespeare (1585–1596) was the only son of English playwright William Shakespeare.
Hamnet may also refer to:
* ''Hamnet'' (novel), a 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell
* Hamnet Holditch (1800–1867), English mathematician
*Variant spelling ...
References
{{surname, Hamnett