Collins Dictionary Of Surnames: From Abbey to Mutton, Nabbs to Zouch

Court, Corte, Courtman, Courts, Curt (Eng) Two separate names have blended here. These forms could indicate someone who worked at a manorial court, but they could also be a nickname for a ‘short’ man.

Richard Court, who died in 1791, had been a blacksmith, as his epitaph reveals:

My Sledge and Hammer lie Reclin’d,

My Bellows too have lost their Wind;

My Fire is out, and Forge decay’d,

And in the Dust my Vice is laid.

Coutant, Coutanssee CONSTANT.

Covington (Eng) Someone who came from a place so-named because it was the ‘settlement of Cova’s people.’

Cowle, Cowlessee NICHOLAS.

Cowpersee COOPER.

Cox, Coxe, Coxen, Coxonsee COCK.

Crabbe, Crab, Crabb, Crabbie, Crabs, Crabtree (Eng) The form Crabtree makes it clear that these names could sometimes refer to crab-apple trees, or to their fruit. Even then, given the fondness of our ancestors for nicknames drawn from Nature, the name was likely to refer to someone’s ‘sourness.’ If the reference was to the crustacean, a comment was probably being made on someone’s shambling gait, his ‘crab-like’ movement.

Mrs Carol Crabb reported to Woman magazine that the midwife who brought her new baby to be fed commented: ‘Here you are, Mrs Crabb, your little lobster.’ Mrs Crabb was not amused.

The ‘lobster’ remark will remind avid readers of Charles Dickens of the incident in Nicholas Nickleby, when Nicholas falls in love with an unknown girl. He asks Newman Noggs to follow her and find out who she is. When Newman returns he announces: ‘The name’s Bobster. I remember it by lobster.’ Nicholas is taken aback and can only say: ‘That must be the servant’s name.’ He is later greatly relieved to discover that Noggs has followed the wrong girl, and that the object of his affections is really Madeline Bray.

Crackstonsee HAMILTON.

Craft, Craftssee CROFT.

Craig, Cragg, Craggs, Craigie, Craik (Scot) Descendant of someone who lived near a rugged mass of rock, a crag.

Crakebonesee BRISBANE.

Crane (Eng) Nickname presumably commenting on a man’s long legs. See GREWCOCK.

There is a well-known literary bearer of this name in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: ‘The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceeedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew.

Thomas Wolfe also comments on the name in The Web and the Rock: ‘Nebraska Crane was a fellow that he liked. That was a queer name, sure enough, but there was also something good about it. It was a square, thick, muscular, brawny, browned and freckled, wholesome kind of name, plain as an old shoe and afraid of nothing, and yet it had some strangeness in it, too.’

Crappersee CROPPER.

The word crap, ‘excrement’ or ‘defecate’, is not derived from this name, in spite of Thomas Crapper’s invention of the flush toilet. There was a word crappe in Middle English which referred to the ‘residue, dregs, chaff,’ the meaning of which was extended.

Craswall, Crasswell, Craswell, Crasswellersee CRESWELL.

Crawcour (Eng) A name which indicates Norman descent. Weekley explained it as a form of a common French place name, Crévecoeur ‘heartbreak.’ The reference is to land which is heartbreaking for the peasant because it is infertile.

In Ann Vickers, a novel by the American writer Sinclair Lewis, the following occurs: ‘The name Crévecoeur sounded aristocratic. Ann looked it up in the dictionary and announced to Pat, impressively, that it really meant ‘heartbreak’ and was guaranteed to be romantic. But Pat looked it up in an even bigger dictionary and bawdily announced to Ann that crévecoeur also meant ‘a French variety of the domestic fowl, heavily crested and bearded, and having a comb like two horns.’

Crawford, Crawforth (Eng) This is a common place name, indicating a ford where crows gathered. Bearers of the name had an ancestor living in such a place in the Middle Ages.

Creighton, Crichten, Crichton, Crighton (Scot) Someone who came from a place so-named because it was a ‘settlement near a boundary.’

James Crichton (‘Admirable Crichton’) of Clunie was a Scottish prodigy in the 16th century. Allusive use of his name sometimes occurs, as when Thomas Hughes writes in Tom Brown’s Schooldays: ‘He was the Crichton of our village boys. He could wrestle and climb and run better than all the rest.’ J.M.Barrie later made Bill Crichton butler to Lord Loam in his play The Admirable Crichton.

Creswell, Carswell, Casewell, Casswell, Caswall, Caswell, Caswill, Craswall, Crasswell, Craswell, Crassweller, Cressall, Cressel, Cresswell, Criswell, Kerswell, Kerswill (Eng) Descendant of someone who originally came from one of the many places so-named because because of its ‘stream with watercress.’ These various spellings occur at the place-name stage, Old English coerse ‘watercress’ having developed in different dialectal ways.

Even when a spelling has become theoretically fixed in its surname form, variations are still likely to occur. A Mr Cresswell of London complained some years ago in a letter to the Daily Mail that he had been addressed as Mr Blackwell, Crestfall, Chessman and Watercress.

Crewthersee CROWTHER.

Crichten, Crichton, Crightonsee CREIGHTON.

Crisp, Chrisp, Chrispin, Crepin, Crespin, Crespy, Cripin, Crippen, Crippes, Cripps, Crips, Crispe, Crispin (Eng) Nickname for a man with curly hair, or descendant of a man named Crispin (which also means ‘curly-haired’).

Crock, Crockard, Crocker, Crockman, Crocks, Croker (Eng) Occupational name of a potter.

Croft, Craft, Crafts, Crofter, Crofts, Cruft, Crufts (Eng) A ‘croft’ is a small farm or enclosed field. The word became a place name, especially as Crofton, and any of the places so-called could have led to the surname, indicating someone who originally came from there.

Charles Cruft (1852–1938) was born in London. He became a salesman with a company making dog-cakes and saw dog shows as a useful way of selling the product. He organized the first London dog show in 1886 and was guaranteed success when it was patronized by Queen Victoria. However, he ordered that the dogs she had entered were to be judged strictly on their own merits.

Croisier, Croiziersee CROZIER.

Crokersee CROCK.

Cromb, Crumb, Crump (Eng) Nickname for a man with a stooping posture.

Crompton (Eng) Someone who came from a place so-named because it was a ‘settlement near a bend in the river or road.’

Crook (Eng) Nickname for a man with a crooked back.

Crookshank, Crookshanks see Cruikshank.

Cropper, Crapper (Eng) Occupational name of a cropper, mower, sickler.

The English entertainer and singer Lynda Crapper adopted ‘Marti Caine’ as her stage-name.

Crosersee CROZIER.

Cross, Crosse, Crossman (Eng) Descendant of someone who lived near a roadside cross, or one that stood in a market place.

Crossersee CROZIER.

Crossmansee CROSS.

Crother, Crotherssee CROWTHER.