Nook of Names Pick of the Week — Sherlock

Yes, as in Holmes.

Elementary, my dear Watson.

Only — Sherlock doesn’t say that anymore.

There is no question that Sherlock Holmes is one of the best-known, best-loved fictional characters of all time.

But largely thanks to Basil Rathbone’s marvelous — but distinctly middle age and very, very cold — Holmes, and a succession of wannabe Basil Rathbone interpretations which followed, it has, until now failed to enamor many parents.

That, however, might now change, thanks to two very different, very compelling new Sherlock Holmeses on the block: those of Robert Downey, Jr, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Asking which I prefer would be asking whether I prefer a good cheddar or a good stilton. Love ’em both.

And what they both do, in very different ways, is rescue Holmes from the cultural cliché he had almost become and inject him with new life; the one by giving it the Holywood action-adventure-spy treatment, albeit preserving the late nineteenth century setting (well, kind of); the other by bringing Holmes bang up to date with clever new twists on the old tales.

Cumberbatch’s Holmes may be out of his original time (not that that hasn’t been done before — most of Rathbone’s films had a contemporary setting too), but in my opinion he’s actually the most faithful to Doyle’s original.

And, let’s not beat about the bush, both Robert and Benedict have “seriously attractive” stamped all over them.

If they can’t make people start to seriously consider Sherlock as a name, nothing will.

Plus, it really is a great name.

A surname, no less, in origin.

Nowhere is it stated in Conan Doyle’s work how Sherlock got his name, but it is a safe bet that as a man who came from a clan of “country squires,”  somewhere in his family tree, it featured originally as a surname.

It may have been a family name in the Holmeses for centuries, or it may have been his mother’s maiden name, or it may have been the surname of a family friend. We simply don’t know.

It derives from the Old English scīr “bright,” and “shining” (the same source as “sheer”) and loc(c) “lock (of hair),” which as surnames-as-first-name meanings go, is appealing.

And while any child called Sherlock would have to get used to being called Holmes, there are certainly many names, some of them quite popular, with far worse and more irritating “jokes” lying in wait to torment someone with.

If I were called Sherlock, I might adopt Holmes as a nickname myself, and have done with it. Rug from under feet and all that.

There’s also the contemporary Lock, which I’ve personally liked for a long time.

And if you were to be very daring, and like turning things on their heads, and gave Sherlock to a girl, then Sher and Sherry naturally present themselves.

What Sherlock Holmes himself would have thought to being called Sherry though, I wouldn’t like to say!

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Surnames as First Names: English Surnames — L

Loxley

On to “L” in our tour of little-used surnames of Old English, Norse and Anglo-French origin.

• Laceby — from Laceby, Lincolnshire. Old Norse personal name Leifr “heir” + bý “farmstead,” “village” and “settlement.”
• Lafford — probably from “de la ford.”
• Lainer, Lanier — Old French lainer “woolmonger.”
• Laker — Old English lacu “stream,” or Middle English leyker “player” and “actor.”
• Lambley, Lamley — from one of the places called Lambley. Old English lamb “lamb” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Lamotte — Huguenot surname. French la motte “the mound,” used specifically of a castle mound.
• Lancelaw — Old French lance levé “with lifted lance.”
• Lanceley — from the personal name Lancelin, a diminutice of Lance < Old German Lanzo. Nothing actually to do with lances, but a short form of names beginning with land “land.”
• Lanchester — from Lanchester. Old English lang “long” + ceaster “Roman fort.” Name of a former British car manufacturer.
• Landel — from Old French launde “glade,” “forest” and “pasture.”
• Langer — from Langar, Nottinghamshire. Old English lang “long” + gāra “spear(-shaped wedge of land).”
• Langham — from one of the places called Langham. Old English lang “long” + hām “homestead,” “village,” “estate,” “manor,” or hamm “enclosure,” “river-meadow.”
• Langley — from one of the places called Langley. Old English lang “long” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Langton — from one of the places called Langton. Old English lang “long” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Lanslyn — variant of LANCELEY.
• Larkin — medieval pet-form of Lawrence.
• Lascelles — from Lacelle in France. Old French la celle “the dwelling (of a hermit),” from Latin cella “inner room of a temple.”
• Latham — from Latham, Lancashire or Laytham, Yorkshire. Old Norse hlathum “(place) at the barns.”
• Lawley — from Lawley, Shropshire. Old English personal name Lafa + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Lazenby — from Lazenby, Yorkshire or Lazonby, Cumbria. Old Norse lesysingi “freedman” + bý “farmstead,” “village” and “settlement.”
• Leale — Old French leial “loyal” and “faithful.”
• Leathley — from Leathley, Yorkshire. Old English hlith “slope” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Ledger — from the Old German personal name Leodegar “spear of the people.”
• Leleu — from Old French le lou “the wolf.”
• Lenham — from Lenham, Kent. Old English personal name *Leana + hām “homestead,” “village,” “estate,” “manor.”
• Lenton — from Lenton, Lincolnshire. Old English personal name Leofa (a short form of names beginning in lēof “dear”) + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Levenger — from the Old English personal name Leofgar “dear spear.”
• Leverett — from the Old English personal name Leofræd “dear counsel” or Anglo-French leveret “young hare.”
• Levis, Leavis — from the Old English personal name Leofhyse “dear young man/warrior.”
• Leyland — from Leyland, Lancashire. Old English *læge “untilled” + land “land.” British Leyland was another car manufacturer.
• Lidney — from Lydney, Gloucestershire, site of an important Romano-British temple complex to the Celtic God Nodens. Almost certainly the theonym Lludd (a later Welsh form of Nodens) + Old English ēg “island.”
• Linley, Lindley — from one of the places called Linley or Lindley. Old English līn “flax” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Linton — from one of the places called Linton. Saw sporadic use in late nineteenth century, but nothing to write home about. Old English līn “flax” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Litton — from one of the places called Litton. Old English hlith “slope” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Litwin — from the Old English personal name Leohtwine “bright friend.”
• Livsey — from the Old English personal name Leofsige “dear victory.”
• Lock(e) — Old English loc “lock (of hair),” or Middle English loke “(river) lock.”
• Lomax — from a lost village of the name in Lancashire. Probably Old English *lumm “pool” + halh “nook.”
• Loven — from the Old English personal name *Leofhun “dear young bear,” and Louvain in France.
• Loveren — from the Old English girl’s name Leofrun “dear secret/rune.”
• Loxley, Locksley — from one of the places called Loxley; associated with Robin Hood. Old English personal name/byname Locc + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.” Or, then again, maybe the Lox- shares the same source as LUXTON’s Lux- …
• Luxton — from one of the places called Luxton in Devon. The first element is uncertain, but a strong case could be made for an ultimate derivation from Lugus + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Lyall — from the Middle English persoan names Lyon “lion” or Lionel “little lion.”
• Lyner — Old French linier “maker/seller of linen.”
• Lytton — variant of LITTON.
• Lyward — from the Old English personal name Leofweard “dear guardian.”

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