What’s In A Name?
A Quick and General Discussion on How Surnames Began
For the most part, surnames developed from one of four ways; (1) Location, (2) Kinship, (3) Occupation, and (4) Nicknames.
The most popular creation of a surname actually was being named after a location, such as a town, an estate, or even the fact that one lived next to a lake, a river, or on the glen. This method of using a location comprised about 43% of surnames. Examples might include London, Newtown, Rivers, Glen, etc.
The second most common method, about 33%, came from kinship, or more commonly known as … the son of. Examples include, Johnson, Peterson, MacDonald, Janowicz, Fitz-Hamon … all mean son of.
The third most common method, about 15%, was based on occupation. Examples include Smith, Miller, Taylor, etc. Many people might be surprised that this method was not the most popular, but many occurrences of occupational names came during translations and selections as immigrants poured into the United States and wished to have an “American” name; artificially inflating these numbers.
The fourth most common method, about 9%, was based on a nickname. This method gave us names like, Goodman, Redman, Little, etc.
In the case of Ham(m)on(d)(s), Hamon was most definitely a first name, as seen in examples such as Hammon Dentatus, Hamon Fitz-Hamon, and Hamon LeStrange. So where did English first-names came from? In 325 A.D. the Catholic Church outlawed the use of pagan names and names from pagan gods, making Biblical names the most overwhelming common source. Then in 1545, the Church took one step further and made it mandatory to use saint’s names before baptism. These methods of naming would seem to have limitations, giving rise to a lot of repeat uses, but a search of saints on the Internet actually resulted in a massive list, in the hundreds … maybe even a thousand or more. Many of those individuals were cannonized after 1545; however, the list still would have provided many choices. The repeating of names within a genealogy was more honorific to a previous relative than it was to a lack of choices. So, was there a St. Hamon? Not that I could find, but as you’ll see below, Hamon (and its various spellings) was a pagan deity, which would have outlawed its use as a name by the Catholic Church in 325 A.D., but it was also two cities listed in the Bible … which would have made the use appropriate.
HAM(M)ON(D)(S)
Research into the genealogy of any family should begin with the etymology of the surname; however, with the HAM(M)ON(D)(S) family this is not necessarily that easy. Though the family has been successfully traced back to John Hamond (buried in Scarning, Norfolk, England, November 1, 1546/7), there is no solid information naming who the ancestors of John Hamond were. The only possible link to John Hamond, at this point, is a reference to a Nicholas Hamond in Edgefield, England around 1454-5, who could be his Grandfather.(1) Knowing the country of origin is crucial when trying to determine the etymology; and therein lies the problem. Tracing the family back as far as 16th Century Norfolk, England doesn’t get us back far enough to make a positive identification of its source and therefore the etymology. Here is a list of the spellings for the name as it appears in this lineage:
Hamond, Ham’ond, Ham’mond, Hamon, Hammon, Hammond, Hamonds, Hammonds, and Hammons. If certain connections can be made then you can add Hamund to the list and not to confuse matters more, but “in some contemporary 12th Century Latin and French literature, our name was often written as Hamo.”(9) But according to Stratton Owen Hammon, no matter how the name was spelled by various record keepers, once the name came to America and a signature was found, it was always spelled Hammon.
What then are the possibilities? Well, there are actually many.
Egypt(2)
The name Hammon can be linked as far back as 7,000 years-ago to a local god named Amun (also spelt Amon, Amoun, Amen, rarely Imenand, and spelt in Greek as Ammon and Hammon). This name first appeared in Egyptian records as imn, meaning “the hidden one” or “the invisible one”. There were no vowels in Egyptian hieroglyphics so various Egyptologists have reconstructed the name to any one of those listed above. I know what you’re thinking … there is an “i” in imn, but this is how it was written in the article. There are some who say the hieroglyphic HMN is actually “Hammon”, but during my investigation of HMN, I found no references to Amun (Hammon). I did come across a single reference to the Phoenician god, El-HMN, which we equate to El-Hammon or Ba’al-Hammon. What I did find out about HMN is that it was the Egyptian hawk god; the symbol of the emperor; not the god we associate with the supreme god Amun (Hammon). Amun’s journey started as a local god in the area of Thebes and when the armies of the 18th Dynasty evicted the Hyksos rulers, Thebes became the most important city, and by default, Amun became the most important god. Since he was considered “the invisible one”, it was natural to associate him with air and the “breath of life”. In this regard, Amun became the god of gods and the list of his divine responsibilities evolved into many and is of no particular use to us here. When Egypt conquered Kush they determined the Kushite god to be Amun, and since the Kushite deity was depicted as a wooly ram, Amun started becoming associated with Ram-Aries. Since he was associated with air, and therefore the sky, he was depicted in human form with blue skin, to go along with the ram head. As the Egyptian empire began to expand, other gods were absorbed and it wasn’t long until Amun amalgamated with the sun-god Ra to become Amun-Ra. This was especially prominent during the reign of pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), who defaced all the symbols of the old, gods and erected new symbols (sun disc) for his new deity. Once Akhenaten’s unpopular rule was over, the priest brought back the old gods, especially Amun, by persuading the under-aged pharaoh, Tutankhaten to change his name to Tutankhamun. The worship of Amun slowly declined over the dynasties and generations as the division between Upper and Lower Egypt asserted itself and he was rapidly overtaken by the worship of Osiris and Isis.
| Hammon-ra or Ammon-ra |
Amun and Mut |
There are many Egyptologists, amatuer and professional, who quickly state that Ammon (Amun) was never spelled as Hammon in Egypt and they are probably correct; however, it was the Greeks who spelled it Hammon.
Phoenicia and Carthage
The chief Carthaginian and Phoenician god was Ba’al-Hammon (“Lord Hammon” or “Lord of Hammon”)(also spelt Ba’al-Ammon or Ba’al-Amun). It should be noted that Ba’al in the Bible meant any Canaanite god and therefore one can historically assume that Phoenicia (Greek name) and Canaan (Biblical name) would be the same. Ba’al-Hammon was especially worshipped in the city of Hammon (on the Mediterranean shores in present-day southern Lebanon) and in Carthage (a colony founded by a group of Phoenicians from Tyre in 814 B.C.). He was related to the sacrifices of babies and therefore associated with the Greek god Cronos (also spelt Kronos or Chronos). In the temples, the god was normally a statue with outstretched arms and hands pointing down to a pit where sacrificial victims were burned.(3) He is also associated with the Semetic god, El or Dagon, and the Roman god Saturn. As with Egypt’s Amun, whose female aspect was Amunet or Mut, Ba’al-Hammon was associated with the ram and his female partner was Tanit. His partner is significant because Ba’al-Hammon was no longer the most important god after about 500 B.C., when the worship of Tanit grew popular. This probably come about after the Carthaginians suffered a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Himera in 480 B.C. It is such kind of catastrophes that could put a god out of favor, but Ba’al-Hammon probably hung around in small circles for at least a few generations.
Ba’al-Hammon
Bible
Hammon was originally a Phoenician city, in about 1580 B.C., (what is now known as Umm al Awamid; an excavation site in southern Lebanon) and later a Biblical city in the land of Asher; one of the Tribes of Israel (circa. 1200-1020 B.C.) It is near the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and about 10-miles south of Tyre (the major city of Phoenicia). The town was first excavated in the 19th Century by Ernest Kenan and in 1943 and 1945 by Maurice Dunand.
Biblical meanings to the name Hammon are heat, the sun, or warm springs. (1) A town in the tribe of Asher, near Zidon (Joshua 19:28) and identified with ‘Ain Hamul, and (2) A Levitical city of Naphtali (1-Chronicles 6:76).(4)
“And turneth toward the sunrising to Beth-dagon, and reacheth to Zebulun, and to the valley of Jiph-thah-el toward the north side of Beth-emek and Neiel, and goeth out to Cabul on the left hand, and Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, even unto great Zidon; …” Joshua 19:27-28.
“And out of the tribe of Naphtali; Kedesh in Galilee with her suburbs, and Hammon with her suburbs, and Kirjathaim with her suburbs, …” I Chronicles 6:76
What is interesting in the passage from I Chronicles is the term suburb. One can assume from this that these cities were larger than most of the cities during that time or the term simply means; the city plus the inhabitants in the immediate area. On a map that I obtained off the Internet (copyright by C.S. Hammond and CO, N.Y. – notice the last name!) the only reference to a city with the name of Hammon in Naphtali is spelt Hammath, though the King James Version of the Bible clearly spells it as Hammon. Hammon, or Hammath, lies southeast about forty miles from Hammon in Asher along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. See map below.
Map from http://www.katapi.org.uk/Maps/Canaan12t.htm
The Greeks
When the Greeks visited Egypt, they carried back the accounts of Amun (to them Ammon or Hammon), which they quickly associated with their Zeus. Notice that there is a difference between Ba’al-Hammon and Hammon (Amun), though both gods were worshipped as the most powerful god to the people who worshipped them in a particular locale, Ba’al-Hammon was associated with Kronos because his worship required the sacrifice of babies while Hammon was associated with Zeus, since they were obviously similar in their worship.
The Oracle of Delphi advised Philip (King Philip of Macedonia) to worship Zeus-Ammon (or Zeus-Hammon) more than any other god. That brought the advent of Alexander’s birth.(5) Alexander the Great, in his lifetime, visited the ancient city of Ammonium in Egypt, which was an important oracle to Ba’al-Ammon. As a highly influential individual, just by the sure magnitude of his conquests, Alexander would have taken the name Hammon with him wherever he went.
The Romans
An altar to Hamon-Jupiter (or Jupiter-Hammon, seen listed both ways) existed on the very spot where the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris is now standing.
“Indeed a pagan alter to Jupiter-Hammon remained in existence for 150 years after the birth of Hamon Dentatus, only 70 miles away in the city of Paris. Donald Dresden, in writing of Notre Dame de Paris, states, “It is enormously old; the artisans who set to work on it in 1163 laid their stone over a pagan altar dedicated to the Roman Jupiter.”, or according to Virgil and Juvenal, the god would have been called Jupiter-Hammon.”(1)
So what does all this mean? Well, there is no doubt that the name Hammon is an ancient name dating back to Egypt as one of their main gods over 7,000 years ago. Whether imn should or should not have been translated as Hamon is debatable. It is apparent; however, that the Greeks wrote it as Hammon.(2) The Hammon name was carried beyond the Egyptian borders with the Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians as gods (Ba’al-Hammon, Zeus-Hammon, and Jupiter-Hammon). As a Phoenician city and then Israelite cities in the lands of Asher and Napthtali, the name Hammon would have been recognizable throughout the Mediterranean. With the name most noticeably attached to a god, it would not be farfetched that eventually the name began to work its way into the names of individuals, either as a sign of strength (warriors) or in homage to the deity. So over time the name would have made its way north out of the Mediterranean into the barbarous regions of north and northwest Europe.
Vikings
The Vikings are of considerable interest because many believe it is through this adventurous lot that the name Hamond (would have been spelt as Hamund or most likely Hámundr or Hámundi by the Vikings) came to be in our lineage. Most mindsets concerning the Vikings center on their raiding tendencies. The picture of Vikings splashing ashore in their longboats swinging axes and swords as they pillage coastal and river cities, has long been engrained in our psyche. While this picture is true, not all Vikings were raiders; some were immigrants not unlike today … trying to make a better life. There is no doubt that the name Hamond appeared in Vikings names (around 500 A.D.); however, the Viking runic alphabet of the 9th Century did not have the letter ‘O’, so the name Hamond would have appeared as Hamund. Before we go on, let’s look at the meaning of this name as it appeared in Scandinavia.
Hámundr (or Hámundi) has two elements, Há- and –mundr. Há- could derive from Primitive Germanic hanha, “horse”, or from Primitive Scandinavian hauha, related to Old Icelandic hár, “high. The second part, -mundi either comes from Old West Scandinavian –munduR, “protector” or possibly from Old Icelandic mundr meaning “gift”.(6) So what does all that mean? Well, I am not an etymologist, but it would be obvious to me that one should at least keep the appropriate languages together first. So in Old Icelandic we get, “high gift”, which I would assume to mean something precious. The other combinations could yield something like “a protector of horses”. What ever the combinations may yield, the main question to ask is did the name Hammon from the Mediterranean produce the name Hamund (Hámundr, Hámundi) in Scandinavia? Examples in the runes of Hámundr and Hámundi have been found and may occur in the Anglo-Scandinavian names Hamund, Hammund, and Hamond.(6)
Okay, so why is this important? Well, the Guthlac Chronicle of Coyland Abbey in Lincolnshire, dated 870 says that a Danish Viking Chieftain by the name of Hamund came ashore at Holkham, in what is present day Norfolk (North Folk), in 868 A.D. It is with this name that many have thrown their lot as to the origin of the Ham(m)o(n)(d)(s) lineage that came out of Norfolk, England … many … not all. Easily the two greatest American researchers of our particular ancient lineage are Stratton Owen Hammon (1904-97) and his son Neal Owen Hammon (1925-present, thankfully still living as of this writing since he provided me with a basketful of information). Both individuals spent time researching in England and both have come up with differing opinions to the “Danish Viking connection”. Stratton Owen Hammon, along with a distant cousin in England with whom he worked closely, Anthony Hammon, believed in this connection, while Neal Owen Hammon does not. In an email letter to me, here is what Neal Owen Hammon says:
“I have no objection to the contention that in 892* a Viking leader named Hammon [or Hamund] invaded England in company with Halfdan; since this fact is mentioned in the chronicles. But this is where the real facts end; other than his being present at Petersburg, there is no account what so ever. The idea that the same man later settled and was buried at Snoring is rather farfetched, in my opinion. Assuming as one should, that this Hamund stayed with the Vikings, he would have fought in many battles including some victories and some defeats against Alferd the Great, King of England. Perhaps he was a casualty. Perhaps he took his men and went home. Perhaps he settled down somewhere in England and raised a family. Even if the latter is true, there is absolutely no evidence that he settled in Norfolk, much less Snoring. And even if he had, the Vikings used a single name, usually not the name of their father, so as a continuing surname it could not have survived into the 15th Century.”
* - should be 868.
Taking Neal Owen Hammon’s writing at face value, one cannot argue his reasoning; it comes across as pretty sound. So where does this lead us if there is no proof of connection to the Danish Viking Chieftain named Hamund?
Normans(7,8)
Okay … I know what you’re thinking. Normans were originally Vikings, right? The name Viking actually refers to an occupation, meaning “to slip up little streams and creeks (viks) to plunder unsuspecting villages”. So Vikings is a term we usually apply to the Norse (Norway), Danes (Denmark), and Swedes (Sweden), but as the population of the Scandinavian countries grew, the “Vikings” went about searching for new lands. Those new lands stretched far and wide, but closer to home, those lands included the Germanic tribes (who can trace their origins back to Sweden and Denmark), England, Ireland, Northern France, Spain, and Russia; however, it is France that we are particularly interested in here.
Some Vikings settle on the northern coast of France around the mouth of the river Seine. Sailing up this river they laid siege to Paris on several occasions. The French kings, including Charlemagne, were unable to stop the Viking raids, so a deal was struck in 912 A.D. The French would recognize the Viking’s possession of the land they already settled and make their leader, Rollo, a French noble. In turn, Rollo (original = Hrolf) would convert to Christianity, acknowledge the French king, and protect France against other Vikings. This was the formation of Normandy. It wasn’t long before the Normans were somewhat indistinguishable from their French neighbors, as they intermarried and took up the French tongue.
Where we become particularly interested in the Normans can be easily marked … 1066 A.D. A man known to us as William the Conqueror (William the Bastard, Duke William II of Normandy) conquered England. Tons of books are written on the subject and the subsequent influences they had on history. Where we are interested is what came over with the conquerors … the name Hamon. One of the men at William the Conqueror’s side was his cousin named Robert Fitz-Hamon (Robert, son of Hamon). As you can see, Hamon was a first name at this point and indeed there are references to Hamon Fitz-Hamon (Hamon, son of Hamon) and the existence of Hamon Dentatus (killed at Val-es-Dunes in 1047), who is well documented. This was a time when surnames were just beginning to be used, but there is no reason to believe the invading Normans had begun the practice. It wasn’t until the 14th and 15th Centuries that surnames became the rule.
Okay … so there we have another possible source for Hammon as a surname, and chronologically speaking, we are gaining ground on John Hamond of the early 1500’s. But was this the source?
Le Strange(9)
When I directly asked Neal Owen Hammon his opinion as to the oldest possible link to the Hammon name, he rejected the Danish Viking Cheiftain Hamund connection and the Robert Fitz-Hamon connection, though he would not completely rule out a Norman connection, for Normans were settling in Norfolk by the 12th and 13th Centuries. Neal Owen Hammon combined his efforts along with his father’s efforts (edited by Neal) into a book form. From one of the chapters he sent me I compiled the following, written by Neal Owen Hammon:
“The origin of the Hammon name in Norfolk most likely originated in the reign of King Henry I (1100-1135). After King Henry came to power, he granted land to Rolan Extraneus, who had three sons named Guy, John, and Hamon. This particular Hamon is mentioned on one of the first post-Norman deeds found in Norfolk about 1165. The surname LeStrange was originally Extraneous in French. It was corrupted to le Strange or LeStrange after the family moved to England. The original meaning of Extraneous was “the man speaking a strange tongue”. When Extraneous became LeStrange is uncertain. The strange thing about this particular clan is that for the first six generations, they named the second son Hamon. What happened after 1310 is not mentioned. While there are numerous Hamon LeStrange’s mentioned throught the book LeStrange Records, there were other Hamons mentioned without the LeStrange surname.”
“Perhaps the most interesting reference to the Hamon name is found in the Pipe Roll of Henry II where Guy le Strange of Alveley, then Sheriff of Shropshire, mentions a sale of land at Badger with witnesses that included Adam filius Hamonis Extranei.”(9) This name is very important since a set of coffins were found and now reside in the floor of the Parish Church of St. Withurga in Holkham Hall, near the present town of Wells-next-the-Sea. Neal Owen Hammon examined and photographed the carvings on the coffin lids, which read as follows:
ANNEYS: DE BRVGHAM: LE FEMME: ADAM HAMVND GIST: ICI DEV: DE L’ALME: E—
SIMVND HAMVND: GIST: ICI: DEV: D--------YET: ME RCI
Translated, and missing letters added, (1) Anneys of Brugham, The wife of Adam Hamund, Lies here, God on her soul, have mercy, and (2) Simund Hamund, lies here, God on his soul, have mercy.
Note: If this Adam Hamund is the same as mentioned in the Pipe Roll of Henry II, then Adam Hamund appears to be an Extraneous … or LeStrange and a possible link to the beginning of the our surname.RRH
According to Neal Owen Hammon, the carvings on the lids were determined to be Lombardic; a style identical to that of the earliest Norman manuscripts.(9) This would put the date between 1066 (obviously) and the early 1200’s.RRH
DNA Testing
One of the greatest tools for the modern-day genealogy researcher is DNA. This simple and relatively inexpensive process is a scientific tool that removes any doubt whether individuals are or are not related. Many missing branches from family trees have been found thanks to DNA. In our case, there are a handful of individuals who have submitted samples for DNA testing and found that we are related; individuals who had no prior knowledge of each other’s existence. DNA is a complex discipline whose in-depth explanation has no purpose here. I’m a scientist by profession and I have difficulties at times following the ins and outs of the discipline. What DNA has revealed, besides matches, is our halotype. So far all six of us who have matched have the same halotype (which is to be expected). Some of us submitted to the halotype test while the rest of us had ours determined through calculations. This halotype, J2e1, is defined as Semitic. According to Webster’s Dictionary, a Semite is defined as:
A member of any of a group of
peoples of southwestern Asia chiefly represented now by the Jews and Arabs
but in ancient times also by the Babylonians, Assyrians, Aramaeans, Canaanites,
and Phoenicians.
A Final Recap
The ancient Hammon name, via the Greek spelling of the Egyptian god Amun, worked its way out of the Mediterranean from Egypt, Phoenicia, Carthage (North Africa), Israel, Greece, and Rome into the Scandinavian and Germanic language as a first name, for surnames did not begin to appear in history until about the 1100’s and did not become the norm until the 14th and 15th Centuries. The Vikings raided the English and Irish Islands for centuries, and for all intents and purposes, were no longer a major threat in England the same year the Normans conquered the land at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Both peoples, the Vikings and the Normans, brought the name Hammon (Hamund and Hamon) into the English language, for it was the combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman languages that gave rise to Middle English(7). In Norfolk there are references to both Hamon and Hamund, both Norman and Viking in origin, but the closest we can get is John Hamond (d: 1546) or possibly Nicholas Hamond (1454), who may be John Hamond’s Grandfather. We are tantalizingly close to making a connection: a connection to me that appears more and more probable to have a link with Normandy through the Extraneous family.
1 – Stratton Owen Hammon
2 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amun
Adolf Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London, 1907)
David Klotz, Adoration of the Ram: Five Humns to Amun-Re from Hibis Temple (New Haven, 2006)
Ed. Meyer, article, “Ammon” in W. H. Roscher’s Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie.
Pietschmann, articles “Ammon” and “Ammoneion” in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie.
3 – http://www.answers.com/topic/religion-in-carthage
4 – http://www.christnotes.org/dictionary.php?dict=ebd&id=1610
5 - http://www.1stmuse.com/frames/alex=synopsys.html
6 – http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/ONMensNames.shtml
7 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normans, Normans
David Bates, Normandybefore 1066, London 1982
Chibnall, Marjorie. The Normans, The Peoples of Europe, Oxford 2000
Couch, David. The Normans: The History of a Dynasty, Hambledon & London, 2003.
Gillingham, John. The Angevin Emire, end ed., London 2001.
Green, Judith A. The Aristocracy of Norman England. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Harper-Bill, Christopher and Elisabeth Van Houts, eds. A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World Boydell Press. 2003
Maitland, F. W. Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1988 (feudal Saxons)
R. Mortimer, Angevin England 1154-1258, Oxford 1994
Muhlbergher, Stephen, Medieval England (Saxon social demotions)
Robertson, A. J., ed. And trans. Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I, AMS Press, 1974 (Mudrum fine)
Painter, Sidney, A History of the Middle Ages 284-1500, New York, 1953
8 – http://www.hyw.com/Books/History/Vikings_.htm, Vikings and Normans
9 - email letters from Neal Owen Hammon.
Map from http://www.katapi.org.uk/Maps/Canaan12t.htm