University of the West of England - Names are the game

The largest study of UK surnames is to be led by the University of the West of England. The project will create a database containing the meanings and origins of up to 150,000 surnames, which will be accessible to the public. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the study will be carried out with the faculty of informatics at Masaryk University, Brno, in the Czech Republic. As well as investigating names of English and Scots origin, the study will look at those of Norman French, Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish descent, as well as Huguenot, Jewish and later immigrant names. The study will examine sources dating back to the 11th century.