And then there’s the odd case of “Thomas a Becket.” Thomas Beket was never called Thomas a Becket in his lifetime. He apparently went by many names, one of which was “Beket,” but never “a Becket.”
In Wales they used to use ab/ap as a patronym, a bit like Mac in Gallic.
There might have been similar in parts of whatever they called England before the anglo-saxons came, but that’s not likely to have influenced anything by the time of Becket, or the later time when the ‘a’ was added.
I don’t think it has really survived in Wales either; the ‘a’ has often dissapeared and the p/b merged with the fathers name, like Prichard, or Bowen.
There is a theory that America is named not after Amerigo Vespucci, but after Richard ap Meryk also known as Richard Amerike, who owned the ship that sent John Cabot across the Atlantic. I think it’s mostly been refuted at this point, but the name has stuck with me.
And then there’s the odd case of “Thomas a Becket.” Thomas Beket was never called Thomas a Becket in his lifetime. He apparently went by many names, one of which was “Beket,” but never “a Becket.”
https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/research/thomas-a-becket-study/
Yeah, that’s just odd. ‘A’ isn’t something you’d find before a surname as part of the name, unlike ‘d’ or ‘o’ etc.
In Wales they used to use ab/ap as a patronym, a bit like Mac in Gallic. There might have been similar in parts of whatever they called England before the anglo-saxons came, but that’s not likely to have influenced anything by the time of Becket, or the later time when the ‘a’ was added.
I don’t think it has really survived in Wales either; the ‘a’ has often dissapeared and the p/b merged with the fathers name, like Prichard, or Bowen.
There is a theory that America is named not after Amerigo Vespucci, but after Richard ap Meryk also known as Richard Amerike, who owned the ship that sent John Cabot across the Atlantic. I think it’s mostly been refuted at this point, but the name has stuck with me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Amerike
Is this the genesis of British “humour”? Thomas, a Becket, even got the name in the time of Shakespeare.
Waiting for somebody to eviscerate me over British history, cause all I know is Monty Python.
I think you’re going to need some Blackadder to go along with your Monty Python.
Start with the second series though, as the first series is a little weaker (the characters and style are a bit different), and might put you off.