Social Change and House Names: Most detached bungalows, townhouses, and cottages have names nowadays. We enjoy adding a personal touch to wherever we happen to be. After all, why not? Anything that helps our house seem more like a home is a good thing.
It’s also not a new phenomenon. Not when you consider social history and discover that people have given their homes names since the beginning of time. Take a look at one of the early English-language poems, for example. It’s called Beowulf, and it references a house called Heorot (the mead hall). And it was published in the early eleventh century!
House naming conventions in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
Several hundred years after Beowulf’s publication, there were clear guidelines for naming dwellings. Houses could be named for the person who lived there, the person’s employment, or the appearance of the house, according to local custom. There was also a trend for names with symbolic meanings.
All of this is supported by archives of old London home names. These were a blend of Latin, French, Anglo-Norman, and Old English, all of which evolved into the modern English language.
Gladewyneshouse and Hiotha’s manor-house are two examples of 13th-century homes named for their inhabitants.’
On the other hand, le Webbeloft and la fforge are instances of 14th-century dwellings named after the householder’s occupation. Le Crokedhous and le Grenegate, for example, were named after their first appearance (in the 14th century).
Houses named after emblems include the Swan, Le Dolfyn, Le Harpe, le Tonne, and le Panyer, which are still used in pub names today.
Moving forward several centuries, naming your home after a state of mind became fashionable in Europe during the Enlightenment. For example, Frederick the Great of Prussia named one of his many palaces Sans Souci (No Worries).
The railways resulted in a new name convention for houses.
However, it was the introduction and growth of railways that had the most impact on how dwellings were named in the United Kingdom. The steam engine, which first appeared in the 1840s, facilitated travel across the country. This, of course, resulted in the emergence of what we now refer to as “the suburbs.”
That meant a lot of new houses to name after their new residents, many of whom saw themselves as upwardly mobile. Indeed, a new middle class was emerging, necessitating the need for a name for their personal pile of bricks and mortar, which they could now proudly call home.
So, how did this new social class refer to their dwellings? There were names linked with the nobility, such as Grosvenor Lodge, as well as those associated with the countryside, such as Elm Tree Cottage, Hillcrest, and Orchard House. Some residents choose to name their homes after characters from popular culture, such as Ivanhoe from the novel Ivanhoe. Others made a joke by naming their home Dunroamin (which means “done wandering”), a name that is still used in Scotland today. Ersanmine was another amusing house name (hers and mine).
When it came to house naming, the Victorians also established a new category: combining existing names to create a new one. Roselea and Ferncroft are two examples of this.
To home naming, there is a ‘cultural consensus.’
“Just as the common given names Robert, Alice, William, Emma, Richard, Geoffrey have remained popular across the British social classes since they were introduced by the Anglo-Normans in 1066, there has been a cultural agreement across all social classes with regard to house-naming,” writes Dr. Laura Wright in her book “Sunnyside: A Sociolinguistic History of British House Names.”
House names, according to a historical linguist at the University of Cambridge, “transcend local linguistic barriers” and are thus a record of social history and migration.
The practise of naming houses is dwindling.
The bad news, according to Wright, is that by the middle of the twentieth century, the tradition of naming houses had begun to fade. Because more apartment buildings were built, social housing became more prevalent, and people began to rent rather than buy, this trend continued (due to the rising cost of property).
And it’s possible that the last reason – the rising cost of housing in the UK – is the deciding factor, especially when you consider that home prices increased by 152 percent between 1995 and 2016.
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Have you considered naming your home but are unsure how to go about it? Then contact our friends at Name My House for advice and assistance. Call 0208 017 2216 or email info@namemyhouse.co.uk for further information.
