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I have enjoyed the ELLIOTT line son much, thought I would share this piece of information with you.
(Hope it isn't too long)
Audry Elliott Adair
Family Name
The first and foremost problem in the study of any particular family history is the identification of the family group and the arrangement of the individual family members by their relationships. The solution to this problem-identification by family or surname-is, however, a complex and often difficult proposition. These difficulty results from the fact that surnames as we know and use them today are in reality a fairly recent social and historical development.
Authorities agree that, since the beginning of human existence in the darkness of prehistory, every race of man has employed some kind of primitive name or other vocative sound to identify various members of the community. Over thousands of years of social and cultural progress these first names have evolved into the forms we recognize and use today: the given name and the family name or surname.
This evolution of name forms has not, however, been a steady, progressive development. Names changed and evolved because of the needs of the people who used them, and this need has been profoundly influenced by many and varied historical development. For example, one of the great classes of surnames is that which evolved from the names of occupations. The names Baker obviously evolved from the occupation of the man who made bread. However, occupations change as man progresses, and this progress creates new occupations and destroys old ones. Woodmonger, a fairly common English surname at one time, is today very rare, simply because there are very few people who still make a living from selling firewood.
There has been any number of varied cultural and historical influences on the evolution and use of names. Foe example, while the Romans were the first Europeans to make regular use of family names, this practice suffered a sharp decline with the fall of the Roman Empire about A.D. 500. Throughout the Dark Ages, most of Europe used only the given or baptismal name.
In England this practice evolved into the usage of given names formed from two ordinary and common words, such as Horthgar (from the Anglo-Saxon words for fame and spear) from which we get the modern name Roger.
However, by the tenth century, social conditions were such that life was becoming increasingly complex and specialized. European population increased significantly, new economic and political systems were developed, and great urban communities grew up to replace small villages. It also became obvious that a single name was not sufficient for purposes of identifying individual people. Thus, the use of hereditary surnames (or family names which are passed down to later generations in the same or similar form) began to find common acceptance.
In England a particularly significant development was the Norman Invasion of 1066 which introduced the influence of the French language and the feudal society to the Anglo-Saxon culture. This influence was quite pervasive and within several hundred years completely absorbed most of the Anglo-Saxon language and tradition. A system of hereditary surnames evolved and with other minor developmentd was transferred intact of the American colonies beginning in the sixtieth century.
The family name of Elliott is a good example of this evolutionary nature of names. Like many names in use today it derives from the eleventh and twelfth centuries when some pious men chose a surname from the page of the only book they knew, the Bible.
The name Elliott is derived from the name of the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, Elijah the Tishbite. Elijah means “Jehovah is my God.ö Elliott is a diminutive of the name Elijah.
Elijah was a prophet in Israel during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel (876-853 BC) and was famous in both story and legend. Elijah, like Moses, greatly influenced the Jewish concept of a monotheistic God. His story can be read in the Book of Kings.
The people of the Middle Ages strongly associated Elijah with John the Baptist, the last prophet before the coming of Christ. Both prophets were thought of as particular forerunners of the Messiah. Indeed, Elijah performed many miracles including feeding multitudes of people with a few loaves and raising the dead. Christ performed similar miracles eight hundred years later, though on a grander scale. In addition, Elijah, like Christ, ascended into heaven on a cloud at the end of his earthy life.
Both John the Baptist and Elijah preached the end of the world and the passing of the age. Both men appeared in history during times of vast and sweeping change. The rise and spread of Christianity in the Dark Ages made both prophets familiar to the people of Europe.
Side by side with the spread of Christine, and perhaps because of it, a new and more ordered world began to grow after the fall of Rome. As kings began to build new nations they counted the people in their kingdoms and began to keep records of birth and death for tax purposes. To differentiate themselves from one another the people began to rely more on the use of last names. At the same rime, conversion from the old religions to the new ones caused many of the barbarian peoples to settle down and become baptized. In baptized they often took a new name that was more Christian. So conversions to Christianity, the old pagan sentiments, the beginning of a great economic and administrative centralization of society, and fear of change in the world-all these factors contributed to the origin of the name Elliott. The name is unique in that it unifies so many different and yet convergent currents of the family history of the Dark Ages.
Many simple and pious people in early Europe believed that the first year of the eleventh century, the year 1000 would see the destruction of the world in fire. They also believed that Elijah and John the Baptist would return to the world with Christ in the great apocalyptic Second Coming. Many, newly converted to Christianity from the pagan faiths of their grandfathers, wanted to be ready and in favor with Christ and his fiery prophets should the end of the world really occur. Since many individuals were taking surnames for the regular tax census during this period, a number also chose a name, which would seem to recommend them to Christ and the local priest as well. They named themselves Elliott, and thus were little Elijahs.
The name Elliott also has a non-Christian root dates back many centuries. There were kings of the barbarian Angles and Saxons named Aethelgeat and Aelfweald. One ruled in Northumbria on the northeastern coast of England and the other ruled East Anglia to the South. Aelfweald means “Elf Ruler.ö These men were probably pagan, but their followers rapidly became Christianized. The name Elliott had a similar sound to names like Aethelgeat and Aelfweald. The root word el in the old Indo-European language meant a spirit or a god. Eloi was the Hebrew unspoken name for Yahweh, the Lord. The given names of Allen, Ellen, and Alice have a common root with the old word for spirit.
Elias and Elijah were baptismal names chosen by many barbarians because they had a familiar ring and because they too signified the spiritual quality found in the pagan names already in common use. Perhaps those persons familiar with spiritual qualities or adept in nature and folk healing may have found the name Elliott in keeping with a reputation they already held in their communities.
All during the twelfth and thirteenth century’s names like Elson, Elkins, Ellis, and Elias were becoming common. Names like Elsdon, Elmore, Ellsworth, Ellington, Ellswood, and Elston came from the root word eller or Elliard, which in the pagan religion was associated with places pleasant to spirits of nature. Elsdon meant spirit hill and Ellswood meant spirit forest. The Island of Ely and an area in Cambridge, England, both probably gave raise to the names of some Elliott’s in this way.
The name has three principle centers in England. The first is in the north in the counties of Durham and Northumberland. This concentration reaches over the border into Scotland in Roxburghshire and other neighboring Scottish counties. The second concentration in England is in Derbyshire, and the third is in Bucks, Berks, and Sussex the name extends to the south coast of England through the county of Kent. Very few Elliott’s live along the eastern coast at all.
The Elliott’s are so numerous in the border counties of Scotland that they form their own clan. There are four main branches of the family in Scotland: the Elliott’s of Larrison, Braidlie, Akleton, and Stobs. They were all originally descendants of the Elliott’s of Redhench.
Robert Elliott of Redhench was captain of Hermitage Castle in 1491 and was the son of Robert Elwold of Redhench. Elwold meant a person who lived in an enchanted forest. The family had a tradition as senior officers and administers of castles. They were responsible and bold leaders. Therefore, it is no surprise to learn that young Robert Elliott was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. His descendant, Henry Elliott, was the laird of Harwood. Another famous Scotch descendant was Gilbert Elliott, a cadet of Nethermilne.
Gilbert’s two Charles and Edward, took part in the Jacobite Uprising of 1715, an unsuccessful effort to throw off the yoke of English domination. Charles was wounded in the fighting at the Dutch East India Company and raised his family in the East Indies. His descendants crossed the Pacific Ocean and were among the early settlers in California.
Early examples of the name Elliott which appear in English records are those of an Elyot ad (from) Cambridge, who served as a captain and was possibly a castle warden in the year 1273. Elliottus de Balliol is recorded with Henry Elyot and Richard Eliot in 1307. Elliottus may have gotten his surname from several sources. Balliol, one of the colleges at Oxford, was probably his home, and thus he may have been a cleric or a scholar. Baliol was also the name of a king of Scotland in the year 1292. Or the name may have had to do with the bailey of a castle that was usually the jurisdiction of a castle captain.
There are various spellings of the name Elliott. It can also be spelled Eliot and Elliot. Among the registered coats of arms of these three variants spelling in England, Scotland, and Ireland, the Elliot spelling is three times more common than the Elliott spelling which itself is almost twice as common as Eliot. Eliot is the oldest spelling of the name and is most common in the south of England while Elliot is found most common just below the Scottish border. Elliott is generally the spelling preferred by three Scots families. Most of the nobility seems to have been Eliots, except for a few highborn Scottish Elliotts. Most Elliots were poor and many emigrated to America.
A study done in 1964 of the Social Security files found the name Elliott to be the 145th most common name in the United States. There are approximately 136,000 adult Elliotts in the country today. (1972)
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