What's in a Name?

What’s in a Name?

We can trace the origin of our family surname Jeffreys to a farm called Cefn Rhosan near Llywel in Breconshire, Wales. Queen Elizabeth I was ruler of England from 1558 through her death in 1603, and during her reign this farm was occupied by Jeffrey of Cefn Rhosan. It is possible that the present house was built by Jeffrey.

While the English had adopted surnames by this time in most of Wales the patronymic system was still in use. That system applied the use of the word ap meaning “son of” connecting a man to his father, and often his father’s father in succession. For example David, the son of Rees, the son of Morgan would be David ap Rees ap Morgan. Likewise for a woman, the term verch for “daughter of” following her given name connected her to her father as in Anne verch John which means Anne, daughter of John. Using the Welsh system our Jeffrey was known as Jeffrey ap Gwilym ap Madoc.

“In the early sixteenth century the major landowners tended to be identifiably Welsh, whatever their diverse origins. Some were descended from Welsh princes or members of their courts; some had originally held office in the Principality of Wales; others served marcher lords and prospered. Many were Norman or English in origin.”
“The most powerful social group in Wales were the gentry who had emerged in the fifteenth century and often consolidated their position in the sixteenth with judicious purchases of land, office-holding and intermarriage.”
(Jones, Gareth (1984) Modern Wales, A Concise History, Second Edition)

“The first to adopt fixed surnames were the wealthier classes, and the practice filtered through society at different levels from Tudor times on.” “Along with the settling of surnames at different times came the addition of the letter ‘s’ to what was basically a forename.”
Rowlands, John (1994) Welsh Family History, pp. 60-1