The most interesting aspects of "British Names"

The most significant piece of information, which I've found the most interesting about this reading is how different The British culture is compared to my Asian culture in choosing names. British names are mostly based on the play with the vocabulary and the use of ancient languages without necessarily giving them a particular meaning. It is also very intriguing how religion plays a vital part in determining British names by inspiring people to name their children after the names of saints or well-known individuals in the Bible. For example, names of saints such as Anthony, Christopher, Francis, George and Stephen have been commonly used for men whilst Catherine, Ann, Mary, Jane and Teresa have been widely given to women. Given by the New Testament, names of the four evangelists who were believed to be the first people to spread the words of God, which are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are also preferred by many people. Even more interestingly, many English names were brought to the country through the invasion of other cultures such as the Scandinavian or the Normans from north-west France in 1066. Apart from that, the formation of British surnames are also as simple as first names' yet very complex when considering the variety of sources from which they come from. Studies have shown that early English surnames often fell into six main categories which are paternal names, nicknames, place names, topographical names, occupational names and officerial names. These categories, indeed, showed an essential connection between the British people and their everyday life as well as their heritage, as place names represent the place where they originally came from, topographical names refer to a geographical feature of where they lived and occupational names were known by their occupations.