Evening star., 1896-12-19
THE SURNAME GREEN.
The Name Offers Much Dimculty To
GenealOeists.

From English Notes and Queries.
The surname Green seems to have been
! one offering much difficulty to writers on
surnames and to genealogists. for. in en-
deavoring to trace its origin. that it has
rot one but many origins is proved, while
the variety of its sources carries with Il
the conviction that under the one covering
surname Green reside people of altogether
| different blood and lineage VINO hear it:
for Green, in the style atte, de la, de. or del
Green, was applied to any person who lived
by village green, to distinguish him:
hence it became surname for him and his
descendants, and the number of different
stocks could only be limited by the number
of village greens, and perhaps not even by
that since there may have been more than
enc person living by the same village green
VINO could yet be particularized by that adj
dition.
Besides the descendants of each of these
there may be the descendants of Godwinus
Grenesune or Grenessone. who held at Win
chester under Edward the Confessor wide
'W1nton Domesday'D, and who 1t Is as
sumed, was Dane foreigner invited or
brought over by Edward; of Creme who
held OF Harold at Coceham 1Cookhaml
Sussex wide "EXchequer Domesday'') and
who, considering the connections of Har-
old, may also have been a Dane or Scandi-
avian; and of Gren, styled Dane, occurring
| In roll of barons and knights tenn Ed
|
would fall VI der the same surname Green;
and turning to some Scandinavian words
IMAGINATION may play its part in bringing
material to the test of research-to affirm
| its validity. leave 1t still such stuff as
dreams are made of-for the root and
oIlS1n or these surnames in Scandinavia
These words are as follows: Green, Scandi-
LaVlan Gothlc, from grow: Gren; Scandi-
naV1an, from grena: Morse Icelandic greina
tp branch out. divide; Gren, of Viking
origin. meaning the same: and, perhaps, in
connection with these. and probably of Eik-
ing origin, Gren, Grain, provincial English
a prong or branch; Creme middle English
difference, debate. But in Gernon Grenoa
Greno. sobriquet meaning whiskcr mus
lache applied to Eustace, a count of Flan-
Gers, and belonging to Robert in Normandy
who appears as witness to a charter AS
Guernon, and in "Domesday" as anv of
the former indifferently, a possible origin
| may be found for Green. which receives
oountenance from the fact of Gren appear-
Ing in some index to the records that has
silpped the writer, and remarking thar
Irehoh means Whisker or mustache in the
langue doll, while it is Gren that signifies
1t in the langue doc, ii suggests there
might have been found In Normandy in
early times some Ncrseman styled Gren
and some other person bearing the same
name but derived from the Iangue doc
De Creon, again, is G name that might be-
corrupted into Green. for De Creon.
as such is not now to be fond, and
In the Roll CT Battle Abbey, by TN,
Duchess of Cleveland, the remark is mad.
that c and G were used indifferentIy
Grendon, place in Warwickshire might
have some connection with Green and
Hamo de la Creme vel Grue Gina auod.
Dam, Ed ID g'ves rise to the thoughts.
What is Grue? Can Grue be the same as
| Green for Hamo to be de la Green vel Grue?
II Grue be surname, why call its owner
oy less distinguishing one-Green? Was
Grue meant for Gr're?
Going furthsr afield in search of fore
fathers, Grun was a mans name in Ger
many as early as the ninth century Fos-
termsnh's Namenbuch"D, and Grun
Gruen, Grein, Gren, Gryn, was the name of
a family living in the Rhineland having the
rank OF gran, whose ancestor was a burgo-
master Hellbach's "Adels Lexicon"). In
connection with Gryn. the last spelling
Greyne occurs in an early English will az
Lincoln, A. d. 1417, and in the De Banc9
Rolls, Edward III and VI and Grayne is
also found as surname. Gron is likewise
a surname, but of Frisian origin (Barber's
British Surnames'D. Again. there was n
Heinrich ven Chreine tcorruptibie into
Green who built the castle of Chreine on
the Danube, in the twelfth century. A
British word for alder, guern, could have
been given asa mans name, and corrupted
into Green.
The difficulty of finding and discriminat-
blood confronts all the possessors in COM
mon Of this surname Green. than which
meme can be mere puzzling The different
spelling. 1t Is supe perhuous to say, affords no,
clue whatever to the searcher in these re-
mote fields. inasmuch as 1t only relates 20
how the word Green itself was spelled at
different times. The research for each per
son really is to connect the earliest relia-
BILE portion of any particular Green pedf-
gree that is his with some one of whom IL
may be shown how he came by the sur
name. Yet on account of the presumably