''Hamnett'', and its spelling variants ''Hamnet'' and ''
Hannett
Hannett is a surname of United Kingdom descent.
Etymology
According to the ''Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland'', the modern name ''Hannett'' originates in two different medieval names, which came to sound the same around ...
'', is a personal name (now usually or only found as a surname).
Etymology
According to the ''
Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
Oxford () is a cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every ...
'', the modern name ''Hamnett'' originates in two medieval names, which came to sound the same around the sixteenth century.
The first is the personal name ''Hamunet'': its use as a second name originated to indicate that a person was a child of someone called Hamunet. The earliest attested forms of this name occur in
Old German
Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
, as '' Haimo''. This Old German name was borrowed into
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th Anglo-Norman dialect spoken in England, as ''Haim'', ''Haimes'' (in the Anglo-Norman language">Anglo-Norman dialect spoken in England, as ''Haim'', ''Haimes'' (in the nominative case), and ''Haimon'' (in the oblique case">nominative case">Anglo-Norman language">Anglo-Norman dialect spoken in England, as ''Haim'', ''Haimes'' (in the nominative case), and ''Haimon'' (in the oblique case) — along with variant pronunciations and spellings, which became sources of English surnames like ''Hame'', ''Haim'', ''Haime'', ''Haimes'', ''Hains'', ''Haines (surname), Haines'', ''Hayns'', ''Haynes (surname), Haynes'', ''Hammon'' and ''Hammond (surname), Hammond''. The form ''Haimon'' was then combined with the Anglo-Norman
diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
''-et'', giving the pet-name ''Hamunet''.
The second source of the surname ''Hamnett'' is the place-name ''Hampnett'', found in Gloucestershire and in the forms ''
Westhampnett
Westhampnett (or West Hampnett) is a village, Anglican parish and civil parish in the district of Chichester in West Sussex, England, located northeast of Chichester on the former A27 road, now by-passed. The village is pre-Norman and is home ...
'' and ''East Hampnett'' in Sussex. It thus first came to be used as a second name to indicate that a person came from one of these settlements. These names come in turn from the
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
words ''hēah'' ('high') and ''tūn'' ('estate, farmstead', thus meaning 'high farmstead') with the later addition of the Anglo-Norman diminutive suffix ''-et''.
Distribution
As of around 2011, 1543 individuals had the surname ''Hamnett'' in Great Britain, and 21 in Ireland. In 1881, 991 people in Great Britain had the name, being clustered in the south-west of England, especially Devon. Meanwhile, Irish bearers of the name around the middle of the nineteenth century clustered in Dublin.''The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland'', ed. by Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, and Peter McClure, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), II, p. 1183 .v. ''Hamnett'' .
Notable people
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Hamnet Shakespeare
Hamnet Shakespeare (baptised 2 February 1585 – buried 11 August 1596) was the only son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and the fraternal twin of Judith Shakespeare. He died at the age of 11. Some Shakespearean scholars s ...
(1585–1596), son of William Shakespeare
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Ade Hamnett
Ade Samuel Hamnett (1882 – 1956) was an English footballer who played for Stoke.
Career
Hamnett was born in Chester and played for Birkenhead before joining Stoke in 1908. He played nine times for Stoke in 1908–09 before returning to amate ...
(1882–1956), English footballer
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Belinda Hamnett
Belinda Hamnett (; Cantonese: Hon Kwun-Ting) is a retired actress, model, and ex-beauty queen. Being crowned Miss Asia Pageant 1997 effectively launched her career in the fashion and entertainment industry. The model turned Hong Kong film actress ...
(born 1975), Hong Kong actress and model
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Bob Hamnett
Robert Hamnett (1889 – 1967) was an English footballer who played for Stoke.
Career
Hamnett was born in Manchester and began his career playing for Fenton in Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, also known as Stoke, is one of the six towns ...
(1889–1967), English footballer
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Cyril Hamnett, Baron Hamnett
Cyril Hamnett, Baron Hamnett (20 May 1906 – 17 March 1980) was a British journalist and politician.
He was the son of James Henry Hamnett and was educated at Manchester Technical School. In 1950 and in the following year, he contested Knutsf ...
(1906–1980), British journalist and politician
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Katharine Hamnett
Katharine Eleanor Hamnett (née Appleton; born 16 August 1947) is an English fashion designer best known for her political T-shirts.
Early life
Hamnett was born on 16 August 1947 in Gravesend, Kent, the daughter of James Appleton, a group ca ...
(born 1947), English fashion designer
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Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' Sea shanty, shanties, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia.
Early life
Hamnett was born in the small coastal town of Tenb ...
(1890–1956), Welsh artist and writer
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Olivia Hamnett
Olivia Jane Hamnett (13 February 1943 - 2 November 2001) was an English actress known for numerous Television in Australia, television roles in Australia, primarily in soap operas and miniseries. including ''The Sullivans'' as Meg Fulton in 197 ...