Message: "Re: Balliol" - Behind the Name

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Balliol

by Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans)

1/4/2010, 5:55 AM

Balliol is the surname of a Norman French family that settled in northern England and southern Scotland after the Norman conquest. The surname indicates that they came from Bailleul, a place in the province of Picardy in France. One of the oldest parts of Oxford University in England is Balliol College, named after this family.

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/fr-59-ba.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/50655/Balliol-family

Perhaps the name was adopted because it resembles a name in the Rom language, but the "upper class" associations of the name probably also operated in making it seem like an interesting "English" name to adopt in Rom culture.

Replies

- Sian (Sharley) +2

1/4/2010, 4:07 PM

So would I be correct in assuming the Rom simply picked it up from the surname?

I know Rom have been known to adopt names from the people of the places where they've settled or travelled though.

Also, the Norman conquest was the 1000s and the Rom I found using the name were traveling through Aberdeen, Scotland in early to mid 1500s so the name could have spread by that time, right?

This message was edited 1/4/2010, 4:15 PM

- poppylena +1

1/4/2010, 11:30 PM

John Balliol was a King of Scotland from 1292 to 1296:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Balliol

So it was known in Scotland.

- Sian (Sharley)

1/6/2010, 6:27 PM

Wow...how did I totally not know that?
Thanks!

View Message

Replies