BICKERTON
Bickerton is a surname of strictly English origin, arising from a locational root that denotes a settlement situated at a pointed locality. The formation of the name is credited to two Old English words: bic, meaning “pointed”, and tun, meaning “enclosure” or “settlement”. When combined, the nominal meaning can be summarised as “the settlement at the pointed place”.
The surname is historically aligned with the counties of Yorkshire and Cheshire, the former of which contributes the majority of early nameholders. A secondary source of the name originates from a village close to Malpas in Cheshire, an area described as the place of the beekeepers. The original name of this settlement dates back before the eighth century and is derived from the Old English phrase bycare tun. The narrative suggests that at least one Yorkshire village bearing the name of Bickerton has now disappeared, possibly near the town of Otley. Villages were sometimes cleared in late medieval times due to civil strife, plague, or changing agricultural practice, and the residents thereafter adopted the surname of their erstwhile village.
Early documentary evidence dates the surname to the Domesday Book and beyond. The records of 1086 contain various spellings, including Bicretone for the village at Malpas and also for one at Wetherby. The pre‑Domesday entry of 1030 records the village near Otley as Biceratun. The surname appears in the fifteenth century in the poll‑tax rolls of 1379 under the spelling Johannes de Bykerton, and in the West Riding rolls of 1533 as John Bycharton. By the early sixteenth century, a member of the family, Edmund Bickerton, is listed in the 1617 will reports of Cheshire.
In 1592 the name entered academic history when Thomas Bickerton of Cheshire was recorded in the register of students at Oxford University. This indicates the family’s presence in scholarly circles of the era.
The heraldic arms belonging to the Bicketons of Cheshire were granted in 1330 and are known to pre‑date the formal establishment of the College of Arms. The blazon is described as silver, a black chevron charged with three black pheons. The existence of a coat of arms further attests to the family’s longstanding status within the gentry of northern England.
Typical given names associated with the Bickerton surname
Male
- Andrew
- David
- Ian
- James
- John
- Lee
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Richard
- Robert
Female
- Barbara
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Helen
- Jacqueline
- Julie
- Margaret
- Mary
- Michelle
- Patricia
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Bickerton in...
Braille
⠃⠊⠉⠅⠑⠗⠞⠕⠝
Morse
-.....-.-.-.-..-.-----.
Semaphore
There are approximately 2,081 people named Bickerton in the UK. That makes it roughly the 4,073rd most common surname in Britain. Around 32 in a million people in Britain are named Bickerton.
Surname type: Location or geographical feature
Origin: English
Region of origin: British Isles
Country of origin: England
Religion of origin: Christian
Language of origin: English
Famous people named Bickerton
- Alexander William Bickerton - Scientist (1842 to 1929)
- Derek Bickerton - American linguist (1926 to 2018)
- John Bickerton - Golfer
- William Bickerton - Latter Day Saint leader (1815 to 1905)
- Sir Richard Bickerton, 2nd Baronet - Royal Navy admiral (1759 to 1832)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.