MEDLICOTT
The surname Medlicott derives from a placename in the county of Shropshire, England. During the medieval period it was documented with a number of alternate spellings, most commonly Medlicott and Medlycott.
Its formation is best analysed from the Old English elements medu ‘meadow’ and cot ‘cottage’ or ‘shelter’, which together give a literal sense of ‘dweller at the meadow cottage’. In a later linguistic description it has also been interpreted as arising from the Old Scandinavian methal ‘middle’ combined with the Old English pre‑7th Century eg ‘island’, suggesting ‘cottage on the middle island’. The presence of the Scandinavian element reflects the way that part of the area was settled in the early medieval era.
The earliest surviving reference to the name appears in the Hundred Rolls of Shropshire, dated 1255. That entry records a person named Lewelin de Medlincot, a name that indicates both the localisation and the Anglo‑Norman influence that was common in manor records of the period. The spelling Medlincot, with the Latinised suffix -ot, is typical of the record‑keeping style of the time.
Further documentary evidence from the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries includes the name Richard de Middlecote in 1273, recorded in the Hundred Rolls of Devonshire. In the parish registers of Pontesbury, Shropshire, a number of baptisms demonstrate the continued presence of the family: Johannes son of Johnis Medlicott, baptised on 22 April 1554; Jacobus son of Richi Medlicott, baptised on 4 February 1565; John Medlicott, baptised on 14 September 1589 at St Thomas the Apostle in London; and Jonathan Medlicott, who was christened on 16 October 1597 at All Hallows the Less, London. These entries show that members of the family migrated towards the capital during the early modern period.
Although the surname is relatively uncommon, the recorded instances reveal a pattern of continuity in the West Midlands and a gradual expansion into urban centres such as London. The use of both the English and Scandinavian components in its derivation illustrates the intermingling of linguistic traditions within rural England during the Middle Ages.
Today, the surname remains a distinctive marker of Shropshire heritage and a testament to how locational names can persist through centuries of social and linguistic change.
Typical given names associated with the Medlicott surname
Male
- Andrew
- Andy
- Anthony
- Christopher
- David
- Geoffrey
- Ian
- John
- Mark
- Michael
- Paul
- Philip
- Steven
Female
- Angela
- Catherine
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Kathleen
- Linda
- Mary
- Patricia
- Sandra
- 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 Medlicott in...
Braille
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Morse
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Semaphore
There are approximately 847 people named Medlicott in the UK. That makes it roughly the 8,414th most common surname in Britain. Around 13 in a million people in Britain are named Medlicott.
Famous people named Medlicott
- Walter Medlicott - (1879 to 1970)
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.