NOBES
Nobes is an English surname that first appears in the 12th century. Its earliest recorded forms can be found in the poll tax records of Yorkshire where a Thomas de la Nobe appears in 1379. The name is relatively uncommon today, but it remains recognised in the southern and southwestern counties of England, especially in Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. In recent times it has also spread to the United Kingdom’s former colonies, with holders noted in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The most widely accepted origin of the name is patronymic. It is derived from the medieval personal name Noble, which was employed to describe a person of high social status or noble birth. In the traditional formation of English surnames, the suffix -s was added to a given name to indicate descent, so Nobes literally means “son of Noble”. This interpretation is supported by the earliest documentary evidence of the surname in the 14th‑15th centuries, and by the version William Nobys which appears in the Suffolk Subsidy Rolls of 1327.
An alternative explanation roots the surname in the pet form Nobb(e) of the Old Germanic name Robert. The name Robert itself originates from the Olde German Hrodberth, a compound of hrod “fame” and berht “bright”. The pet form first appears in the early 13th century with a mention of Nobbe Caipe in the Assize Court Rolls of Lincolnshire (1202). The surname recorded as Nobs is first noted around 1248 in the Abbey of Bee, Oxfordshire, and the patronymic appears nearly a century later. This line of evidence suggests that the modern Nobes could also be a variation of a nickname for a descendant of a man named Robert.
Topographically, Nobes may also stem from the Old English word ness, meaning a headland or promontory. The name would then refer to a person dwelling near a headland. This interpretation is bolstered by the concentration of the surname in Yorkshire, a county with numerous coastal and inland promontories. The practice of adopting a locational identifier for a family was common in medieval England, and the York records of 1379 therefore provide a credible source for this derivation.
Throughout the centuries the surname has amassed several spelling variations. The most common are Nobbs and Nobs, which likely reflect the patronymic Nobbe form. Other variants include Noakes, derived from a Middle English word meaning a corner or angle; Noblett, a further patronymic of Noble; and a group of forms such as Nabb, Nobe and Noblet which may have emerged from occupational or locational roots. Less frequent are Napper, historically describing a maker of blankets; Naude, from Old French, associated with sailors; and Noise, a nickname stemming from the Middle English word naise meaning one who was nosy or inquisitive.
In addition to its classic English origins, the Nobes surname appears in Scotland from the 16th century. It is plausible that this branch descended from English migrants, as the name is rarely found elsewhere in the British Isles. The record of the name’s presence in continental Ireland is limited to an anglicised form of the Irish O’Boyle, derived from O’ “grandson of” and Baoghail “cowherd”. The migration patterns of the British diaspora in the 18th and 19th centuries are responsible for the surname’s appearance in North America, Oceania and Australasia.
Notable individuals bearing the surname include John Nobbs, a marshal aged one in a 1679 Barbados muster list, and Thomas Nobes who married Louise Hughes in 1873. Political and civic service is a recurrent theme in the family’s history; for instance, a George Noble served as mayor of London during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and members of the Nobes family held seats in the House of Commons. The broad range of professions—spanning industry, commerce and politics—illustrates the adaptability and versatility of the name’s bearers over the centuries.
Typical given names associated with the Nobes surname
Male
- Andrew
- Christopher
- Colin
- David
- Ian
- John
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Raymond
- Richard
- Robert
- Stephen
Female
- Carol
- Elizabeth
- Emma
- Helen
- Julie
- Karen
- Margaret
- Pamela
- Rebecca
- 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 Nobes in...
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There are approximately 913 people named Nobes in the UK. That makes it roughly the 7,920th most common surname in Britain. Around 14 in a million people in Britain are named Nobes.
