- Smithe
Smithe is a rare
surname related to the common surname Smith.__NOTOC__Family name |name = Smithe
|image_size = |caption =
pronunciation = |meaning =
region = |language =
related names =Smith
footnotes =Among notable people sharing this surname is
William Smithe . Other instances appear in genealogical resource searches, but associated with the general population.* England (
1842 –1887 )William Smithe , emigrated to CanadaEtymology
Whether true or not, it has been suggested that William Smithe was born 'Smith' and added the 'e' for political expediency. [This is stated in
William Smithe without substantiation.] Fact|date=March 2008 In the mid-19th Century, a supposition was published that people may well alter a single letter in their 'Smith' surname for reasons of status or recognition; as Lower puts it, "...yet it would appear, from the addition and alteration of a letter, that some families are anxious to avoid the imputation of so plebeian an origin." [Citation: Lower, 1860.] In the 1842 novel "Zanoni ", Lytton articulates a variation on this by suggesting people changing surname from 'Smith' to 'Smithe' may well be trying to increase the stature of their surname by approaching ever so slightly a purported surname of the godApollo : Smintheus. [Citation: Lytton, 1842.]Frequency
In looking at various surname frequency resources, the rarity of 'Smithe' is apparent. In the 1990 United States Census, 'Smithe' ranked near the bottom 10% of surnames in frequency, showing an overall rank of 78,005. [Citation: US Census Bureau Staff, 2000] Regarding information assembled by The National Trust related to surname frequency in
Great Britain , neither in 1990 nor 1881 was 'Smithe' sufficiently high for inclusion in their statistical analyses.Citation: Longley, "et al."] Nonetheless, sufficient 'Smithe' surname responses appeared in the 1881 census to support County-geographical mapping of surname distribution, but even this level of information is lacking for 1990 census data.Notes
References
* cite book |last= Lytton |first= Edward Bulwer |authorlink= Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
title= Zanoni |origyear= 1842 |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=cwMmAAAAMAAJ |format= PDF (Google Books)
accessdate= 2008-03-21 |volume= 1 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |location= New York |pages= page 94
* cite web |url= http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/ |title= SMITHE |accessdate= 2008-03-22
last= Longley |first= Paul |coauthors= Alex Singleton, Richard Webber and Daryl Lloyd
work= [http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/news/newsStory.asp?ID=151 SPLINT Project, University College London]
publisher=The National Trust Note: Attempts to link directly to search results pages result in failure to find the site.
* cite book |last= Lower |first= Mark Antony
title= Patronymica Britannica: A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom |origyear= 1860
url= http://books.google.com/books?id=00cBAAAAQAAJ |format= PDF (Google Books)
accessdate= 2008-03-22 |year= 1860 |publisher= John Russell Smith |location= London |pages= page 320
* cite web |url= http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html |title= Search names from 1990 Census
date= 2000-09-07 |author= US Census Bureau staff |accessdate= 2008-03-22 |format= Database search result
publisher=United States Census Bureau
quote= NAME (last):SMITHE ; %FREQ:0.000% ; CUMM FREQ:89.453% ; RANK:78,005 (reformatted quote)
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