The men and women of Anglo-Saxon England normally bore one name only. Distinguishing epithets were rarely added. These might be patronymic, descriptive or occupational. They were, however, hardly surnames. Heritable names gradually became general in the three centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066. It was not until the 13th and 14th centuries that surnames became fixed, although for many years after that, the degree of stability in family names varied considerably in different parts of the country.
British surnames fall mainly into four broad categories: patronymic, occupational, descriptive and local. A few names, it is true, will remain puzzling: foreign names, perhaps, crudely translated, adapted or abbreviated; or artificial names.
In fact, over fifty per cent of genuine British surnames derive from place names of different kinds, and so they belong to the last of our four main categories. Even such a name as Simpson may belong to this last group, and
A. family names became descriptive and occupational
B. people in some areas still had no surnames
C. some people kept changing their surnames
D. all family names became fixed in England
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