The surname of BABB was a locational name, from some small spot in County Devon, from whence the family have sprung. The name is also spelt BABBCOCK, BABBITT, BABOT and BABBS. Habitation names were originally acquired by the original bearer of the name, who, having lived by, at or near a place, would then take that name as a form of identification for himself and his family. When people lived close to the soil as they did in the Middle Ages, they were acutely conscious of every local variation in landscape and countryside. Every field or plot of land was identified in normal conversation by a descriptive term. If a man lived on or near a hill or mountain, or by a river or stream, forests and trees, he might receive the word as a family name. Almost every town, city or village early times, has served to name many families. Early records of the name mention Edmond BABCOCK, who was buried at St. Mary, Aldermary, London in 1754, and Benjamin BABOCKE married Elizabeth Plumleigh Teape at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in 1792. Notable members of the name include Harold Delos BABCOCK (1882-1968) the American physicist, born in Edgerton, Wisconsin. He was on the staff of the Mount Wilson observatory (1909) when he measured the magnetic field of the star 78 Virginis, which provided a link between the electromagnetic and the relativity theories. Stephen Moulton BABCOCK (1843-1931) was the American agricultural chemist and 'the father of scientific dairying'. He was born near Bridgewater, New York, and studied at Tuft's College, Cornell and Gottingen. From 1907 he studied the effect of selective diets on cattle. Another notable member of the name was Isaac BABBITT (1799-1862) the American goldsmith, inventor of BABBITT metal. Born in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1824 he manufactured the first Britannia metal tableware, using an alloy of copper, tin and antinomy. In 1839, after further experimentation with the same ingredients he invented a journal box lined with a soft, silver-white alloy now called BABBITT metal, and still used to reduce friction in metal. Irving BABBITT (1865-1933) the American critic and writer, born in Dayton, Ohio. He was professor of French at Harvard (1894-1933). Primarily a moralist and teacher, he was a leader of the 'new selective humanism' which flourished in America in the 1920s. |
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