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 Behrendt Coat of Arms / Behrendt Family CrestThis surname of BEHRENDT was a baptismal name 'the son of Bernard'. A popular 13th Century font name. The first hereditary surnames on German soil are found in the second half of the 12th century, slightly later than in England and France. However, it was not until the 16th century that they became stabilized. The practice of adopting hereditary surnames began in the southern areas of Germany, and gradually spread northwards during the Middle Ages.The name was derived from the Old German Bernard a name meaning 'bear-brave' and was probably brought to England in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Early records of the name mention Barnadus of the County of Yorkshire, was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. Hugo Bernard of the County of Lancashire was documented in the year 1130. Thomas Bernhard, 1205 was recorded in the year 1260 in County Kent. Robert Barnard of the County of Yorkshire was recorded in the year 1446. Abel Bernard of County Oxford, registered at Oxford University in the year 1581. Francis Bernard and Sarah Bleamire were married at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, London in the year 1753. The acquisition of surnames in Europe and England, during the last eight hundred years has been affected by many factors, including social class and social structure, naming practices in cultures and traditions. On the whole the richer and more powerful classes tended to acquire surnames earlier than the working class or the poor, while surnames were quicker to catch on in urban areas than in more sparsely populated rural areas. The bulk of surnames in England were formed in the 13th and 14th centuries. The process started earlier and continued in place names into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the 11th century people did not have surnames, whereas by the 15th century they did. The popularity of this given name among the Normans in the centuries immediately following the Conquest of 1066, was greatly increased by virtue of its having been borne by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (circa 1090-1153) founder and abbott of the Cistercian Monastery at Clairvaux, and in Holland and Germany it vied with Arnold as the most popular given name during the 13th and 14th centuries. Another sanctified bearer of the name was St. Bernard of Menthin (923-1008) founder of Alpine hospices and patron saint of mountaineers, whose cult accounts for the frequency of the name in Alpine regions. |
