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  Winpenny Coat of Arms / Winpenny Family CrestThis surname WINPENNY is first recorded is first recorded in Ripon in 1379. A family by the name moved to Huddersfield in the late 16th century, probably as a result of the decline in the wool-trade in Ripon, and the name is now mainly confined to Huddersfield. It was an English nickname for an acquisitive person from the Middle English word WINNEN (to gain) and PENNY (penny). Surnames having a derivation from nicknames form the broadest and most miscellaneous class of surnames, encompassing many different types of origin. The most typical classes refer adjectivally to the general physical aspect of the person concerned, or to his character. Many nicknames refer to a man's size or height, while others make reference to a favoured article of clothing or style of dress. Many surnames derived from the names of animals and birds. In the Middle Ages ideas were held about the characters of other living creatures, based on observation, and these associations were reflected and reinforced by large bodies of folk tales featuring animals behaving as humans. Early records of the name mention John Vympany, documented during the reign of Edward II (1272-1307). Henry Winpenny was the bailiff of Bristol in the year 1316. William Wynpenny was documented in County Yorkshire in the year 1468. William Cross and Sarah Winpenny were married at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in the year 1794. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God, however much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and especially among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with. In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization. |
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