UK and Ireland Names, Personal

• General
  • The relevance of surnames in genealogy (archived copy) provided by the Society of Genealogists gives some interesting background information.
  • The GENUKI Surnames List index and Mailing List Index provide county by county listings with links to appropriate pages or information.
  • Thesaurus of British Surnames (archived copy) - a project, now terminated, that developed and managed an online thesaurus of British surname variants.
  • Nicknames and Naming Traditions.
  • The Surname Thesaurus - "a technology for finding Surname and Forename variants" (archived copy)
  • Family Names of the United Kingdom (FaNUK) - an ongoing project.
  • PublicProfiler - "The world family name mapping website uses many new and up to date sources to tell you where in the world people with your family name are found. Additionally, we provide lots of interesting facts and figures about the people who share your family name".
  • The Original Record.com provides free surname searches of "1,000 years of unusual records that have not been accessible before", and the ability to purchase scans taken the original documents.
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland - press release.
• Biographies 
  • Who Was Who (the compilation of entries in Who's Who of people alive after 1897)  and Who's Who are available by online subscription access (possibly free via your local library) and hard copy.  
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is available by online subscription access (possibly free via your local library) and hard copy.
  • Wikipedia's Biography Portal. 
  • Obituary Daily Times - an index of published obituaries
  • For those who may have been mentioned, even if only in passing, in books, see Bibliography
  • For people famous or infamous enough to get their names in the newspapers or to have obituaries, or posh enough to announce their births, marriages and deaths, see Newspapers.
  • Search engines like Google are always worth a try, although you may have to scroll through many pages of hits.
  • Archive and Library catalogues usually have synopses which will often allow you to find a name even if it is not in the book title.
  • For those who may have appeared at the Old Bailey Old Bailey Online.
  • If you know their occupation, see Occupations. (In particular, for ministers of religion, see under Church Officials).
• Specialised Name Listings
  • Names extracted from the book "THE GREAT DAYS OF THE CANALS" by Anthony Burton.
  • The names of actors and actresses who died pre 1930 and who are listed in the book "WHO'S WHO IN THE THEATRE" edited by John PARKER and printed in 1930.
  • The Agincourt Honor Roll (archived copy) - a list of nearly 1000 participants in this 1415 battle.
  • Indexes to parish returns towards the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral, ca.1678 in the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.
  • Marion Hebblethwaite's George Cross Database lists and provides information about recipients.
  • A variety of name listings were produced by the late Ted Wildy and are available online, including:
    • Names from "A Country Camera 1844-1914" by Gordon Winter.
    • Casualties in the R101 Airship Disaster
    • Names from the book "Trade Tokens" by J.R.S. Whiting
    • Casualties listed in the East India Directory and Register, 1832
    • Names from "The Atlantic Telegraph" by W.H. Russell, c1866
  • Colin Mackie's Directories - of British Diplomats, British Civil Servants (1900-), British Armed Forces (1860-), Composers, and U.S. Senators (1863-).

Bardsley, Alan. First name variants. Birmingham: Federation of Family History Societies (2003) 18pp. [ISBN-13: 978-1860061776]

(See also Military History and Occupations.)