2. Variants or Cognates

It is evident on researching any name that over time and between areas, different spellings have evolved. In some cases, these have disappeared over time, whilst in others the different forms have become fixed in the communal mind and in official records. This is no different to other surnames, and the challenge is in teasing out the relationships and common or various origins if any. The family name Hillman is no exception, as the investigations carried out here will indicate.

The family name “Hillman” is generally considered locational, or toponymic, referring to some relationship with the geographical hill – a land prominence higher than the surrounding land, but not as high above it as a mountain. Even this definition has to be used with care considering variations in local perception of people’s own geographical context (“When is a hill as mountain?”).

If the name does refer to the geographical entity of a hill, then its etymology could provide some clues as to the origin of its use. The Online Etymology Dictionary[1] refers to a “Proto-Indo-European” root for the word “kel” – “to be prominent”, and “hill”. From this derive numerous derivations in European languages including hall, hell, helm (helmet), held (hero, champion), holm, hull (seed covering), and hyll – the Old English form of hill. This provides support for a locational origin of the name, but also several other possibilities, some or all of which might be the root of the name in different places and European countries.

The same source gives the Norse origin for the word “ill” as meaning “evil, bad, hard, difficult, mean, and stingy”. If this is the source of the family name “Illman”, then it presumably could relate to the characteristics of the earliest on whom the name was bestowed. However, we have also seen in England at any rate the evolution of the name Illman to Hillman within the same family and location, as well as the earlier use of the forms Hyllman and Ylman (see below).

It is undoubtedly a case of multiple origins for the name in its various forms, in multiple places for multiple reasons. The occurrences of the various forms considered to be related are explored here in sections for each main variant.

No evidence has yet been found for the name being occupational as sometimes suggested – that is “Hill’s Man” or the “manservant of Mr Hill”.

Figure 1 Distribution of the different early name forms from FONS records

Mapping the different apparent older forms of the name from the FONS[2] extracts (Figure 1) indicates that there is no clear regional localisation of these forms, which presumably therefore reflect the individual preferences of the clerks or other recorders in each case.

Sources:

[1] Harper, Douglas. 2019 Jun. Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/bio?utm_source=etymonline_footer&utm_medium=link_exchange

[2] FONS – Family Origins Name Survey, Staffordshire (no longer functional?), from PRO: J1 2/2 m.8