Talk:Hetherington

Englishness of the name

There is a long-standing dispute over the origin and nationality of this surname; rather than allow the (bold–revert–)_n semi-protect cycle to continue indefinitely, I’m starting this discussion in the hope of making some progress towards a resolution. ISTM there are two distinct issues:

1. the origin and etymology of the name, and
2. the characterization of the name as English.

On the first point, I think we will need a considerable weight of scholarly opinion to contradict the authoritative-seeming OUP references; I also observe that no competing explanation has been offered. Furthermore, the Scots and English languages had scarcely begun to diverge by the XIII century, so the English-language category would seem apt regardless.

On the second point, there seems more latitude for editorial judgement. If sources can be found to support it, would a characterization along the lines of a Scottish Borders and Irish surname of English origin, or something to that effect, be acceptable? (The Anglo-Scottish border wasn’t finally fixed until some time later: is it possible that the place was part of Scotland when the surname first appeared? That would put it in a different light.) Or would it be satisfactory to add some information about the historical and present-day distribution of the name—which evidently will include North America and Australia, as well as Ireland–assuming such can be found?

In order to register the good-faith concerns that have been expressed, now that the article has been semi-protected again, I’ll tag the section as disputed. But unless some sources can be found to support the contention, it won‘t remain flagged indefinitely.—Odysseus1479 01:03, 19 May 2014 (UTC)