Thomas Beckett.

[cupid04]

What did the 'a' stand for in Thomas a Beckett. I know the 'a' is no longer
used because of dubious origins. But I just wondered because his name
recently came up on a quiz on the telly.

[Buenchico]

It would be odd if his name came about through a BIG nose, Jno.

He was the son of Gilbert Beket, which Reaney & Wilson ('A Dictionary of English Surnames') give as the source of most cases of the surnames 'Becket', 'Beckett', and 'Beckitt'. They cite it as derived from a diminutive of the Old French 'bec', meaning 'little beak or mouth'.

So it might have been expected that TB would have inherited a SMALL nose!

[jno]

Buenchico, the '-et' is a diminutive, the same as the '-y' in 'beaky'. But diminutive doesn't always imply 'small size', it's also used in creating a more 'familiar' version of the word (like Harry for Henry). So you might call someone Fatty, Skinny, Shorty, Lanky and so forth: you're drawing attention to a physical characteristic without necessarily meaning the people themselves are small.

(Well, except for Shorty, I suppose.)

There's some discussion of it here:

http://books.google.c...ket%20surname&f=false

[MarkRae]

I think everyone is getting bogged down in onomastics. It's pretty well agreed that the 'à' was added much later as an affectation...

[jno]

was it as an affectation? It may well have been, but I haven't been able to find any source that was certain when, how or why it came about.

[ABerrant]

Bec is indeed O.Fr for beak and/or nose, however the Norman placename Bec derives from the Danish bæk, a brook. Perhaps a brooklet (a bæket) is the source. Nothing is provable since Gilbert Becket's lineage is unknown.