Gwatkin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin, borne by people such as the church historian Henry Melvill Gwatkin
2. An English surname carried by various individuals, including the early twentieth century church historian Henry Melvill Gwatkin
3. A surname of English origin, notably associated with the church historian Henry Melvill Gwatkin in the late nineteenth century

Etymology: "Gwatkin" is a surname, not a common English word, and its history is that of a family name. It comes from the given name Watkin, a pet form of Walter. Medieval English speakers shortened Walter to "Wat" and added the diminutive ending "-kin," so Watkin meant something like "little Wat." Surnames of this kind often began as "son of" phrases, and the Welsh form with the initial "G" is the one that stuck in Wales and along its border. The name is most widely known through Henry Melvill Gwatkin, an English church historian at Cambridge whose writings on early Christianity made the surname familiar to scholars. The name itself does not carry any meaning beyond that personal origin: it records a family's descent from someone called Watkin, and the sense of "little Wat" survives only in its etymology.