Simmons History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Simmons

What does the name Simmons mean?

The notable Simmons family arose among the Cornish People, a race with a rich Celtic heritage and an indomitable fighting spirit who inhabited the southwest of England. While surnames were well-known during the English medieval period, Cornish People originally used only a single name. The way in which hereditary surnames came into common use is interesting. As the population of medieval Europe multiplied, people began to assume an extra name to avoid confusion and to further identify themselves. Under the Feudal System of government, surnames evolved and they often reflected life on the manor and in the field. Patronymic surnames were derived from given names and were the predominant type of surname among the Celtic peoples of Britain. However, the people of Cornwall provide a surprising exception to this rule, and patronymic surnames are less common among them than other people of Celtic stock, such as their Welsh neighbors. This is due to the greater influence of English bureaucracy and naming practices in Cornwall at the time that surnames first arose. This type of surname blended perfectly with the prevailing Feudal System. One feature that is occasionally found in Cornish surnames of this type is the suffix -oe or -ow; this is derived from the Cornish plural suffix -ow. is a patronymic surname that came from the first name of the bearer’s father, meaning literally “son of Simon.” Alternatively, the name could have “come from the Domesday name Simund, which is distinct from Simon.” 1

Simon was a popular biblical name and comes ultimately from the ancient Hebrew personal name Shimon, meaning “to hearken.” 2

The name appears as a character in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: ‘Awake, Simond, the fend is on me fall.’

Early Origins of the Simmons family

The surname Simmons was first found in Devon and in Cornwall, where the family held a family seat since ancient times.

The ancient Latin form of the name Simmunddnrus was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. 3

Simeon or Symeon of Durham (fl. 1130), was an English historian, a monk of Durham, being thirty-eighth on his own list of the monks of that house. Saint Simeon Stock (1165?-1265), was general of the Carmelite friars and is said to have been born in Kent of noble parents about 1165. “From his earliest years he was devoted to religion, and, according to the legend, owed his surname to the fact that from his twelfth year he lived a hermit’s life in the trunk or stock of a tree for twenty years. ” 4

Simeon of Warwick (died 1295), was an English historian who became a Benedictine monk at St. Mary’s, York, and in 1258 was elected abbot.

In Scotland, the first records of the family were “Symon, capellanus, [who] witnessed a charter by William Bruce to Adam Carlyle, c. 1194-1214, and Symon or Simon, archidiaconus of Aberdeen, a charter witness, 1172.” 5