Stranger History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland

The surname Stranger is derived from a nickname in the Old French. A broad and miscellaneous class of surnames, nickname surnames referred to a characteristic of the first person who used the name. They can describe the bearer's favored style of clothing, appearance, habits, or character.

In the pre-Christian era, many pagan gods and demi-gods were believed to be a mixture of animals and humans, such as the Greek god Pan who was the god of flocks and herds and was represented as a man with the legs, horns and ears of a goat. In the Middle Ages, anthropomorphic ideas, which attributed human qualities and form to gods or animals, were held about the characters of other living creatures. They were based on the creature's habits. Moreover, these associations were reflected in folk tales, mythology, and legends that portrayed animals behaving as humans. The Old French nickname Stranger, meant "stranger." Nicknames come from the category of surnames known as hereditary surnames. They were adopted from a variety of sources including, physical characteristics, behaviour, mannerisms, and other personal attributes. Stranger would have been given to someone who was new in the village or parish. In the Middle Ages, the vast majority of people never traveled any more than thirty miles or so from the place of their birth. Travel and emigration was reserved for the nobility, by and large. The surname Stranger was derived from the Old French word estrange, which meant foreign. This is a name associated with the Bretons, a culture from the peninsula of Brittany, in the northwest of France. Formerly known as Armorica, a possession of the Roman Empire, this land consists of a plateau with a deeply indented coast and is broken by hills in the west. However, the region was renamed Britannia Minor by the Romans, following the emigration of six thousand Britons across the English Channel, an event which took place at the behest of the Roman Commander in Britain.

Early Origins of the Stranger family

The surname Stranger was first found in Derbyshire where they held a family seat as Lords of the manor of Pevell's Castle in the peak of Derbyshire. Guido le Strange, son of the Duke of Brittany was present at a joust with Owen, Prince of Wales and the Scottish Prince. Guido le Strange was ancestor of the various baronial houses of L'Strange and Strange. "The church [in Wellesbourn-Hastings in Warwickshire] is partly Norman, and partly in the early English style, with a tower of later character, and contains a monument to the memory of Sir Thomas le Strange, lord-lieutenant of Ireland in the reign of Henry VI." 1

Roger Le Strange (died 1311), was an early English jurist, "a descendant of Guy Le Strange, who is thought to have been a younger son of Hoel II, Duke of Brittany (1066-1084). He was sheriff of Yorkshire during the last two years of the reign of Henry III, and the first two of that of Edward I. " 2

Early History of the Stranger family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Stranger research. Another 152 words (11 lines of text) covering the years 1160, 1255, 1267, 1296, 1305, 1320, 1324, 1332, 1349, 1353, 1361, 1375, 1547, 1584, 1588, 1611, 1631, 1646, 1654, 1682, 1696, 1754 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Stranger History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Stranger Spelling Variations

The Old and Middle English languages lacked definite spelling rules, and therefore, Breton surnames have many spelling variations. Latin and French, which were the official court languages, were also influential on the spelling of surnames. The spelling of surnames was rarely consistent in medieval times, and scribes and church officials recorded names as they sounded rather than adhering to any specific spelling rules. Therefore, it was common to find the same individual referred to with different spellings of their surname in the ancient chronicles. Moreover, a large number of foreign names were brought into England after the Norman Conquest, which accelerated and accentuated the alterations to the spelling of various surnames. The name has been spelled Strange, Strang and others.

Early Notables of the Stranger family

Notable of this family during the Middle Ages was Fulk le Strange, 1st Baron Strange of Blackmere (1267-1324); John le Strange, 2nd Baron Strange of Blackmere (1305-1349); Fulk le Strange, 3rd Baron Strange of Blackmere (1320-1349); John le Strange, 4th Baron Strange of Blackmere (1332-1361); and John le Strange, 5th Baron Strange of Blackmere (1353-1375.)Richard Strange (1611-1682) was an English Jesuit, born in Northumberland in 1611, entered the Society of Jesus in 1631, and was professed...
Another 75 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Stranger Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Stranger family to Ireland

Some of the Stranger family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 57 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Stranger migration to the United States +

Research into various historical records has revealed some of first members of the Stranger family to immigrate North America:

Stranger Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Nich Stranger, who arrived in Virginia in 1638 3

Contemporary Notables of the name Stranger (post 1700) +

Miss Victoria Helena Stranger M.B.E., British Deputy Head Department for International Development in South Sudan, was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire on 29th December 2018 for services to International Development 4

Citations +

Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Smith, George (ed), Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1885-1900. Print
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
"Birthday and New Year Honours Lists (1940 to 2019)." Issue 62507, 28 December 2018 | London Gazette, The Gazette, Dec. 2018, www.thegazette.co.uk/honours-lists