Nightingirl History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

• Origins Available:
• England
• Ireland

Etymology of Nightingirl

The name Nightingirl is rooted in the ancient Norman culture that arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It was a name for someone who was a person with a good singing voice. The name is a metaphor likening the original bearer of the name to the nocturnal songbird called a nightingale. Its name is derived from the Old English words niht, meaning night, and galan, meaning to sing. 1

"The name 'night-in-gale' seems peculiarly inappropriate to the bird that sings in the calmest of midsummer nights. The stormy petrel may be blown upon the gale and the cry of the screeching owl may be heard above the noise of the wind, but this bird, the sweetest singer of the woodland, loves profound silence. We find that the termination 'gale' is from the Anglo-Saxon 'galan,' to sing, we can understand that this is the bird who passes the 'night-in-song.' " 2

Early Origins of the Nightingirl family

Early History of the Nightingirl family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Nightingirl research. Another 83 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1627, 1645, 1722, 1765, 1768, 1775, 1787, 1788, 1790, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1799, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1809, 1815, 1820, 1824, 1826, 1829, 1839, 1849 and 1947 are included under the topic Early Nightingirl History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Nightingirl Spelling Variations

Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Nightingale, Nightingall, Nightengale and others.

Early Notables of the Nightingirl family

Sir Thomas Nightingale (d.1645), High Sheriff of Essex in 1627. He was the progenitor of the Nightingale Baronetcy of Newport Pond. This baronetcy has continued from the inception to today when Sir Charles Manners Gamaliel Nightingale is the 17th Baronet (b.1947.) The ancestral seat of the Nightingale family...
Another 48 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Nightingirl Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Nightingirl family to Ireland

Some of the Nightingirl family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt. More information about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Nightingirl family

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Nightingirl or a variant listed above were: Thomas Nightingale, who came to Virginia in 1648; Kathleen Nitingale settled in Virginia with her husband in 1649; Henry Nightingale, who came to Charleston in 1792.