Cumberbatch Spelling Variations and their origins

Cumberbatch Spelling Variations - Cumberbatch has been spelt many different ways. Here is a list of just some of the spelling variations that I have found.

Cumberbatch Spelling Variations – Cumberbatch has been spelt many different ways. Here is a list of just some of the spelling variations that I have found.

Cumberbatch 1206
Cumberlidge 644
Cumberpatch 501
Comberbach 436
Cumberledge 290
Cumberbirch 257
Cumberlege 152
Cumberbeach 98
Cumberbach 36

Cumberbatch Surname Spelling Variations

Cumberbatch Spelling Variations – Cumberbatch has been spelt many different ways. Here is a list of just some of the spelling variations that I have found.

So how did COMBERBACH become CUMBERBATCH?

There were many factors that resulted in surnames being recorded in a variety of ways. These include:

  • Pronunciation changes
  • Cultural background of the church official
  • Spelling standardisation
  • Misinterpretation of regional dialects and pronunciation

Pronunciation Changes

Most commonly known as the “Great Vowel Shift” it represents differences in expressing long english vowels. For example, before the Great Vowel Shift, i.e. the Chaucerian pronunciation, of ‘route’ would have been ‘rowt’, as the Americans pronounce it today, whilst Shakespearean pronunciation, post GVS, would pronounce ‘route’ as ‘root’. However, I do not think that this impacted the Comberbach name.

However, I am told that the locals now pronounce Comberbach as ‘Commerbach’ i.e. with a silent ‘b’. Had this been the case is early times then another set of spelling variations would have resulted.

The Clergy

Until the end of the 16th century the standard of education of the clergy was pretty low. During the 1600s the clergy became better paid and better educated. They were influenced by Latin and this would have been reflected in the way they recorded surnames. Many of the church’s congregation could not read or write and had no way of confirming the spelling of surnames.

Spelling Standardisation

Spelling is thought to have become standardised in the late 1600s with the advent of printing presses and with the publication of dictionaries. Shakespeare is said to have had between 5 and 14 different spellings of his surname.

Common spelling changes:

  • Added ‘e’ or ‘es’ suffix; for example ‘bach’ meaning stream cold have become ‘bache’
  • Doubling or singling consonants; for example allways and ffirst
  • Doubling or singling of vowels; for example good was spelt gode
  • Interchangeable vowel sounds e.g. o/ou, i/ie/y and w/u; for example: tailor became taylor (i/ie/y interchange), fyrst became first (y/i interchange) and COMBERBACH may have become CUMBERBACH (o/u interchange)
  • J written as I
  • U written as V; for example, another surname of interest to me is Shuffler, of Barbados, who may be descendants of the Shovellers of Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire and/or to the Shoulers of various counties of England. An IGI search of Shoveler, or of Shouler, reveals 1269 life-time events.

The study of such spelling variations is called Etymology: the history of words. There are some great examples illustrating the interchanging of letters in the will of Roger Comberbach 1606

Migration and Misinterpretation

Following migration to an unfamiliar place with a parish priest unfamiliar with a surname, the clergyman would have made his best guess as to how to spell a name, there was little point in asking the person! So if the surname ‘sounds like’ the spelling then this is often enough to pass the ‘test’. Phonectical similarity can often be used to find variants.

However, occasionally and especially with international travel and settlement a ‘foreign’ and therefore unfamiliar name can be mutilated by a ‘best guess’ spelling. So ‘D’Orleans’ could have been recorded as Darling as the local clergy tried to understand and record the surname.

Migration often resulted in the corruption of surname spelling.

Cumberbatch Variant Spellings These following spellings of the surname have been found in the study so far:

CAMBAGE, CAMBARLIDGE, CAMBERBACH, CAMBERBACK, CAMBERBATCH, CAMBERLEDGE, CAMBERLEDGEP, CAMBERLEGE, CAMBERLIDGE, CAMBORLEDGE, CAMBURLIDGE, CAMMERBACH, COMBABACH, COMBABATCH, COMBACH, COMBARLIDGE, COMBERACK, COMBERBACH (the most ancient spelling), COMBERBACHE, COMBERBACK, COMBERBACKE, COMBERBAGHE, COMBERBASH, COMBERBATCH, COMBERBEACH, COMBERBECK, COMBERBEECH, COMBERBIRCH, COMBERBRACH, COMBERBRECK, COMBERBUSH, COMBERLACHE, COMBERLADE, COMBERLADG, COMBERLADGE, COMBERLAGE, COMBERLBEICH, COMBERLEACH, COMBERLEDGE, COMBERLEGE, COMBERLETH, COMBERLIDG, COMBERLIDGE, COMBERLIEG, COMBERLIGE, COMBERLITCH, COMBERLYCH, COMBERPATCH, COMBIRBACK, COMBUBACH, COMBUBACK, COMBURLIDGE, COMELAG, COMELAGE, COMERBACH, COMERBATCH, COMERLEGE, COMLAGE, COMMERBACH, COMMERBACK, COMOBACH, COMPERLIDGE, COUMBERBATCH, CUMALACHE, CUMALAGE, CUMALEACHE, CUMALIDGE, CUMBABATCH, CUMBACH, CUMBARBATCH, CUMBERBA., CUMBERBACH, CUMBERBACHE, CUMBERBACK, CUMBERBAG, CUMBERBAGE, CUMBERBAHT, CUMBERBALD, CUMBERBATAH, CUMBERBATCH, CUMBERBATCHE, CUMBERBATH, CUMBERBATILS, CUMBERBEACH, CUMBERBECH, CUMBERBECK, CUMBERBEECH, CUMBERBEECHE, CUMBERBERCH, CUMBERBICH, CUMBERBICK, CUMBERBIECH, CUMBERBIRCH, CUMBERBIRTCH, CUMBERBITCH, CUMBERBOTCH, CUMBERBREECH, CUMBERBRIDGE, CUMBERBTCH, CUMBERFATCH, CUMBERLACH, CUMBERLAD, CUMBERLADG, CUMBERLADGE, CUMBERLAGE, CUMBERLATCH, CUMBERLDGE, CUMBERLEACH, CUMBERLECH, CUMBERLECHE, CUMBERLED, CUMBERLEDG, CUMBERLEDGE, CUMBERLEECH, CUMBERLEGE, CUMBERLEICH, CUMBERLEITCH, CUMBERLGE, CUMBERLICH, CUMBERLIDG, CUMBERLIDGE, CUMBERLIGE, CUMBERLITCH, CUMBERLOACH, CUMBERLODGE, CUMBERLOGE, CUMBERPACH, CUMBERPATCH, CUMBERSHALL, CUMBERSLEDGE, CUMBERTH, CUMBLEDGE, CUMBLIDGE, CUMBORBACH, CUMERBATCH, CUMERBATCH, CUMERLEICH, CUMERLIDGE, CUMERTACH, CUMILACH, CUMMALEGE, CUMMALIDGE, CUMMALIGE, CUMMBERLEAGE, CUMMELADGE, CUMMERBATCH, CUMMERLAGE, CUMMERLETCH, CUMMERLIDGE, CUMMILACH, CUMMILEDGE, CUMPERPATCH.

Most of these are deviants rather than established variant spellings that stuck. Here are the list of variant spellings:

  • COMBERBACH – the most ancient spelling
  • CUMBERBATCH – the most frequently occurring spelling and derived from COMBERBACH
  • CUMBERPATCH – mostly found in Northamptonshire and originally derived from COMBERBACH; however the Cumberbatch surname is often mispelled Cumberpatch; for instance if you search eBay for CUMBERPATCH you will find many “Benedict Cumberpatch” items
  • CUMBERBIRCH & CUMBERBEACH – mostly found in north Cheshire and Manchester and derived from CUMBERBATCH

Many of these sound alike even though the spelling varies.

The exceptions being COMBERLIDGE, CUMBERLEDGE, CUMBERLEGE, CUMBERLIDGE and CUMBERSLEDGE. These have been included as some of the early people having these surnames had a coat-of-arms similar to those of Comberbach families. Clearly this family of names is related to each other, but only some may be related to Comberbach.

Some of the above variations may have occurred due to a more modern reason that being transcription of records and indexing. For example, a Cumberback may have been mis-transcribed for a Cumberbach. The confusion occurring in the similarity of the written ‘h’ and ‘k’. These variations make retrieval of information from databases which do not use ‘fuzzy’ name matching problematic.

I have excluded the surname CUMBERLAND from the study. This I believe to be a distinct and unrelated surname having similarities in its compound structure to CUMBERBATCH. This may well mean that a Cumberbatch, who is misinterpreted as a Cumberland may well go ‘missing’.

So how did COMBERBACH become CUMBERBATCH? Well vowels ‘o’ & ‘u’ are interchangeable and the phonetic BACH vs BATCH are identical. Note English BACH is not to be confused with German BACH pronounced BARK. They have the same meaning in both English and German but are pronounced very differently.

So how did COMBERBACH become CUMBERPATCH? Vowels ‘o’ & ‘u’ are interchangeable and the phonetic BACH vs PATCH are very similar. A family moved from Cheshire, where the village and name Comberbach would more likely to be known to local priests. The family moved to Northamptonshire where the name Comberbach was not known. It shortly was pronounced and spelled Cumberpatch by local clergy and this spelling stuck. This is a great example of migration causing the variation is pronunciation and spelling. Surnames often do not travel well.

Cumberbirch and Cumberbeach are spellings that sound similar to Cumberbatch and where accents may have played a role in these variants and again outside Cheshire.

Here are the counts of these surname in the family trees online:

Cumberbatch 1206
Cumberlidge 644
Cumberpatch 501
Comberbach 436
Cumberledge 290
Cumberbirch 257
Cumberlege 152
Cumberbeach 98
Cumberbach 36