Hollidge

Recorded as Hollidge and Holledge, this is an English surname. It is locational and believed to be either from a now 'lost' medieval village or more likely from a village called Holleth, in the county of Lancashire. This place name developed from the pre 7th century Olde Scandanavian words 'hol hoful', meaning the hollow on the hill, or similar, and hence describing a hidden place. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, there are ponds by on the hill by the village, so it may be the original literal meaning was different to the present translation. Over a period of more than a thousand years there have been at least three changes of language, and a similar number of dialects, making it almost impossible to give an exact meaning. Locational surnames were in addition, 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best indifferent, and local accents very thick, lead to the creation of 'sounds like' forms. In this case the surname is well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London. Early examples include Anthonie Holledge at St Botolphs without Aldgate, on October 1st 1631, and Henry Hollidge who was christened at St Andrews Holborn, on June 13th 1647.