Trembath

This is a surname which is widely recorded throughout the ancient principality of Cornwall. Recorded as Trembath, Trembeath, Tremberth and Trembeth, it is like most Cornish surnames, locational. It originates from any of the places called Trembath, Tenbath, Trembeth, and Tremberth, or which there are several examples. The meanings vary slightly but all have the prefix 'tre' meaning 'homestead' and bagh which can mean corner of land, or beth, a burial place, or berth, a bush. In a largely treeless landscape like Cornwall, natural features which might well have been ignored in other regions or countries, assumed much greater significance in this (often) misty landscape. The unusual feature of Cornish surnames is that they are locational. The Cornish people are closely related to the Bretons, the Welsh and the Irish. These people have few locational surnames, being generally patronymics. In this case the surname seems to be first recorded in church registers at St Columb Major when John Trembeath married Joan Tyfford on April 22nd 1577, whilst two centuries later as an example, we have the recording of Emanuel Trembath at St Just in Penwith on March 21st of 1799.