Brotherick

Recorded in a number of spellings including Brotheredg, Brotheridge, and Brotherick, this is an English surname, which is probably locational. If so it probably originates from either the village of Brotheridge Green in the county of Worcestershire, or from Brotherwick, a hamlet in Northumberland near the town of Alnwick. The famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardsley suggested that the meaning in both cases was a house or farm (wic) owned by "Brothers", that is to say members of a monastery or abbey. However later research has an alternative suggestion from the Danish-Viking word "brodher". This was sometimes used as a personal name of endearment, and may have implied close kinsmanship to a local lord of the manor, who was in a position to grant his "brother" land holdings. There is a third possible suggestion, that the surname is not locational at all, but a developed form of the popular Olde English personal name Baldrick, which certainly gave rise to a number of known surnames close in spelling such as Brodrick and Broderick. In this case known early recordings taken from surviving church registers of the diocese of Greater London include: Phillyce Brotherick who married Nicholas Day at St Giles Cripplegate, on September 24th 1581, in the next century Thomas Broderedg who married Anne Best at St Benets church, Pauls Wharf, on March 9th 1657, and later still, William Brotheridge, who was a witness at St Saviours church, Southwark, on May 16th 1802.