A discussion concerning the spelling and pronunciation of the family names of Crittenden, Cruttenden etc.

Letter from Ian Cruttenden to Alan Cruttenden 1st April 1990

..... Professionally you indicate that you are involved in phonetics and I wondered if you could help in any way with the various spellings and possible spellings of Cruttenden. For example the major alternative is CRITTENDEN. I have come across many instances in the late 18th century where, in the parish registers, the spelling of the same person varies from Crittenden to Cruttenden and visa versa. This is obviously at a time when few people could write and the spelling may have something to do with pronunciation. At the GRO there are many instances of the indexer putting the name Cruttenden in the Crittenden index. Looking at old handwriting one could easily mistake the old 'ri' as 'ru'.

Another name I have come across is CRUNDEN and was unsure if this could have derived from Cruttenden. Likewise there is another spelling local to Kent, CHITTENDEN.

There is a manor in Cowden in Sussex called Crittenden, 1862, but now spelt Crippenden. There was also possibly a manor here in 1311 called Crippendene.

Some reporters also associate the Cruttenden name with CROYTENDEN in the mid-1400s. .....

Alan Cruttenden's reply 24th April 1990

..... Most of the alternative spellings can be given a phonetic explanation. As you say most names will have been passed down orally, and so mishearing could easily play a part. Alternatively misreading could be combined with mishearing. So I'll deal with the alternative spellings one-by-one in this light. Some of it is a bit technical-phonetic but I'll do my best to explain non-technically.
(a) CRUTTENDEN * CRITTENDEN. This actually is the least easy to explain. The first vowel is in the stressed syllable of the word and stressed syllables are generally the most stable. The two vowels (those in luck and lick) are both short vowels and both close vowels (close = high and means made with the tongue raised high) but one is front and one is back. It is possible historical sound change (which might be a similar situation) but only over a long period. So I think the confusion of written <i> and <u> would have to be involved as a possible contributory factor.
(b) CRUTTENDEN * CRUNDEN. This has a very easy phonetic explanation. Firstly the last two syllables are unstressed and hence liable to 'reduction'. The second syllable (represented by 'ten') in most pronunciation of CRUTTENDEN involves no vowel but a syllabic n (usually transcribed n with a little mark beneath). In other words it is pronounced like sudden or kitten. The t at the beginning of the syllable before the syllabic n loses its oral explosion (it is a childish pronunciation to actually explode the t in kitten - likewise in Cruttenden). Once the t has no oral explosion, then it is half way to complete elision. In fact some people actually call me CRUNDEN because they don't here the t.
Incidentally the d in den does not lose its oral plosion before an n doesn't apply when another n precedes, as in the usual pronunciation of London. So the d is unlikely to be lost.
(c) CRUTTENDEN * CHITTENDEN, kr and ch represent constant "clusters" which are close phonetically. Compare (i) crust / trust and the (ii) train / chain . In other words, they are both closely related to tr.
(d) CRITTENDEN * CRIPPENDEN. p, t, and k (also spelt c) are three so-called "voiceless plosives", i.e. they are made without vibration of the vocal chords and with an "explosion" (or puff of breath following - see the effect of them on a candle flame). Hence interchange between the three is very likely through mishearing.
(e) CRUTTENDEN * CROYTENDEN. u spells the sound in punt and oi (with variant oy) the sound in point. The two sounds represented here by u and oi (oy) are different in that one is a short vowel (u) and one is a diphthong (oi) ( a diphthong involves a change from one vowel quality to another). The short u and the first part of the diphthong oi were very similar up to late 19th century (although they have become further apart in this century). If you listen to the present day Irish pronunciation of luck, you'll get some idea what it sounded like. And the first part of a diphthong is always dominant. So the u and o of oy were obviously similar sounding.
(f) -DEN/-DENE variation also of course has to do with the fact that the final syllable is unstressed. The original ending obviously came from some early word like denu (? did this mean 'valley') where the e would have been pronounced fully like e in the present-day word den. But after being used as an affix in names, the syllable became more like the sound in the last syllable of London and the final -u ending lost altogether.
(g) -PIN-/-PEN-. This again would just be confusion in how to write unstressed, reduced vowels.

I hope this all helps. Just two questions:

(1) You implied in your original letter that Crittenden actually originated from a separate place. Is this then in doubt?
(2) Has anyone suggested what root the CRUTTEN in the place name originally came from? .....


Ian Cruttenden's reply to the two questions in a letter of 10 June 1990

..... The ending den/dene, as you indicated does in general mean valley. In the Weald, the undwelt wood, of Kent and Sussex, which was one large forest at the time of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of south-east England, the ending den/dene indicated a 'swine pasture' in a clearing in the forest. Thus the place name Cruttenden was derived from the swine pasture where Cruttenden or Crutte kept his pigs. The village of Cruttenden was near Headcorn in Kent. Certainly the incidence of the Cruttenden name seems to spread out from this part of Kent.

I have no evidence how the name Crittenden was derived, I have only found the suggestion of it being named after a place near Brenchley from a dictionary of place names.  .....

Alan Cruttenden is Professor of Phonetics at Manchester University.