Higginbottom (& variants)
Descendant of someone who lived at the bottom of a valley where oak trees grew.- Collins Dictionary of Surnames - Leslie Dunkling, (1998)
Newcomers to family history research are warned not to rely on names being spelt in a standard way, and since embarking on this research I've realised just how difficult it is to navigate through BMD indexes and census returns with certain names in mind. The name 'Lamb' seems easily traced. But the more syllables they have the more difficult it becomes. My great-grandmother's name was Higinbotham - at least I thought it was. It says that on the family gravestones.
I was prepared for the variation Higginbotham with the two gs. And obviously Higginbottom - with one or two gs. Presumably people began to use Higinbotham as a more refined-sounding version of Higginbottom. Similarly my Longbottom ancestors are often recorded as Longbotham.
'What a touch of grossness in our race, what an original shortcoming in the more delicate spiritual perceptions, is shown by the natural growth amongst us of such hideous names - Higginbottom, Stiggins, Bugg!'
- Matthew Arnold - The Function of Criticism at the Present Time (1865)
Some of the versions of Higinbotham I've come across are from the computerised records, where the original handwriting is either faded or not very neat. In being transferred to computer database, the poor data entry person makes a best guess. As did I when searching for anything related to my own Higinbothams. So in the translation from often unclear handwritten records to the computerised records on the database, you get some interesting variations. Variations I've found include:
Higinbotham, Higginbotham, Heginbotham, Hegginbotham, Hoginbotham, Higginbottom, Higinbottom,
Fleginbotham, Fliyyinbottom, Heyinbottom, Heyinbosham, Hogisbottam
"Fliyyinbottom"?