AUDREY SMITH

Much altered form of the Old English girl's name Æðelþryð, derived from æðel ‘noble’ + þryð ‘strength’. This was the name of a 6th-century saint (normally known by the Latinized form of her name, Etheldreda), who was a particular favourite in the Middle Ages. According to tradition she died from a tumour of the neck, which she bore stoically as a divine punishment for her youthful delight in fine necklaces. The name went into a decline at the end of the Middle Ages, when it came to be considered vulgar, being associated with tawdry, that is, lace and other goods sold at fairs held in her name (the word deriving from a misdivision of Saint Audrey). Shakespeare bestowed it on Touchstone's comic sweetheart in As You Like It. In the 20th century, such associations largely forgotten, the name was revived, partly due in the 1950s and 60s to the popularity of the actress Audrey Hepburn (1929–93).

English: occupational name for a worker in metal, from Middle English smith (Old English smið, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Metalworking was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents were perhaps the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is the most frequent of all American surnames; it has also absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages (for forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988).