CRYSTAL CLARK

19th-century coinage, which has recently enjoyed some popularity. This is one of the group of names taken from or suggestive of gemstones. The word crystal, denoting high-quality cut glass, is derived from Greek krystallos ‘ice’. As a boy's name, Crystal originated as a Scottish pet form of Christopher, but it is rarely used today.

English: occupational name for a scribe or secretary, originally a member of a minor religious order who undertook such duties. The word clerc denoted a member of a religious order, from Old English cler(e)c ‘priest’, reinforced by Old French clerc. Both are from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klērikos, a derivative of klēros ‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’, with reference to the priestly tribe of Levites (see Levy) ‘whose inheritance was the Lord’. In medieval Christian Europe, clergy in minor orders were permitted to marry and so found families; thus the surname could become established. In the Middle Ages it was virtually only members of religious orders who learned to read and write, so that the term clerk came to denote any literate man.