HANNAH CLARK

Biblical name, borne by the mother of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 1:2), Hebrew Hanna. It is derived from a Hebrew word meaning ‘He (i.e. God) has favoured me (i.e. with a child)’. See also Anne. This form of the name was taken up as a given name by the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries and remained popular until the late 19th century. Thereafter it fell somewhat from favour but has enjoyed a massive revival since the 1990s.

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.