JULIE CLARK

(French) form of Julia. This was imported to the English-speaking world in the 1920s, and soon became a great favourite. Its popularity was increased in the 1960s by the fame of the British actresses Julie Harris (b. 1925), Julie Andrews (b. 1935 as Julia Wells), Julie Christie (b. 1940), and, more recently, of Julie Waters (b. 1950).

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.