MONICA HALSTEAD

Of uncertain ultimate origin. This was the name of the mother of St Augustine, as transmitted to us by her famous son. She was a citizen of Carthage, so her name may well be of Phoenician origin, but in the early Middle Ages it was taken to be a derivative of Latin monere ‘to warn, counsel’, since it was as a result of her guidance that her son was converted to Christianity.

English: 1. habitational name from any of the various places bearing this name, for example in Essex (Haltesteda in Domesday Book), Kent, and Leicestershire, all of which are probably named from Old English h(e)ald ‘refuge’, ‘shelter’ + stede ‘site’, or possibly Hawstead in Suffolk, which has the same origin. However, the name is now most frequent in Lancashire and Yorkshire, where it is from High Halstead in Burnley, named as the ‘site of a hall’, from Old English h(e)all ‘hall’ + stede ‘place’. 2. occupational name for someone employed at ‘the hall buildings’, Middle English hallested, an ostler or cowhand, for instance.