NANCY CLARK

Of uncertain origin. From the 18th century it is clearly used as a pet form of Ann (see Nan), but it may originally have been a similar formation deriving from the common medieval given name Annis, a vernacular form of Agnes. Nowadays it is an independent name, and was especially popular in America in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. A meaning of the name Nancy is Grace.

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.