Statewide County NcArchives News.....POTTS - History of Your Surname 1920
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Guy Potts http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004214 January 26, 2008, 1:55 pm

The Charlotte Observer 1920
17 July 1920

POTTS - History of Your Surname
By Philip Francis Nowland

Variations - Philpott, Phillpot, Phillips - Racial Origin: Norman French.

You'd never imagine, from the mere comparison of the family names of Potts and 
Phillips that there was any connection between them. But the fact is that they 
are virtually the same name, that they have come from the same source, the 
given name of Philip. 

As a given name, you must go back to the ancient Greek for the source of 
Philip. In its original form it was Phillipos, from the Greek root "phil" 
for "love" and "hippos" for "horse." The name means "lover of horses." 

It was taken over by the old Romans from the Greeks, and became with them 
Phillipus, and first with the spread of the Roman conquest through what is now 
France and Normandy, and later through the spread of Christianity (for it had 
become a popular Christian name) over the same course, it became quite common 
in the northwestern section of the European mainland.

It was taken over to England by William and his Norman conquerors, and 
throughout the Middle Ages became quite common there also, though today its 
popularity as a given name has fallen off somewhat in England. The name was 
often shortened to Phil though this shortened form has not survived in any 
form of surname. 

With the diminutive ending it became Philipot (little Phillip). Strangly 
enough, in numerous cases practically all of the given name was dropped, 
leaving only the final "p" with the diminutive ending for the modern family 
name of Potts. Phillips is a contraction of Philipson, a form now seldom met 
with.


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