Possible Origins of the Family Name


Just about anything that can be said about the origin of our family name approaches speculation. One theory is that the name is derived from the River Test found in southern England.

The river theory is certainly romantically appealing.  Imagine an ancestor living in a cozy thatched roof cottage near the river. The River Test flows about 30 miles from Overton northeast of Whitchurch past Testcombe Bridge and Testwood to Southampton.

Writing in English River-Names, (See reference at bottom) Eilert Ekwall tells us that of the early forms the Old English Terste is predominant.  Later forms substantiate this claim. Taerste, is not an example of poor spelling. Rather, it is analogous to Old English paerscan for perscan. The loss of the r in Test is analogous to the loss of the r in bass, dace and the like. The suggestion here is that our family name may have started as Terste.

Ekwall maintains that Test is without doubt pre-English.  If so, the original root of the name may have *Trest. The word Trest can be compared with Tres- in Trysull, with the Welsh tres 'toil, labor' and with tren 'strong' from *treksno-.

The Welsh tren may be related to the Goth pragjan , 'to run' which is derived from the root word trek- as well as related to the Welsh troi 'to turn' and troed . 'foot'.

The root meaning is 'to run'. The Old English Terste may have originated in a root such as trekstu with a meaning of 'run'.

All pretty complicated and of little help. We have our choice: the name may have originated in Old English as Taerste , in Welsh as Trest or in Goth as Troi.

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Eilbert Ekwall, English River-Names, Oxord, Clarendon Press (1928), p. 401.

Thanks to Mary Lawrence Test for a copy of the relevant pages in this reference.