WILKINS FAMILY NAME HISTORY
The English surname
Wilkins is of patronymic origin, derived from the name of the
father of the first bearer of this surname. This surname
derives from the Christian name William, ”son of
William” is then the proper translation of Wilkins. The
name William is of Anglo-Norman origin, from the Old High German
“Wilihelm” , formed by “will”, meaning
resolution, and “helm”, meaning armed. This name
was very popular during the Middle Ages as can be proved by the
existence of famous people like William Rufus (the red), or King
William II of England (1056-1100) and his father, William the
Conqueror, or William I of England (1027-1087), who as Duke of
Normandy invaded and conquered the English in 1066.
Very early records
of the surname Wilkins go as far back as the twelfth century,
with a Willechin de Laurecost in 1196 (Pipe Rolls, or
Sheriffs’ Annual Accounts for the Counties of Cumberland,
Westmoreland, and Durham during the reigns of Henry II, Richard I
and John). A Ralph Wylekin was living in County Norfolk
during the reigns of Henry III and Edward I. A Wilechin in
1167 is mentioned in the “History of Northumberland” by
Reverend John Hodgson. In more recent times we have an
important bearer of Wilkins with the name of Sir Henry John
Arthur Wilkins, from Devon, President of Cooperative Wholesale
Society Limited. He was knighted in 1932. Maurice
Hugh Frederick Wilkins (1916- ) was a New Zealand-born
British biophysicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology
and Medicine with Watson and Crick in 1962, for the discovery of
the structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
BLAZON
OF ARMS: Ermine, on a bend sable, three martlets
argent, a canton or, with a rose
gules.
CREST:
A boar passant reguardant sable, pierced through the
shoulders with an
arrow argent, bendways sinister, the boar biting the
arrow.
MOTTO:
Estote prudentes.
Translation:
Be ye prudent.
ORIGIN:
ENGLAND