Fenimore - Name

Recorded in several forms including Fenemore, Fenimore, Finnemore, Finnimore, Fynmore, Fenomore, and others, this is an English locational surname. It originates from either Fennymere, a village in Shropshire first recorded as 'Finemer' in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, or the similar Finmer in Oxfordshire, itself first recorded in Domesday Book at 'Finmere'. Both places have the same meaning of a stagnant mere or lake, from the pre 7th century Olde English 'fyne-mer'. Locational surnames were usually 'from' names. That is to say names that were given to people for easy identificational after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling over the centuries being at best indifferent with fewer than five percent of the population able even to write their name, and local dialects, very thick, lead to the creation of 'sounds like' spellings. In this case examples of the surname recordings taken from surviving church registers of the city of London include Gilbert de Fennamore of Wilshire in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, and Hugh Finamur of Norfolk in the same year.