Baskerville (surname)

Baskerville is an English surname of Anglo-Norman origin. It is believed to have been used by Norman invaders from Boscherville (Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville) and from Bacqueville (Bacqueville-en-Caux), both in Normandy, many of whom settled along the English-Welsh border. Etymologically the name is a combination of archaic Anglo-Norman French boschet (a little bush) and ville (town).

At the time of the British Census of 1881,^[1] its relative frequency was highest in Herefordshire (16.2 times the British average), followed by Cheshire, Devon, Radnorshire, Oxfordshire, Brecknockshire, Cornwall, Wigtownshire, Carmarthenshire and Staffordshire. It has also been corrupted to Basketfield in some families.

The name Baskerville may refer to:

• Albert Henry Baskerville (1882–1908), a New Zealand pioneer of rugby league football
• Charles Baskerville (1896–1994), American painter
• Charles Baskerville (1870–1922), American chemist
• Howard Baskerville (1885–1909), an American missionary, revered as the "American Lafayette" in Iran
• Sir John Baskerville, a Royalist during the English Civil Wars
• John Baskerville (1706–1775), typographer
• John David Baskerville (1857–1926), a Canadian politician
• Lorrainne Sade Baskerville, an American social worker and activist
• Ralph de Baskerville, son of Robert de Boscherville who held Eardisley Castle in Herefordshire

Fiction

• William of Baskerville, a fictional character in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

See also

• Baskerville typeface
• Baskerville (disambiguation)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (disambiguation)

References

1. "Baskerville Surname Meaning and Distribution". forebears.co.uk. Retrieved 23 January 2014