From: "Brian Binns" <bnbinns@gmail.com> > Just a reminder for those in the UK that this Wednesday's subject of "Who do > you think you are?" is Leicester's own Gary Lineker. I am posting this also > to the Notts list as I have come across the surname Lineker quite frequently > in Notts also. > > Would I be correct in assuming that the surnames Lineker and Linacre have > the same root - the latter? It would seem logical - a place name derivation, > such as John from Lin Acre??? > > > > Brian Binns > > Living in Loughborough but born and bred in Nottingham> Reaney & Wilson (A Dictionary of English Surnames) agree with your theory - not that I always entirely trust surname dictionaries but in this case their definition seems reasonable. R & W show Lineker as a variant of LINACRE deriving either from a place in Lancashire, Linacre Court alias Lenniker in Kent, or from a "dweller by a flax-field". There was apparently a Godwin de Linacra in the Domesday Book (1086) in Cambridgeshire. Hanks & Hodges in the Oxford Dictionary of Surnames focus principally on the dweller by a flax-field explanation but also mention places called Linacre in Lancashire and Cambridgeshire. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE