Who Put the ‘a’ in ‘Thomas a Becket’? The History of a Name from the Angevins to the Victorians

Abstract

This article examines the history of Becket’s name from his birth to c. 1800, through detailed corpus analysis, with a particular focus on the varying popularity of the ‘Becket’ and ‘a Becket’ forms from the 16th to 18th centuries. The analysis goes beyond positivist attempts to decide on the ‘correct’ name to look instead at naming conventions in the context of their use. There is some evidence to suggest that, until his ordination at least, Thomas was known by the family surname ‘Beket’ during his lifetime, and this name for him occurs in some medieval chronicle traditions. Yet for the most part he was ‘St Thomas of Canterbury’, and the ‘Becket’ surname was revived by Protestants at the Reformation as a slur to emphasise his unworthiness. The form ‘a Becket’ was invented by the satirist Thomas Nashe in the 1590s to turn the archbishop into a figure of fun, and by the 1700s may have been the predominant form in popular, verbal, use, largely thanks to its more appealing rhythmic form. By the 1760s the ‘a Becket’ form had also become the academically accepted ‘correct’ form. This in turn gave rise to debate, continuing to this day, about the correct nomenclature and to a host of theories about the etymology of both ‘types’.Banner image: The earliest known portrayal of Thomas Becket's murder in Canterbury Cathedral, unknown author, c.1200. Original in the British Library: Harley MS 5102, f. 32; image from Wikimedia Commons.