The story of the
Chrimes, Crimes, Chrymes and Crymes
surnames
Cheshire vs. The Rest?
In the Origins section of this website the case is made for the CHRIMES name originating in the County of Cheshire, UK. No surprise then that in the early centuries of the name's existence the majority of CHRIMESs were in Cheshire. Of the 13 branches currently charted in Data, 10 are located mainly in present-day Cheshire and as they include the branch called "Norley", which is by far the largest, this dominance of Cheshire is confirmed.
But if Cheshire was so important, why are there 3 branches which are not in Cheshire? There are perhaps two possible reasons for this:
To help readers not expert at UK geography, here are the Cheshire branches (see Data) with their distance in miles from Weaverham:
Crowton | 2 |
Great Budworth | 6 |
Halton | 10 |
Norley | 4 |
Tarvin | 10 |
Weaverham | 0 |
Branch | County | |
Shropshire | Shropshire | 40 |
Staffordshire | Staffordshire | 70 |
Sheffield | Yorkshire | 65 |
Warrington | Lancashire | 10 |
Readers in Australia, Canada or USA might consider all of these distances small, but to the inhabitants of the small islands of UK, especially in the days before easy long-distance travel, they were significant.
Within the UK, the assertion that most CHRIMESs are in Cheshire is no longer valid. It might be thought that in these times of increased mobility where families move easily from one part of the country to another, that there might not be one area which could be singled out as a CHRIMES haven. There are however significant concentrations in Lancashire, especially in and around Rochdale. In the 10-year period 1996 to 2005 there were 59 CHRIMES births in the UK, with only 8 of them being in Cheshire, whereas the South Lancashire districts of Bolton, Bury and Rochdale (combined) had 17 births.