The Adkins Coat of Arms
April 24th, 2006 at 4:00 pm (Horse Shoe)
The Adkins family
can trace their ancestors back to the ancient territories of the English and Scottish Border Ridings between the 11th and 12th centuries.
The Shield is: Silver, a cross formed by a fleur de lys between four black stars.
The motto is: "Vincit cum legibus arma".
(He shall repress violence with laws)
ADKINS: is a Patronymic name, derived from the early given name Adam (Hebrew adama = red earth or man), originating in England, France, Catalan, Italy, Germany, and Poland, as well as the Ashkenazic Jewish, Dutch and Flemish. Diminutive forms of Adam are Adkin, Atkin, Aitkin, Adnett, Adnitt , and Ade . Italian variants are Adami, Dami ; Polish and Jewish versions include Adamski . The Hugarian cognate is Adam , in Provencal it is Azam , in Spain, Adan.
The name ADKINS originated during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries in England. Charles Bardsley states in his "English and Welsh Surnames" that "…the surname ADKINS was derived from a combination of the surname Adam and the diminutive kin." Following one tradition of the Anglo-Saxon people a well liked child would have the first syllable of his name combined with the diminutive kin to form a new name. In our case, the first syllable of Adam (Ad) was combined with the diminutive kin to form Adkin. Adkin would then be the child’s pet or nickname and in many cases would become his legal name for life. In old English, the name was spelled ADEKYN, however, in later centuries the name according to Bardsley "…was sharpened to Adkin." Bardsley continues "All the other spellings were formed by misspelling." This method of name forming was also used to identify a son named after his father much as we use Jr. today. A child named after his father, Adam, would be called Adkin to indicate ‘Little Adam’ or son of Adam.
