General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe English Roots of the name Romney- Sheep, Gypsies and horses.
I was curious after his anglo saxon remark so I found this from 2006
1. Romney as a Breed of Sheep.
Romney is also the name for a breed of sheep. See fleeces on and off the hoof at http://www.romneywool.com/fleeces.html.
Will voters say Baa? Feel fleeced? Or follow follow follow. Need to look up origin of sheep types. A start: the American Romney Breeders at http://www.americanromney.org/.
Romney, then, from the sheep connection, are sturdy and meat-producing. See http://www.americanromney.org/b_breedstd_white.html. The sheep originated in the Romney Marshes of Kent, England - see paragraph on the Romney Marsh at #3 here. Were the people thereafter associated?
2. Romney as colloquial, a clan of Gypsy?
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Roma.
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Romney as colloquial. Is it merely that? A search for "romney gypsy" turns up odd references to Romney Gypsies, but nothing concrete. The term is simply used in different contexts, informal mostly.
3. Romney as a bog.
Romney is also a marsh in Kent, England, where there is a tearoom serving scones etc. See http://www.lathebarn.co.uk.
Romney Marsh. The location is on Donkey Street. The Romney breed of sheep came from here - see this long-wool type (new word: flockmaster) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romney_(sheep).
4. Romney as a language, all its own.
Romney is also a word for the "Cant" that was spoken by Gypsies, a languages others could not understand. See "The Genesis of Anglo-Romani" at Scholarship and the Gypsy Struggle. This is the heading for a Google book online with an enormously long URL -http://books.google.com/books?id=CGWFAQ9RZ0oC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=england+romney+gypsy&source=web&ots=CMpN0NAojx&sig=0cfy0vVMYW8KBwElLNu6HZHxC20.
Do a search for England Romney Gypsy and it should come up. See post here at Gypsies, Roma: Cant.
5. Romney as a road to somewhere.
And there is a Romney Road in Greenwich, England. That is where the Greenwich Royal Observatory is. Very long URL, so do a search to see it. Greenwich SE 10. Was this connected at some time with a community of gypsies, or not?
6. Romney as a traditional surname itself for gypsies, and not just a word for the group? Unclear.
The word is similar to the word for Gypsies or Roma, but we have not found it as a surname in itself, chosen or used by a specific family.
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Romney as a surname in itself is not listed among the gypsy surnames at this site, for example- http://foclark.tripod.com/gypsy/presentsurnames.html.
zzaapp
(531 posts)As leader of the GDL (Gypsy Defense League) , I must protest.
My ancestors were Gypsies who raised sheep. Their house sat in the middle of a bog. Aren't you being a bit insensitive?
One love for the Gypsies !!!!!!!
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)What's the difference between Mick Jagger and a Scotsman?
Well, Mick Jagger says, "Hey, you, get off of my cloud!"
A Scotsman says, "Hey McCloud, get off of my ewe!"
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)That was Corny..... but not from Cornwall.
virgogal
(10,178 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)but his advisers apparently felt free to make some comments that could be interpreted as carrying a racial tinge.
I have to go with the sheep.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Seriously. They believe he's part of a gypsy clan.
deldemocrat
(5 posts)why not ?? they have gone out of thier way to try and make a connection between OBAMA and the first US slave...this is funny because they did it through the white side of his family. they have no info on the african side of his family and KENYANS were never slaves...so OBAMA is related to slaves,brad pitt,dick cheney,george bush all through his mothers side of the family...what croc of serious @#$% if any of this is true then all americans are related to slaves...(medical statistics(American Red Cross) show 75% of american whites have black blood Genotypes) ..... one big happy family!!!
muriel_volestrangler
(101,400 posts)"Romani/Romany" aren't the 'traditional' English term for the people - that's just 'Gypsy'. The 'Romney' spelling seems to be a spelling used a long time ago in a scholarly book; I'd doubt that would be used for a surname - and, as you say, it doesn't turn up in the list of common Roma names (and that list includes plenty of names that are common for non-Roma people too).
Romney Road in Greenwich is probably named after the Earl of Romney (who will have taken his title from the place):
http://www.shopgreenwich.co.uk/greenwich-market-history
Response to muriel_volestrangler (Reply #7)
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