I've always wondered about the name Beckx. It's not a common ending in any language. It does exist (I found some examples) but it occurred to me that the "x" might be a transitional symbol from the days of scribal abbreviations (especially at the ends of words) and hand typesetting and eventually typewriters.
When typesetting and especially typewriters were introduced, symbol substitutions were very common.
The -rum symbol was extremely common in medieval days as a suffix. It looks a bit like a modern 4 (with open top). And -rum is a common ending (including names). Is it possible that Beckx might originally (sometime back when scribal abbreviations were still used) have represented something like Beckrum or Beckum (the ending isn't necessarily -rum, I just used that as an example, but maybe the x is an abbreviation symbol)?
The names Beckum (and van Beckum), as examples, go back pretty far, whereas Beckx is rare and I can't remember if I found any prior to the 17th century back when I was hunting around (years ago).
Here's a painting family Beckx:
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Also, from helping someone with genealogy research, years back, I discovered it was sometimes traditional to add a letter to distinguish yourself from someone else. For example, John Smith moves to a town where there is another John Smith, so one of them adds a middle initial, like John T Smith. The middle T is not even a name, it's just an initial (I was able to confirm this through various records). This is something we barely comprehend in modern times, but a single letter in a name doesn't always stand for another name.
So... could there have been two Becks, way back in time, and one of them added an x to distinguish himself from the other?
When typesetting and especially typewriters were introduced, symbol substitutions were very common.
The -rum symbol was extremely common in medieval days as a suffix. It looks a bit like a modern 4 (with open top). And -rum is a common ending (including names). Is it possible that Beckx might originally (sometime back when scribal abbreviations were still used) have represented something like Beckrum or Beckum (the ending isn't necessarily -rum, I just used that as an example, but maybe the x is an abbreviation symbol)?
The names Beckum (and van Beckum), as examples, go back pretty far, whereas Beckx is rare and I can't remember if I found any prior to the 17th century back when I was hunting around (years ago).
Here's a painting family Beckx:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Also, from helping someone with genealogy research, years back, I discovered it was sometimes traditional to add a letter to distinguish yourself from someone else. For example, John Smith moves to a town where there is another John Smith, so one of them adds a middle initial, like John T Smith. The middle T is not even a name, it's just an initial (I was able to confirm this through various records). This is something we barely comprehend in modern times, but a single letter in a name doesn't always stand for another name.
So... could there have been two Becks, way back in time, and one of them added an x to distinguish himself from the other?