Talk:Fitz

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The Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name#Irish_surname_prefixes) contradicts this page's assertion that Fitz was used to designate illegitimate children:

"Fitz: a Norman-French word derived from the Latin word filius ("son"). It was used in patronymics by thousands of men in the early Norman period in Ireland (e.g. fitz Stephen, fitz Richard, fitz Robert, fitz William) and only on some occasions did it become used as an actual surname, the most famous example being the FitzGerald Earls of Kildare. Yet well into the 17th and 18th century it was used in certain areas dominated by the Old English of Ireland in its original form, as a patronymic. The Tribes of Galway were especially good at conserving this form, with examples such as John fitz John Bodkin and Michael Lynch fitz Arthur, used even as late as the early 1800's. Despite claims to the contrary, the use of Fitz in a surname never denoted illegitimacy. This misunderstanding may have originated because a number of illegitimate members of the British royal family were given such surnames: some of the illegitimate children of King Charles II were named FitzCharles or FitzRoy ("son of the King"); those of King James II were named FitzJames; those of Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews (later King William IV) were named FitzClarence."

[edit] Fitzname naming convention

Is there a policy statement on Fitzname article naming?

• I've created a few surname articles with the suffix lower case (for example, Fitzduncan, Fitzhugh, Fitzmaurice, Fitzmorris, Fitzstephen).
• I believe the better spelling would be with the suffix as a captial letter (for example, FitzGerald).
• Note, no space between prefix/suffix, and no hyphen (though we should include "Fitzname", "Fitz Name", "fitz Name", "Fitz-Name" people within the article proper).

I also posted this question on the Wikipedia:Anthroponymy talk page. Rosiestephenson (talk) 21:27, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

FYI, I found thiswebsite. Here, the Fitz surnames are all listed in the "FitzGerald" format, not "Fitzgerald" format. Rosiestephenson (talk) 19:15, 23 December 2007 (UTC)