The Anglo-Saxons used only personal names, sometimes with nicknames and patronymics, so it was not until after the Norman Conquest that inherited surnames were adopted. Anglo-Saxon and Norman French names can be similar due to the common Germanic roots of the Angles, Saxons and Vikings. Some Saxon and Norse names were retained along with their Norman counterparts but they gradually became less common.
Literacy became more widespread and a classical influence became apparent, especially in girls' names. The Normans brought both servants and ordinary fighting men whose sphere was far outside that of the nobles and the linguistic structure that was to become English began to be formed. (Canute the Dane had defeated Edward's father, Ethelred, and married Emma.) French influence had reached Britain already through Edward the Confessor who was brought up by his mother Emma's relatives in Brittany, although this was limited almost exclusively to court circles.
Although the Normans, or Norsemen, had only been settled in northern France for about two generations, they retained little of their original language and the naming pattern was altered. The Norman invasion of 1066 introduced a large stock of continental Germanic and French names. England-Medieval Kate Monk's Onomastikon (Dictionary of Names)
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