HANKINSON HISTORY PAGE
"Ar, A Fesse Gu, Fretty Or, Betw, Three Ducks Sa." When translated the blazon also describes the origianl colors of the HANKINSON Arms as:
"Silver: A red horizontal band with a gold trellis, between three black ducks."
Above the shield and helmet is the crest which is described as:
"A half Phoenix, wings elevated gold, rising from flames."
Legend has it that in 837 A.D., during the reign of Egbert, first King of Wessex and all of England, the first Hankinson set foot upon English soil, at "The Wash", near King's Lynn, Norfolk, from a Viking longboat. His name was Gunnar Helge Haakson, and he settled near there, took up farming, and married an Anglo-Saxon girl named Brun-Hylda Arthurn. They had a son, Lars, who anglicized the name to Haakison, and over the years it became Hankinson. This legend, apocryphal as it seems, appears to contradict the theory that all English surnames were derived from the Norman invasion in 1066. Norman lords insisted that all have French names, and made changes accordingly. Over the years, the English modified these names, dropping the "De". One theory has it that the Hankinson name comes from the relationship of relatives of a certain well known "Han" or "Hans". His kin or relatives had a son; ergo:"Han-kin-son". A more probable origination is from "Hankyn" which was a dimutive of John, ca. 13 century. Taken from a book... author unknown, title of book unknown.
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