Origin of the Name Rickman
The origin of the name
Rickman was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name Rickman
include Richman, Rikman, Rickmon, Richmond, Rickeman and many others. This name is usually of English origin and an be of nickname derivation describing a rich person but can also be a variant form of the widely used name Richard which in turn has a large number of variants. This name can also be of locational origin describing a person who lived near a 'ric', a river or stream. A famous bearer of the name was John Rickman (1771-1840), who was an English statistician of renown and who was responsible for organizing the first of the national censuses of England . Dr. William Rickman (c.1731—1783), was the Director of Hospitals of the Continental Army in Virginia during the American War of Independence.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland , especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland . While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
The Rickman coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Rickman descendants.