The pedigree of the work is excellent and in keeping with the scholarly reputation of works from Oxford University Press. All three editors are highly regarded experts in the study of names and lexicology. The work is the result of extensive research into family names covering British and Irish family names.
Harry Parkin is a lecturer in English Language at the University of Chester. He has also worked at the Universities of Westminster and the West of England. His main research interests are the history of the English language, in particular Middle English vocabulary and dialectology, and the use of onomastic data for the analysis of regional dialect lexis and phonology.