Found in a petition at the National Archives (SC 8/56/2787) a man called ‘Adam Halfnakede’. A rather spoilsportishly serious book of surnames (C.W.E. Bardsley, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, p. 349) suggests it might be a corruption of ‘Halfacre’, rather than something to do with medieval streaking. There is also a place called ‘Halfnaked’ in Sussex (See PROB 11/29/240), which may have been the origin of the name, (must have got a bit chilly at times).

13/5/2014