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more for kim...
in reply to a message by Menke
yes, Blagburn is from Blackburn and this surname is thus a toponym, meaning your ancestor Blagburn came from Blackburn. This is the same for Horton. I have to add that Colin is a pet form of Nicholas. If you want to know the meaning of Nicholas, you'll can find it at www.behindthename.com (this is the correct link, i think i posted a bad link earlier)
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I thought you had gone in advance when I saw your excellent translation for "holland" but here I have another explanation I got from another of my favourite webpages... Wikipedia... (I was searching for English demonyms for the United States other from "american") With less chatter and more aime here I paste what I've found:

Holland (part of the Netherlands; the term is often used to refer to the country as a whole): Germanic "holt (i.e. wooded) land" (often incorrectly regarded as meaning "hollow [i.e. marsh] land")

Oops... My source says yours is incorrect... But I wouldn't bet so... Most probably both are equally correct... From my experience with etymology only if you do field research, and even there, you can be 100% sure of your options... Both will work for me... Now I will understand Holland as something like "Hollow forests" or "Forests of the valley" :D:p well... Bye everyone...
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