It depended on the time and place. Fitzroy is particularly associated with illegitimate children of the king, but until the 17th century revival of the Fitz prefix, it was mostly just meaning "son of" without any particular inclination towards or against legitimacy. But in the Stuart era it was frequently used for illegitimate children of royalty and nobility.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think if you're the son of a gibbon, it doesn't much matter whether you're a bastard or not.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 5 points 5 months ago

Gibbon was actually a pet name form of "Gilbert".

[–] rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's cool, thanks for the addition. I'm not much of a history guy.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 5 months ago

I do find history and etymology very interesting, but I didn't know any of this. It's literally all taken from the Wikipedia page for the name Fitz.