Read Ebook: The Romance of Names by Weekley Ernest

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Or, to take some less common names, House not only represents the medieval de la house, but also stands for Howes, which, in its turn, may be the plural of how, a hill , or the genitive of How, one of the numerous medieval forms of Hugh . Hind may be for Hine, a farm servant , or for Mid. Eng. hende, courteous , and is perhaps sometimes also an animal nickname . Rouse is generally Fr. roux, i.e. the red, but it may also be the nominative form of Rou, i.e. of Rolf, or Rollo, the sea-king who conquered Normandy. Was Holman the holy man, the man who lived near a holm, i.e. holly , on a holm, or river island , or in a hole, or hollow? All these origins have equal claims.

As a rule, when an apparent nickname is also susceptible of another solution, baptismal, local, or occupative, the alternative explanation is to be preferred, as the popular tendency has always been towards twisting names into significant words. Thus, to take an example of each class, Diamond is sometimes for an old name Daymond , Portwine is a corruption of Poitevin, the man from Poitou , and Tipler, which now suggests alcoholic excess, was, as late as the seventeenth century, the regular name for an alehouse keeper.

In a very large number of cases there is a considerable choice for the modern bearer of a name. Any Boon or Bone who wishes to assert that

Of Hereford's high blood he came, A race renown'd for knightly fame ,

can claim descent from de Bohun. While, if he holds that kind hearts are more than coronets, he has an alternative descent from some medieval le bon. This adjective, used as a personal name, gave also Bunn and Bunce; for the spelling of the latter name cf. Dance for Dans, and Pearce for Piers, the nominative of Pierre , which also survives in Pears and Pearson. Swain may go back to the father of Canute, or to some hoary-headed swain who, possibly, tended the swine. Not all the Seymours are St. Maurs. Some of them were once Seamers, i.e. tailors. Gosling is rather trivial, but it represents the romantic Jocelyn, in Normandy Gosselin, a diminutive of the once very popular personal name Josse. Goss is usually for goose, but any Goss, or Gossett, unwilling to trace his family back to John Goose, "my lord of Yorkes fole," may likewise choose the French Josse or Gosse. Goss may also be a dialect pronunciation of gorse, the older form of which has given the name Gorst. Coward, though humble, cow-herd, is no more timid than Craven, the name of a district in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

NAMES DESIRABLE OR UNDESIRABLE

Mr. Chucks, when in good society, "seldom bowed, Sir, to anything under three syllables" . But the length of a name is not necessarily an index of a noble meaning. As will be seen , a great number of our monosyllabic names belong to, the oldest stratum of all. The boatswain's own name, from Norman-Fr. chouque, a tree-stump, is identical with the rather aristocratic Zouch or Such, from the usual French form souche. Stubbs, which has the same meaning, may be compared with Curson, Curzon, Fr. courson, a stump, a derivative of court, short. Pomeroy has a lordly ring, but is the Old French for Applegarth or Appleyard , and Camoys means flat-nosed, Fr. Camus--

"This wenche thikke and wel y-growen was, With kamuse nose, and eyen greye as glas."

Kingsley, speaking of the name assumed by John Briggs, says--

"Vavasour was a very pretty name, and one of those which is supposed by novelists and young ladies to be aristocratic; why so is a puzzle; as its plain meaning is a tenant farmer and nothing more or less" .

The word is said to represent a Vulgar Lat. vassus vassorum, vassal of vassals.

On the other hand, many a homely name has a complimentary meaning. Mr. Wegg did not like the name Boffin, but its oldest form is bon-fin, good and fine. In 1273 Mr. Bumble's name was spelt bon-bel, good and beautiful. With these we may group Bunker, of which the oldest form is bon-quer , and Boffey, which corresponds to the common French name Bonnefoy, good faith; while the much more assertive Beaufoy means simply fine beech .

With Bunker we may compare Goodhart and Cordeaux, the oldest form of the latter being the French name Courdoux. Momerie and Mummery are identical with Mowbray, from Monbrai in Normandy. Molyneux impresses more than Mullins, of which it is merely the dim., Fr. moulins, mills. The Yorkshire name Tankard is identical with Tancred. Stiggins goes back to the illustrious Anglo-Saxon name Stigand, as Wiggins does to wigand, a champion. Cadman represents Caedmon, the name of the poet-monk of Whitby. Segar is an imitative form of the Anglo-Sax. Saegaer, of which the normal modern representative is Sayers. Giblett is not a name one would covet, but it stands in the same relationship to Gilbert as Hamlet does to Hamo.

A small difference in spelling makes a great difference in the look of a name. The aristocratic Coke is an archaic spelling of Cook, the still more lordly Herries sometimes disguises Harris, while the modern Brassey is the same as de Bracy in Ivanhoe. The rather grisly Nightgall is a variant of Nightingale. The accidental retention of particles and articles is also effective, e.g. Delmar, Delamere, Delapole, impress more than Mears and Pool, and Larpent , Lemaitre, and Lestrange more than Acres, Masters, and Strange. There are few names of less heroic sound than Spark and Codlin, yet the former is sometimes a contraction of the picturesque Sparrow-hawk, used as a personal name by the Anglo-Saxons, while the latter can be traced back via the earlier forms Quodling , Querdling, Querdelyoun to Coeur de Lion.

"Quelque diversit? d'herbes qu'il y alt, tout s'enveloppe sous le nom de salade; de mesme, sous la consid?ration des noms, je m'en voys faire icy une galimafree de divers articles."

Just as, in studying a new language, the linguist finds it most helpful to take a simple text and hammer out in detail every word and grammatical form it contains, so the student of name-lore cannot do better than tackle a medieval roll and try to connect every name in it with those of the present day. I give here two lists of names from the Hundred Rolls of 1273. The first contains the names of London and Middlesex jurymen, most of them, especially the Londoners, men of substance and position. The second is a list of cottagers resident in the village of Steeple Claydon in Bucks. Even a cursory perusal of these lists should Suffice to dispel all recollection of the nightmare "philology" which has been so much employed to obscure what is perfectly simple and obvious; while a very slight knowledge of Latin and French is all that is required to connect these names of men who were dead and buried before the Battle of Crecy with those to be found in any modern directory. The brief indications supplied under each name will be found in a fuller form in the various chapters of the book to which references are given.

For simplicity I have given the modern English form of each Christian name and expanded the abbreviations used by the official compilers. It will be noticed that English, Latin, and Anglo-French are used indifferently, that le is usually, though not always, put before the trade-name or nickname, that de is put before place-names and at before spots which have no proper name. The names in the right-hand column are only specimens of the, often very numerous, modern equivalents.

LONDON JURYMEN

Hundred Rolls

Modern Form

William Dibel.

Dibble .

Initial t- and d- alternate according to locality. In Tennyson, for Denison, son of Denis, we have the opposite change. The forms assumed by Theobald are very numerous . Besides Dibble we have the shorter Dibb. Other variants are Dyball, Dipple, Tipple, Tidball, Tudball, and a number of names in Teb-, Tib-, Tub-. The reason for the great popularity of the name is obscure.

Baldwin le Bocher.

Butcher.

Robert Hauteyn.

Hawtin

The Yorkshire name Auty is probably unconnected. It seems rather to be an altered form of a Scandinavian personal name cognate with Odo.

Henry le Wimpler.

The name has apparently disappeared with the garment. But it is never safe to assert that a surname is quite extinct.

Stephen le Peron

Fearon

From Old Fr. feron, ferron, smith. In a few cases French has -on as an agential suffix .

William de Paris.

Paris, Parris, Parish.

The commoner modern form Parish is seldom to be derived from our word parish. This rarely occurs, while the entry de Paris is, on the other hand, very common.

Hundred Rolls

Modern Form

Roger le Wyn.

Wynne.

Anglo-Saxon wine, friend. Also a Celtic nickname, Identical with Gwynne .

Matthew de Pomfrait

Pomfret

The usual pronunciation of Pontefract, broken bridge, one of the few English place-names of purely Latin origin . The Old French form would be Pont-frait.

Richard le Paumer.

Palmer.

Walter Poletar.

Pointer.

Reginald Aurifaber.

Goldsmith.

The French form orf?vre may have given the name Offer.

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