The Romance of Names

Ernest Weekley

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• Publié par: nugur
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 45
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Romance of Names, by Ernest Weekley This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Romance of Names Author: Ernest Weekley Release Date: January 20, 2008 [eBook #24374] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF NAMES*** E-text prepared by Jon Richfield Transcriber's notes will be found at the end of the text. THE ROMANCE OF NAMES Advertising material that appeared at the start of the book BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE ROMANCE OF WORDS "A book of extraordinary interest; those who do not yet realise how enthralling a subject word-history is could not do better than sample its flavour in Mr. Weekley's admirable book." — Spectator . Third Edition. 6s. net. SURNAMES "A study of the origin and significance of surnames, full of fascination for the general reader." —Truth. Second Edition. 6s. net. AN ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF MODERN ENGLISH "It is a very great pleasure to get a dictionary from Mr. Weekley. One knows from experience that Mr. Weekley would contrive to avoid unnecessary dullness, even if he were compiling a railway guide, but that he would also get the trains right." — Mr. J. C. SQUIRE in The Observer . Crown 4to. £ 2 2s. net. THIRD EDITION, REVISED THE ROMANCE OF NAMES BY ERNEST WEEKLEY, M.A. Professor of French and Head of the Modern Language Department at University College, Nottingham; Sometime Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge London JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1922 FIRST EDITION January 1914 SECOND EDITION March 1914 THIRD EDITION May 1922 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS THE ROMANCE OF NAMES PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION CHAPTER I. OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL PERSONAL NAMES NICKNAMES MYTHICAL ETYMOLOGIES ALTERNATIVE ORIGINS NAMES DESIRABLE OR UNDESIRABLE CHAPTER II. A MEDIEVAL ROLL LONDON JURYMEN MIDDLESEX JURYMEN STEEPLE CLAYDON COTTAGERS CHAPTER III. SPELLING AND SOUND VARIANT SPELLINGS DIALECTIC VARIANTS APHESIS EPITHESIS AND ASSIMILATION METATHESIS BABY PHONETICS CHAPTER IV. BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON OCCUPATIVE NAMES THE DISTRIBUTION OF NAMES CHAPTER V. THE ABSORPTION OF FOREIGN NAMES THE HUGUENOTS PERVERSIONS OF FOREIGN NAMES JEWISH NAMES CHAPTER VI. TOM, DICK AND HARRY MEDIEVAL FONT-NAMES THE COMMONEST FONT-NAMES FASHIONS IN FONT-NAMES DERIVATIVES OF FONT-NAMES THE SUFFIX -COCK CELTIC NAMES CHAPTER VII. GODERIC AND GODIVA FORMATION OF ANGLO-SAXON NAMES ANGLO-SAXON NICKNAMES ANGLO-SAXON SURVIVALS MONOSYLLABIC NAMES "HIDEOUS NAMES" CHAPTER VIII. PALADINS AND HEROES THE ROUND TABLE THE CHANSONS DE GESTE ANTIQUE NAMES CHAPTER IX. THE BIBLE AND THE CALENDAR OLD TESTAMENT NAMES NEW TESTAMENT NAMES FEAST-DAYS MONTH NAMES CHAPTER X. METRONYMICS FEMALE FONT-NAMES DOUBTFUL CASES CHAPTER XI. LOCAL SURNAMES CLASSES OF LOCAL NAMES COUNTIES AND TOWNS NAMES PRECEDED BY DE CHAPTER XII. SPOT NAMES ELEMENTS OF PLACE-NAMES HILL AND DALE HILLS WOODLAND AND PLAIN FOREST CLEARINGS MARSHES WATER AND WATERSIDE RIVERS ISLANDS TREE NAMES CHAPTER XIII. THE HAUNTS OF MAN SETTLEMENTS AND ENCLOSURES HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS WATER BUILDINGS DWELLINGS SHOP SIGNS CHAPTER XIV. NORMAN BLOOD CORRUPT FORMS TREE NAMES CHAPTER XV. OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES SOCIAL GRADES ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES NAMES IN -STER MISSING TRADESMEN SPELLING OF TRADE-NAMES PHONETIC CHANGES NAMES FROM WARES CHAPTER XVI. A SPECIMEN PROBLEM: RUTTER CHAPTER XVII. THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES PILGRIMS CHAPTER XVIII. TRADES AND CRAFTS ARCHERY CLOTHIERS METAL WORKERS SURNOMINAL SNOBBISHNESS CHAPTER XIX. HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS BUMBLEDOM ITINERANT MERCHANTS CHAPTER XX. OFFICIAL AND DOMESTIC THE HOUSEHOLD CHAPTER XXI. OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL FOREIGN NICKNAMES KINSHIP ABSTRACTS COSTUME PHYSICAL FEATURES IMPRECATIONS PHRASE-NAMES MISCELLANEOUS CHAPTER XXII. ADJECTIVAL NICKNAMES ARCHAIC MEANINGS DISGUISED SPELLINGS FRENCH ADJECTIVES COLOUR NAMES CHAPTER XXIII. BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES BIRDS HAWK NAMES BEASTS FISHES SPECIAL FEATURES Advertising material from the end of the book THE ROMANCE OF NAMES PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION In preparing this revised edition I have been able to make use of much information conveyed to me by readers interested in the subject. The general arrangement of the book remains unchanged, but a certain number of statements have been modified, corrected, or suppressed. The study of our surnames has been mostly left to the amateur philologist, and many origins given by my predecessors as ascertained facts turn out, on investigation, to be unsupported by a shred of evidence. I cannot hope that this little book in its new form is free from error, but I feel that it has benefited by the years I have spent in research since its original publication. I would ask reader to accept it, not as a comprehensive treatise containing full information on any name that happens to occur in it, but as a general survey of the subject, and an attempt to indicate and exemplify the various ways in which our surnames have come into existence. ERNEST WEEKLEY. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM. April 1922. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION The early demand for a new edition of this little book is a gratifying proof of a widespread interest in its subject, rather than a testimony to the value of my small contribution to that subject. Of the imperfections of this contribution no one can be more conscious than myself, but I trust that the most palpable blemishes have been removed in this revised edition. The student of etymology seldom passes a day without coming across some piece of evidence which throws new light on a difficult problem (see Chapter XVI), or invalidates what had before seemed a reasonable conjecture. I have to thank many correspondents for sending me information of value and for indicating points in which conciseness has led to misunderstanding. Some of my correspondents need, however, to be reminded that etymology and genealogy are separate sciences; so that, while offering every apology to that Mr. Robinson whose name is a corruption of Montmorency, I still adhere to my belief that the other Robinsons derive from Robert. ERNEST WEEKLEY. NOTTINGHAM March 1914. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION The interpretation of personal names has always had an attraction for the learned and others, but the first attempts to classify and explain our English surnames date, so far as my knowledge goes, from 1605. In that year Verstegan published his Restitution of Decayed Intelligence , which contains chapters on both font-names and surnames, and about the same time appeared Camden's Remains Concerning Britain , in which the same subjects are treated much more fully. Both of these learned antiquaries make excellent reading, and much curious information may be gleaned from their pages, especially those of Camden, whose position as Clarencieux King-at-Arms gave him exceptional opportunities for genealogical research. From the philological point of view they are of course untrustworthy, though less so than most modern writers on the same subject. About the middle of the nineteenth century, the period of Archbishop Trench and Canon Taylor, began a kind of boom in works of this kind, and books on surnames are now numerous. But of all these industrious compilers one only, Bardsley, can be taken seriously. His Dictionary of English Surnames, published (Oxford Press, 1901) from his notes some years after his death, is invaluable to students. It represents the results of twenty years' conscientious research among early rolls and registers, the explanations given being usually supported by medieval instances. But it cannot be used uncritically, for the author does not appear to have been either a linguist or a philologist, and, although he usually refrains from etymological conjecture, he occasionally ventures with disastrous results. Thus, to take a few instances, he identifies Prust with Priest, but the medieval le prust is quite obviously the Norman form of Old Fr. le Proust, the provost. He attempts to connect pullen with the archaic Eng. pullen, poultry; but his early examples, le pulein, polayn, etc., are of course Fr. Poulain, i.e. Colt. Under Fallows, explained as "fallow lands," he quotes three examples of de la faleyse, i.e. Fr. Falaise, corresponding to our Cliff , Cleeve, etc; Pochin, explained as the diminutive of some personal name, is the Norman form of the famous name Poussin, i.e. Chick . Or, coming to native instances, le wenchel, a medieval prototype of Winkle, is explained as for "periwinkle," whereas it is a common Middle-English word, existing now in the shortened form wench, and means Child. The obsolete Swordslipper , now only Slipper , which he interprets as a maker of "sword-slips," or sheaths, was really a swordsharpener, from Mid. Eng. slipen, cognate with Old Du. slijpen, to polish, sharpen, and Ger. schleifen. Sometimes a very simple problem is left unexplained, e.g. in the case of the name Tyas, where the medieval instances of le tyeis are to a student of Old French clearly le tieis or tiois, i.e. the German, cognate with Ger. deutsch and Ital. tedesco. These examples are quoted, not in depreciation of conscientious student to whose work my own compilation is greatly indebted, but merely to show that the etymological study of surnames has scarcely been touched at present, except by writers to whom philology is an unknown science. I have inserted, as a specimen problem (ch. xvi.), a little disquisition on the name Rutter , a cursory perusal of which will convince most readers that it is not much use making shots in this subject. My aim has been to steer a clear course between a too learned and a too superficial tr