The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Romance of Names, by Ernest Weekley

The above lists illustrate all the simpler ways in which surnames could be formed. At the time of compilation they were not hereditary. Thus the last man on the list is Simon Johnson, but his father was John Neilson, or Nelson (Chapter X), and his son would be — Simpson, Sims, etc. This would go on until, at a period varying with the locality, the wealth and importance of the individual, one name in the line would become accidentally petrified and persist to the present day. The chain could, of course, be broken at any time by the assumption of a name from one of the other three classes (Chapter I).

"Do you spell it with a V or a W?" inquired the judge.

"That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my lord," replied Sam. "I never had occasion to spell it more than once or twice in my life,
but I spells it with a V."

Many people are particular about the spelling of their names. I am myself, although, as a student of philology, I ought to know better. The greatest of Englishmen was so careless in the matter as to sign himself Shakspe, a fact usually emphasized by Baconian when speaking of the illiterate clown of Stratford-on-Avon. Equally illiterate must have been the learned Dr. Crown, who, in the various books he published in the latter half of the seventeenth century, spelt his name, indifferently Cron, Croon, Croun, Crone, Croone, Croune. The modern spelling of any particular name Is a pure accident. Before the Elementary Education Act of 1870 a considerable proportion of English people did not spell their names at all. They trusted to the parson and the clerk, who did their best with unfamiliar names. Even now old people in rural districts may find half a dozen orthographic variants of their own names among the sparse documentary records of their lives. Dugdale the antiquary is said to have found more than 130 variants of Mainwaring among the parchments of that family. Bardsley quotes, under the name Blenkinsop—

"On April 2 3, 1470, Elizabeth Blynkkynesoppye, of Blynkkynsoppe, widow of Thomas Blynkyensope, of Blynkkensope, received a general pardon" —

four variants in one sentence. In the List of Foreign Protestants and Aliens in England (1618) we have Andrian Medlor and Ellin Medler his wife, Johan Cosen and Abraham Cozen, brethren. The death of Sarah Inward, daughter of Richard Inwood, was registered in 1685.

Medieval spelling was roughly phonetic, i.e. it attempted to reproduce the sound of the period and region, and even men of learning, as late as the eighteenth century, were very uncertain in matters of orthography. The spelling of the language is now practically normalized, although in conformity with no sort of principle; but the family name, as a private possession, has kept its freedom. Thus, if we wish to speak poetically of a meadow, I suppose we should call it a lea, but the same word is represented by the family names Lea, Lee, Ley, Leigh, Legh, Legge, Lay, Lye, perhaps the largest group of local surnames we possess.

In matters of spelling we observe various tendencies. One is the retention of an archaic form, which does not necessarily affect pronunciation. Late Mid. English was fond of y for i, of double consonants, and of final -e. All these appear in the names Thynne (thin) and Wyllie (wily). Therefore we should not deride the man who writes himself Smythe. But in some cases the pronunciation suffers, e.g. the name Fry represents Mid. Eng. fri, one of the forms of the adjective that is now written free. Burt represents Anglo-Sax. beorht, the normal result of which is Bright. We now write subtle and perfect, artificial words, in the second of which the pronunciation has been changed in accordance with the restored spelling; but the older forms survive in the names Suttle and Parfitt—

"He was a verray parfit, gentil knyght."

(A, 72.)

The usual English pronunciation of names like Mackenzie, Menzies, Dalziel, is due to the substitution by the printer of a z for an obsolete letter that represented a soft palatal sound more like y. [Footnote: This substitution has led one writer on surnames, who apparently confuses bells with beans, to derive the rare surname Billiter, whence Billiter's Lane in the City, from "Belzetter, i.e., the Bell-setter." The Mid. Eng. "bellezeter, campanarius" (Prompt. Parv.), was a bell-founder, from a verb related to geysir, ingot, and Ger. giessen, to pour. Robert le bellegeter was a freeman of York in 1279.]

We have an archaic plural ending in Knollys (Knowles), the plural of knoll, and in Sandys, and an archaic spelling in Sclater for Slater or Slatter, for both slat and slate come from Old Fr. esclat (éclat), a splinter. With Knollys and Sandys we may put Pepys, for the existence of the dims. Pipkin, Peppitt, and Peppiatt points to the medieval name Pipun, corresponding to the royal Pepin. Streatfeild preserves variant spellings of street and field. In Gardiner we have the Old Northern French word which now, as a common noun, gardener, is assimilated to garden, the normal French form of which appears in Jardine.

Such orthographic variants as i and y, Simons, Symons, Ph and f, Jephcott, Jeffcott, s and c, Pearce, Pearce, Rees, Reece, Sellars (cellars), ks and x, Dickson, Dixon, are a matter of taste or accident. Initial letters which became mute often disappeared in spelling, e.g. Wray, a corner (Chapter XIII), has become hopelessly confused with Ray, a roe, Knott, from Cnut, i.e. Canute, or from dialect knot, a hillock, with Noll, crop-haired. Knowlson is the son of Nowell (Chapter IX) or of Noll, i.e. Oliver.

Therefore, when Mr. X. asserts that his name has always been spelt in such and such a way, he is talking nonsense. If his great-grandfather's will is accessible, he will probably find two or three variants in that alone. The great Duke of Wellington, as a younger man, signed himself Arthur Wesley—

"He was colonel of Dad's regiment, the Thirty-third foot, after Dad left the army, and then he changed
his name from Wesley to Wellesley, or else the other way about"

(KIPLING, Marklake Witches);

and I know two families the members of which disagree as to the orthography of their names. We have a curious affectation in such spellings as ffrench, ffoulkes, etc., where the ff is merely the method of indicating the capital letter in early documents.

The telescoping of long names is a familiar phenomenon. Well-known examples are Cholmondeley, Chumley, Marjoribanks, Marchbanks, Mainwaring, Mannering. Less familiar are Auchinleck, Affleck, Boutevilain, Butlin, Postlethwaite, Posnett, Sudeley, Sully, Wolstenholme, Woosnam. Ensor is from the local Edensor, Cavendish was regularly Candish for the Elizabethans, while Cavenham in Suffolk has given the surname Canham. Daventry has become Daintree, Dentry, and probably the imitative Dainty, while Stepson is for Stevenson. It is this tendency which makes the connection between surnames and village names so difficult to establish in many cases, for the artificial name as it occurs in the gazetteer often gives little clue to the local pronunciation. It is easy to recognize Bickenhall or Bickenhill in Bicknell and Puttenham in Putnam, but the identity of Wyndham with Wymondham is only clear when we know the local Pronunciation of the latter name. Milton and Melton are often telescoped forms of Middleton.

Dialectic variants must also be taken into account. Briggs and Rigg represent the Northern forms of Bridges and Ridge, and Philbrick is a disguised Fellbrigg. In Egg we have rather the survival of the Mid. English spelling of Edge. Braid, Lang, Strang, are Northern variants of Broad, Long, Strong. Auld is for Old while Tamson is for Thompson and Dabbs for Dobbs (Robert). We have the same change of vowel in Raper, for Roper. Venner generally means hunter, Fr. veneur, but sometimes represents the West-country form of Fenner, the fen-dweller; cf. Vidler for fiddler, and Vanner for Fanner, the winnower.

We all the difficulty we have in catching a new and unfamiliar name, and the subterfuges we employ to find out what it really is. In such cases we do not get the help from association and analogy which serves us in dealing with language in general, but find ourselves in the position of a foreigner or child hearing unfamiliar word for the first time. We realize how many imperceptible shades there are between a short i and a short e, or between a fully voiced g and a voiceless k, examples suggested to me by my having lately understood a Mr. Riggs to be a Mr. Rex.

We find occurring in surnames examples of those consonantal changes which do not violate the great Phonetic law that such changes can only occur regularly within the same group, i.e. that a labial cannot alternate with a palatal, or a dental with either. It is thus that we find b alternating with p, Hobbs and Hopps (Robert), Bollinger and Pullinger, Fr. boulanger; g with k, Cutlack and Goodlake (Anglo-Sax. Guthlac), Diggs and Dix (Richard), Gipps and Kipps (Gilbert), Catlin and Galling (Catherine); j with ch, Jubb or Jupp and Chubb (Job); d with t, Proud and Prout (Chapter XXII), Dyson and Tyson (Dionisia), and also with th, Carrodus and Carruthers (a hamlet in Dumfries). The alternation of c and ch or g and j in names of French origin is dialectic, the c and g representing the Norman-Picard pronunciation, e.g. Campion for Champion, Gosling for Joslin. In some cases we have shown a definite preference for one form, e.g. Chancellor and Chappell, but Carpenter and Camp. In English names c is northern, ch southern, e.g. Carlton, Charlton, Kirk, Church.

There are also a few very common vowel changes. The sound er usually became ar, as in Barclay (Berkeley), Clark, Darby, Garrard (Gerard), Jarrold (Gerald), Harbord (Herbert), Jarvis (Gervase), Marchant, Sargent, etc., while Larned, our great-grandfathers' pronunciation of "learned," corresponds to Fr. Littri. Thus Parkins is the same name as Perkins. (Peter), and these also give Parks and Perks, the former of which is usually not connected with Park. To Peter, or rather to Fr. Pierre, belong also Parr, Parry and Perry, though Parry is generally Welsh (Chapter VI). The dims. Parrott, Perrott, etc., were sometimes nicknames, the etymology being the same, for our word parrot is from Fr. pierrot. To the freedom with which this sound is spelt, e.g. in Herd, Heard, Hird, Hurd, we also owe Purkiss for Perkins; cf. appurtenance for appartenance.

The letter l seems also to exercise a demoralizing influence on the adjacent vowel. Juliana became Gillian, and from this, or from the masculine form Julian, we get Jalland, Jolland, and the shortened Gell, Gill (Chapter VI), and Jull. Gallon, which Bardsley groups with these, is more often a French name, from the Old German Walo, or a corruption of the still commoner French name Galland, likewise of Germanic origin.

We find also such irregular vowel changes as Flinders for Flanders, and conversely Packard for Picard. Pottinger (see below) sometimes becomes Pettinger as Portugal gives Pettingall. The general tendency is towards that thinning of the vowel that we get in mister for master and Miss Miggs's mim for ma'am. Littimer for Lattimer is an example of this. But in Royle for the local Ryle we find the same broadening which has given boil, a swelling, for earlier bile.

Among phonetic changes which occur with more or less regularity are those called aphesis, epenthesis, epithesis, assimilation, dissimilation, and metathesis, convenient terms which are less learned than they appear. Aphesis is the loss of the unaccented first syllable, as in 'baccy and 'later. It occurs almost regularly in words of French origin, e.g. squire and esquire, Prentice and apprentice. When such double forms exist, the surname invariably assumes the popular form, e.g. Prentice, Squire. Other examples are Bonner, i.e. debonair, Jenner, Jenoure, for Mid. Eng. engenour, engineer, Cator, Chaytor, Old Fr. acatour (acheteur), a buyer—

"A gentil maunciple was they of a temple,
Of which achatours mighte take exemple" (A. 567),

Spencer, dispenser, a spender, Stacey for Eustace, Vick and Veck for Levick, i.e. l'évêque, the bishop, Pottinger for the obsolete potigar, an apothecary, etc.

The institution now known as the "orspittle" was called by our unlettered forefathers the "spital," hence the names Spittle and Spittlehouse. A well-known amateur goal-keeper has the appropriate name Fender, for defender.

Many names beginning with n are due to aphesis, e.g. Nash for atten ash, Nalder, Nelms, Nock, atten oak, Nokes, Nye, atten ey, at the island, Nangle, atten angle, Nind or Nend, atten ind or end. With these we may compare Twells, at wells, and the numerous cases in which the first part of a personal name is dropped, e.g. Tolley, Bartholomew, Munn, Edmund, Pott, Philpot, dim. of Philip (see p.87), and the less common Facey, from Boniface, and Loney, from Apollonia, the latter of which has also given Applin.

When a name compounded with Saint begins with a vowel, we get such forms as Tedman, St. Edmund, Tobin, St. Aubyn, Toosey, St. Osith, Toomey, St. Omer, Tooley, St. Olave; cf. Tooley St. for St. Olave St. and tawdry from St. Audrey. When the saint's name begins with a consonant, we get, instead of aphesis, a telescoped pronunciation, e.g. Selinger, St. Leger, Seymour, St. Maur, Sinclair, St. Clair, Semark, St. Mark, Semple, St. Paul, Simper, St. Pierre, Sidney, probably for St. Denis, with which we may compare the educated pronunciation of St. John. These names are all of local origin, from chapelries in Normandy or England.

Epenthesis is the insertion of a sound which facilitates pronunciation, such as that of b in Fr. chambre, from Lat. camera. The intrusive sound may be a vowel or a consonant, as in the names Henery, Hendry, perversions of Henry. [Footnote: On the usual fate of this name in English, see below.]

To Hendry we owe the northern Henderson, which has often coalesced with Anderson, from Andrew. These are contracted into Henson and Anson, the latter also from Ann and Agnes (Chapter IX). Intrusion of a vowel is seen in Greenaway, Hathaway, heath way, Treadaway, trade (i.e. trodden) way, etc., also in Horniman, Alabone, Alban, Minister, minster, etc. But epenthesis of a consonant is more common, especially b or p after m, and d after n. Examples are Gamble for the Anglo-Saxon name Gamel, Hamblin for Hamlin, a double diminutive of Hamo, Simpson, Thompson, etc., and Grindrod, green royd (see p. III). There is also the special case of n before g in such names as Firminger (Chapter XV), Massinger (Chapter XX), Pottinger (Chapter XVIII), etc.

Epithesis, or the addition of a final consonant, is common in uneducated speech, e.g. scholard, gownd, garding, etc. I say "uneducated," but many such forms have been adapted by the language, e.g. sound, Fr. son, and we have the name Kitching for kitchen. The usual additions are -d, -t, or -g after n, e.g. Simmonds, Simon, Hammond, Hammant, Fr. Hamon, Hind, a farm labourer, of which the older form is Hine (Chapter XVII), Collings for Collins, Jennings, Fr. Jeannin, dim. of Jean, Aveling from the female name Avelina or Evelyn. Neill is for Neil, Nigel. We have epithetic -b in Plumb, the man who lived by the plum-tree and epithetic -p in Crump (Chapter II).

Assimilation is the tendency of a sound to imitate its neighbour. Thus the d of Hud (Chapter I) sometimes becomes t in contact with the sharp s, hence Hutson; Tomkins tends to become Tonkin, whence Tonks, if the m and k are not separated by the epenthetic p, Tompkins. In Hopps and Hopkins we have the b of Hob assimilated to the sharp s and k, while in Hobbs we pronounce a final -z. It is perhaps under the influence of the initial labial that Milson, son of Miles or Michael, sometimes becomes Milsom, and Branson, son of Brand, appears as Bransom.

The same group of names is affected by dissimilation, i.e. the instinct to avoid the recurrence of the same sound. Thus Ranson, son of Ranolf or Randolf, becomes Ransom [Footnote: So also Fr, rançon gives Eng. ransom. The French surname Rançon is probably aphetic for Laurançon.] by dissimilation of one n, and Hanson, son of Han (Chapter I), becomes Hansom. In Sansom we have Samson assimilated to Samson and then dissimilated. Dissimilation especially affects the sounds l, n, r. Bullivant is found earlier as bon enfaunt (Goodchild), just as a braggart Burgundian was called by Tudor dramatists a burgullian. Bellinger is for Barringer, an Old French name of Teutonic origin. [Footnote: "When was Bobadil here, your captain? that rogue, that foist, that fencing burgullian" (Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv. 2).] Those people called Salisbury who do not hail from Salesbury in Lancashire must have had an ancestor de Sares-bury, for such was the earlier name of Salisbury (Sarum). A number of occupative names have lost the last syllable by dissimilation, e.g. Pepper for pepperer, Armour for armourer. For further examples see Chapter XV.

It may be noted here that, apart from dissimilation, the sounds l, n, r, have a general tendency to become confused, e.g. Phillimore is for Finamour (Dearlove), which also appears as Finnemore and Fenimore, the latter also to be explained from fen and moor. Catlin is from Catherine. Balestier, a cross-bow man, gives Bannister, and Hamnet and Hamlet both occur as the name of one of Shakespeare's sons. Janico or Jenico, Fr. Janicot may be the origin of Jellicoe.

We also get the change of r to l in Hal, for Harry, whence Hallett, Hawkins (Halkins), and the Cornish Hockin, Mal or Mol for Mary, whence Malleson, Mollison, etc., and Pell for Peregrine. This confusion is common in infantile speech, e.g. I have heard a small child express great satisfaction at the presence on the table of "blackbelly dam."

Metathesis, or the transposition of sound, chiefly affects l and r, especially the latter. Our word cress is from Mid. Eng. kers, which appears in Karslake, Toulmin is for Tomlin, a double dim., -el-in, of Tom, Grundy is for Gundry, from Anglo-Sax. Gundred, and Joe Gargery descended from a Gregory. Burnell is for Brunel, dim. of Fr. brun, brown, and Thrupp is for Thorp, a village (Chapter XIII). Strickland was formerly Stirkland, Cripps is the same as Crisp, from Mid. Eng. crisp, curly. Prentis Jankin had—

Hundred Rolls	Modern Form
Robertus filius Gillelmi.	Wilson.
For other possible names to be derived from a father named William, see Chapter VI.

Hundred Rolls	Modern Form
Andrew Colle	Collins, Colley
For Nicolas (Chapter V).

Hundred Rolls	Modern Form
Gilbert Sutor.	Sutor, Soutar.
On the poor representation of the shoemaker see Chapter XV.

Hundred Rolls	Modern Form
Walter de Ibernia	Ireland
A much more common name than Scotland, which has been squeezed out by Scott (Chapter XI).

Hundred Rolls	Modern Form
Matthew Hedde.	Head.
Sometimes local, at the head, but here a nickname; cf. Tate, Tail, sometimes from Fr. tête (Chapter XIII).

William filius Radolfi.	Rawson.
A very common medieval name, Anglo-Sax. Raedwulf, the origin of our Ralph, Relf, Rolfe, Roff, and of Fr. Raoul. Some of its derivatives, e.g. Rolls, have got mixed with those of Roland. To be distinguished from Randolf or Randall, of which the shorter form is Ran or Rand, whence Rankin, Rands, Rance, etc.

William Neuman	Newman, Newcomb.
A man recently settled in the village (Chapter XII).

Adam ate Dene	Dean, Denne, Adeane.
The separate at survives in A'Court and A'Beckett, at the beck head; cf. Allan a' Dale (Chapter XII).

Ralph Mydevynter.	Midwinter.
An old name for Christmas (Chapter IX).

William ate Hull.	Athill, Hill, Hull.
The form hul for hil occurs in Mid. English (Chapter XII).

Nicholas le P.ker.
This may be expanded into Parker, a park-keeper, Packer, a wool-packer, or the medieval Porker, a swine-herd, now lost in Parker.

John Stegand	Stigand, Stiggins.
Anglo-Saxon names survived chiefly among the peasantry (Chapter I).

Roger Mercator.	Marchant, Chapman.
The restored modern spelling merchant has affected the pronunciation of the common noun (Chapter III). The more usual term Chapman is cognate with cheap, chaffer, Chipping, Copenhagen, Ger. kaufen, to buy, etc.

Adam Hoppe.	Hobbs, Hobson, Hopkins.
An example of the interchange of b and P (Chapter III). Hob is usually regarded as one of the rimed forms from Robert (Chapter VI).

Roger Crom.	Crum, Crump.
Lit. crooked, cognate with Ger. krumm. The final -p of Crump is excrescent (Chapter III).

Stephen Cornevaleis	Cornwallis, Cornish.
A name which would begin in Devonshire (Chapter XI).

Matilda filia Matildae	Mawson (for Maud-son), Till, Tilley, Tillett, Tillotson, etc.
One of the favourite girl-names during the surname period (Chapter X).

Ralph Vouler.	Fowler
A West-country pronunciation; cf. Vowle for Fowell, Vokes for Foakes (Chapter VI), Venn for Fenn, etc.

John filius Thomae.	Thompson, Tompkins, Tomlin, etc.
One of the largest surname families. It includes Toulmin, a metathesis of Tomlin. In Townson and Tonson it coalesces with Tony, Anthony.

Henry Bolle.	Bull.
In this case evidently a nickname (Chapter I).

Roger Gyle.	Gill.
For names in Gil- see Chapter VI. The form in the roll may, however, represent an uncomplimentary nickname, "guile."

Walter Molendarius.	Miller, Mellen, Milner.
In Milne, Milner, we have the oldest form, representing Vulgar Lat. molina, mill cf. Kilner, from kiln, Lat. culina, kitchen. Millard (Chapter XIX) is perhaps sometimes the same name with excrescent -d.

Thomas Berker.	Barker.
A man who stripped bark, also a tanner. But as a surname reinforced by the Norman form of Fr. berger, a shepherd (Chapter XV).

Richard Joyet.	Jowett, Jewett.
A diminutive either of Joy or of Julian, Juliana. But it is possible that Joy itself is not the abstract noun, but a shortened form of Julian.

Adam Kyg.	Ketch, Beach
An obsolete adjective meaning lively (Chapter XXII).

Simon filius Johannis Nigelli.	Johnson, Jones, Jennings, etc.
The derivatives of John are numerous and not to be distinguished from those of Joan, Jane (Chapter X).