Surnames as a Science Part 2

Francolin; _Papillon_, with an O.G. Babolen, &c. This form of diminutive never takes a vowel-ending.

The ending in _kin_.

This diminutive ending is formed from that in _ec_ by the addition of _en_. It is the youngest-born of all, not being found, unless in rare cases, before the tenth century. And it is one that is still in living use both in England and in Germany, in the latter country more especially. We have _Wilkin_, corresponding with an O.G. Williken, and an O.N. Vilkinr; _G.o.dkin_, with an O.G. Gotichin; _Hipkin_, with an O.G.

Ibikin or Ipcin; and _Hodgkin_, with an A.S. Hogcin.

The ending in _et_.

There is an ending in _d_ or _t_ in O.G. names, which may be taken, though perhaps not with anything like certainty, to have the force of a diminutive. Hence might be such a name as _Ibbett_, corresponding with O.G. names Ibed and Ibet, from an unexplained stem _ib_; also our names _Huggett_, _Howitt_, and _Hewitt_, corresponding with an Anglo-Saxon Hocget, and an O.G. Huetus, from the stem _hog_, _hug_, signifying study or thought. But some other endings are so liable to intermix, and particularly the common one _had_, war, that there is very seldom anything like certainty.

The ending in _es_ or _is_.

I take this ending also to be diminutive, and to be possibly akin to our _ish_, as in blue-_ish_, which, as signifying a "little blue," seems to have the force of a diminutive. Hence we have _Riches_, corresponding with an O.G. Richizo, and a present French _Richez_; and _Willis_, corresponding with an O.G. Willizo. Then we have _G.o.dsoe_, corresponding with an O.G. G.o.dizo, of which Cotiso, mentioned in Horace (p. 20), is a High German form; and _Abbiss_, corresponding with the name, Abissa, of the son of Hengest, from, as supposed, Gothic _aba_, man. And we have _Prentiss_, corresponding with an A.S. Prentsa (=Prentisa), respecting which I have elsewhere suggested that the name should be properly Pentsa. Another name which I take to be from this ending is _Daisy_.

There is an A.S. Daegsa, which as Dagsi, with the alternative ending in _i_, would give us _Daisy_. We have another name, _Gipsy_, which I take to be from Gibb or Gipp (A.S. _geban_, to give) with this ending. This ending in _is_ is naturally very apt to be corrupted into _ish_, and it is from this source, I take it, that we have such names as _Radish_, _Reddish_, _Varnish_, _Burnish_, and _Parish_, the two last of which we have also in their proper form as _Burness_, and _Parez_ or _Paris_.

The ending in _c.o.c.k_.

This ending is not one that enters into the Teutonic system, unless so far as it may turn out to be a corruption of something else. I have not met with it earlier than A.D. 1400, nor do I know of anything to make me think that it is much older. There has been at different times a good deal of discussion as to its origin in _Notes and Queries_ and elsewhere. Mr. Lower has supposed it to be a diminutive, for which I do not think that any etymological sanction can be found, unless indeed we can suppose it to be a corruption of the diminutive _eck_ or _ock_ before referred to, which seems not impossible. But on the whole I am disposed to agree with the suggestion of a writer in _Notes and Queries_ that _c.o.c.k_ is a corruption of _cot_,--not, however, in the sense which I suppose him to entertain, of _cot_ as a local word, but of _cot_ as an ancient ending, the High German form of _gaud_ or _got_, signifying, as supposed, "Goth." So far as the phonetic relations.h.i.+p between the two words _c.o.c.k_ and _cot_ is concerned, we have an instance, among others, in our word _apricot_, which was originally _apric.o.c.k_.

I am influenced very much in coming to the above conclusion by finding _coq_ as a not unfrequent ending in French names, as in _Balcoq_ and _Billecoq_, also in _Aucoq_, _Lecoq_, _Videcocq_, _Vilcocq_, which latter seem to be names corresponding with our _Alc.o.c.k_, _Layc.o.c.k_, _Woodc.o.c.k_, and _Willc.o.c.k_. They might all be formed on Teutonic stems, if we suppose _Lecoq_ and _Layc.o.c.k_ to have lost a _d_, like _Lewis_ and _Lucas_, from _leod_, people. Now, that the ending _gaud_, with its alternative forms _got_, _caud_, _cot_, is present in French names as well as in English will be clearly seen from the following. From the Old German Faregaud we have _Faragut_, and the French have _Farcot_; from the O.G. Benigaud they have _Penicaud_, and we have _Pennycad_; from the O.G. Ermingaud they have _Armingaud_, and from Megingaud they have _Maingot_; from the O.G. Aringaud we have _Heringaud_, from Wulfegaud we have _Woolcot_, from Adogoto we have _Addicott_, and from Madalgaud we have _Medlicott_. I am also disposed on the same principle to take _Northcott_, notwithstanding its local appearance, to represent the O.G.

name Nordgaud, and in this case we have also the name _Norc.o.c.k_ to compare.

Presuming the above derivation to be the correct one, the question then arises,--Has this ending come to us through the French, or has the corruption proceeded simultaneously in both countries? That the latter has been the case, the French _Videcocq_, as compared with our _Woodc.o.c.k_, goes some way to show, the one having the High German form _vid_ or _wid_, and the other the Saxon form _wud_. I may also mention, as being, so far as it goes, in accordance with the above theory, that we have a number of names both in the form of _cot_ and _c.o.c.k_, as _Adc.o.c.k_ and _Addicott_, _Alc.o.c.k_ and _Alcott_, _Norcott_ and _Norc.o.c.k_, _Jeffc.o.c.k_ and _Jeffcott_. I do not, however, desire to come to a definite conclusion, though, as far as I am able to carry it, the inquiry seems in favour of the view which I have advocated. But the whole subject will bear some further elucidation.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] How or when this change took place is a question that awaits solving, but I observe that, in 1265, the Countess of Montford, giving names (or sobriquets) to her servants, calls one of her messengers Treubodi (trusty messenger), and not Treuboda, as the Anglo-Saxon form would have been.

[9] This name appears as [Greek: Moundilas] in Procopius, but, judging by the present p.r.o.nunciation of Greek, it would sound as Mundila.

CHAPTER III.

NAMES REPRESENTING ANCIENT COMPOUNDS.

The subject of the relative antiquity of simple names (_i.e._ those formed from one single word) and of compound names is one which has occupied a good deal of the attention of the Germans. And the conclusion at which some of them at least seem to have arrived, and which perhaps has been stated the most distinctly by Stark, is that the compound names are the older of the two. And the princ.i.p.al ground upon which this conclusion is based seems to be this, that in a very great number of cases we find that a simple name was used as a contraction of a compound name, just as we use Will for William, and Ben for Benjamin. Stark, in particular, has gone into the subject with German thoroughness, and produced a most complete list of instances of such contractions, such as Freddo for Fredibert, Wulf for Wulfric, Benno for Bernhard; and among the Anglo-Saxons, Eada for Edwine, and Siga for Siwerd, &c., from which he seems to arrive at the general conclusion that simple names are in all cases contractions of compound names.

Nevertheless, I must say that it seems to me that to a.s.sume the compound to be older than the simple looks very much like something that is contrary to first principles, and indeed the very fact that simple names are so often used in place of compounds appears to me to show that they are more natural to men, and that men would generally adopt them if they could. I cannot but think then, going back to the far remote origin of Teutonic names, that the vocabulary of single words must have been exhausted before men began to take to the use of compounds. When this period arrived, and when the confusion arising from so many men being called by the same name could no longer be endured, some other course required to be adopted. And the course that was adopted was--I put this forward only as a theory--when the range of single names was exhausted, to _put two names together_. The number of changes that could be thus introduced was sufficient for all purposes, and there is, as I believe, no established case of a Teutonic name being formed of more than two words. From this point of view Teutonic names would not be translatable, or formed with any view to a meaning, and this is, as it seems to me, what was in fact the case, as a general rule, though I should be very far from laying it down as a universal principle. If names were formed with a view to a meaning, it does not seem very probable that we should have a name compounded with two words, both of which signify war; still less with two words, one of which signifies peace and the other war.

"Bold in war" might have a meaning, but "bold in peace," if it means anything, seems satirical. In point of fact, there was a certain set of words on which the changes were rung in forming names without any apparent reference either to meaning or congruity. Thus we find that the early Frankish converts in the time of Charlemagne, the staple of whose names was German derived from their heathen ancestors, adopted not a few words of Christian import from the Latin or the Hebrew, and mixed them up with the old words to which they had been accustomed in their names.

Thus a woman called Electa, no doubt meaning "elect," calls her son Electardus (_hard_, fortis); thus from _pasc_ (pa.s.sover) is formed Pascoin (_wine_, friend); from the name of Christ himself is formed Cristengaudus (_gaud_, Goth.) Now these are three of the common endings of German names, but no one can suppose that any sense was intended to be made out of them here, or that they were given for any other reason than that they were the sort of words out of which men had been accustomed to form their names. Indeed, the idea present to the minds of the parents seems to have been in many cases to connect the names of their children with their own, rather than anything else, by retaining the first word of the compound and varying the second. Thus a man called Girveus and his wife Ermengildis give their children the names of Giroardus, Girfridis, Gertrudis, Ermena, and Ermengardis, three of the names connecting with that of the father, and two with that of the mother. In the case of a man called Ratgaudus and his wife Deodata, the names of four of the children are Ratharius, Ratgarius, Ratrudis, and Deodatus, the names of two other children being different. Many other instances might be given of this sort of yearning for some kind of a connecting-link in the names of a family. Now the people by whom these names were given were common peasants and serfs, so that the case was not one like that of the Anglo-Saxon kings of Northumbria, among whose names the prefix _os_, signifying "semi-deus," and expressive of a claim to a divine lineage, was of such frequent recurrence. It may be a question then whether, while the former word of the compound connected with the father or the mother, the latter part did not sometimes connect with some other relative whose name it was desired to commemorate, giving the effect that is now frequently expressed by a Christian name and a surname. Again, when we look at the remote origin of these names, when we find in the opening century of our era, and who can tell for how many centuries before, precisely the same names that have been current in all these centuries since, we can hardly doubt that some of these names, derived from words that had long died out from the language, must have been used even in ancient times without any more thought of their meaning than parents have now when they call a child Henry or John. I desire, however, to put forward the above theory as to the origin of compound names rather with a view of raising the question than of expressing a definite conclusion.

The vowel ending in _a_, _i_, or _o_, to which I have referred as in general use in the case of simple names was not used in the case of compounds, unless indeed it happened to be an original part of the second word as in Frithubodo, from _bodo_, messenger. Only in the case of women, to mark the s.e.x, the ending in _a_ was given. And in the case of some names, such as _Gertrud_, in which the second part is a word that could only be given to a woman, as no vowel-ending was required, so none was given.

I now proceed to give a list of the princ.i.p.al compounds occurring in English names, with the ancient forms corresponding. I have been obliged, as a matter of necessity, to compare our names more frequently with Old German than with Anglo-Saxon equivalents, on account of the former having been collected and collated--a work which it remains for some one of our well qualified Anglo-Saxon scholars to do with regard to the latter.

The meanings which I have a.s.signed for these names are such as have been most generally adopted by the German writers who have made a special study of the subject. But it must be borne in mind that this study is one in which there is no context by which conclusions can be verified, and that in the vast majority of cases we have nothing more to go upon than a reasonable presumption.

_Adal_, _athel_, _ethel_, "n.o.ble."

(_Hard_, fortis), Old Germ. Adalhard--Ang.-Sax. Ethelhard--Eng.

_Adlard_. (_Helm_), O.G. Adalhelm--Eng. _Adlam_. (_Hari_, warrior), A.S.

Ethilheri--Eng. _Edlery_. (_Stan_, stone), A.S. aethelstan--Eng.

_Ethelston_.

_Ag_, _ac_, _ec_, "point, edge."

(_Hard_, fortis), O.G. Agihard--Eng. _Haggard_. (_Hari_, warrior), O.G.

Agiher, Egiher--Eng. _Agar_, _Eager_. (_Leof_ dear), O.N. Eylifr--Eng.

_Ayliffe_. (_Man_, vir), O.G. Egiman--A.S. aecemann--Eng. _Hayman_, _Aikman_. (_Mund_, protection), A.S. Agemund--Eng. _Hammond_. (_Ward_), O.G. Eguard--A.S. Hayward--Eng. _Hayward_.

_Agil_, _Ail_, of uncertain meaning, but perhaps formed on the previous stem _Ag_.

(_Gar_, spear), O.G. Egilger, Ailger--Eng. _Ailger_. (_Hard_, fortis), O.G. Agilard, Ailard--Eng. _Aylard_. (_Man_), O.G. Aigliman--Eng.

_Ailman_. (_Mar_, famous), O.G. Agilmar, Ailemar--Eng. _Aylmer_.

(_Ward_, guardian), O.G. Agilward, Ailward--Eng. _Aylward_. (_Wine_, friend), A.S. Aegelwine--Eng. _Aylwin_.

_Alb_, _Alf_, signifying "elf."

(_Hard_, fortis), O.G. Alfhard--Eng. _Alvert_. (_Hari_, warrior), A.S.

aelfhere--O.G. Alfheri, Albheri--Eng. _Alvary_, _Albery_, _Aubrey_.

(_Rad_, _red_, counsel), O.G. Alberat--A.S. Alfred--Eng. _Alfred_.

(_Run_, mystery), O.G. Albrun[10]--Eng. _Auberon_.

_Ald_, signifying "old."

(_Bert_, famous), O.G. Aldebert--Eng. _Aldebert_. (_Hari_, warrior), A.S. Aldheri--Eng. _Alder_, _Audrey_. (_Gar_, spear), A.S. Eldecar (Moneyer of Edmund)--Eng. _Oldacre_ (?). (_Rad_, _red_, counsel), O.G.

Aldrad--Eng. _Aldred_, _Eldred_. (_Rit_, ride), O.G. Aldarit--Eng.

_Aldritt_. (_Ric_, rule), O.G. Alderich, Olderich, Altrih--Eng.

_Aldrich_, _Oldridge_, _Altree_. (_Man_, vir), A.S. Ealdmann--Eng.

_Altman_.

_Amal_, of uncertain meaning.

(_Gar_, spear), O.G. Amalgar--Eng. _Almiger_. (_Hari_, warrior), O.G.

Amalhari, Amalher--Eng. _Ambler_, _Emeler_.