HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTIAN NAMES AND SURNAMES.
We can learn some interesting stories from the history of our own
names. Most people nowadays have one or more Christian names and a
surname, but this was not always the case. Every Christian from the
earliest days of Christianity must have had a Christian name given to
him at baptism. And before the days of Christianity every man, woman,
or child must have had some name. But the practice of giving surnames
grew up only very gradually in the countries of Europe. At first only
a few royal or noble families had sur-names, or "super" names; but
gradually, as the populations of the different countries became
larger, it became necessary for people to have surnames, so as to
distinguish those with the same Christian names from each other.
In these days children are generally given for their Christian names
family names, or names which their parents think beautiful or
suitable. (Often the children afterwards do not like their own names
at all.) The Christian names of the children of European countries
come to us from many different languages. Perhaps the greatest number
come to us from the Hebrew, because these Jewish names are, of course,
found in great numbers in the Bible.
The conversion of the countries of Europe to Christianity united them
in their ways of thinking and believing, and they all honoured the
saints. The names of the early saints, whether they were from the
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, or Slavonic, were soon spread
throughout all the countries of Europe, so that now French, German,
English, Italian, Spanish names, and those of the other European
countries, are for the most part the same, only spelt and pronounced a
little differently in the different countries.
The English _William_ is _Guillaume_ in French, _Wilhelm_ in German,
and so on. _John_ is _Jean_ in French, _Johann_ in German, and so on,
with many other names.
But in early times people got their names in a much more interesting
way. Sometimes something which seemed peculiar about a little new-born
baby would suggest a name. _Esau_ was called by this name, which is
only the Hebrew word for "hairy," because he was already covered by
the thick growth of hair on his body which made him so different from
Jacob. The old Roman names _Flavius_ and _Fulvius_ merely meant
"yellow," and the French name _Blanche_, "fair," or "white." Sometimes
the fond parents would give the child a name describing some quality
which they hoped the child would possess when it grew up. The Hebrew
name _David_ means "beloved."
The name _Joseph_ was given by Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob, to
the baby who came to her after long waiting. _Joseph_ means
"addition," and Rachel chose this name because she hoped another child
would yet be added to her family. She afterwards had Benjamin, the
best beloved of all Jacob's sons, and then she died.
The name Joseph did not become common in Europe till after the
Reformation, when the Catholic Church appointed a feast day for St.
Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin. Towards the end of the
eighteenth century the Emperor Leopold christened his son Joseph, and
this, and the fact that Napoleon's first wife was named Josephine,
made these two names as a boy's and a girl's name very popular. We
have both Joseph and Josephine in English, and the French have Fifine
and Finette as well as Josephine, for which these are pet names. In
Italy, too, Joseph, or Giuseppe, is a common name, and Peppo, or
Beppo, are short names for it. These pet names seem very strange when
we remember Rachel's solemn choosing of the name for the first Joseph
of all.
Sometimes the early nations called their children by the names of
animals. The beautiful old Hebrew name _Deborah_, which became also an
old-fashioned English name, means "bee." In several languages the
word for _wolf_ was given as a personal name. The Greek _Lycos_, the
Latin _Lupus_, the Teutonic _Ulf_, from which came the Latin
_Ulphilas_ and the Slavonic _Vuk_, all mean "wolf." The wolf was the
most common and the most treacherous of all the wild animals against
which early peoples had to fight, and this, perhaps, accounts for the
common use of its name. People were so impressed by its qualities that
they thought its name worthy to give to their sons, who, perhaps, they
hoped would possess some of its better qualities when they grew up.
Sometimes early names were taken from the names of precious stones, as
_Margarite_, a Greek name meaning "pearl," and which is the origin of
all the Margarets, Marguerites, etc., to be found in nearly all the
languages of Europe.
Among all early peoples many names were religious, like the Hebrew
_Ishmael_, or "heard by God;" _Elizabeth_, or the "oath of God;"
_John_, or the "grace of the Lord." The Romans had the name
_Jovianus_, which meant "belonging to Jupiter," who was the chief of
the gods in whom the Romans believed.
In some languages names, especially of women, are taken from flowers,
like the Greek _Rhode_, or "rose," the English _Rose_, and _Lily_ or
_Lilian_, and the Scotch _Lilias_.
A great many of the Hebrew names especially come from words meaning
sorrow or trouble. They were first given to children born in times of
sorrow. Thus we have _Jabez_, which means "sorrow;" _Ichabod_, or "the
glory is departed;" _Mary_, "bitter." The Jews, as we can see from the
Bible, suffered the greatest misfortunes, and their writers knew how
to tell of it in words. The Celtic nations, like the Irish, have the
same gift, and we get many old Celtic names with these same sad
meanings. Thus _Una_ means "famine;" _Ita_, "thirsty."
The Greek and Roman names were never sad like these. Some old Greek
names became Christian names when people who were called by them
became Christian in the first days of the Church. There are several
names from the Greek word _angelos_. This meant in Greek merely a
messenger, but it began to be used by the early Christian writers both
in Latin and Greek to mean a messenger from heaven, or an angel. The
Greeks gave it first as a surname, and then as a Christian name. In
the thirteenth century there was a St. Angelo in Italy, and from the
honour paid to him the name spread, chiefly as a girl's name, to the
other countries of Europe, giving the English _Angelina_ and
_Angelica_, the French _Angelique_, and the German _Engel_.
Besides this general name of _angel_, the name of Michael, the
archangel, and Gabriel, the angel of the Annunciation, became
favourite names among Eastern Christians. The reason _Michael_ was
such a favourite was that the great Emperor Constantine dedicated a
church to St. Michael in Constantinople. The name is so much used in
Russia that it is quite common to speak of a Russian peasant as a
"Michael," just as people rather vulgarly speak of an Irish peasant as
a "Paddy." Michael can hardly be called an English name, but it is
almost as common in Ireland as Patrick, which, of course, is used in
honour of Ireland's patron saint. _Gabriel_ is a common name in Italy,
as is also another angel's name, _Raphael_. _Gabriel_ is used as a
girl's name in France--_Gabrielle_.
No Christian would think of using the name of God as a personal name;
but _Theos_, the Greek word for God, was sometimes so used by the
Greeks. A Greek name formed from this, _Theophilos_, or "beloved by
the gods," became a Christian name, and the name of one of the early
saints.
The name _Christ_, or "anointed," was the word which the Greek
Christians (who translated the Gospels into the Greek of their time)
used for the _Messiah_. From this word came the name _Christian_, and
from it _Christina_. One of the early martyrs, a virgin of noble Roman
birth, who died for her religion, was St. Christina. In Denmark the
name became a man's name, _Christiern_. Another English name which is
like Christina is _Christabel_. The great poet Coleridge in the
nineteenth century wrote the beginning of a beautiful poem called
"Christabel." The name was not very common before this, and was not
heard of until the sixteenth century, but it is fairly common now.
Another favourite Christian name from the name of _Christ_ is
_Christopher_, which means the bearer or carrier of Christ, and we are
told in a legend how St. Christopher got this name. He had chosen for
his work to carry people across a stream which had no bridge over it.
One day a little boy suddenly appeared, and asked him to carry him
across. The kind saint did so, and found, as he got farther into the
stream, that the child grew heavier and heavier. When the saint put
him down on the other side he saw the figure of the man Christ before
him, and fell down and adored Him. Ever afterwards he was known as
_Christopher_, or the "Christ-bearer."
Another Christian name which comes from a Greek word is _Peter_.
_Petros_ is the Greek word for "stone," and _Petra_ for "rock." The
name _Peter_ became a favourite in honour of St. Peter, whose name was
first _Simon_, but who was called _Peter_ because of the words our
Lord said to him: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church."
When the barbarian tribes, such as the English and Franks, broke into
the lands of the Roman Empire and settled there, afterwards being
converted to Christianity, they chose a good many Latin words as
names. In France names made from the Latin word _amo_ ("I love") were
quite common. We hear of _Amabilis_ ("lovable"), _Amadeus_ ("loving
God"), _Amandus_, which has now become a surname in France as _St.
Amand_. In England, _Amabilis_ became _Amabel_, which is not a very
common name now, but from which we have _Mabel_. _Amy_ was first used
in England after the Norman Conquest, and comes from the French
_Amata_, or _Aimée_, which means "beloved."
Another Latin word of the same kind which gave us some Christian names
was _Beo_ ("I bless"). From part of this verb, _Beatus_ ("blessed"),
there was an old English name, _Beata_, but no girl or woman seems to
have been called by it since the seventeenth century. _Beatrix_ and
_Beatrice_ also come from this. The name _Benedict_, which sometimes
became in English _Bennet_, came from another word like this,
_Benignus_ ("kind"). _Boniface_, from the Latin _Bonifacius_ ("doer of
good deeds"), was a favourite name in the early Church, and the name
of a great English saint; but it is not used in England now, though
there is still the Italian name, _Bonifazio_, which comes from the
same word.
Both Christian names and surnames have been taken from the Latin _Dies
Natalis_, or "Birthday of our Lord." The French word for Christmas,
_Noël_, comes from this, and, as well as _Natalie_, is used as a
Christian name. _Noël_ is found, too, both as a Christian name and
surname in England. At one time English babies were sometimes
christened _Christmas_, but this is never used as a Christian name
now, though a few families have it as a surname.
Perhaps the most peculiar Christian names that have ever been were the
long names which some of the English Puritans gave their children in
the seventeenth century. Often they gave them whole texts of Scripture
as names, so that at least one small boy was called "Bind their nobles
in chains and their kings in fetters of iron." Let us hope his
relatives soon found some other name to call him "for short."
Everybody has heard of the famous Cromwellian Parliament, which would
do nothing but talk, and which was called the "Barebones Parliament,"
after one of its members, who not only bore this peculiar surname, but
was also blessed with the "Christian" name of _Praise-God_. Cromwell
grew impatient at last, and Praise-God Barebones and the other talkers
suddenly found Parliament dissolved. These names were not, as a rule,
handed on from father to son, and soon died out, though in America
even to-day we get Christian names somewhat similar, but at least
shorter--names like _Willing_.
It is often easier to see how we got our Christian names than how we
got our surnames. As we have seen, there was a time when early peoples
had only first names. The Romans had surnames, or _cognomina_, but the
barbarians who won Europe from them had not.
In England surnames were not used until nearly a hundred years after
the Norman Conquest, and then only by kings and nobles. The common
people in England had, however, nearly all got them by the fourteenth
century; but in Scotland many people were still without surnames in
the time of James I., and even those who had them could easily change
one for another. Once a man got a surname it was handed on to all his
children, as surnames are to-day.
It is interesting to see in how many different ways people got their
surnames. Sometimes this is easy, but it is more difficult in other
cases.
The first surnames in England were those which the Norman nobles who
came over at the Conquest handed on from father to son. These people
generally took the name of the place from which they had come in
Normandy. In this way names like _Robert de Courcy_ ("Robert of
Courcy") came in; and many of these names, which are considered very
aristocratic, still remain. We have _de Corbet_, _de Beauchamp_, _de
Colevilles_, and so on. Sometimes the _de_ has been dropped.
Sometimes, again, people took their names in the same way from places
in England. We find in old writings names like _Adam de Kent_, _Robert
de Wiltshire_, etc. Here, again, the prefix has been dropped, and the
place-name has been kept as a surname. _Kent_ is quite a well-known
surname, as also are _Derby_, _Buxton_, and many other names of
English places.
The Normans introduced another kind of name, which became very common
too. They were a lively people, like the modern French, and were very
fond of giving nicknames, especially names referring to people's
personal appearance. We get the best examples of this in the
nicknames applied to the Norman kings. We have William _Rufus_, or
"the Red;" Richard _Coeur-de-Lion_, or "Lion-Hearted;" Henry
_Beauclerc_, or "the Scholar."
These names of kings were not handed down in their families. But in
ordinary families it was quite natural that a nickname applied to the
father should become a surname. It is from such nicknames that we get
surnames like _White_, _Black_, _Long_, _Young_, _Short_, and so on.
All these are, of course, well-known surnames to-day, and though many
men named _Long_ may be small, and many named _Short_ may be tall, we
may guess that this was not the case with some far-off ancestor.
Sometimes _man_ was added to these adjectives, and we get names like
_Longman_, _Oldman_, etc.
Sometimes these names were used in the French of the Normans, and we
get two quite different surnames, though they really in the first
place had the same meaning. Thus we have _Curt_ for _Short_, and the
quite well-known surname _Petit_, which would be _Short_ or _Little_
in English. The name _Goodheart_ was _Bun-Couer_ in Norman-French, and
from this came _Bunker_, which, if we knew nothing of its history,
would not seem to mean _Goodheart_ at all. So the name _Tait_ came
from _Tête_, or _Head_; and we may guess that the first ancestor of
the numerous people with this name had something remarkable about
their heads. The name _Goodfellow_ is really just the same as
_Bonfellow_. The surname _Thin_ has the same meaning as _Meagre_,
from which the common name _Meager_ comes.
Names like _Russell_ (from the old word _rouselle_, or "red"),
_Brown_, _Morell_ ("tan"), _Dun_ ("dull grey"), all came from
nicknames referring to people's complexions. _Reed_ and _Reid_ come
from the old word _rede_, or "red." We still have the names
_Copperbeard_, _Greybeard_, and _Blackbeard_.
Sometimes names were given from some peculiarity of clothing.
_Scarlet_, an old English name, probably came from the colour of the
clothing of the people who were first called by it--scarlet, like all
bright colours, being very much liked in the Middle Ages. So we hear
of the name _Curtmantle_, or "short cloak," and _Curthose_, which was
later changed to _Shorthose_, which is still a well-known name in
Derbyshire. The names _Woolward_ and _Woolard_ come from the old word
_woolard_, which meant wearing wool without any linen clothing
underneath. This was often done by pilgrims and others who wished to
do penance for their sins.
Many surnames have come down from nicknames given to people because of
their good or bad qualities. This is the origin of names like _Wise_,
_Gay_, _Hardy_, _Friend_, _Truman_, _Makepeace_, _Sweet_, etc. The
people who have these names may well believe that the first of their
ancestors who bore them was of a gentle and amiable disposition. Names
like _Proud_, _Proudfoot_, _Proudman_, _Paillard_ (French for
"lie-a-bed") show that the first people who had them were not so well
liked, and were considered proud or lazy.
Another way of giving nicknames to people because of something
noticeable in their character or appearance was to give them the name
of some animal having this quality. The well-known name of _Oliphant_
comes from _elephant_, and was probably first given to some one very
large, and perhaps a little ungraceful. _Bullock_ as a surname
probably had the same sort of origin. The names _Falcon_, _Hawk_,
_Buzzard_, must have been first given to people whose friends and
neighbours saw some resemblance to the quickness or fierceness or
sureness or some other quality of these birds in them. The names
_Jay_, _Peacock_, and _Parrott_ point to showiness and pride and empty
talkativeness.
A very great number of surnames are really only old Christian names
either with or without an ending added to them. A very common form of
surname is a Christian name with _son_ added to it. The first man who
handed on the name _Wilson_ (or _Willson_, as it is still sometimes
spelt) was himself the "son of Will." Any one can think of many names
of this kind--_Williamson_, _Davidson_, _Adamson_, etc. Sometimes the
founder of a family had taken his name from his mother. This was the
origin of names like _Margerison_ ("Marjorie's son") and _Alison_
("Alice's son"). This was a very common way of inventing surnames.
The Norman _Fitz_ meant "son of," and the numerous names beginning
with _Fitz_ have this origin. _Fitzpatrick_ originally meant the "son
of Patrick," _Fitzstephen_ the "son of Stephen," and so on. The Irish
prefix _O'_ has the same meaning. The ancestor of all the O'Neills was
himself the son of _Neill_. The Scandinavian _Nillson_ is really the
same name, though it sounds so different. The Scotch _Mac_ has the
same meaning, and so have the Welsh words _map_, _mab_, _ap_, and
_ab_.
One very interesting way of making surnames was to take them from the
trade or occupation of the founder of the family. Perhaps the
commonest of English surnames is _Smith_. And the word for _Smith_ is
the commonest surname in almost every country of Europe. In France we
have _Favier_.
The reason for this is easy to see. The smith, or man who made iron
and other metals into plough-shares and swords, was one of the most
important of all the workers in the early days when surnames were
being made. There were many smiths, and John the Smith and Tom the
Smith easily became John Smith and Tom Smith, and thus had a surname
to pass on to their families.
As time went on there came to be many different kinds of smiths. There
was the smith who worked in gold, and was called a "goldsmith," from
which we get the well-known surname _Goldsmith_, the name of a great
English writer. Then there was the "nail smith," from which trade came
the name _Nasmith_; the "sickle smith," from which came _Sixsmith_;
the "shear smith," which gave us _Shearsmith_--and so on.
In mediæval England the manufacture of cloth from the wool of the
great flocks of sheep which fed on the pasture lands of the
monasteries and other great houses, was the chief industry of the
nation. This trade of wool-weaving has given us many surnames, such as
_Woolmer_, _Woolman_, _Carder_, _Kempster_, _Towser_, _Weaver_,
_Webster_, etc. Some of these referred to the general work of
wool-weaving and others to special branches.
Any child can think in a moment of several names which have come in
this way from trades. We have _Taylor_ for a beginning.
But many surnames which are taken from the names of trades come from
Old English words which are now seldom or never used. _Chapman_, a
common name now, was the Old English word for a general dealer.
_Spicer_ was the old name for grocer, and is now a fairly common
surname. The well-known name of _Fletcher_ comes from the almost
forgotten word _flechier_, "an arrowmaker." _Coltman_ came from the
name of the man who had charge of the colts. _Runciman_ was the man
who had charge of horses too, and comes from another Old English word,
_rouncy_, "a horse." The _Parkers_ are descended from a park-keeper
who used to be called by that name. The _Horners_ come from a maker of
horns; the _Crockers_ and _Crokers_ from a "croker," or "crocker," a
maker of pottery. _Hogarth_ comes from "hoggart," a hog-herd;
_Calvert_ from "calf-herd;" and _Seward_ from "sow-herd." _Lambert_
sometimes came from "lamb-herd."
But we cannot always be sure of the origin of even the commonest
surnames. For instance, every person named _Smith_ is not descended
from a smith, for the name also comes from the old word _smoth_, or
"smooth," and this is the origin of _Smith_ in _Smithfield_.
A great many English surnames were taken from places. _Street_,
_Ford_, _Lane_, _Brooke_, _Styles_, are names of this kind. Sometimes
they were prefixed by the Old English _atte_ ("at") or the French _de
la_ ("of the"), but these prefixes have been dropped since. _Geoffrey
atte Style_ was the Geoffrey who lived near the stile--and so on.
Nearly all the names ending in _hurst_ and _shaw_ are taken from
places. A _hurst_ was a wood or grove; a _shaw_ was a shelter for
fowls and animals. The chief thing about a man who got the surname of
_Henshaw_ or _Ramshaw_ was probably that he owned, or had the care of,
such a shelter for hens or rams.
Names ending in _ley_ generally came into existence in the same way, a
_ley_ being also a shelter for domestic animals. So we have _Horsley_,
_Cowley_, _Hartley_, _Shipley_ (from "sheep"). Sometimes the name was
taken from the kind of trees which closed such a shelter in, names
like _Ashley_, _Elmsley_, _Oakley_, _Lindley_, etc.
Surnames as well as Christian names were often taken from the names
of saints. From such a beautiful name as _St. Hugh_ the Normans had
_Hugon_, and from this we get the rather commonplace names of
_Huggins_, _Hutchins_, _Hutchinson_, and several others. So _St.
Clair_ is still a surname, though often changed into _Sinclair_. St.
Gilbert is responsible for the names _Gibbs_, _Gibbons_, _Gibson_,
etc.
Sometimes in Scotland people were given, as Christian names, names
meaning _servant_ of Christ, or some saint. The word for servant was
_giollo_, or _giolla_. It was in this way that names like _Gilchrist_,
_Gilpatrick_, first came to be used. They were at first Christian
names, and then came to be passed on as surnames. So _Gillespie_ means
"servant of the bishop."
Some surnames, though they seem quite English now, show that the first
member of the family to bear the name was looked upon as a foreigner.
Such names are _Newman_, _Newcome_, _Cumming_ (from _cumma_, "a
stranger"). Sometimes the nationality to which the stranger belonged
is shown by the name. The ancestors of the people called _Fleming_,
for instance, must have come from Flanders, as so many did in the
Middle Ages. The _Brabazons_ must have come from Brabant.
Perhaps the most peculiar origin of all belongs to some surnames which
seem to have come from oaths or exclamations. The fairly common names
_Pardoe_, _Pardie_, etc., come from the older name _Pardieu_, or "By
God," a solemn form of oath. We have, too, the English form in the
name _Bigod_. Names like _Rummiley_ come from the old cry of sailors,
_Rummylow_, which they used as sailors use "Heave-ho" now.
But many chapters could be written on the history of names. This
chapter shows only some of the ways in which we got our Christian
names and surnames.