GYPSY NAMES

THERE are many curious things connected with the Gypsies, but perhaps

nothing more so than what pertains to their names. They have a double

nomenclature, each tribe or family having a public and a private name,

one by which they are known to the Gentiles, and another to themselves

alone. Their public names are quite English; their private ones

attempts, some of them highly singular and uncouth, to render those names

by Gypsy equivalents. Gypsy names may be divided into two classes, names

connected with trades, and surnames or family names. First of all,

something about trade names.

There are only two names of trades which have been adopted by English

Gypsies as proper names, Cooper and Smith: these names are expressed in

the English Gypsy dialect by _Vardo-mescro_ and _Petulengro_. The first

of these renderings is by no means a satisfactory one, as _Vardo-mescro_

means a cartwright, or rather a carter. To speak the truth, it would be

next to impossible to render the word ‘cooper’ into English Gypsy, or

indeed into Gypsy of any kind; a cooper, according to the common

acceptation of the word, is one who makes pails, tubs, and barrels, but

there are no words in Gypsy for such vessels. The Transylvanian Gypsies

call a cooper a _bedra-kero_ or pail-maker, but _bedra_ is not Gypsy, but

Hungarian, and the English Gypsies might with equal propriety call a

cooper a _pail-engro_. On the whole the English Gypsies did their best

when they rendered ‘cooper’ into their language by the word for

‘cartwright.’

_Petulengro_, the other trade name, is borne by the Gypsies who are known

to the public by the English appellation of Smith. It is not very easy

to say what is the exact meaning of _Petulengro_: it must signify,

however, either horseshoe-fellow or tinker: _petali_ or _petala_

signifies in Gypsy a horseshoe, and is probably derived from the Modern

Greek _πέταλον_; _engro_ is an affix, and is either derived from or

connected with the Sanscrit _kara_, to make, so that with great

feasibility _Petulengro_ may be translated horseshoe-maker. But _bedel_

in Hebrew means ‘tin,’ and as there is little more difference between

_petul_ and _bedel_ than between _petul_ and _petalon_, _Petulengro_ may

be translated with almost equal feasibility by tinker or tin-worker, more

especially as tinkering is a principal pursuit of Gypsies, and to _jal

petulengring_ signifies to go a-tinkering in English Gypsy. Taken,

however, in either sense, whether as horseshoe-maker or tin-worker (and,

as has been already observed, it must mean one or the other),

_Petulengro_ may be considered as a tolerably fair rendering of the

English Smith.

So much for the names of the Gypsies which the writer has ventured to

call the trade names; now for those of the other class. These are

English surnames, and for the most part of a highly aristocratic

character, and it seems at first surprising that people so poor and

despised as Gypsies should be found bearing names so time-honoured and

imposing. There is, however, a tolerable explanation of the matter in

the supposition that on their first arrival in England the different

tribes sought the protection of certain grand powerful families, and were

permitted by them to locate themselves on their heaths and amid their

woodlands, and that they eventually adopted the names of their patrons.

Here follow the English names of some of the principal tribes, with the

Romany translations or equivalents:—

BOSWELL.—The proper meaning of this word is the town of Bui. The initial

_Bo_ or _Bui_ is an old Northern name, signifying a colonist or settler,

one who tills and builds. It was the name of a great many celebrated

Northern _kempions_, who won land and a home by hard blows. The last

syllable, _well_, is the French _ville_: Boswell, Boston, and Busby all

signify one and the same thing—the town of Bui—the _well_ being French,

the _ton_ Saxon, and the _by_ Danish; they are half-brothers of Bovil and

Belville, both signifying fair town, and which ought to be written

Beauville and Belville. The Gypsies, who know and care nothing about

etymologies, confounding _bos_ with _buss_, a vulgar English verb not to

be found in dictionaries, which signifies to kiss, rendered the name

Boswell by _Chumomisto_, that is, Kisswell, or one who kisses

well—_choom_ in their language signifying to kiss, and _misto_

well—likewise by _choomomescro_, a kisser. Vulgar as the word _buss_ may

sound at present, it is by no means of vulgar origin, being connected

with the Latin _basio_ and the Persian _bousè_.

GREY.—This is the name of a family celebrated in English history. The

Gypsies who adopted it, rendered it into their language by _Gry_, a word

very much resembling it in sound, though not in sense, for _gry_, which

is allied to the Sanscrit _ghora_, signifies a horse. They had no better

choice, however, for in Romany there is no word for grey, any more than

there is for green or blue. In several languages there is a difficulty

in expressing the colour which in English is called grey. In Celtic, for

instance, there is no definite word for it; _glas_, it is true, is used

to express it, but _glas_ is as frequently used to express green as it is

to express grey.

HEARNE, HERNE.—This is the name of a family which bears the heron for its

crest, the name being either derived from the crest, or the crest from

the name. There are two Gypsy renderings of the _word_—_Rossar-mescro_

or _Ratzie-mescro_, and _Balorengre_. _Rossar-mescro_ signifies

duck-fellow, the duck being substituted for the heron, for which there is

no word in Romany. The meaning of _Balor-engre_ is hairy people; the

translator or translators seeming to have confounded Hearne with

‘haaren,’ old English for hairs. The latter rendering has never been

much in use.

LEE.—The Gypsy name of this tribe is _Purrum_, sometimes pronounced

_Purrun_. The meaning of _Purrurn_ is an onion, and it may be asked what

connection can there be between Lee and onion? None whatever: but there

is some resemblance in sound between Lee and leek, and it is probable

that the Gypsies thought so, and on that account rendered the name by

_Purrum_, which, if not exactly a leek, at any rate signifies something

which is cousin-german to a leek. It must be borne in mind that in some

parts of England the name Lee is spelt Legh and Leigh, which would hardly

be the case if at one time it had not terminated in something like a

guttural, so that when the Gypsies rendered the name, perhaps nearly four

hundred years ago, it sounded very much like ‘leek,’ and perhaps was

Leek, a name derived from the family crest. At first the writer was of

opinion that the name was _Purrun_, a modification of _pooro_, which in

the Gypsy language signifies old, but speedily came to the conclusion

that it must be _Purrum_, a leek or onion; for what possible reason could

the Gypsies have for rendering Lee by a word which signifies old or

ancient? whereas by rendering it by _Purrum_, they gave themselves a

Gypsy name, which, if it did not signify Lee, must to their untutored

minds have seemed a very good substitute for Lee. The Gypsy word

_pooro_, old, belongs to Hindostan, and is connected with the Sanscrit

_pura_, which signifies the same. _Purrum_ is a modification of the

Wallachian _pur_, a word derived from the Latin _porrum_, an onion, and

picked up by the Gypsies in Roumania or Wallachia, the natives of which

region speak a highly curious mixture of Latin and Sclavonian.

LOVEL.—This is the name or title of an old and powerful English family.

The meaning of it is Leo’s town, Lowe’s town, or Louis’ town. The

Gypsies, who adopted it, seem to have imagined that it had something to

do with love, for they translated it by _Camlo_ or _Caumlo_, that which

is lovely or amiable, and also by _Camomescro_, a lover, an amorous

person, sometimes used for ‘friend.’ _Camlo_ is connected with the

Sanscrit _Cama_, which signifies love, and is the appellation of the

Hindoo god of love. A name of the same root as the one borne by that

divinity was not altogether inapplicable to the Gypsy tribe who adopted

it: _Cama_, if all tales be true, was black, black though comely, a

_Beltenebros_, and the Lovel tribe is decidedly the most comely and at

the same time the darkest of all the Anglo-Egyptian families. The faces

of many of them, male and female, are perfect specimens of black beauty.

They are generally called by the race the _Kaulo Camloes_, the Black

Comelies. And here, though at the risk of being thought digressive, the

writer cannot forbear saying that the darkest and at one time the

comeliest of all the _Caumlies_, a celebrated fortune-teller, and an old

friend of his, lately expired in a certain old town, after attaining an

age which was something wonderful. She had twenty-one brothers and

sisters, and was the eldest of the family, on which account she was

called “Rawnie P., pooroest of bis ta dui,” Lady P.—she had married out

of the family—eldest of twenty-two.

MARSHALL.—The name Marshall has either to do with marshal, the title of a

high military personage, or marches, the borders of contiguous countries.

In the early Norman period it was the name of an Earl of Pembroke. The

Gypsies who adopted the name seem in translating it to have been of

opinion that it was connected with marshes, for they rendered it by

_mokkado tan engre_, fellows of the wet or miry place, an appellation

which at one time certainly became them well, for they are a northern

tribe belonging to the Border, a country not very long ago full of mosses

and miry places. Though calling themselves English, they are in reality

quite as much Scotch as English, and as often to be found in Scotland as

the other country, especially in Dumfriesshire and Galloway, in which

latter region, in Saint Cuthbert’s churchyard, lies buried ‘the old man’

of the race,—Marshall, who died at the age of 107. They sometimes call

themselves _Bungyoror_ and _Chikkeneymengre_, cork-fellows and china

people, which names have reference to the occupations severally followed

by the males and females, the former being cutters of bungs and corks,

and the latter menders of china.

STANLEY.—This is the name or title of an ancient English family

celebrated in history. It is probably descriptive of their original

place of residence, for it signifies the stony lea, which is also the

meaning of the Gaelic _Auchinlech_, the place of abode of the Scottish

Boswells. It was adopted by an English Gypsy tribe, at one time very

numerous, but at present much diminished. Of this name there are two

renderings into Romany; one is _Baryor_ or _Baremescre_, stone-folks or

stonemasons, the other is _Beshaley_. The first requires no comment, but

the second is well worthy of analysis, as it is an example of the strange

blunders which the Gypsies sometimes make in their attempts at

translation. When they rendered Stanley by _Beshaley_ or _Beshley_, they

mistook the first syllable _stan_ for ‘stand,’ but for a very good reason

rendered it by _besh_, which signifies ‘to sit, and the second for a word

in their own language, for _ley_ or _aley_ in Gypsy signifies ‘down,’ so

they rendered Stanley by _Beshley_ or _Beshaley_, which signifies ‘sit

down.’ Here, of course, it will be asked what reason could have induced

them, if they mistook _stan_ for ‘stand,’ not to have rendered it by the

Gypsy word for ‘stand’? The reason was a very cogent one, the want of a

word in the Gypsy language to express ‘stand’; but they had heard in

courts of justice witnesses told to stand down, so they supposed that to

stand down was much the same as to sit down, whence their odd rendering

of Stanley. In no dialect of the Gypsy, from the Indus to the Severn, is

there any word for ‘stand,’ though in every one there is a word for

‘sit,’ and that is _besh_, and in every Gypsy encampment all along the

vast distance, _Beshley_ or _Beshaley_ would be considered an invitation

to sit down.

So much for the double-name system in use among the Gypsies of England.

There is something in connection with the Gypsies of Spain which

strangely coincides with one part of it—the translation of names. Among

the relics of the language of the Gitanos or Spanish Gypsies are words,

some simple and some compound, which are evidently attempts to translate

names in a manner corresponding to the plan employed by the English

Romany. In illustration of the matter, the writer will give an analysis

of _Brono Aljenicato_, the rendering into Gitano of the name of one

frequently mentioned in the New Testament, and once in the Apostles’

Creed, the highly respectable, but much traduced individual known to the

English public as Pontius Pilate, to the Spanish as Poncio Pilato. The

manner in which the rendering has been accomplished is as follows:

_Poncio_ bears some resemblance to the Spanish _puente_, which signifies

a bridge, and is a modification of the Latin _pons_, and _Pilato_ to the

Spanish _pila_, a fountain, or rather a stone pillar, from the top of

which the waters of a fountain springing eventually fall into a stone

basin below, the two words—the _Brono Aljenicato_—signifying

bridge-fountain, or that which is connected with such a thing. Now this

is the identical, or all but the identical, way in which the names Lee,

Lovel, and Stanley have been done into English Romany. A remarkable

instance is afforded in this Gitano Scripture name, this _Brono

Aljenicato_, of the heterogeneous materials of which Gypsy dialects are

composed: _Brono_ is a modification of a Hindoo or Sanscrit, _Aljenicato_

of an Arabic root. _Brono_ is connected with the Sanscrit _pindala_,

which signifies a bridge, and _Aljenicato_ is a modification of the Gypsy

_aljenique_, derived from the Arabic _alain_, which signifies the

fountain. But of whatever materials composed, a fine-sounding name is

this same _Brono Aljenicato_, perhaps the finest sounding specimen of

Spanish Gypsy extant, much finer than a translation of Pontius Pilate

would be, provided the name served to express the same things, in

English, which _Poncio Pilato_ serves to express in Spanish, for then it

would be _Pudjico Pani_ or Bridgewater; for though in English Gypsy there

is the word for a bridge, namely _pudge_, a modification of the Persian

_pul_, or the Wallachian _podul_, there is none for a fountain, which can

be only vaguely paraphrased by _pani_, water.