I am glad to perceive that MR. LOWER has on the stocks a systematic
Dictionary of Surnames. For the reason stated by him, it is neither
desirable nor possible that it should include _all_ English surnames.
The majority derive their origin from places or districts of limited
dimensions, and to enumerate them would be an interminable and very
thankless task. MR. L. has therefore judiciously determined to exercise
his discretion on this class of cases. Nor are the names derived from
Christian names generally worth insertion, for every Christian name has,
in some form, been converted into a surname, either with or without
alteration. Those which originate in _extinct_ or _provincial_
employments and trades will supply an instructive and interesting
collection, such as Tucker, Challoner, Tozer, Crowder, Berner, &c.; and
will also afford scope for glossarial illustration.
I also trust that his etymological research will be successfully
exercised on such names as--
Nettleship
Moneypenny
Peabody
Sidebottom
Sheepshanks
Snodgrass
Wiggins
Figgins
Higgins
Wigglesworth
Calcraft
Lammercraft, and other crafts (crofts?)
Pennefather
Ocock
Pocock
Locock, and omne quod exit in cock, of which some forty or
fifty are in use.
Let me also bring under his notice the singularly unattractive name of
_Suckbitch_. It is used by more than one branch of a respectable and
ancient family in the West of England, and I have traced its existence
for at least five centuries. Instead of availing themselves of the
recent opinions of some great lawyers, that a surname may be changed at
will, this family rather pride themselves on a name that can boast an
antiquity probably not surpassed by that of any family in England. The
shape of it has, however, deviated from the ancient form, so as to
become more significant, but certainly less graceful than it was; and
the change is probably an illustration of a familiar fact: viz. that we
are not generally the authors of our own surnames, but receive them from
our neighbours, and that, to a certain extent, they continue to have the
same character of instability which they originally possessed. The
earliest form of it known to me is _Sokespic_,--a word which seems to
indicate a Saxon origin. The _spic_, or bacon end of it has now
generally become _spitch_ in the names of places; as in Spitchwick, a
well-known seat in Devonshire. Whether the _soke_ or _suck_ end of it be
from _sucan_, and the whole name equivalent to the modern _Chawbacon_,
is a matter which I leave for the investigation of MR. LOWER. At all
events, the old form will be a warning to the etymologist not to search
for the origin of the name in any legend like that which ascribes the
nutrition of the infant founders of Rome to a she-wolf.
I have met with many modern instances of the mutability of surnames
among labouring people, and even in a class above them. In 1841 a person
named _Duke_ was on the list of voters for Penryn, in Cornwall. His
original name was _Rapson_; but the name being very common in his
neighbourhood, people long distinguished him by the name of _Duke_,
because he kept the "Duke of York's Arms:" and this last name has since
become the permanent recognised family name. This is a fact which I have
had satisfactory means of verifying.