Surnames as a Science. Robert Ferguson

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       Robert Ferguson

      Surnames as a Science

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4064066188399

Table of Contents

       PREFACE.

       SURNAMES AS A SCIENCE.

       CHAPTER I.

       CHAPTER II.

       CHAPTER III.

       CHAPTER IV.

       CHAPTER V.

       CHAPTER VI.

       CHAPTER VII.

       CHAPTER VIII.

       CHAPTER IX.

       CHAPTER X

       CHAPTER XI.

       LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED.

       ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

       INDEX OF NAMES.

PREFACE.

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      That portion of our surnames which dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, and so forms a part of the general system by which Teutonic names are governed, is distinctly a branch of a science, and as such has been treated by the Germans, upon whose lines I have generally endeavoured to follow.

      It has been a part of my object to show that this portion of our surnames is a very much larger one than has been generally supposed, and that it includes a very great number of names which have hitherto been otherwise accounted for, as well as of course a great number for which no explanation has been forthcoming.

      Nevertheless, while claiming for my subject the dignity of a science, I am very well aware that the question as to how far I have myself succeeded in treating it scientifically is an entirely different one, and one upon which it will be for others than myself to pronounce an opinion.

      This work is of the nature of a supplement to one which I published some time ago under the title of The Teutonic Name-system applied to the Family-names of France, England, and Germany (Williams and Norgate), though I have been obliged, in order to render my system intelligible, to a certain extent to go over the same ground again.

      I will only say, in conclusion, that in dealing with this subject—one in which all persons may be taken to be more or less interested—I have endeavoured as much as possible to avoid technicalities and to write so as to be intelligible to the ordinary reader.

      Robert Ferguson.

       Morton, Carlisle.

      CONTRACTIONS.

      A.S. Anglo-Saxon.

       O.N. Old Northern.

       O.G. Old German.

       O.H.G. Old High German.

SURNAMES AS A SCIENCE.

       Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.

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      THE ANTIQUITY AND THE UNSUSPECTED DIGNITY OF SOME OF OUR COMMON NAMES.

As some things that seem common, and even ignoble, to the naked eye, lose their meanness under the revelations of the microscope, so, many of our surnames that seem common and even vulgar at first sight, will be found, when their origin is adequately investigated, to be of high antiquity, and of unsuspected dignity. Clodd, for instance, might seem to be of boorish origin, and Clout to have been a dealer in old rags. But I claim for them that they are twin brothers, and etymologically the descendants of a Frankish king. Napp is not a name of distinguished sound, yet it is one that can take us back to that far-off time ere yet the history of England had begun, when, among the little kinglets on the old Saxon shore, "Hnaf ruled the Hôcings."[1] Moll, Betty, Nanny, and Pegg sound rather ignoble as the names of men, yet there is nothing of womanliness in their warlike origin. Bill seems an honest though hardly a distinguished name, unless he can claim kinship with Billing, the "noble progenitor of the royal house of Saxony." Now Billing, thus described by Kemble, is a patronymic, "son of Bill or Billa," and I claim for our Bill (as a surname) the right, as elsewhere stated, to be considered as the progenitor. Among the very shortest names in all the directory are Ewe, Yea, and Yeo, yet theirs also is a pedigree that can take us back beyond Anglo-Saxon times. Names of a most disreputable appearance are Swearing and Gambling, yet both, when properly inquired into, turn out to be the very synonyms of respectability. Winfarthing again would seem to be derived from the most petty gambling, unless he can be rehabilitated as an Anglo-Saxon Winfrithing (patronymic of Winfrith.) A more unpleasant name than Gumboil (Lower) it would not be easy to find, and yet it represents, debased though be its form, a name borne by many a Frankish warrior, and by a Burgundian king fourteen centuries ago. Its proper form would be Gumbald (Frankish for Gundbald), and it signifies "bold in war." Another name which wofully belies its origin is Tremble, for, of the two words of which it is composed, one signifies steadfast or firm, and the other signifies valiant or bold. Its proper form is Trumbald, and the first step of its descent is Trumbull. A name which excites anything but agreeable associations is Earwig. Yet it is at any rate a name that goes back to Anglo-Saxon times, there being an Earwig, no doubt a man of some consideration, a witness to a charter (Thorpe, p. 333). And the animal which it represents is not the insect of insidious repute, but the sturdy boar so much honoured by our Teuton forefathers, ear being, as elsewhere noted, a contraction of evor, boar, so that Earwig is the "boar of battle." Of more humiliating seeming than even Earwig is Flea (vouched for by Lower as an English surname). And yet it is at all events a name of old descent, for Flea—I do not intend it in any equivocal sense, for the stem is found in Kemble's