Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1909 — HOW DID YOU GET THE NAME YOU BEAB? [ARTICLE]

HOW DID YOU GET THE NAME YOU BEAB?

Discussion of the Derivation of Names Which Is Instructive As Well As Interesting. The origin of many, if not most of our family names is lost forever, and that of others is only a matter of specI laton concerning which an hypothesis, more or lfess probable can be formed. But the origin of many surnames is certainly known. Much is also known of the first use of surnames and how they became hereditary. Every nationality has its own personal names and the union of two or more nationalities greatly increases the number of such names In a country. The population of the United States is made up of people from all countries of Europe, and it is probable that our country has a much larger number of different surnames than any other in the world. By a surname we mean an additional name, or one added to the first name. Aitho first names .are now called given names, the surname of family name was in the first instance as much a given name as was the first. For a long period the Christian name only was used and was -the only one recognized by the law, and the additional name was merely a word of description to identify one person from another of the same given name. As Christianity triumphed over paganis min Europe, old pagan names were laid aside.and new ones often derived from the Bible, were given to the converts, and it is said that a whole company would sometimes be baptized by the same name. Thus such names as John, Peter, Paul, Mary, Margaret, and other familiar I scripture names became so common as to create confusion and four hunI dred years ago a statute of England provided that not only the name of a person should be inserted in a writ or - indictment, but his estate or degree, his calling or business and the town or district in which he resided. From these descriptive terms added j to a Christian name many surnames . took their origin. John, the smith, became John Smith, and John, of Wessington, became Joljn Wessington, and in time Wessington became Washington.,,: The first surnames were not always family natnes. Words additional to the Christian name in the sense of mere personal descriptions were common in England before they were handed down from father to son and became fixed family names. Surnames as family names were almost entirely unknown in England before the middle of the eleventh century. Their use made slow progress and it seems they did not become general until the thirteenth century. By the middle of the twelfth century, it was thought essential that persons of rank should bear some designation in addition to their baptismal or given name. Surnames were not well fixed as hereditary names in England among the lower and middle classes until after the Reformation. The introduction of parish registers of births, deaths and marriages did much to make them permanent. But so late as the beginning of the eighteenth century—two hundred years ago—many families in Yorkshire, England, had no fixed surnames. And even later many miners were without and family name, but were distinguished from others of the same given name by some nickname. The custom *of giving nicknames doubtless gave rise to many ludicrous family names, such as are still sometimes met with, but, there is reason to believe, are not so numerous as in the returns of our first census. In that census were found such surnames as Cusser, Spitter, Booby, Dunce, Gump, Boor, Crysick, Scolds, Looney, Greedy, haughty, Toogood, Toobald, Allright, etc. Many names which were calculated to bring humiliation to the bearers have been abandoned, and others so changed as no longer to cause unpleasant associations. The compilers of the census report on surnames in 1790 say that while acentric and peculiar names continue to be borne, they are by no means so conspicuous now as at the earlier period. Personal characteristics gave rise to many honored English names, such as Long, Longman, Longfellow, Short, Small, Strong, Gray, Tallman, Lightfoot. Complexions probably have given such names as Black, White, Brown but Green most probably arose from living at or near the village green, or common. A large proportion of surnames were originally names of localities, and expressed the country, estate or residence of those who first bore them. After the Norman conquest there was hardly a village in Normandy that did not give a surname to some family In England. Many of these French names have the prefixes de, du, des, de la, or Saint. In a list of the French soldiers who fought in the American revolution are found the names at about 40,000 persons; some 2,000 of these begin with de, 1,000 with du, and less than 200 with Satnt. The commonest French names in this list are: Martin, 227; Thomas, 122; Bernard, 119; Robert, 114; Blade, 109; Lefevre and Le Fevre, 108; Roy and LeßtSy, 113. The Warren county surnames of Death and Dearth are both said to be contractions of tbe Huguenot De Athe. Many British geographical names are now family names. Robs Is a county in Scotland; Carlisle, Lincoln and Wells are towns In England'! Moray or Murray is the old name of a county «a& a frith in Scotland. From Wales

|we have the surnames Wales, Weigh, ‘Walsh ajnd Wallis, j: Many English common nouns have become proper nouns by being used to describe the situation or locality of a person’s residence. Thus, John at the mill, may! have become John Mill, and in tbe same way may have originated such surnames at Hill, Dale, Forest, Wood, Greathouse, Parks, Marsh, Pond, Ford, etc. One writer suggests that Peter at the Seven Oaks came to be known as Peter Snooks. Some old English words designating common objects are obsolete, but proper "names derived from them survive. In Old English, shaw meant a small wood or copse. Thorpe was a village; holmes, a meadow surrounded by water; baine, a bath or bathing place. Many nouns applied to birds and beasts which are now surnames were first applied to persons to describe the place of residence, the family names being taken not directly from the lower animals but from effigies painte# on signs of taverns, places of business and public resort. Camden, the British antiquarian, writing at the close of the sixteenth century, says: “Many names that seem unfitting for men, as of brutish beasts, etc., have come from the very signs of the ohuses where they inhabited; for I have of them which said they spake of knowledge, that some in late time dwelling at the sign of the Dolphin, Bull, Whitehorse, Rocket, Peacock, etc., where commonly called Thomas at the Dolphin, Will at the Bull, George at the Whitehorse, Robin at the Rocket; which names, as many others of like sort, with omiting ‘at’, became afterward hereditary with their children.” This we may suppose is the origin of the such surnames as Lyon, Lambe, Hawke, Raven,-Crowe, Heron, etc. After the surnames originally descriptive of places which we may call local names, perhaps the most numerous are those from occupations and professions. The best explanation ever given for ‘the great nutnber of Smiths is that the word smith, coming from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning to smite, was once applied, not only to blackmiths and goldsmiths, but to smiters generally, such as carpenters, masons, and workers with many kinds of tools. The Saxon Chronicle speaks of “mighty war smiths who overcame Wales.” For a similar reason Wright is a common name. Originally the word was applied to any worker in wood, and there were Cartwrights, wheelwrights, millwrights, shipwrights, etc, A carpenter in Scotland and in some parts of England is stilled called a wright. The termination “ward” meant a keeper or warden, and Woodward was a forest keeper. Many honorable trades and occupations have ceased to exist and the names applied to them now only exist as surnames. Bowyer was a bowmak-' er, and Fletcher an arrowmaker. Cowper was an old form of cooper; Jenner an old form of Joiner; Chapman, a trader; Barker, a tanner; Draper, one who sells cloths; Monger, a dealer In wares.