The Express.
London, England, 1858-08-10 00:00:00

nit °Juane or XXOLISH

I have crated that the gtih;;;Unt.-.l4ll.;gfirit-- imenames is
Anglo-Saxon. But there are in tact several which are in a
sense older than Anglo-Saxon—which have come to us, as It
were, through the Anglo-Saxon, sad for the etymons of
which we must refer to older languages, or to cognate dialect's
which contain older roots. Such names are Tate sad Dodd,
corrtspondieg with the Anglo-flaxen Tata and Dodds.
Though these were both common Anglo-Saxes names, yet
we end no etymon for them in that language, and have to
Fehr, in the owe ore to the Old Nero., and in the other to
the Old Friesic. At the setae time, from the manner of
their use, Si nic-namee, or in place of other names, we have
TOOMBS for supposing that they were applied with • mean-
ing, though no such Anglo-Saxon words have come down to
us. Such Daum are also Atte, Atty, Atto, Guth. atta, a
father—Abbe, Abbey, Abeon, Ooth. she, a man. These,
and airy more such, are of the very highest antiquity—
the wind Attila the Hun is a diminutive of the one—the
ism at Abbot, tho son of Hengist, is (I think) a diminu-
tive of the other. The former of these again seems to have
been used with a messing—there was an Archbishop of
Canterbury whose regular name was Esdalge, but who was
ly called :Ed, a title of respect, se I think, signifying
rb ee But it is probable that there were names, 11•1112 In
Anglo-Baxon dram which were handed down from garners-
time to generst lon, just se name. are at present, with,,nt any
eigamkog being attached to them.
Agoin—we hare lames older than Aeglo-firon, yet still
with oder etymon in that language, and even in English.
The mane Knife hag no unfamiliar sound—yet it is sixteen
mmtsnies old. And Hugest', its diminutive, is only a trifle
of two onsturios younger. Cates appears as the name of a
Golide king of the third century in lorouidea. And Clark!'
as the mune of a Ooth of the fifth century in the semi au-
thor.

Thin there is a Frankish elemaut in our nomenclature.
It Is alasinsi in such name sia,Chad, Chadwick, Chadwio for
Beim*" Chaddock for HaddOrk, Childers for Ender, Chill-
ier he Bilious, Charmas fir Berman, perhaps Clothier for
Lew*" and Luther. The last corresponds with an Old
O. Clotho, and may be the same name u that of Cio-
tti% me el Mein. Bence also probably Chiller, foe the
old Boman Ilildiwara, and Children, corresponding with as
dui German Childeenria for Hilderana. S. likewise Charrott
for Harriott ;here srmy.) Charinto was • Freakish name of
the lharth century.
Ben of these names may have come to us indirectly,
thews\ the French. Though the family same. el France
hue waver. eo far as I know, been invoitigsted otherwise
than saperficially, they appear to contain a large German
eihmsat Is common with our own. This the name of Be-
=La Jut the same a• onr Derringer, and the German
Me, • bear, end ger, • sum. Gaut may pro-
-11.617g an old German Cu, whence the patromysie Ois-
am bath an Berlina and • Orman trame. Then we. a
Oho, bishop el Wells, A.D. 1060.
The mom of Italy, too, have Inherited a Osman element
dam the Gmbh end many of them 410/10121111 Id* owe.
Thus thelbatil, as I hare elsewhere shows, meld Genoa
NAM hpanwhohl), sad the same as few Goebert. The
nem at" NW eh Dandola" is • diminathu of an old Ger-
ms Dania dem ear Dead°, Dimly, Dead. hat not
write, ~.-inmerial sham hem the Oaths lemiletred on
Italy. Dania /Wilid mq be brasher M the Ter In the
" brim Itlinstery," and the aid Oman sane Alive.
We le stall by Teas, but ft inane eitallial, bemuse the
ha, ease to iWavims, or isheygidre, Is doyen whip, to
gy, until be a wallicient etymon. But ether tif the Italian
=men more certainly TadWe, SO Alaroanni,
Lamberti, Ourtial, Itieelarg, and laerti.
Them earreepond with dm old Germs mum
LW, Lambert, Warta or Guar* Rimer& All ,Bald..
or
liamard. And with oar Mimes, Belch* War-
ms, ilahmtle, and Leopard. Too mar be mei/
..1....„ .
aerOy sas 7 obscure
Oerm zra,:tillayeon, asnel
an, Heau
Tana
This la lbeetamment which the Gotha has Tam& teiZi
Is 'Amin to the high antiquity of some of oar
saws, It Is issesesery to call attentiou to that two-hid
ZThey are derived in part from asthma wasnemea
it pat treat Racing simile or baptismal MOIL The

• time " teptiesmr mast be understood in a modified sense,
as implying s awns bestowed la Infancy, and probably with
some sumdant rite or ceremony, for many of those manes Ma
in reality older than Christianity. The former of them two
cleans of warm cannot be older than the period at whkh
surnames became bereditary—s period not earlier than the
Conquest, or if earlier, only in some very exceptioeal mem.
The latter—those derived from ancient baptismal names—
may remount to the highest Teutonic antiquiiy. Pm them
names were not, like surname., coined se the commies re•
quired, but handed down from generation to generation,
haps even in some cases, es I have previously
without any reference to their meaning.
Some of Mr. Ferguson's facts are curious. We
find the large family of Browns under the
head of names derived from or connected
with Teutonic mythology. This patronymic seems
to be derived from a title of Odin. Its meaning
appears to be, having marked or prominent eye-
brows. Our author grows eloquent :—" Talk of
com ing over with the Conqueror! the first Browns came
over with Hengist and Horse, the second with Half-
dens and Hastings." Our readers, with pain, will find
in this illustrious catalogue little reference to
the Smiths. Jones, too, and Robinson are, we regret
to state, altogether overlooked; yet surely the exist-
ence of such names is a fact which no reader of the
"London Directory" can ignore. Of the Smiths all
that Mr. Ferguson says is that the commonness of
the name "is sufficiently accounted for, as the term
we applied to everything which required hammer-
ing, even to poetry. Not a word has Mr. Ferguson
for the genteeler Smyth's; and Smithy and Smithers
have good reason to complain of similarly unfair
treatment. Our two comic inseparable', Huggins
and Maggio., are from Odin's two ravens. Lock is
a name derived from the principle of evil. Bill is no
vulgar contraction of William, bat the name of one
of the minor goddesses of the Scandinavian my-
thology. The surname of the present Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge, is traced to the dwarf',
but our author apologetically observes:—"The
dwarfs seem to have been far superior to the giants,
some of them being celebrated for wisdom, but
others for their wonderful mechanical skill." Pro-
fessor Holloway may well be proud of his
name—it has its origin in the old Norse
Ballo (hero). The bibthorpes are from one
of the minor Scandinavian goddesses. Ingram—
and we dare say the member for Boston is of
a similar opinion—implies strength. The Shelley,
are from the Scilflngs, an ancient Scandinavian
tribe: the name denotes—let Westminster rejoice ' in-
spiring fear.' The renowned Alaric still survives in
the humble, and far from awe-inspiring, Aldrich. The
Barnacles have an appropriate origin—Barnakarl,
or Barnakal, was a surname or a nickname given to
a celebrated Norwegian pirate named Olver, who,
setting his face against the then fashionable amuse-
ment of teasing children on spears, was christened
by his companions, to show their sense of his odd
scruples, Barnakarl, " baby's old man." We may
still talk of the blood of all the Howards; one of the
heroes of the Niebelungen Lied was a Haworth,
described as a King of Denmark. Havelock (sea
sport) was an appropriate name for one of the old
Danish sea rovers. Peel is derived from the Anglo-
Saxon pl.—a dart, or arrow. We trust the electors
of North Warwickshire will not be angry, but
really we get no more flattering etymology for their
worthy senior representative than the following:—
" Spooner seems to be from Ang..Saxon splinere—
enticer, allurer ; and Spon we might presume to be
'pop (spoon), the participle, allured." Spoon and
spooney are connected by Mr. Ferguson, under the
same well-known name.

But we must nesse, or the raider will be wearied.
We cannot pledge ourselves to all Mr. Ferguson has
written. There are many minor blunders. Lowes-
toft is not in Sussex; baiter we should translate
=t, rather than countryman. Our author is too
tic; we have too much assertion and too little
proof; and, after all, a great deal that we have here
is but ingenious guessing, reminding us of the
sleights of language of the old grammarians. We
would not underrate the pains, or the learning,
or the enthusiasm, of Mr. Ferguson ; but we
cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that in the pos-
session of these very qualities there is a fruitful
source of error, as he would thus explain and male
clear what ordinary writers would suffer to remain
untouched. Still the work is a valuable contribution
to the scienos of Etymology, and will serve as a
useful book of reference for some time to come.