New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-11-19

a. - eo-hted tina. their ancestors have srst sott 4
them by 0sink such trades, and the children OF So
parents beirs cohte,. ted to take them upon then
their sfer coming yos ens could hardly avoid the n
al d 30 in tine comeis il rightly to be taid.
"From whom came Snitk, all be he knight OF
| squire,
But from the Smith who fJrgesh q. the FIRE
"And 20 in effec, may be seid Of The rest Meth r
can IT be disgracefu to any that COW live IN wrshi1'
ful ettse and reputation that their ancestors IN io1o
ages have been by their honest trades OF life good ard
necessary members Of the Commonwealth, seeing that
all gentry hs fret taken issue from the eoumoa-
atty"
Some names Of occupation ore taken from cccups-
tons which have change their name ceased TO exist
as Weber, Leach, Flder Grow der, Arrowsmith, Bow
yer, Napier, and Hlyer thatcher.l The present Ma
saohusetts senator and the English archbishop Of Can
terbuIy must be descended from those worthy sicas
who, in Cbsucers time were attached to the di,cess,
courts of England, "the summoners We have
functonaIies noble functonsies gentle and function
aries simple. Among the former we have Kings,
Popes, Pontisxes, Bishops, Dukes, MOBILES, Bsrons,
Ears and Lords, Knights, Squires and Franklins,
Monks, Priests and Descons Among the latter wehave
Mayors, Bsile,s and Reeves Constabes, Yeomsns,
SWANS, Bonds, Premises and the like. In France
there is 9 larger proportion Of names derived from
occupations than in Teusonic and Gothic Europe,
where the names are more largely territorial and ocsl
This arises from TIE fac. that medieval France
was more municipal than those portions OF
Europe whee the old Roman civilization
had penetrated less aeeply. In Kettle Britain
and Kettle Ireland the prevailing names are neither
Industrial territorial Nsmes like the land, we're
the common property OF the clan or sep aud conse'
quently at this day Kettle names are pauonymcs or
family names, and are not portoned out 81 in the rest
Of Europe, according TO The indviduastic and sev.
crafty principle OF tenure. A fourth ass of names is
taken from that natural source Of sobriques, per-
sons characteristics. In this class the coon show
sIoT ely, such az Black, White, Green Brown, Gray,
Reomsn, Rous, Dunn. There are Whiteheads and
Fsirfs1es. There is Bigg, Mitchell (msch) Liddell,
Lcpg Short, Legge, Lghtfoot, Heavysde, lronsde,
Bsrnes and Ba ebones, Armstrong Shakespeare and
Breskspear. Moral and Intellectual chascteristics
have conferred surDsmes well as physical idiosyn.
cracies, such as JOY Bliss, Seely silly Vice Bes
Savsge, Goodenough and Goodtelow. Serfs were
often contemptuousy nicknamed after animals, Is
Pigg Hogg Severity, Bacon, Todd and Fox
We have Our Roebucks, Psrridges, Hsrcs
Kids Hawkes., Pescocks brakes, Goslings,
Lambs and Everetts Saxon for boar. There is Bal,
Blskeley and the little insect Emmett The Bohemian
John Huss Tor geose) foretod at the stsks thu. al
eagle would come sfer the goose, WHO wouid ny win
stronger wing To this class we must refer the rep
rese,tatives Of the mineral and vegetable kingdoms;
for the first there is Jewel Steele, Salt honeypenny,
Grote and Hslfpenny; for the second, Ashs, Oskes,
Elder Lind and Lindsay; Thorn, Crab and Plsmtree;
Wbateley, Wheaton, Oates, Bean and Peppercorn.
Il il noticeable that we have neither Tobacco nor Po
tao, Tea nor Coffee the Of this Is that these
vegetables and pants were introduced into Europe
after surDames had capitalized into shapes
Ii is from the same Circumstance the! while We have
the old terms of Leach and Poticsry as surnames our
directories knew nothing of the modern titles of sur
geon and physician. To unridde surnarnes demands
in ma, cases considerable chronological and phiologi-
cal knowledge. We have given only the most obvious
Illustrations and have avoided the difficulties and OBJ
securities Of the subject The principles which we
have stated, uDderlie the whole domsia Of English
and European surnames, but the application Of them
to each individual may often battle the ingenuity
or research Of the curious.