New-York daily tribune., 1858-07-09
ORIGIN OF FAMILY NAMES.

lONeeICA JUitt tie 10y; w ~o- ." Ho4i0
Surely TO one hut lovesck grl could ask . What
is in name I The names of persons sre an interest
Jig study Disrseh las remarked, il the "CaIost.es
OF Li.ers,nre, that morosylabic Da.aes are less I'M
posing than poly syabic names. We shall be convinced
of the truth of Disrses remaIk by referrius to the
prsctiee Of drams.is.s and poyelists. We shall fnd
that they who sre true 70 ra.ure though no, TO fact
slmost invariably give to their heroes and principal
characters iorg rsmes while their subordinate csaFac
ters are turned Off with shorter Richardson is
imposing than Rchsris, sud Richards more i'm
posing than Rich. johnson is great improvement
upon johns. Jenkinson snd Higgiuson have 10 axe
msIner the advantage OF their fathers, JENKINS ana
Hgslns. The origin Of names Is, II general, ooscdrs
Many books have been written on the subleet out q
large me orliy Of names corectura and there IS
sA these bccks more leaning than wisdom. True,
meet families OF distinction have trsdl.lon OF the
origin OF their names, but the trsdition IS often
little better than ny H. and the Is piles OF tue
mddling and the lower classes, who cannot tracs
back their ancestry beyond the third fourth geners-
tor have not even tradition OF the origin Of their
name or family. by attending 70 the name, however,
We often trace the origin Tas will hold good IN
several classes of names, and first, IN ne Gp
ropiGted 10 ctd,R trades occupations or professions
farmer, cooper, tinker, weaver, miller carpenter,
baker, brewer, hunter butler, mason, cook, carter,
sawyer shepherd, wateima1 gardener potter draper,
clerk, fowler, tyler, shipmsn archer, hsner tsyor,
dean bowman, bishop, wright, smith, with the
branches OF the last two, wainwright, csrt"rKut,
goldsmith, hsmmersmith arrows NTH, and the IKE.
These are each evidently to be traced TO an ancestor
who excelled in some art OF bndicratt, or who re-
ceived the of his trade 10 distinguish him from
another of the same name 10 that remote age, when
family names were just coming into use.
A second class of names indicative OF coor--ss
White Black Green Brown. and Gray-neary al Of
which, like the preceding, have their equivalents Ia
AL the modern languages OF Europe. Each OF these
families conclude, had an ancestor whose color was
marked.
In the third class, the suifix indicated simple
of distinguishing ths son from the father 10
this class belong the numerous families OF the VIII
isnsOns and Wilson's, the GiibeTtsons, the Giosons,
the Hu;chnsons the Smithsons the Robertsons, Rob-
irsops and RObsons the Monsons, the Jsmesons,
the JscksoDs, the Bensons, the DJdsons, the Hob
sons, the Hodgsons, the ThOmsors, the Dickinsons,
Dckisons and DiCkersons, the Davldsons, the Peter
sors and Parsons, the Adamsons tse Dicksons, the
Fergusons the Watsons, and others which will occur
TO every reader The word Mac which Is botn Scotca
and Ir1sh and the word Ftc, which Is irleb signify
som MacGregOr is the son Of Gregor, Maclvor the
son of Iyor. Eitzsimmons is the of simmons and
FizgeIs cid is the son of Gerald. TIE word NJ: evl
denily has common origin with the French his, and
what s quite remarkable, considering that there ID
not the NEST remote resemblance between the two
langusres the Russian ritz or ritck at the end or
words has the same sgnifcation. Czarovtch IS the
son of the Car, Nicoiseych is the son OF Nicholas,
Pawlovitcb is the son OF Paul.
The fourth class includes such names IS express per-
sopsl qualities, either mental physical, as Long,
Short Little Lttlejohp Strong, Stout, Wise, WISE
man. Armstrong Fox Winfield, Makepesce, Drink
water, Doolt,le, and several others ard.
ca ne as Iish csns a Siny Names when derived
from localities of residence. Among these may eYi-
deutly be ranked such names as Lower, UaderhIl,
Townsend Greenfield, Hatfield, Ford and + airb6nks.
Other have been ranked under this head, such
SO Lamb, Lion, Partridge, Buck and some Others.
Lamb for example, is supposed to have been painted
upon the sign OF an ion cJiee heuse and John or
Jemes who kept il, was first John az the Lamb and
tnen John Lamb But this seems rather fanciul, and
is, at eas. doubtful. TIE origin of such names as
Wood ard its compounds, Greenwood, Pack WOOD,
BlackwOod, Wedgvood Haywood, lockwood, Bolt
wood is evidently tracesbls to ancestors wno bore
descriptive of the places where they lived, or
OF their estates their estates having previously re-
ceived nsmes descriptive OF the trees winch grew IN
the greatest abundance upon them
We doubtless tho multiplicity of onr family
Names psrt, TO the ignorance OF our unetered an
cestors. We shall find by reference to letters written
in the fifteenth century that the same individual dad
not always spell his in the same manner. Proper
nsmes, like common names, had caprclous orthog-
rapy and the same te mnstlDg sounds mad VARIOUS
terminating letters. We shall illustrate this remark
by the Orth0graphy of the French language, in which
o. aud duld o., dl Gu, 0HL, edn sdur, are all pro-
rourced 0, and It would require skifdl scribe TO
spell names ending with thtee termluatons without
fault. There s no question but noares public aad
baptsmal registers have multiplied proper names
fourfCld.
Persons often change their settling in for
eign countries. THIS change 10 made from various
motives. Most robleu taking up their residence
in republics change their names, either 10 lngratlate
d lenseYes with people who treat these names with
want Of respect bordering on contempt, OF snpy
because they have 60 little family PRIDE as willingly
10 des t.t the prOof of nobility which can no longer
serve them. Hence, De Blanc becomes Blanc, DE Ia
Fayette becomes Lafayette or Fsyetse. Examples
need not be multiplied.
Another reason for changing namss on removal To
foreign countries is desire to sccommodae the or
thogTspby OF the name to the Language of the land.
Hence on settling In Eneland America the Dane
Ersley becomes Erslew the Ssede Gu:tah becomes
Gustsvus, the Frenchmsn lie Roi becomes Roi or
Ierow the German Muller becomes Miller, and
Schmidt becomes Smith. A curious case OF this kind
occurred 10 the person Of Frenehmsn named Pierre,
who landed at NewOrleans, and was there told hat
Pierre, IN English, means stone, ard be forthwith as
sured that name. He aterwsrd went to Tennessee,
and wac informed that Stone was mis- rsns atom,
and that Pierre means flint. Wishing to be accurate,
PeIIe alias Stone became Flint and on claiming a
which fell 10 him, was with the greatest
difficulty that ne could establish his identity as the
yeritsble Pierre that came fIcm France u New
0rleans.
Afectston, caprice or false pride has caused many
persons TO change their names. Murphy changes as
name TO Morphy, ard thus, from son OF Enn, ne
transfers himself into 6 native Of " IA belle Ffsace
Fl,zsmmons and Fitzgerald become Summons and
Gerald, and imagine tha, their names Will no longer
give clue TO their nationality. . Conner aod " bflen
become Conner, and Briep, Bryan or Bryant, but
having aimed at dIfguising their origin, they have
oply cestroyed the proof Of their noble blood the
being cd sbbrevation of Of, and corresponding with
TIE French de de Ia, the Spanish del or de Ia, the
German rOa and the DGtch ran. .
TIE certainty with which we can ascertain the
nationality of any individual or at least Of hs aaces
tois by Lis name is almost Incredible 1t would not
be practicable to give s.s Of names belonging 70 each
nation but 70 skiled in traipg the ogn oi proper
Names Il ia inst .asy 10 tell mans nationality by
his name az by his features. In either care L might
be difficult for us TO give the ressons OF our decisioo
for these reasons are often founded upon certain
combination Of letters certain alta OF the features
u .ho-rh .aru istinpnizned are rlt easiiY