Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-08-15
NOMENCLATURE.


ton, and have always belonged to us.
They come through our parents from long
lines of ancestry, and seem, through the
vista of descent, to belong to the eternal
fitness of things. And yet, in many in
stances, they have their origin in the oc-
cupation or other accident of him who
first bore the patronymic. Names are
the keys of family history, unlocking for
us the secrets of ancestral lineage. Be
slowed in the early dawn of society, they
were Iaken either from trade and occupa-
tion, or from localities; from character.
istics of mind or body; from heru-wor-
ship; from the animal, mineral, or
vegetable kingdom; from war or peace,
or from some one of the many thousand
causes which attach themselves to the
personality of the human race, Trades
and occupations have given name to
more of the inhabitants of the earth than
any other cause; perhaps more than all
| other causes put together-ec, for exam
pie, the innumerabie Smith family.
An honorable calling is that of the
smith; he was the leading workman of
his tribe. when early genius first suggest
ed the sharpening of a flint arrowhead
or tried to construct a weapon out of
metal. That Smith founded more fami-
lies than any other man thai ever lived.
our T.ylors, our Carpenters, our Bakers
and Masons, our Brewers, Sawyers, and
Coopers, our virgins, BARRIERS, Chan
dlers, Buffers, Carriers, Boardmans, Sla-
ters, Chapmans, Poundstones, Braziers,
Brewsters, Bankers, Clothiers, CourIers,
Binders, Cutters, Arkwrights, Bootmans,
Sawins, Cutters, Carriers, Cartwrights,
Golfers, Curriers', etc.
Rightly to understand the individuality
of names, we should study their record in
the Directory. The New York Directory
of last year contains the names of two
thousand and fifty-nine Smiths, five hun
dred ana thirty Scmidts, and over one
hundred Smyths, Smythes, etc, all con
nected by relationship somewhere this
side of Adam--probably, indeed, this side
of Noah. One hundred and fifty nine of
these residents of our COSMOPOLITAN CITY
are John Smiths, and we hardly envy the
letter-carrier who has to distinguish John
Smlth the seventeenth from John Smith
inc one hundredth and tifty-eighrh. What
is he to do with letter directed to MIR.
John Smith, New York, n. Y.?" Is he to
run the gamut of the whole hundred
and fifty-nine till the right man is found :
And what tales and secrets those miscar-
ried letters mnst tell To be sure, they
are all about the Smith family, and there
fore every Smith re tder is interested in
hushing them up. We all remember the
case of the gentleman who came too late
to the Broadway Theatre to find vacant
seat Looking round-for an instant upon
| the crowded house before him, he quietly
exclaimed: "Mr Smiths house is on
tirer' There was great rush from that
pit, and the gentleman had large num-
Der of vacant seats to choose from.
But Smitheries" abound elsewhere
than in America. 1t is but few years
since that bet was laid in London that
no Old Bailey session had passed two
years without the trial and condemnation
of John Smith. And, alas for the family
name! the records of the court were
searched, and the bet was won. In En-
| gland. every seventy-third person one
meets is Smith; and it is estimated that
two hundred and fifty-three thousand Per
sons in the mother country are so called.
And should some humble Debrett trace
back their lineage to it's hidden source,
that name would be found in every in
stance to be struck out from the sparks
of smithy.
Next to the Smith family come the
Joneses. st John has given more Chris
tian names to Christian babes than all the
other Evangelists. And Johns son natu-
rally takes the patronymic of either John
son, or Jones, or Johns. Over two hun
dred and forty thousand persons in En-
gland bear the name of Jones, besides the
numerous families of their first cousins,
the Johns and the Johnsons. A host of
surnames are derived from Christian
names, such as the Wiliamses, the Viii
sons, the Williamsons, the Thomases, and
the Thompsons, the Jameses, and the
Jamesons. Generally the patronymic
bears the fathers name; but sometimes
the mother transmits the name of Nels
son.
Time and habit have great influence in
softening the harsh ideas under which
our ancestry first assumed their titles; and
foreign language often elevates demo
cratic origin into most aristocratic soci
ETY.. The Male-branches of England
would decidedly object tc being known as
the Badarms. Manv a fair reader of
'Ivanhoe" would find her cultured taste
shocked by the conversion of Front-de-
Bpuf into Bullock 's-head The cele.
brated engineer Todleben would thus be
anglicised into Mr.. Death-in-life; peril
nent name, by-the-way, for one who sent
such slaughter into French and E ,glish
ranks. Notwithstanding what Shaks
peare says, a rose often does smell sweetel
TO its possessor than if its name had vul
SdI dsSOCldJlOHS. nus luc dllsIOCldblt
Foljambes would decidedly object Into
having their young ladies Saxonized into
the Miss Badlegs.
All history tells us that the early dwell
ers upon earth erected their tenements on
the shores of lakes, along the banks Ot
rivers, or close by the sea, whence so much
of their food was drawn. A fortunate
piscator would naturally bear the name
of his finnv prey. And so we have the
numerous Fish families, at the head o.
whom may be put the father of our Sec
retary of State, Preserved Fish, Fisher
Hook, Bate, Bateman, Sholes, DOLPHIN
Thrasher, Eels, Conger, Silmon, Hake
Bass, Cpdman, Pike, Roach, Rotch, Place
Whiting, Herring, Mullet, Ray, Lamprey
Pollock. Haddock, Trout, Roe, Spratt
Chubb, Turtle, Finney, Cookie, and Crabb
all of them good old English names.
There are fashions in names as in al
earthly things. In Cromwell's time, Pur
itanism weighed very heavily on the ten
der babes brought to the baptismal font
Hume gives us the names of a jury in the
following age, among whom we fine
Stand fast Ion high Stringer, Kill-sin PIN
pie, Fly-debate Roberts, Fight the-good
fight Of faith White, More fruit Fowler
Sleep-not Billings, and many other suct
biblical worthless. These names indicate
the wishes of the parents rather than thu
piety of the children. And we are no
aware that the Parsons, the Priests, tn,
Christians, Deacons, Creeds, Churches, o.
Devotions, have INV better children thai
have the Hoggs, the Hams, the Bawns
the Clays, the Mudds, or the Nettles. 4
member of Congress rejoices in the mann
of Godlove, but is scarcely more piou
than his Congressional fellow-sinners
, Isaiah, Daniel, jeremiah, Matthew, Mark
, Luke and John, are often bad boys, bu
, their sisters Divine, Faith, Hope, Charity
and Love. are not much better.
Till they reach their mi jority, poo
} mortals have no responsibility for thei
, names that matter is settled by the font
: mother at baptism. But when able t,
1 reach twenty-one and the Legislature, i
5 is their own fault if they retain the nam