The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-05-16
Lord Lyton on Names and their In.
fiuence.

hOrd Lyon on Names and their In
fuence.
In the am1sing opening of Lord
Lytton's posthumous novel, ssKenelm
Chillingly," there are some admirable
remarks on the moral responsibilities of
parents for the names they give to their
children. Sir Peter Chillingly is very
hard on his own name, and ascribes his
mediocrity in great measured to it.
"Peter," he says, to the assembled
generations, as you are aware, the bap-
tismal to which the eldest born of our
family has been devoted. On the altar
of that name I have been sacrificed.
Never has there been Sir Peter Chill
ingly who has in any way distinguished
himself above his fellows. The name
has beena dead weight on my intellectual
energies. In the catalogue of illushi-
Gus Englishmen there is, I think, no
immortal Sir Peter, except Sir Peter
Teazle, and he only exists on the comic
stage - and Sir Peter Chillingly might
have added that Sir Peter Teazle is i'm
mortal only for the amusement he affords
to others, not for any intrinsic capacity.
One of the family council, however,
suggests Sir Peter Lely," on which
Sir Peter Chillingly replies with I'M
answerable force: "That painter was
not an Englishman. He was born in
Westphalia, famous for hams. 1 con-
fine my remarks to the children of our
native land. / am aware that in foreign
countries the name is not an extinguish-
er to the genius of it's owner. But why ?
In other countries its sound is modified
Pierre Corneille was great man but l
put it to you whether, had he been an
Englishman, he could have been the
father of European tragedy as Peter
Crow" And Sir Petfr might have add
ed that Peter the apostle got his weight
from his Hebrew name, Cephas. Cephas
gives the impression of rock; Peter
the impression of commonplace respecta-
bility, with wavering turn. Now Lord
Lytton, in touching this subject, touches
one of the most real grievances which
children have against rash parents, and
he touches both sides of it. He not
only deprecates the names which stamp
q child with mediocrity, but he depre-
Gates those which stamp him with an i'm
press of absured and indecent ambition.
A crusty cousin had suggested that Sir
Peters child should be called Hannibal
or Charlemagne, in order to give him
advcntitious grandeur, on which Sir
Peter replies, with great temper and
Justice: son the contrary, if you in
fict on man the burthen of one of
these names, the glory of which he can
not reasonably expect to eclipse or even
to equal, you crush him beneath the
weight Ii a poet were called John
Milton, or William Shakespeare, he
would not dare to publish even a sonnet.
No the choice of a name lies between
the two extremes of ludicrous insignif-
canoe and oppressive renown." This is
very lust, and should bring remorse to
many a parental heart. There is no
more indellible mischief done to a child
than either a grandiose or a1mean name.
The moral influence of names must be
admitted, however, to depend in very
great degree on somewhat arbitrary and
subjective influences. We have heard
man deplore having been called James, !"
with the utmost pathos, asserting that
it had to some extent made turnkey of
his very soul against his will. That
man, of course, had been a student of
Thackery, and the subjective influences
which worked upon his mind were of the
Jeames de al Pluche order. Had he in
stead been stepped in Sir Walter SCOTS
"Lady of the Lake." and full of the
chivalric associations with the knight of
Snowdon-''AndN ormans call me James
Fitz-James, he might have regarded
his name as injurious to him, if at all,
only through its too unreal, romantic
associations. But who could have
idealized the nickname jim? That is, if
not 80 funkyish as James, much more
irredeemabIy descriptive of soul at the
beck and call of society. 1t is to 'James.
even under its worst aspects, exactly
what the footboy is to the funkey,-and
implies that respect or awe to the owner
of such a name is SIMPLY impossible.
And one who had taste for slipping
good-naturedly through the world, and
for being familiarly treated by every
body he met, might not object to be
called Jim. It is an honest sort of name,
and a passport, as it were to kindly
treatment. But it puts dignity and
power beyond the reach of the most
sanguine hope. A man generally known
among his acquaintances as Jim" might
be popular and have great influence of
the coaxing kind, but it is impossible he
could take up any position requiring OBJ
rervance and reverence.
It is worth observing that the shrewd-
ness of the world has given a certain
to the moral influence of
names by inventing a good many
different notifications of them and
with very various nuiances,
in the case of women. You
can't have a much wider range than is
for instance, in Elizabeth,
Eliza, Betty, Betsy, Bessy and Bess.
Elizabeth with z, again, being really
distinct in moral effect from Elizabeth
with an $. No one would dream of
spelling the name of st. Elisabeth-Mr
heroine-with the hard,
grinding sound of would be altogether
with her essence. But Elisa
beth with an should be fair and femi-
nine, with something, perhaps, little
secret and brooding in her nature. On
the other hand, Queen Elizabeth's name
should always have the z,-both for the
sake of the hardness and imperiousness
it gives, and for the sake, somehow, of
the touch of awkwarlness and coarse
ness it throws in. This is the direction
in which it has developed into the famill-
aTities of Betsy and Betty, the former
clumsy, but shrewed, homely and trust |
worthy the latter loud and fast. Lady
Betty used to be common name enough |
in the aristocracy at one time but it
must have tented to make all its owners |
vulgar takers and managers; And Just
Is Elizabeth was degraded into Betsy |
and Betty, so Elisabeth was familiarized
into Bessy and Bess, both fond names, |
5he former suggesting touch OF weak |
less, the latter, like all monosyllabic |
names, suggesting want of atmosphere |
about the character but also implying |
certain practical brevity and decision.
Is the enormous string of names which
'oyal parsonage usually assume sort OF /
way of asserting for themselves that
heir dignity shall be Independent of
lame, by providing channel and open
ng, as it were, for any possible charac-
eristic in some appropriate name ? We
Inspect the practice must have original
d from the kind ofHeeling which made
ONE American theologian Or. Horace
we think exult in the Athana-
ian creed, on the ground that the
lore contradictions You could accumu-
ate in the attempt to express the infinite,