The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1877-05-15

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and the son of our citizen thought
proper to renounce retail dealing,
and Mt tho samo time looked about
for ouphonious change of namo.
Ho made no scruple of dropping
the unnecessary H. and TINT being
done, 1T was easy to 20 into the
Ccltic rage, which Sir Walter Scott
and tho Lady Of tie Loh,e had just
raised to great height; and he
who had run the streets rs little
Kenny Halfpenny came out at the
levcos of the day as "Kenneth Mao.
Alpin, the descendant of hundred
kings"
The assumed name of MacAlpin
brings us to the whole order of
Alacs, now spread out in all direc-
tlons. Mac is the Gaelic equivalent
for a son, and accordingly Mr.. Mac
Alpin would, in on English dress, be
MIR. Alpinson. There happen to
be two distinct classes of Macs,
those with q Highland origin, such
as Mackay, Macpherson, Mec.
gregor, Macneil, Macfarlane, Mac.
leod, and Macdonald-all great clans
in the oldon time and tho Macs Of
Galloway, where Gaelic is now ex-
tinct, and the races are somewhat
different from the Highland septs-
perhaps with little Manx and Irish
blood in thom. Among tho Gallo
way Macs arc found the names Mac
lumpha,, Maclctchie, and Mac Cand,
lish, which evidently do not sound
with the true Highland ring. The
Irish have likewise their form of ex-
preston for son. They use the
single letter o, MS O'Connell and
ODonnell. The o, however, signi-
Ties grandson, rs it continues to do
in the old Lowland vernacular in
Scotland, where an aged woman in
humble life may be heard saying of
her grandchild, "That is nv O."
Prefixes or terminates for son are
common among names in every
civilized country in Europe.
Many of the most notable names
in England and Scotland are derived
from the norman conquest. These
are commonly derived from herita-
bic possessions and to this day,
though altered, bear q certain aris-
tocratic air. The changes are con
spicuous. The prefex de has been
commonly dropped and many names
have been vulgarized as De vesci
1nto ve1JcIe, Dc r1sle int Lyle and
De Vero into Weir. De Montalt has
become Mowart, Do Montfchet sinks
into Mnshot, De Moravie into Muir
ray, and Grossetete into Grosart.
Many French names have been
altered into their English equiva.
lents. L'Oiseau became Bird; Le
Jeune, Young Du Bois, Wood Le
Blanc, White; LIE Noir, Black Le
Maur, Brown Le Roy, King;
LacroiX, Cross Tonnelier, Cooper;
LIE Maitre, Masters; Dulau, Waters;
Salvage, Savage and Wild. Some
of the Lefovres changed thoir name
to the English equivalent of Smith,
rs was the case with the ancestor
of Sir Culling Eardley Smith, Bart,
q French refugee whose original
namo was Lefevre. Many names
we're strangely altered in their con-
version from French into English.
Jolifemme was freely translatedinto
Pretyman Momeric became Mum
merry, common name ut Dover
and Planche became Plank, ofwhich
there are still instances at Canter-
bury and Southampton. At Oxford
the name of Williamise was traced
back to Villebois Taillebois became
Talboys Le Cog, Laycock; Bou-
CHER, Butcher or Boxer Boyer,
Bower Bois, Boys Mesurier,
Measure Mahieu, Mayhem Drouet,
Drewitt ; DAeth, Death D'Orleans
Dorling Dc Preux, Diprose De
Moulins, Mullins Pelletier, Peltor
Huyghens, Huggens Or Higgins
and Beaufoy, Bofy. Some other
conversion are mentioned such as
Letellier into Taylor; Do Laine into
Dillon Dieudoun into Dudney
Renalls into Reynolds Saveroy
into Savery and Leverau into
Lever. While such havoc has been
played in England with French
names, a similar change, though on
a less extensive scale, has been
made on English and Scotch names
in France-witness only Colbert, q
minister of Louis XIV, descended
from Scotsman named Cuthbert
on1 r ~ Rr,1p on on,i,,opt o,1{to%