Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1880-07-15

were lar from Oeiiik lnlls met IN this way,
and recourse was had to
NICKNAMEs AND PET NAMES.
Nicknames are those which are nicked,
or cut Pet names were generally made by
the addition of syllable, which was either
diminutive or fondly or jocosely descriptive.
Nicknames hardly need illustration. for We
have them still IN use. Our use Of them, how
ever. is very limited. compared with that Of
our forefsthers, between three and six hun
drcd wears ago Tom. Rob. Sam, VIII and
the rest NAV soon be reckoned, but of old
the variety was endless. Walter was Wat I;
Simon was Sim Bartholomew. Bat Gilbert,
Glib; Isaac, H,ke; Nicholas, Col Gregory.
Grig Robert. Hob; Lawrence, Larkin I;
Hugh, Hud. Thcohald. Tib Cecilia. Cis |;
David. Dave. and so forth Moreover. one
name had many varieties Of nicking. Thus.
Bartholomew was made into Bat. Bate.
Ba,,y. Bartle, Tolly and Tholy and beside.
it was both nickcd and pet;ed into Bartelot
and Batoock b, a process TO be explained
hereafter. Now. all these nicked and pet
ted names sticking to those to whom they
were given. became first separate Christian
names, and aftcrward. surnames They may
all be found in the London or in the New
York directory. So William became not
only VIII. bu; Willot, Wilmot. Wilkin and
Wilcox. and these
NICkNkNEs ALI BECAMt sURSAAts.
A. any one NAV see John was Jack but
it vas also Joun. and Jenning. and Jenkin
and Jackeock. and Bro~njohn. and Nickle.
john. and Li,tlejohn; and all these nick
names and pet names, adherng To their
bearers. became suruamcs. IL vas no mere
freedom Of intercourse or slipshodness Of
speech which made these uIeknames and pet
names so common. IL was absolute neocs-
sity. For, 900 wears ago, orr-thIrd Of all
the Euglishmcn alive were named either
John or William. and ;hcs had no surnames.
Another cause Of pcrpleniiy and confusion
which have met with IN this country must
also have existed IN the mother country,
although have met with no notice Of il IN
literature. This is the eommonness Of one
surname in one ncighborhood. kno~ Of
more than one place where the whole Of a
township seems to be hlled by people Of
two or three families. and. indeed. Is 40
filed. all the inhabitants being descended
from two or three original owners Of the
soil. These people have intrrmarried -
tha; every one of them is related in some
v aN I4afEf or Ef~- EfulDAt. 10 tNtEN tIf csc
IN the little community. The consequence
!. 4 confusion Of names at the present Ias
which j. pcrplcNing 10 the people them
selves. aud which TO Stranger amount. to
81 utter inahilt, to distinguish individual.
in speaking Of them. What does John Ba,-
sct mean ~hcn there are twenty John Ba.-
set, IN one ne. shboThood'
MIDDLE S,HE
Helps: but it. power 10 help .. soon cx-
hausied. Moreover. IN rural place, two
Christian names are Of late introduction
particularly are the, for women and the
difficulty IN question exist, even more IN the
case % y omen than iha, ot men. Mar, Ba,>ef
may mean 30 women, wife. w!dos. or maid.
within the range of five miles square. This
difficulty Is met and par,l, obyla,ed by de
vice something like the primitive one -
long retained b, the Hebrews. and .till
pr.., alrn' among the Oriental people,
omen arr spoken OF N relation - their
husband, ~ fathers. Thus "Mary John
Bas,ct" would mean. Nary. the Wiic or the
daughter uf John Bassci. and one Of her
kinsfo.k ould cali hcr Aunt Mars John. w.
If her hlshAnd's or father. name were John
William. Auu; OF Cousin MARY John WI
liam. The John. thcmsclSc. are dis,in-
gulshed IN VARIOUS ways, A. Upper John.
Lower John. Three Corner. John. and 20
forth. And thus a woman NAV D. known
a. Aun, Mary Upper John. or Cousin Mar,
John Three Corners. The device admits Of
no iuconsiderable variety Of combination,
and answers it, purpose for those among
whom j, prevails.
Almost Of necessity have used above pet
& 1 H..
The chief distinction IN a general way BE-
tween nieknames and pc, names Is ,ha; the
former are made by nicking or clipping the
name, the latter By adding 10 it. The
PRINCIPAL ADDITIONS OR sUFFINEs
BY which pet names were formed of old
we're kin" ''ooek. Ion" or in and ''ot.
and "ct." KIN" is diminu,i,e syllable
which We hnd in manikin. lambkIn and pip
kin. Diminutivcs have always and IN all
language been used as terms Of endrar-
ment and of familiarity. This suffin was
generally added to a name already nicked
Thus Hopkin or Hopkins Is a nck-pe, form
of Robert. The nick Of Robert. as We have
seen. was Hob. and 10 Hob kin Was ad-
ded, making Hobkin or Hopkin. In this
way Lambert gave US Lambkin Lawrence.
Larkin Anthony. Tonkin; Richard, Dickin
or Diekins Stephen, Stepkin; David. Daw-
kin; Adam, Akin; Walter, Watkin. and
so We have Simkin, and Tompkin. and Vii
kin. and Jenkin. and Hawkin, and Judkin,
etc. Mary gave US Malkin, which has no
relation to Maud or TO Maudlin. Maudlin
is a mere pronunciation of Magdalen which
is now common in England. Maxim. for
some reason not now perceiyable, became
degraded. Ii was used a. general name
for kitchen wench, as Abigail was after
wards for a waiting maid. Thus in "Corio-
lanus,"
THE kitchen maxim pins
Her richest lockrom bout her seechy neck
Clambering the wall. TO eye him."
Ii came to have the worst Specification for
a woman, and even to be applied TO an old
she-ca, 1t need hardly be said that i,
passed out of use as woman's name long
ago.
THE sUFFIx "CoCK"
Is regarded by Mr.. Bardsley as implying
pertness, especially the pertness of lusty
and staggering youth The suggestion is
plausible, but doubt it. 1t seems to me
rather that We have only to 60 to the poul-
try-yard TO find the origin of this name
"hlch rural people tand these pet names
were used chiefly by rural people, gave TO
young men. At any rate, from this pet
suihx came Adcock, and Hancock, and vii
cock or Wilcox, and Baweock, and Jayeock
or Jaycox, and perhaps Peacock from Pc
teri and Simcock or Smcox.
These suffxes, "kin" and "cock," were
used only BY rustic folk but ION" and "in'
are Of Norman-French origin. They, like
the others, were diminu,yes or terms Of
familiarity. They gave US Alison from
Alice, Perrin from Peter, lPier) Robin or
Robins from Rob, Collin from Col the nick
of Nicholas /; Diccon (Dixon) from Richard,
Gibbon and Gilpin from Gilbert, Tibbins
from Theobald, Rawlin from Ralph, etc. II
should be here remarked that the presence
of an "s,' as Rawlin or Rawlins, is of no
import.
"Ot" and "et" were greatly in favor for
awhile as pet suffxes, particularly in the
north of England. For example, Isabella
was a favorite name in Yorkshire of old.
The nick Of that name was Ib. To ID they
tackled ''ot; = and hence We have Ibbots and
Ibbotsons, Ibets and Ibbetsons. Celia be-