The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-11-02

oar Namss.
The Norwegian name Born lb1ern, vas
~sven M the two forms Biroa and Byron;
,s.rhsos n,so Brian, Bvtansons and Bryant. |
lssnrn = coeusSc 10 the Saxon beorn, "~ar-
49, q chiefv and in combination with
-. sss God In Nerse) we have Osborne,
= ~hsel az he gota,r or "god-like war;
,,es'w So g,boru snd Seatourne orc from
g. saxon siqe, ~victor," and oeor,s,
e wsrrior.n Burn and Bourne are generally
1ocsfIva. meaning !" the person who yves ~
she siream.v But the frequent occsrrence
~ the pcssessiye Burns md the dsminuuve
1uroev would seem TO indicate PERSONA
.oriytn. Places 10 sometimes, however .sse
the genitiye ending; the prepos'ton sots"
An Saxon, in tie sense OF "againE, oppo-
ate. or towards requires the een'uVe 30
Barns, II not pstronyun OF Biofn' Is Tue
,,~rsnn who lives alongside OF tho burn or
S1raam.v or on fie road "towards the
burn.1 We have 81 in many compounds
Rurnside. which reminds us OF Piers
PoHmau going 40 reste under brod
bss.ke bi 9 bourne side" Burnham- which,
n cot Bi0rn's Aonae, Is q synonymef Beck
Aau fPeckham), meaning "a bone Dy the
hrookv: Leyburn, which, with IT. 1nver-
sion Burnley, means meadow-sHeam
Nilburn. "mill.stroam Colburn, "cold
ssrcam or Cote's sfreomj Blackburn,
WiAnrp. Cockburn, Thorbnrn, Raburn,
and many others. Byrue may be for Biorn,
ar A NAV be the SaxGn "corsiet."
Rrunt and Brent are.contractions TOT Bru-
met. diminutiye Bruno. Brant aud 8rsnt-
lev ase probably namai from the wild FOWL.
Buruet, which we have heretofore explained
as a name due 10 the wearing OF particular
kind Of cloth. may sometimes be dinhnu'
Arge a Bi0rp, or Beorp. >,
BreDnan Is the Cymrac, brennan. "Kib8.
The student Of Roman history viii rcme'n-
her the mistake made by Che Latin chroni-
eIers an assuming "BreRnus" 10 be PEI
s6nal instead OF an official title OF the corn.
mauder OF the GauIs (Gacss), who sackee
Rome In the time Of Camlibps. Our Bren.
nan originated as nickname.
Raburn. mentioned above, is RdlphS
burn. Ralph appears as the Norman RuLou,
or Ruiog. II assumed also the shapes Ru.
doIph, kodolf, Rolf, Rali, Baduph, and
Ranulph; to which we may add our mod
eru Randolph and Randall. Surnames
hence originating are Rolfe, Rasyle, Roll,
Rawlins, Rawlings, Ralslon, Ro!lin, R0'-
Iinson. Rawley, Raleigh, Raley, Rawdon
ffiop means fortified hilr. RawsoD. RawIln-
son. Hawkins, Raikes, Rapkins, Rapp, Rap
sop. Ruff Ruffin, and Ruffner tpatropgm OIL
Ruffip. which is q dimiputiye OF Run, which
is contraction OF the Latinized Rdda01s).
We have seen Woodruff explained as the
reepe or steward cf the goods attached 10
some feudal manor. But meeting with the
names Woodroffe and Woodrow, we are IN
cIped to put them altogether az descend
ants CT Ralph or Rolf Whether the hfst
syllable Is re. ideDtial III is not usual 10 pace
the local name in front OF the personal
psme), or whether it is the Saxon adlectlVe
nod, "mad, (old English code, Chaucer
uood,) we will leave the reader TO deter
mine. Our Woodruffs (mad Ralphs) neea
not fesr the faint OF insanity in their Di0oo,
for the epithet may have been applied In
the same sense in which our soldiers during
the Revolution called General WAYNE Mao
Anthony'-i. e., eager, impetuous, era
Oense. That the word had this signitication
Sometimes is seen in Robert OF Gloucesters
telling us "a. ID. 129S) that William the
Copatierer "verbed allie his that non mere
40 ,rod 10 robby -" fol babe all bis people
that thew should not be so eager TO rob."
And Richard Role Fl Hampole writes OF
rode lyons." In our patr0nymc wood
sou the first sy Halle cannot be local.
n our Woodrufis and Woodrows desire a
milder etymoIogy, they may ind u 10 tbe
botanical world: the yellow asphodel, pop
ularly called the woodruff or ,cood' roaoet, IS
mentioned In an anonymous lyric poem oi
the year 1900 on Sprin0time-" when loode-
rome springeth." The objection to THIS
etymology is that men are seldom Damed
after. flowers; though we find In the Hun
dred Rolls a "Hu2h Woderone" and
"Raph Woderone"; the latter OF whom
can scarcely be interpreted as Ralph mad
Ralph" unless his sponsors had forgotten
the Specification OF bis surname, though the
identity OF baptismal and family name Is no
greater than in John Jones, William VII.
liams, and Alexander Alexander, all oil
whom are persons of our acquaintance,
not 10 mention the late General BraX-
ton Bragg, both OF whose names (aiong WIN
BRAY and BracketD are derivatives OF the
Morse god OF song and mrth called Brdgi
.sRobert Woderove" and "Walter Wode-
roye.u whom we encounter in the Hundred
Rolls. may owe the form OF their name
merely 10 the old clerical confusion OF uand
u, or the may be a flattening (subtoning)
of the f in Woodroffe. AS TO the Identity
OF rolf and ruff, the ready convertibiliiy Of
O and u is well known, and is still seen in
our pronunciation OF son (ancientiy SUNNI,
done, among, etc. According to the laws
OF graduation governing the phonetic muta-
lions OF all Teutonic speech. and are
both OF them weakenings" OF an elder
a: this takes us. not to reeue. but to raft as
the original OF Roffe and Ruff.
Surnames derived from flowers are gene
rally due to the signboard OF some tavern
or shop, as we see in "Nichoias de Ia
Rose" in the Hundred Rolls, and in the
following extract from Pasquin's Night
cap" where we NAV see how general was
the practice OF designating individuals by
the device which they put as sign over
their place Of business, at a period when
the huge gilded letters now in use would
have been unintelligible to the mass OF the
citizens:
aFirst there is master Peter at the Bell,
A liuen-drsper and wealthy man;
Then master Thomas that doth stockings sell
And George the grocer IL the Frying-Pan;
And master Timohie the wo0en-0raper;
And master Shannon the leaiher.scraper:
And master Frank the goldsmith at the Rose;
Aud master Philip with The nery nose;
And master Niles The mercer at the Harrow;
Aud master Nike the siikman al the Plow;
And master Nicke the sallef al The Spsrr0w;
And master Dicke the winner al the Cow;
And Harry baberdeher at The Horne;
Aud Oliver the dyer 81 the Tborne;
Aud Bernard barber su reeon al the Fiddle;
And Moses, merchant tailor al the Needle"
At a time when the English kings claimed
sovereignty over France and engrafted the
feur de lis on their eoat-oi-arms, we may
readily suppose that the lily (whence our
surnames Liiey and Lely) would be pop
ular device for signboard. The only other
flowers that we can think OF as furnishing