The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-05-30
Facts of Family Nomenclature.

Facts of Fanilg Nomenclature
IGentlemans Magazine.I
Passing on to the materials out OF which our
slrnam. have been made, We must set in the
first place the names OF towns, villages and es-
tates. Under the feudal system. landed DOS
sessions naturally gave names to their owners,
while at markets and other public meeting
places persons bearing the same baDtismal
names were often distinguished by the names
of the parishes or hamlets in which they lived:
or, again, migrants from country to town, or
from city to city. associated by new neighbors
with the places they had travelled from, came
10 be called by the names of those places.
With cognomens drawn from the names of
places are to be ranked those created by the
situations or circumstances of dwellings. The
iutting cliff, the airy heath, the sheltering oak,
ASH or elm, the "brook that babbled by," the
wayside cruci6x, the rustic grange Or ford or
stile; all these, and many other kindred OBJ
lects lent their names-varied in hundred
ways as their special characteristics differed
to the inhabitants OF houses placel near or
amidst them; and like others. those names be-
came hereditary. The Atwclls, the Brokers,
Moores, the Nashes. the Redcliffs, the Rud
mans, and many others among as to-day owe
their family denominations to the source we
refer TO-
Trades, occunations and Offices have, as ey-
cry one knows, given family names to large
numbers. The familiar Smith is the most
prominent example of the trade-names. The
Registrar General has shown by his figures
that it is what it would be expected to be- the
commonest surname in England and Wales:
and Taylor, u kindred cognomen, stands
fourth ia point of frequency. The thatcher
who sheltered our fathers from the storm
the hesher who fed them; the crowder who
iddled for their entertainment; the showler
| who covered IL en- in their last earthly resting
placc-each has bequeathed tho name that his
| calling gave him TO descendants who are
| amidst us to-day, for any London directory
will disclose Thackerays, Fletchers, Crowthers
| aud Shoyeilers. Some surIames of the occu
| patton class. AS Cookson, Hindson, Stewardsoa
| and WrightSon, indicate that their first bsar-
| ers were distinguished, not by their own trades
or calliDgs. but by those of their fathers.
Baptismal or personal names constitute q
| third great fund from which the necessities of
| family nomenclature have been supplied: Thoy
have become surnames not only in their COM
| pete forms, but in the many familiar shapes
which usage may have assigned to them-as
the menosyllabic appellatives once eurrent in
workshop or on the farm, and as the affection
ate dimlnutlyeS that found favor in the domss
tic circle. Thus with everyday Richard, "From
| the name proper" says a careful student of
| parish registers, and an interesting writer on
surnames. 1--WE get Richards and Richardson,
Ricke and Rix, Rckson and Rixon or Ritson,
| Richards and Ricketts,. From the curter Dick
or Diccon we derive Dicks or Dix, Dickson Or
| Diccons, and Dickinson or Dicconson. From
| Hitchln, once nearly as familiar as Dick, we
get Hitchins, Hutchinson, Hitchcock and
Hitchcox." Most surnames OF the family now
under consideration add to the personal names
on which they are based either the possessive
or the more explicicit son, these being the
Saxon patronymic fornis, as the prefixes Fitz
and Ab or APP from (Mab-son) are respectively
the Norman and Welsh. But some are devoid
OF any such explanatory notifications. There
are, for example Anglo-Saxon names now ex.
lstlng as snrnameS in their original shapes OF
these 1t is conJectured that in rost-Norman
days they were revived by persons of Auglo-
Saxon origin, and adopted by them as fami-
ly surnames in Difference to ancestral
memories. OF the first transmitters of patro-
nymlc surnames i'll general, IL may be safely
assumed that they were The s.ay-at-homes OF
their families-.he domestic and unambtious
ones who were content TO tread quietly in
their fathers footsteps. While the enterpris
ing brother travelled to distance. and ac-
qulred surname, perhaps from the remote
town or shire OF his birth with which new as
socrates ldentfed hlm; while the brother o
strong predictions seized his tavorite oceupa
ton, and extracted from it his distinguishins
appellaton the least sanguine, least origina
OF the three, betoos himself calmly to his ia
theirs business. was naturally called merely
the son of his father, and handed down 10 hi
descendants a surname based upon that father
baptismal denomination
The remaining cognonens existing in En-
gland seem to have been variously derived
Perso tal characteristics; the animal, vegeta
BILE and mineral worlds; incidents of history
abstract ideas; symbols; social and damest
relations, etc, have supplied or appear t,
have supplied them. But in family nomen
clatGre-and especially in that branch of it o
which we now speak--it is emphatcaly tru
that things are not what they SEEM" and tn
name-lists formed in Difference TO the sen,
5lances of their component denominations ar
tound to be much battered when etymolog
has been brought to bear upon them.