The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-07-23
A RAMBLE AMONG sURNAMEs.
Annual Address Delivered by Rev. j. Wal
ter Daniel Before the Alumni Asso-
citation of Newberry College,
June 16, 1891.

and exhausted by close and prolonged
application, there is no surer or more
eficacious restorative than ranble
along the prattling brook, or through
the deep shades of the forest, or over
the hills and through the secluded
vsileys. Nature has her own Uis maedt-
cxtr ir; and to him only who dares to
reretrate the solitary glens and the
sylvan seclusions OF earth will come the
aroma of wild flowers and the exhlla-
rating voices of wild natures revels.
Many rare and choice bouquets may
be gathered elsewhere than from hot
houses and well cultivated flower gar
dens. So, along the by-ways Of fitera-
ture, and almost unwritten history, the
rambler may gather the sweetest nose
gays of unadorned truth. I therefore
propose Rana6le among Su1nGnaes.
But some one, out of harmony with
history, may ask with Juliet.
whats in name"
That which we cali q rose Dy any otner HdiiIe
would smellas sweet"
j. That is doubtless true. But we must
remember that she had just said:
so be some other namen'
Thus she has left on record the fact
that she really felt, as mere matter of
sentiment, there was not little in the
cognomen by which men and things
are known. There is much in an appel
lation even if it serve no other purpose
than that of distinguishing mau from
man and thing from thing. All of us,
indeed, are brought to appreciate its
value when wishing to speak of some
thing or of some person, we awake, as
did Northumberland of old, that the
thing is gone from US.
There car, indeed, be no exercise in the
whole business ofinstruction more useful
to the miRd than the analysis of names
in the concentrated light of history and
the conditions out Of which they were
evolved. It brings the careful student
into the ianer sanctuary of thought,
as it relates to the annals of
nations, for they are but the
cristalization of thought as it stands
connected with the great as well
as the lesser events of the ever receding
past. SurDames are the side-lights of
history, while the appellations which
things and places bear constitute the
foot-lights of the drama Of life as it was
played by our Anglo-Saxon progenitors.
He who reads history without knowl-
edge of the derivation of names may
stand il the dim light of the outer
court, and even there he may indeed
offer incense, but he who penetrates
within and looks upon the scene under
the resplendent influences of side and
foot-lights beholds it grow incandes-
cent in interest, and he worships and
adores.
Surnames became generally heredi-
tary about the close Of the thirteenth
century, and all kinds of methods were
resorted to in order to establish them.
They were fixed upon US by our ances-
tors from the most casual incidents and
environments, as we'll as from common
place characteristics and occupations.
1t may, at the first thought, appear in
1of
been applied so indiferently, but when
we consider that only a few centuries
ago the single names which our Anglo
Saxon ancestors bestowed upon their
children were really less than four hum
dred in number, and that only twenty
or thirty of these, for each sex, were
in common use-half of all the names
of men being made up of the seven
appellations, John, Henry, William,
James, George, Thomas and Richard,
so that number Of persons even in
small community would bear the same
name; and when we remember that
these single names gave no hint OF
relationship or family descent, we can
easily see that the necessity for second,
or surname, would speedily arise, and
that the source Of supply would be a
matter of secondary importance.
In this emergency the country from
which one emigrated frequently served
to fasten upon him a surname. Thus
Thomas from Wales very naturally
passed into Thomas Welch. Williarl
became William Scott,
The Land of the Mid
{: na q descendant be may
Xikfngs, inherited the
from France
, she would fall in sntfyss sy nat
i+h her hands covese blood lsSs %or
~ ,, eves, and moving helanently ptI
1c,3;i 1~o-se ORIGIN and the n:l171ESssl; n:l@77SSG il
.rOsss ,,Tss bear Of the gods" 6esroS
doubtless, originally by some s.N h;9
mon the healthiest SPECIMEN ,r,,,a
nprdv n offspring, and Gilchrist' ihs M
arvont Of Christ" is also OF Morse "e
scent. ot south Caro-
Ina there is no more familiar name ln
Iroo 49,, that of Easterling. Our A"s'o-
S ca~on fore-fathers called emlsran!s
aSSo SSo~' the country lying east Of their
little little sea-girt island, EasterilngS' helce
.,,s' .na term Sterling. Connected, therefore,
With that name We have most inter-
esting piece of history
In that far off age when snrnameS
were made, when every petty earl or
baron had his private mint when