Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-01-29
"SURNAMES."
Their Origin, Meaning, and Develop
ment.

RcuU on Monday Evening"
The january meeting of the Professional
club was held at the Brooks House ON Mon
day evening. when DIR. James Conland
gave the paper ON "Suruames. Whatever
doubt the uninitiatcd mind may have en-
tanned as To- the possibility of providing an
evenings entertainment and instruction
from such a subject was quickly dispersed
when the eSsayist, from the opening sen
tencc of his paper, led the way into field
of thought, rich alike in history, in re-
search which involve, the beginnings of
our English tongue, i'm literature, and in
personal interest The nomenclature Of
language. he said. is in a large extent the
history of the people who speak the tongue.
Names, though a necessity. and their adop-
ton the result of that necessity, We're not
originally applied 10y chance but taken di-
rect from the language to express some
designation. quality or property indicated
10y the bestowal. Hence it follows that rs
everything has name, and every phase of
a peoples existence is represented 10y
name, or multitude of names. their no
menclature should be a summary of their
history. The attritiOn of centuries may
obscure the purity of its pronunciation,
the source of its origin may be masked by
prefix or sufliX, or compounded with an
alien tongue, but it is rare that the impress
of the etymolOgy of name is beyond the
ken of him who is qualified to make the
research. Names surround us Oh every
hand which were bequeathed to us by the
aborigines of America, and these are sup
plementcd by the more prOfuse vocabulary
of their Anglo-SaXon conquerers, who in
their turn received them from Gaul and
Celt and Morse.
English surnameS, As hereditary titles.
are not old. Many came into use in an
swer to necessity growing out of the grad
ual aggregation of population. When peo-
pie began to gather in communities John
son. Toms son. James at the towns end,
did well enough for local designation.
but as broader relations became established
the system became inconvenient. Some
more definite way of fixing ones identity
became necessary. and il wa, by no intri-
cate process that Tom son gave to his de-
scendants the general name of Thompson.
or the man living at the towns end that of
Townsend. When society began to as
sumo the form OF corporate existence the
propensity for naming children after noted
individuals led to such a common use OF
certain singular name, that they ceased to
mean anything, and then followed the des-
tons of which are found almost without
limit in the Scriptures. and practice
which also prevailed among the Romans
who had a system of >urnamc> similar To
our own.
The SaNon> had a much larger list at
names peculiar To themselye, than the
Normans, but So completely did they bow
before the rule of William the Conquerer
that in less than 200 years their own no
menclaturc had practically ceased 10 exist
William introduced names from the script
Ure and the saints calendar. and in course
OF few generations Peter, Simon. Philip
Thomas. and kindred names, included one
third of the male population. Here again
grew up difficulty in preserving individu-
ality, and il became necessary 10 give To-
cal designation. as John at the wood, John
Richards son. and various other devices
among them the use of Suruame> with di-
minutiye eudng>. a. KIN, cock. OF. ct. on
and en-. endngs which have given names
to many common things, no less than 10
individuals. and which are preserved to
this day in many a familiar form Viii
liam. for obvious reason popular with the
NOrmans, and susceptible OF curtailment
as viii. and the less elegant though not
less useful Bill, is the progenitor of host
of names, like Willis Wilson. Wilmot.
Willet, wilkins. Wilkinson. Bill. Billson.
and SO on through a maze OF diminutive
endings and of cOrruptions OF the original.
The monosyllable John has given rise to a
great diversity Of names. both in its Nor
man form, the German Johannes, with its
contraction Hans. the Welsh form. Evan.
and it, adjective pretiXes, Little-John,
Proper-John, and so on. Joan. the femi-
I.l,v, -
surnameS. seen in the form today of Jayne,
Jennison, Jennings and many others.
But while John never lacked popularity at
the baptismal font. Jack, the stranger,
eclipsed him everywhere. He was posi-
lively ubiquitous. This was his name a,
a matter of course until he chose To reveal
himself. He was the man OF all work. and to-
day we have his trademark in the boot Jack
carriage Jack, and Observation-Disclosures. The
modern gambling fraternity have embalmed
him in jackpot. which means the entire
stake. Along with qualities OF derision
such a. jack-dot, iack-iool, we have left
his numerous kiusfolk. the Jacksons
Jakes, jenkins and jerks. who have ne
occasion to regret the rise of their sur
names.
The influence of the ecclesiasticsm OF
the early days was seen in the almost uni
Versal adoption of names from the Bible
with variations in infinite diversity. AnC
with these came another class of Surnames
those of Pope, Cardinal, Bishop, Priest
about whose origin there can be no doubt
Another apparent origin of surname'
comes from the custom, as old as the race
of giving nicknames TO emphasize any bod
ly or mental popularity or intirmity This
custom was never more prevalent than I'M
der Norman rule.
1t is interesting to turn aside for a mo
ment and see the influence of the Reform
alton on our Christian names. Hitherto
they had come through the church bu
with the distribution of the Geneva Bible
printed in the English tongue in 1860
names came to be taken directly from tn,
book for reasons that are obvious. A,
this Bible crept into the dales and farm
steads the primitive life of the peopl,
seemed 10 be reflected in its pages. The pa
triarchs lived as graziers, and so did they
There was a good deal about sheep ant
kline in its chapters, and their own live,
were spent among the milk pals and WOO
shears. The women of the Old Tesla
men baked cake and knew what good but
ter was so did the dales folk. BY slow de
grees Cecilia, Isabella and Emma lapsel
from the pedestal, and the little babie
were turned into Sarahs, Rebeccas anC
Deborahs.
As the 18th century progressed the stat,
of things became still more changed
There had been villages in Sussex anC
Kent, previous TO Elizabeth's death, whcr
the Presbyterian rector, by his personal in
tiuence at the time of baptism, had turned
the new generation into "A Hebrew colony
The same thing occurred in Yorkshire ONLY
half century later. As noncomformit,