The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-08-15
SOME AMERICAN NAMES.
Facts About Their Origin and the Prevalent
Pronunciation or Some OF Them.

From the Chicago Times. Herald.
Just what constitutes an American namo is
probably a matter for argument. 1t is certain
that many of the greatest names in Ireland, to
take a familiar example, are not Irish at all, nor
even Celtic, but purely Norman like Fitzgerald.
or Saxon like Desmond. 1t would be popularity
stated that all of the Presidents of the United
States have had American names, in the sense
that all of their family names represent lines Of
descent old in the country; for certainly, they
have little else in common.
Washington Is an English territorial name.
being. with the exception of Lincoln and Gar
field, the only one of its kind in the list. Adams.
Jefferson. Madison. Jackson. johnson, Harrisol
are all true dcrivations from Christian names.
meaning. respectively. the son of Adam. Of
Godfrey, of Matthew, of John, and OF Harry.
which last is not n nickname in English. but the
true form of the word, Henry being later and a
purely slavish following of the French spelling
of the word. Polk is an abbreviation of Pol
lock or Pollok. itself from Paul. and the go
in it used to be sounded. though it is now
dropped for the sake of euphony. Pierce fol-
lows the same analogy. coming from Peter. the
French Pierre" Piers Ploughman.' Tyler,
Taylor. and Cleveland are from occupations.
Hayes is from an old English word, hay"
meaning simply a hedge. and d~cnoting in
the first instance one who dwelt near a not
able feature of that kind in the rural land
scape. Fillmore seems to be a nickname
fastened to a bibulous ancestor. Blu
chanan is Scotch. and the first syllable is to
be sounded with 4 short, not a long u" Nc
Lincoln derives the latter syllable OF the name
from the Latin ".colonia, - indicating that in
particular locality; while the field in Gar
fields name has the significance in Danish of a
in the Christian mama Edgar and rho uhnla
standing for a battle ground. Grant is simply
the old Norman,French grand, and means great.
These distinguished patronymics arc not
cited BECAUSE, OF their oddity, but because,
alike, they are what S to be Understood BY
american" names. Citizens, of the great re-
P Pub s can hardy hope pei 70 produce a name ike
or 70 spell Jarvis "Jervanlx.' or walsicum
. Welsingham - but their efforts are not TO be
spells ,.crunshle.' Beall in Virginia is bell"
and Taliaferro in Kentucky is plain "tullifer."
entirely. DINNER ~ M tpItri 80 is sn %utry name and
ho%sfo su in . RGss OF 9th ah the sD aHn long 5lm ms It d a ag
mmsted., Compton as cumton, are other New
HHn nEasns b eorTHn ap , .hd pev Soeeux i deyesoo,
Ray; Deadly 10 decdy, an excellent name for a
lawyer; DEMO Is accented on the II" which is
and Trenholm are chiz'm and trenum; Hoag
and poaE are pronounced with the 20 long.
and, hnally. Iimoeriake Retsto be, through the
Names from the French arc far from being
IN this country, owing to Louisiana,
OF Huguenots. For the most part, these last
have been distorted into pronunciations as little
spclling. Bowdoin is bodin; for example, and
Faneuil, something remarkably like funnel. 1t
deviation from the original Gallo sounds.
Huger and tegare are only in the sec
and legres, respectively with the accent on the
last syllable. This is true Of Bouvler and Sewer,
is properly called AMER. with the "a" both long
and accented. We Americans have a curious
f Gusoo@; IN wb Gp6n de H,o d a ab of That Ina o Law Of .t The
centing the last syllable Of words in "Hf' or
mute. Mrs. Alice Meynell ,maynle in Englandj
has her family designation changed to a Strong
s sood old ID ' nsm SS,ei ike on 1 Bsz zafl'i and Si%ai arrsIi
are changed almost beyond, recognition. and
Bnrdett and Burnett and the like suffer no less.
II is due for the most part to ignorance of the
fact that an accent on the last syllable OF any
surname indicated a recent immigrant. The old
known instance. was French, with the +" yer"
accented when 1t was imported hither in The sew
tho middle syllable, with the 20" long, then it
FeHelEed na ITS hR Rn b baptism 6a,i as a ! fully aadoPpthed
moneyed members OF the family a generation
ago, and they have since attempted TO take up
one or the other OF the earlier methods, quito as
II the name had " Just landed"
Another cause at work in this is tho feeling,
obtained from overmuch reading Of romances,
that French names are more distinguished than
those of any other nation. Owing to the fact
that 50 many Of the noblest families Of England
take their titles from Norman French, his is
true to a certain degree; but 1t must be remen-
bered that there arc good and bad names in
France as well as every other place. No amount
Of notoriety could make BoIlanger mean any.
ming Dut baker, nor, Will the shifting OF an ec-
cent persuade Boucher into being other than
butcher, both good names, and tho better for b.
Ing lett alone.
Kpickerbocker names have been pretty thor
oughly Anglicized according TO a few simple
that "ch' is always to be pronounced like "k,"
whether preceded by an IS" or not. Schouler
IL SCOOTER " because " is Dutch, Just as schurs
is "shoorts" because 1t 10 German. "Schiedam
schnapps" is a good phrase to tI in the mind i'm
tb;s connection, since i Is Compounded from
shneps." with the accent on the dam" Aid.
by the way TIL, is where the, accent belongs in
geperally long Il" in English: though schlyi:;
English 1Qund. as In RRpAljO and Jana.