The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-09-24
SOME AMERICAN NAMES.

name is probably matter FOR argu-
ment. 1t is certain that many of the
greatest names in Ireland, to take a
familiar example, are not Irish at all,
not 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
nave had American names In the sense
That all their families represent lines
or descent old in the country; for GER
talnly they have little else in common.
Washington is an English territorial
name, being, with the exception of Lin
coin and Garfield, the only one of its
kind In the list. Adams, Jefferson,
Madison, Jackson, Johnson, Harrison
are all true derivations from Christian
names, meaning, respectively, the son
of Adam, of Godfrey, of Matthew, of
John, and of Harry. which last is not a
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 abbre-
Walton of Pollock or Pollok, itself
from Paul, and the ''l' in 1t used to be
sounded, though it is now dropped for
the sake of euphony. Pierce follows
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
hedge, and denoting in the first in
stance one who dwelt near a notable
feature of that kind in the rural land
scape. Fillmore seems to be nick
name fastened to a bibulous ancestor.
Buchanan is Scotch, and the first syl-
liable is to be sounded with a short, not
a long "u.' Mckinley is also Celtic.
Van Buren, is Dutch. Lincoln derives
the latter syllable of the name from the
Latin ''colonia," indicating that in an
cient times the Romans held colony in
that particular locality; while the
field" in Garfield's name has the sig
nificance in Danish of a. camp or fort,
the gar" meaning a weapon, as in the
Christian name Edgar. and the whole
standing for battle ground Grant is
simply the old Norman-French grand,
and means great, properly enough.
These distinguished patronymics are
not cited because of their oddly, but
because, Saxon, French, Danish, Dutch
and Scotch alike, they are what Is to be
understood by American" names. Cit
liens of the great republic can hardly
hope to produce a name like Feather
stonehaugh and call it "freestunhay,
or to spell Jarvis "Jervaulx," or walsh
cum "Walsingham," but their efforts
are not to be despised when Crownin-
shield in Massachusetts, spells "crun-
shle," Beall in Virginia is bell" and
| Taliaferro in Kentucky is plain 'tulli-
| fer"
Dumaresque, too, manages to get
clipped to "dimeric" and then to appear
as another name entirely, Dimmery.
Moultrie is mutry and Bowie bu-ie,
both with the 'u'' long, as it is in Hous-
| ton in spite of the spelling. Olmstead
| as umsted, Compton as cumton, are
other New England corruptions. Dew
| ereux is deveroo, Hemans has the "e''
short, Reay is the same as Ray; Deadly
| is deedy, an excellent name for law
yer; DEMO is accented on the Il, which
| is long; Rouse is pronounced as If
roose; Chisholm and Trenholm are
! chiz'm and trenum; Hoag and Poag are
pronounced with the 90 long, and,
finally, Timberlake gets to be, through
1 the mutilation and attrition of the ages,
''timlik''
Names from the French are far from
being uncommon in this country owing
to Louisiana, Acadia, Canada and seve-
raj early immigrations of Huguenots.
/ For the most part, these last have been
! distorted into pronunciations as little
| French in sound as the names are Eng
! lish in spelling. Bowdoin Is bodin, for
| example. and Faneuil, something re-
markably like funnel 1t is not difficult
to tell how long name of this kind has
been in America by its deviation from
the original Gallo sounds Huger and
Legare are only in the second stage, for
they are called yujee and legree, respec-
lively, with the accent on the last Sylla-
BILE. This is true of Bowler and Sewer
| booveer and sever Angler, on the
other hand, is properly called AMER
with the "a" both long and accented
We Americans have a curious custom
in open violation of that law of the Ian
guage which demands that the accent
shall go back as far as possible in every
word. of accenting the last syllable Of
words in 'll' or TT or even some com
binations of a liquid and mute Mrs
Alice Meynell (maynle in England) ha:
her family designation changed to {
strong stress of the voice on the nell.
Similarly, good old names like Buzzel
and Darrell are changed almost beyont
recognition, and Burdett and Burnet
and the like suffer no less 1t is due fo
the most part to ignorance of the fac
that an accent on the last syllable o
any surname indicated recent immi
grant The old New Jersey name o
Sellover, to take little known in
stance, was French, with the "ver" &C
cented when it was imported hither il
the seventeenth century. Later it be
came changed to the middle syllable
with the 80" long, then it received 1T
final baptism as fully adopted Englisi
name by being called slower" Thl
lacked distinction in the estimation 0
some moneyed members of the family I
generation ago, and they have since at
tempted to take up one or the other o
the earlier methods, quite as if tn
name had Just landed
Another cause at work in this is tn
feeling, obtained from overmuch read
ing of romances, that French names ar
more distinguished than those of an,
other nation. Owing to the fact tina
so many of the noblest families of Eng
land take their titles from Norman
French, this is true to certain degree
but it must be remembered that Their
are good and bad names in France a
well as every other place. No amour
4 -