The Washington times., 1901-06-30
THE ORIGIN OF SURNAMES.
No Clear Record of the Time They
First Came Into Use.
The Confusion Incident to the EnrIy
Flood of Similar BaptismnI Cog
nomens-Vnst Contributions From
the Various Trades and CaIIfurs

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There is no very clear record of the
time when surnames first came into regu-
lar use. No doubt the process was a very
gradual one and it's epoch varied in diff
ferent countries, but that they were gem
eral at a comparatively early period of
the civilization of each nation needs no
insisting on. To give but a single in
stance, in the year 1887 Christianity first
became widespread in Poland, and great
numbers of men and women were bap-
tized at one time To simplify and ex-
pedite matters with so large a concourse
1t became the custom of the officiating
clergy to bestow the same name upcn
whole patches of people who came to be
admitted into the church. At one bap-
tism, for example, the name Peter was
conferred upon all the men and Catherine
upon all the women. On another occasion
they would all be Pauls and Margarets.
and so on.
Great confusion must inevitably have
been the result, and the rapid adoption of
a system of patronymics was the only es-
cape from the difficulty. The origin of our
word surname, formerly occasionally
spelled ''sirname.'' is often supposed to be
"sirename, and it was indeed only in the
nature of things that the earliest kind of
distinguishing second name should have
reference to the parent. Our English
RobinSons, Jonnsons, Wilson's, and so
forth are as common, ancient, and char
acteristic as the Scotch Macs and the
Irish O's, which mean the same thing.
The Mac, 1t need scarcely be said. though
often considered essentially Scotch. is
common to the two nations, as witness
the well-known doggerel:
BY Mac and o. you'll always know
True. Irishmen, they say;
But if they lack both o. and Mac
No lrishmen are they.
While Mac" may be translated son,
90 is more properly grandson. The Nor
man equivalent is ''Fitz, corruption of
fills" The Russian termination ''witz''
signifies the same word, as also the Pol
ish sky With regard to the Welsh
''ap," which also means son. matters
stand rather differently; for in this case
''ap' is a separate word, and is not in
corporated in the whole name except as
corruption; also 1t may be introduced
an indefinite number OF times in the same
appellation, so that a Welsh surname can
convey complete genealogy and be,
moreover, one of the longest words in
civilization. 1t is a common joke to laugh
at Welshman for his long list of an
cestors with the connecting APPS"
There is an old story of an Englishman,
foreign TO the principality and it's ways,
riding after dark near a ravine from
which issued a cry for assistance from
one who had 1allen in.
Who's there?' shouted the English
man. Jenkins-ap-Griffith-ap- William-ap-
Rees-ap- Evan-ap-R Robin" came the reply.
Te.lTr hole Il
can't you help each other outi" exclaimed
the Englishman, ignorant of the fact that
ne was addressing bu. one man.
The corruption of the "ap' has led to a
number of common notifications of old
Welsh names. Price for ap-Rhys,
Pritchard for ap-Richard, Powell for ap-
Howell; and many others, Probert, Pro-
byn, Pugh, Penny, as also-the ''b'' being
similar to the ''p''-Bevan, Barry, and the
like. Another Welsh form of family name
that which simply puts the Christian
name into the genitive C se-has contrib
uted many of our comnlonest surnaraes,
as Jones, T. :. Johns, Harry s-Harris,
Williams. Hughes etc.
The roots of our family names, as of
our families themselves, have sprung
from among many nations and many
tongues. There are well-nigh innumer-
able cases in England of surnames which
point Enthusiastically to the foreign coun-
try, and frequently, too, actual neighbor-
hood or towns even, from which the fam
lily originally migrated, though no other
kind Of record may exist to prove that.
in far-off time, they came from over seas
OF the original Anglo-Saxon there are
some few survivals. Some can be traced
in the termination ing, which among
Teutonic people signifed Offspring"
Browning and Whiting in this way would
mean the dark or fair children.
Place-names from Normandy and Brit
tany are very common, as might be sup
posed. DARCY, Nevin, Ferrers, Devereux,
Warren. Percy, Marmion. Tankeryille, ST.
Aubin, Lascelle. Moley-all these and
many others can readily be referred to
their original birthplaces. In others.
through corruption of the word, the To-
cality is not so easy TO trace, though still
there-as. for example. the name st.
Maure, which, by process of time, has