The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-07
ORIGIN OF SURNAMES
CONFUSION INCIDENT TO EARLY
 FLOOD OF SIMILAR NAMES.
Places as Prolific Sources of Fat ronymics-0bselete Words he-
 tained as Cognomens.
London Standard.

There is no very clear record or the time when surpames first came into regular use. No doubt the process Was very gradual one, and us epoch varied in different countries, put that they were general at comparati'ely early period of the civilization or each nation needs no insisting on. 10 sive but a single instance in the year loeI Christianity first became widespread in Poland. and great numbers or men and women were baptized at one time. To simplify and expedite matters with so large a concourse. 1t became the custom of the officiating clergy to be- stow the same name upon wnole patches of people who came to be ad- mitted into the church. At enc pap tism, for example, the name Peter was conferred upon all the men, and Cath crime 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 system of patronymics was the only escape from the difficulty. The origin of our word surname, formerly occasionally spelt "sirname," Is often supposed to be "sirename," and it was AuuCC0 Otliy III Iue udluiC oL things ehob the earliest kind of distinguishing second name should have reference to the parent. Our English Robinsons, Johnsons, Wilson's, and so forth are as common, ancient and characteristic 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 com- mon 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 Irishmen are they.
 While Mac" may be translated son, 70" Is more properly grandson. The Norman equivalent is "Fitz," corrup- tion of "fils." The Russian termina- tien "witz" signifies the same word, as also the Polisa sky" With regard to the Welsh "ap." which also means son, matters stand rather differently, for in this case zap" is a separate word, and Is not incorporated in the whole name except as a corruption; also 1t may be introduced an indefinite number of times in the same appellation. so that Welsh surname can convey a com- plete 'genealogy and be. moreover. one Of the longest words in civilization. It Is common joke to laugh at a Welsh man for his long list of ancestors with the connecting "aps."
 There is an old story of an English man, foreign to the principality and its ways, riding after dark near a ravine from which issued a cry for assistance from one who had fallen In.
 Who's there?" shouted the English man.
 "Jenkins-ap- Griffith D. William -ap- Rees-ap-Evan-ap-R Robin," came the reply.
 Lazy fellows, half dozen of you, why can't you help each other out" exclaimed the Englishman. ignorant of the fact that he was addressing but one man.
 The corruption of the Zap" has led to a number of common notifications of old Welsh names, as Price for ap- Rhys. Pritchard for ap-Richard, Powell for ap-Howell.. and many others, Pro- bert, Probyn, Pugh, Penry, as also the "b' being similar to the 'p''- Bevan, Barrey, and the like. Another Welsh form of family name-that which simply puts the Christian name into the 1enitive case-has contributed many of our commonest surnames, as Jones 1. e.. 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 innum- erable cases in England of surnames which point unmistakable to the foreign country, and frequently, too. actual neighborhood or town even, from which the family originally migrated. though no other kind of record may ex- fist to prove that, in far-on time, they came from over seas. Of the original Anglo-Saxon there are some few sur vivals. Some can be traced in the terminat ton ing" which among Teu- tonic people signifed offspring. !" Browning and Whiting in this way would mean the dark or fair children
 Place-names from Normandy and Brittany are very common. as might be supposed. D'Arcy, Nevill. Ferrers, Devereux, Warren, Percy. Marmion. Tankerville, St. Aubin. Lascelle. Nor ley-an these and many others can readily be referred to their original birthplaces. In others, through corrup- tion of the word, the locality is not so easy to trace, though etill there-as, for example, the name St. Mature, which, by process of time, has come to stand as Seymour; Valoins, which we know only in Its English surname as Val lance, etc. Some of our names, again, have a Netherland birthplace, as Gaunt, which was originally Ghent; St. Leger, and Brydges, which last is a corruption. in all probability, of Bruges.
 It needs no pointing out how easily place-names can become family names. To distinguish an individual by the name of his home. birthplace or resi- dence was a ready means of securing his identity. In rural districts, and among a population that continued for generations in the same homesteads, Dlace-nanles would be given from triv- ial features of the locality, as Wood and Hill. Lane and Dale. In this con- nection we can find a number of. an cient words for country objects. which have long ago become obsolete and for gotten. "Cowdray," for instance, in olden days signified a grove of hazel Garth" is old English for yard "Hithe" for haven; "Garnett" for a granary; Shaw" for a small wood. The common surname Head Is really a place-name. Head" being a frequent term for a promonitry or cape. as Beachy Head. The suffix Bee" as ir Ashbee. Holmbee. is a survival of the Danish By" a habitation.
 The name Dean Is not from the church dignitary, but signifies hollow or dell. whence we get Dean Forest and Arden. Another word still in com mon use in certain parts of Tngland for the same thing is bottom" Higin- bottom thus means the dell where the "hicken" or mountain ash fiourished "Beckett"is a little brook. still called a hoolr ;n +ha oortb. "hovS'' is the Eng