The Wichita daily eagle., 1901-06-30
&c oRIeLN OF suRNAmEs-


There is no clear record Of the time
when surnames first came into regular
! use. No doubt the process was q very
gradual one. and its epoch varied 10 Dir
1erent countries but that they we're gem
erai II q comparatively early period OF
the civilization OF each nation needs no
insisting on To give but single in
stance. in the year 1897 Christianity first
became widespread IL Poland. and great
numbers OF men and women were hap
tlzed at one time To simplify and ex-
pedite matters with so large a concourse.
10 became the custom OF the officiating
clergy 20 beStow the same name upon
whole patches OF people who came 90 be
admitted into the church. Al one baptism.
for example, the name Peter was con-
ferred upon all the men and Catherine
upon ali the women. On another occasion
they would all bs Pauls ana 8Iargarets.
and 50 on.
Great confusion must inevitably have
been the result, ana 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 10 De
''sire-name,' and il was indeed only IN
the nature OF things that the earliest
kind of Distinguishing second name should
have reference 10 the parent. The En-
giish RObinsons, J0hnsOns. Wilson's, and
so forth are as common. ancient. and
characteristic as the Scotch Macs and
the Irish Os. which mean the same thing.
The Mac, il need scarcely be said. though
often considered essentially Scotch, IS
common 70 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 Mae may be translated son,
20 is more properly grandson. The Nor
man equivalent is ''Fftz," a corruption
of mis-" The Russian termination
.'witz' signifies the same word as also
the Polish sky. With regard TO the
Welsh "ap. which also means son, mat
ters stand rather differently; for IN this
case -ap' is a separate word, and is not
incorporated in the whole name except
as a corruption; also il may be intro
duced an indefinite number Of times i'm
the same appellation, so that a Welsh
surname can convey complete gene
alogy and he, moreover, one OF the long
est words in civilization. II is common
joke 10 laugh at a Welshman for his long
list OF ancestors with the connecting
APPS.
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 there2" shouted the English
man. 'Jenldns-ap-Grinlt -Wiiiiam-ap-
Rees-ap- -Evan-8p-Rob came the reply.
Lazy fellows, half-a-dozen of you, why
can't YOU help each other OUT" exclaim-
ed the Englishman, ignorant Of the fact
that he was addressing but one man.
The corruption Of the zap" has led 10
a number OF common notifications of Old
Welsh names, as Price for ap-Rhys.
Pritchard for ap-Richard. Powell for APP
Howell; and many others, Probert, Pro-
byn. Pugh, Penry. as also-the b. be-
ing similar 10 the "p'-Bevan. Barry, and
the like. Another Welsh form OF family
name-that which simply puts the Chris
tian name into the genitive case-has con- /
triOuted many Of our commonest sur
names as Jones, T. e., Johns 8. Harry s. l
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 innumerable cases in /
England Of sUrnames which point unmls- I
takably TO the foreign country, and fire. /
quently, too actual neighbOThOOd or town I
even. from which the family originally /
though nc other kind Of record /
may exist 20 prove that in far-0n time, I
they came from over seas. OF the original 4
AnglO-SaXOn there are some Few survl- /
yals. Some can be traced in the termi-
nation ing which among TeUt0nic peo-
pie signifed Offspring Browning and
"a hitting I'm this way would mean the
iark or fair children.
Tlace-names from Normandy and Brit
-any are very common. as Nigh be sup
POSED. darcy. Nevin. FeTrers, Devereux,
Warren, Percy. MarmiOn. Tankerville. ST.
Aubin. Lascele, MOrley-aH these and
many others can readily be referred To
heir original birthplaces. in others.
through corruption of the word. the To-
,ality is not so easy to trace, though
itill-as, for example, the name St
dsure, which, by process Of time has
'ome to stand as Seymour; Valoins. which
ne now know only IN its English sur
lame as Valance etc Some Of our
lames. again. have a Netheriand birth
)jace, as Gaunt which was originally
5hent; St. Leger, and Brydges which
ast is a corruption, in all probability, OF
3Tuges.
II needs no rointfng out how easily