The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-08-23
Celtic Names in City Directories Would
Be Vastly Greater But For
Moral Cowardice.
OConnell, Carlyle and Macaulay Severely
Denounced for Anglicizng
Their Own People,

lief i'll the exclusively Saxon origin of
that people receives a staggering blow
"A full list of English names that are
popularity believed to be Saxon, but
which are purely Celtic, would take up
the greater part of this article. A few
only will be mentioned. 1t will ap-
pear strange to many to state that the
following common English surnames
are Celtic: Jones, Evans, Powell.
Pritehard, Carlyle Irving, Scott.
Burns, Oakley, Moreley, Morton, Beg
ley, Bolger, Dascom, Douglas, Glib
bons, Darwin, sprague, Lanfear,
Cromwell, Ingersoll Fearon, Grant.
EARLY, Carnaigie. Dalzell, Dalrymple.
Not one Of these names seems trans
latable except through Gaelic or
Welsh. This proves that at least
large proportion of the English people
are not SaNons, but Celtic, in origin,
and that the ancient Britons We're not
so much eXterminated as absorbed by
their Saxon cOnQuerOrS.
The most prejudiced writer's in fa-
vor of Anglo -SaXonism now acknowl-
edge that the army With which Will
liam the Conqueror conquered Eng
land were in the main Frenchmen, and
consequently not Anglo-SaXons. Mr..
Freeman. who has written the great
est work on the Norman conquest that
has ever appeared. never calls Will
liam's soldiers anything but French
| men. The Norman element in them
was 80 small that it was absorbed in
the French. ..
The infusion of French blood int
England at the time of the Norman
Conquest must have been very great
We do not know how many men were
| in the army with which William con-
quered England. There must. how.
ever, have been Il larger migration
from France to England for more than
century after the battle of Hastings,
for at least 25 per cent Of the names
of the English people today are OF
French origin. This can be proved
by the directories of English cities.
II % per cent. of the names Of the
English people are of French origin,
fully 25 per cent. more are of Celtic
origin; that would leave the English
only one-half Anglo-SaXon and Sean
dinavian in race. Anyone competent
to pass an opinion on the subject
could, on examining the names in the
directories of English cities and towns.
come to no other conclusion than that
not over 35 per cent. OF them can
be traced to an Anglo-SaXon origin.
fully G5 per cent. Of them being
French, Celtic and Scandinavian.
freely admit that tracing ctnnol-
ogy by names is not always to be re-
lied on. and may sometimes lead to
erroneous conclusions; but it is, after
all, the surest way we have. Men
sometimes change their names, and
! names often become distorted and cor
ruptetl in astonishing ways: but as q
rule names of people do not change
except under the strongest sort Of po-
litical or social pressure of a vastly
| more numerous and more civilized
conquered population that was the
cause Of the change. Social and polit
ical causes combined have made vast
numbers of the Celtic Irish change
their names. not orLy in America, but
in Ireland. and we may lie sure that
just as the Weakened Celt Of Ire
land has often changed his name tc
please his political masters, SO the still
weaker-knced British Celt of the Sax
OH period changed his still more fire.
quently to assuage the fierceness OF
his conquerors.
| If, then. we find that the English
themselves can hardly lay claim to b.
Anglo-SaXons, how much less car
Americans claim to be of that race?
If the directories OF England show
only small percentage of Anglo-Sax.
on names, the percentage of such
names must be, and is, still less in
American directories In the direc.
tories of New York, Philadelphia, Chi.