New-York tribune., 1910-08-20

1-is
,.i,lcot. Company
A wealth oE information and coRsio-
erable conjecture win be found "itlih
these crowded pages, dealing With Eng
ush family names and their many ori-
Gins British. Saxon, Scandinavian Nor
man Flemish and Dutch. Celtic, NeiSh,
Hue,,anor. German, and with their mod
,scations and often almost total changes
in the course OF theR adoption III
now home. A great deal of family ms
tory is recorded. by the way. and there
is here not a little fiction dnessed up 10
look like history for the greater glory OF
the family.
Not all surnames can be traced back
to their origins and slgnlncahce' oi
many. more than one explanation is pos
sihle- Mr.. Baring-Gouid deals succes-
si,-ely with cognomens taken from the
,,a,ar and castle, from the occupations
and trades of city and village, from
nicknan1es and descriptive expectations,
with names formed by the addition OF
prefixes and suffixes, and with changed
and compound names. He enters at
length into the treasured repositories OF
historic names, the Domesday Book, the
Liber Vitaa, the Roll of Battle Abbey, the
list of the followers of the Conaueror in
the Roman de Rou. and ends with the
Huglenot immigrants who signed a
loyal address in 1744. The total num-
ber of English family names considered
and indexed is little over $500, so that
the work will prove OF genuine interest
10 an incalculable number of readers
The Information it gives is, moreover,
presented in a felicitously interesting
manner One can dip into it at any
time. sure of finding entertainment
The scope of the book is larger, how
ever for Mr.. Baring-Gould begins at the
very beginning, with the tattoo and
tribal names The tattooed tribal idenl-
fication mark has come down to US in
the form of national dress. the tartan OF
The Scotch clan and the local peasant
costumes OF Europe, and, in more in
direct way, in the different fashions OF
trimming hair and beard and mustache-
The coifUe en- GroSsc to this day dis
tinguishes the Continental European.
and especially the Frenchman and Ger
man, from the Anglo-SaXon: none out
Germans wear the ''Es ist erreicht' mus
tachios of the martial Emperor, and
those of us who are not too young re
member the English Dundrearies and
mutton chops Of the third and fourth
quarters of the last century Until quite
recent years, 10 make digression, the
beard and mustache were also identified
with certain professions. In the early
years of the last century only military
men Wore mustaches, while a shaven
upper lip was as much binding upon
Protestant clergyman as the tonsure
was, and remains, for the Roman Cath
ole priest. With this one exception, the
significance Of beard and hair has now
disappeared. its vanishing last evidence
being seen in the case of house servants
and private coachmen and footnen, and.
both no longer invariably, in that Of
head walters and their staff
Tc return to Mr.. Baring-Gould and
family names. however. He reminds US
4 of that pleasant custom of oiden days,
II the eating of a vanquished enemy's
body, or at least OF choice parts thereof.
mostly the heart, and the later adoption,
instead, of his. name by the conqueror.
One wonders if there can be a connec-
tion between this ancestral warlike Gus
tom and the still practised one Of be-
slowing the names of the fields where
battles were won upon victorious war
riors: Ney Of the Moskowa, Roberts Of
Pretoria, Kitchener of khartoum.
The early belief that a mans identity
was in some way mixed up with his
name led in the far and distant past to
ira To ha
Lest he should hand over his identity,
his self, to another, a father was care
full not to bestow his own name upon his
SON If the child was born posthp
mously, on the other hand, the fathers
name must be given to X, in order to
preserve the parental identity. The
theory of reincarnation was at the bot
tom Of this custom. which. again. has
left its trace TO this day in the retention
OF certain baptismal names in families
from generation TO generation, two
names or sets of names usually being
handed on alternately from grandfather
to grandson. The modern custom of
hyphenating surnames appears TO be a
development of this. the preservation of
q socially desirable family identity. In
. Gould, dryly, I'VE add whiskey to water
never water TO whiskey-" The author
thus traces the origin Of hereditary fam
ily names:
/ The tribe was first distinguished by
bodily mutiiations
.. Mutilations were abandoned for cos
tune, differentiating tribes.
3. The tribal name fell away, and the
personal name alone was left
Z. Personal names were found to be in
sufficient for differentiating man from man.
3. Consequent Introduction of descriptive
Bppeiations- These were personal, and eX-
pired with the bearer.
g. Finally suTnaneS became hereditary.
The patronymic is the Oldest form OF
the hereditary family name Johns son
became Johnson. and, by authorization
Johns. The Welsh Ap before a fathers
name was abbreviated in an analogous
manner: "Ap Owen" was contracted
snto Bowen; "Ap Rice" into Price >
The Scotch Mac and the Irish O. need not
detain US. The Norman French Fitz, for
fills" the author informs us. by no
means indicated illegitirnacy originally
He also combats the theory that sur
names derived from a feminine baptismai
name proclaim birth out OF wedlock