Surnames as a Science Part 22

A.S. Cwara, found in Cwaeringas--Frnk. Guario--Eng. Quare, Quary, Quarry, Quear, Query--French Querrey.

_Compounds._

(_Hari_, warrior), O.G. Warher--Eng. Quarrier. (_Man_, vir), O.G.

Warman--Eng. Quarman--French Guermain.

The stem _wid_, on which is formed _guid_ and _cwid_, may perhaps be referred to O.H.G. _wid_, wood, in the sense of weapon (see next chapter _in voce_ Guido), though in this case also there may probably be a mixture of words.

_Gwid, cwid_, for _wid_.

Frnk. Guid, Guido, Quido--Eng. Quiddy--French, Guide.

_Compounds._

(_Man_, vir), O.G. Witman--Eng. Quitman. (Gis, hostage), O.G.

Witichis--Eng. Quittacus (_Suff. Surn._).

The stem _wig_ or _wic_, on which are formed _gwig_ and _cwic_, may be taken to be from _wig_, war.

_Gwig_, _cwic_, for _wig_, _wic_.

Frnk. Gwigo--Eng. Quig, Quick, Quy--Fr. Guiche, Quyo.

Ending in _el_.

O.G. Wigilo--Eng. Quiggle.

_Compound._

O.G. Wigger, Wiher--Eng. Gwyer, Quier, Quire.

The stem _will_, on which are formed _guill_ and _cwill_, may be referred to Goth. _wilya_, will, perhaps, in the sense of resolution.

_Guil, cwil_, for _will_.

Frnk. Guila--Eng. Guille, Guily, Quill--Fr. Guille, Quille.

_Diminutive_

O.G. Willic--Eng. Quilke--Fr. Quillac.

_Compounds._

(_Helm_, helmet), Frnk. Guilhelm--Eng. Gwillam--Fr. Guillaume. (_Man_, vir), O.G. Wilman--Eng. Quillman--Fr. Guillemain. (_Nand_, daring), O.G.

Willinand--Eng. Quillinan.

I am inclined, from the way in which the names run into each other, to take _cwen_ and _cwin_ to be one and the same stem, and to refer them to A.S. _wine_, friend.

_Gwin, cwin, cwen_, for _win_.

A.S. Cwena, found in Cweningas; Quena, found in Quenanden--Frnk. Guuine, Quino--Eng. Guiney, Quin, Queen, Queeney--Fr. Gueneau, Quenay, Quineau.

Ending in _en_, p. 27.

A.S. Cwenen, found in Cwenenabroc--Eng. Guinan, Quinan, Queenan--Fr.

Guenin.

_Compounds._

(_Hari_, warrior), O.G. Winiheri--Eng. Quiner--Fr. Guinier, Guinery, Quinier. (_Bert_, famous), Frnk. Quinabert--Eng. Guinibert.

From the Ang.-Sax. _wealh_, stranger, foreigner, may be the following stem:

_Gual, cwal_, for _wal_.

Frnk. Gualo, Guala--Eng. Quail, Qualey--Fr. Guala.

Then there are some other stems not sufficiently represented to make it worth while to put them into a tabular form, as Quint, a Frankish form of Wind (the stem being supposed to mean Wend), with the present French, Quinty. Also Quaint and Quantock, representing Old German names, Wando and Wendico, the stem being perhaps as in the previous case. And Gwilt, Quilt, Quilty, and Quilter, which seem to be formed similarly on Wild (ferus) and Wilder. Also Quart for Ward or Wart, and perhaps Quaker for Waker and Quash for Wa.s.s (as in Washington from Wa.s.singation).

With regard to this last Frankish peculiarity, which I conceive not to be of such ancient date as the preceding ones, I am inclined to suppose that the greater part of the English names in which it appears have come to us through the Normans. And with regard to the others I would venture the general remark that inasmuch as the Anglo-Saxons in all probability more or less aspirated an initial _h_, it would perhaps be going too far to conclude that, in all cases where it has been hardened into a _c_, Frankish influence is necessarily to be presumed. Still, I think that the general result of the comparison which I have inst.i.tuted, more especially considering the comparatively limited area from which the Anglo-Saxon examples have been drawn, is such as to give considerable support to the theory that Franks were among the early settlers.

Besides the names of Old Frankish, _i.e._ German origin, which have come to us through the Normans, we have also received from them some names, mostly of a religious character, from the Latin, and from the Hebrew. I have even ventured to suggest, in the next chapter, that it is to the Franks that the Italians are indebted for the name of Dante (Durante) from Lat. _durans_. More certainly it is from them that the corresponding name _Durand_ has come to us. The early Frankish Christians adopted several such names, some from the Latin, as Stabilis, Clarus, Celsus, Electus (perhaps in some cases from the names of Roman saints), some from the Hebrew, not only scriptural names of men and women, but also such words as Pasc (pa.s.sover), Seraphim, Osanna, &c., and these they often mixed up with the Old German words to which they had been accustomed, the names of the Apostles Peter and Paul being so dealt with, and even the name of Christ himself. This probably arose from the desire of parents to connect the names of their children with their own, as seems clearly shown in the case of a woman called Electa, who gives to her two children the same name with a German addition, calling one Electard, and the other Electrudis. From one of these hybrid Frankish names, Clarembald, come our _Claringbold_ and _Claringbull_ and the French _Clerambault_. From the above word, _pasc_, we have _Pascoe_, _Paske_, and _Pash_, and the French have _Pasquin_, corresponding with a Frankish Pascoin (Pascwin). There is one Richard Osannas, a witness to an acquittance in the later Anglo-Saxon times, the name being probably from the Frankish Osanna, which seems, however, to have been originally a woman's name. In the same charter occurs also Jordan, another of these old Frankish names, taken presumably from the river--whence I take to be our _Jordan_, and the French _Jordan_, _Jourdan_, and _Jourdain_, probably also the name of the Dutch painter _Jordaens_. The name Crist, which seems most probably from this origin (Cristeus in the _Pol. Irm._) is not very uncommon in France; it occurs also in Germany, and though I have not met with it in England, yet Bowditch gives it as the name of a member of the New York legislature, where it may, however, possibly be German. It is rather amusing to see how the learned Germans are occasionally a little mystified by these Old Frankish Scriptural names.

Stark, for instance, sets down Elisaba (Elischeba, the Hebrew form, I take it, of Elisabeth) as Celtic, and Foerstemann, excusably perhaps, is posed with Erispa (Rispah, the daughter of Aiah?), though I think he might have guessed Osanna.

Before concluding this chapter I may refer to the _Roll of Battle Abbey_, containing the names of the princ.i.p.al Normans who came over with the Conqueror. This has been severely impugned by some excellent antiquaries on the ground that some of the names are, on the face of them, regular English names, and such as could not reasonably be supposed to have been borne by Normans. And hence it has been supposed that interpolations must have been made to gratify the vanity of certain families who wished their names to appear in the Roll. This in itself does not seem an improbable suspicion, and I do not desire to go into the question further than to express the opinion that so far as the names themselves are concerned, there is not one that might not be a genuine Norman name. Indeed, the undisguised English form of some of them is to me rather a proof of the honesty of the scribe, for it would have been so easy to have given them a thin Norman disguise. The suspicious-seeming names are of two kinds, names which appear to be from English place-names, as Argentoune, Chaworth, Newborough, Sanford, Valingford, Harewell; and names which seem to be from English surnames of occupation, or description, as Hayward, Archere, Loveday. The former did present a genuine difficulty, and did justify suspicion till now that Mr. Taylor's discovery of an area in the north of France full of regular Anglo-Saxon place-names, and no doubt settled by Anglo-Saxons, has disclosed the source from which they could be derived. I opine then that the English scribe has done nothing more in the case of such names than restore them to the original form from which they had been more or less corrupted. Nor indeed has he done it to as great an extent as he might have done, for I find several others which may be brought back to an Anglo-Saxon form, and it may be of some little interest to take a few of these Norman surnames derived from place-names of the kind discovered by Mr. Taylor, and compare them with corresponding Anglo-Saxon place-names in England. I will take the names ending in _uil_, "well,"

of which the scribe has Anglicised one (Harewell), and show how many more there might have been. We have Bereneuile and Boranuile, corresponding with A.S. Bernewell (now Barnwell, in Northamptonshire), from A.S. _brune_, brook, of which the well might be the source. Then we have Rinuuill, corresponding with an A.S. Runawel (now, Runwell in Ess.e.x), _i.e._ a running or flowing well, Berteuilay corresponding with A.S. Beorhtanwyl (now Brightwell, in Oxfordshire), and Vauuruile with an A.S. Werewell (now Wherwell, in Hants), an inclosed well; from A.S.

_woer_, inclosure. Then we have Beteruile comparing with an A.S.

Buterwyel (b.u.t.terwell, b.u.t.ter and honey being used apparently to describe sweet waters), Greneuile (Greenwell), and Glateuile, probably from A.S. _glade_, brook, and so same as Bernewell.

With respect to the second cla.s.s of suspected names, such as Hayward, Archere, and Loveday, these are all Old Frankish names, and the resemblance to anything English is only an accident. Hayward represents an ancient Agward or Egward, and would be more properly Ayward, though we find it as Hayward (see p. 99) even in Anglo-Saxon times. So also Archere (see p. 42) and Loveday (p. 57) fall into their places as ancient Frankish names. Such names again as Brown and Gray, though a little Anglicised in spelling, are names common to the whole Teutonic system, and, as far as we are concerned, both came in with the Saxons, being found in Kemble's list of original settlers.

I do not think it necessary to go more at length into the ancient Frankish names contained in that Roll, but before leaving the subject I would call attention to some of the names derived from the Danish place-names of Normandy. There are four names, Dabitott, Leuetot, Lovetot, and Tibtote (our name _Tiptoft_), from the ending _tot_, which, as Mr. Taylor has shown, represents the Scandinavian _toft_. And two names, Duilby and Linnebey, representing the Danish _by_; house, habitation, village, so common in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire; also two more, Braibuf and Olibef, with the ending _buf_ or _boeuf_, which, as Mr. Taylor has shown, also represents the Danish _by_, Olibef being, perhaps, Olafby, from the Danish name Olaf. Seeing this to be the case, I venture to hint a suspicion as to the redoubtable name Front-de-boeuf, and to suggest that it may after all be properly nothing more than one of these Norman place-names ending in _boeuf_. Such a name as, for instance, Frodeboeuf, from a Danish man's name, Frodi, might give it. On the other hand, the plebeian-looking name _Cha.s.seboeuf_, which Volney is said to have changed rather than have it supposed that any one of his ancestors had been a cow-boy, is, I doubt not, from a similar origin.

Such a name as Shaftsby (from the Anglo-Saxon man's name Shaft) would, when _by_ became corrupted into _boeuf_, naturally be made into Cha.s.seboeuf. I take, however, the name _Leboeuf_ to be from a different origin, viz. from a Frankish Libolf or Liubolf. There is yet one more name, Lascales (our _Lascelles_), which I think may be also from a Danish place-name, the word _scale_ (O.N. _skali_, a wooden hut) being common, particularly in the Lake District--in c.u.mberland and Westmoreland.

I purpose to conclude this chapter with a few stems ill.u.s.trative of the common Teutonic element in French, English, and German names, including such Italian names as I have been able to fall in with. The first stem, from A.S. _til_, bonus, praestans, seems to have been more common among the Saxons than among the Franks, and there are, consequently, more names corresponding in English than in French.