The Romance of Names Part 17

We have a fair number of Celtic words connected with natural scenery, but they do not as a rule form compounds, and as surnames are usually found in their simple form. Such are Cairn, a stony hill, Crag, Craig, and the related Carrick and Creagh, Glen or Glynn, and Lynn, a cascade. Two words, however, of Celtic origin, don, or down, a hill, and combe, a hollow in the hills, were adopted by the Anglo-Saxons and enter into many compounds. Thus we find Kingdon, whence the imitative Kingdom, Brandon, from the name Brand (Chapter VII), Ashdown, etc.

The simple Donne or Dunne is sometimes the Anglo-Saxon name Dunna, whence Dunning, or a colour nickname, while Down and Downing may represent the Anglo-Sax. Duna and Duning (Chapter VII). From Combe, used especially in the west of England, we have Compton, and such compounds as Acomb, at combe, Addis...o...b.., Battis...o...b.., etc. But Newcomb is for Newcome (Chapter II). See also Slocomb (Chapter XXI).

HILLS

The simple Hill and Dale are among our common surnames. Hill also appears as Hull and is easily disguised in compounds, e.g. Brummel for broom-hill, Tootell and Tuttle for Toothill, a name found in many localities and meaning a hill on which a watch was kept. It is connected with the verb to tout, originally to look out

"David dwellide in the tote hil" (Wyc, 2 Sam. v. 9).

We have Dale and its cognate Dell in Swindell (swine), Tindall (Tyne), Twaddell, Tweddell (Tweed), etc.--

"Mr. H. T. Twaddle announced the change of his name to Tweeddale in the Times, January 4, 1890" (Bardsley).

Other names for a hill are Fell (Scand.), found in the lake country, whence Grenfell; and Hough or How (Scand.), as in the north country names Greenhow, Birchenough.

This is often reduced to -o, as in c.l.i.theroe, Shafto, and is easily confused with scough, a wood (Scand.), as in Briscoe (birch), Ayscough (ash).

In the north hills were also called Law and Low, with such compounds as Bradlaugh, Whitelaw, and Harlow. To these must be added Barrow, often confused with the related borough (Chapter XIII). Both belong to the Anglo-Sax. beorgan, to protect, cover. The name Leatherbarrow means the hill, perhaps the burial mound, of Leather, Anglo-Sax.

Hlothere, cognate with Lothair and Luther.

A hill-top was Cope or Copp. Chaucer uses it of the tip of the Miller's nose

"Upon the cope right of his nose he hade A werte, and thereon stood a toft of herys."

(A. 554.)

Another name for a hill-top appears in Peak, Pike, Peck, or Pick, but the many compounds in Pick-, e.g. Pickbourne, Pickford, Pickwick, etc., suggest a personal name Pick of which we have the dim. in Pickett (cf. Fr. Picot) and the softened Piggot. Peak may be in some cases from the Derbyshire Peak, which has, however, no connection with the common noun peak. A mere hillock or knoll has given the names Knapp, Knollys or Knowles, Knock, and Knott. But Knapp may also be for Mid. Eng. nape, cognate with knave and with Low Ger. Knappe, squire--

"Wer wagt es, Rittersmann oder Knapp'.

Zu tauchen in diesen Schlund?"

(Schiller, Der Taucher, 1. I.)

Redknap, the name of a Richmond boat-builder, is probably a nickname, like Redhead. A Knapper may have lived on a "knap," or may have been one of the Suffolk flint-knappers, who still prepare gun-flints for weapons to be retailed to the heathen.

Knock and Knocker are both Kentish names, and there is a reef off Margate known as the Kentish Knock. We have the plural Knox (cf. Bax, Settlements and Enclosures, Chapter XIII). Knott is sometimes for c.n.u.t, or Canute, which generally becomes Nutt. Both have got mixed with the nickname Nott.

A green knoll was also called Toft (Scand.), whence Langtoft, and the name was used later for a homestead. From Cliff we have Clift, [Footnote: This may also be from Mid. Eng, clift, a cleft.] with excrescent -t, and the cognates Cleeve and Clive. Compounds of Cliff are Radcliffe (red), Sutcliffe (south), Wyclif (white). The c- sometimes disappears in compounds, e.g. Cunliffe, earlier Cunde-clive, and Topliff; but Ayliffe is for AElfgifu or AEthelgifu and Goodliffe from G.o.dleof (cf. Ger. Gottlieb). The older form of Stone appears in Staines, Stanhope, Stanton, etc. Wheatstone is either for "white stone" or for the local Whetstone (Middles.e.x). In Balderstone, Johnston, Edmondstone, Livingstone, the suffix is -ton, though the frequence of Johnston points to corruption from Johnson, just as in Nottingham we have the converse case of Beeson from the local Beeston.

In Hailstone the first element may be Mid. Eng, half, holy. Another Mid. English name for a stone appears in Hone, now used only of a whetstone.

A hollow or valley in the hillside was called in the north Clough, also spelt Clow, Cleugh (Clim o' the Cleugh), and Clew. The compound Fairclough is found corrupted into Faircloth. Another obscure northern name for a glen was Hope, whence Allsop, Blenkinsop, the first element in each being perhaps the name of the first settler, and Burnup, Hartopp, (hart), Harrap (hare), Heslop (hazel).

Gill (Scand.), a ravine, has given Fothergill, Pickersgill, and Gaskell, from Gaisgill (Westmorland). These, like most of our names connected with mountain scenery, are naturally found almost exclusively in the north. Other surnames which belong more or less to the hill country are Hole, found also as Holl, Hoole, and Hoyle, but perhaps meaning merely a depression in the land, Ridge, and its northern form Rigg, with their compounds Doddridge, Langridge, Brownrigg, Hazelrigg, etc. Ridge, Rigg, also appear as Rudge, Rugg.

From Mid. Eng. raike, a path, a sheep-track (Scand.), we get Raikes and perhaps Greatorex, found earlier as Greatrakes, the name of a famous faith-healer of the seventeenth century.

WOODLAND AND PLAIN

The compounds of Wood itself are very numerous, e.g. Braidwood, Harwood, Norwood, Sherrard and Sherratt (Sherwood). But, in considering the frequency of the simple Wood, it must be remembered that we find people described as le wode, i.e. mad (cf. Ger. Wut, frenzy), and that mad and madman are found as medieval names

"Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood; And here am I, and wode within this wood, Because I cannot meet my Hermia."

(Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1.)

As a suffix -wood is sometimes a corruption of -ward, e.g. Haywood is occasionally for Hayward, and Allwood, Elwood are for Aylward, Anglo-Sax. AEthelweard. Another name for a wood was Holt, cognate with Ger. Holz--

"But right so as thise holtes and thise hayis, That han in winter dede ben and dreye, Revesten hem in grene whan that May is."

(Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 351.)

Hurst or Hirst means a wooded hill (cf. Ger. Horst), and Shaw was once almost as common a word as wood itself--

"Wher rydestow under this grene-wode shawe?"

(D, 1386.)

Hurst belongs especially to the south and west, though Hirst is very common in Yorkshire; Shaw is found in the north and Holt in the east and south. We have compounds of Shaw in Bradshaw, Crashaw (crow), Hearnshaw (heron), Earnshaw (Mid. Eng, earn, eagle), Renshaw (raven) [Footnote: It is obvious that this may also be for raven's haw (Chapter XIII). Raven was a common personal name and is the first element in Ramsbottom (Chapter XII), Ramsden.], etc., of Hurst in Buckhurst (beech), Brockhurst (badger), and of Holt in Oakshott.

We have earlier forms of Grove in Greaves--

"And with his stremes dryeth in the greves The silver dropes, hangynge on the leves"

(A. 1495)--

and Graves, the latter being thus no more funereal than Tombs, from Thomas (cf. Timbs from Timothy). But Greaves and Graves may also be variants of the official Grieves (Chapter XIX), or may come from Mid.

Eng. graefe, a trench, quarry. Compounds are Hargreave (hare), Redgrave, Stangrave, the two latter probably referring to an excavation. From Mid. Eng, strope, a small wood, appear to come Strode and Stroud, compound Bulstrode, while Struthers is the cognate strother, marsh, still in dialect use. Weald and wold, the cognates of Ger. Wald, were applied rather to wild country in general than to land covered with trees. They are probably connected with wild.

Similarly the Late Lat. foresta, whence our forest, means only what is outside, Lat, foris, the town jurisdiction. From the Mid. Eng. waeld we have the names Weld and Weale, the latter with the not uncommon loss of final -d. Scroggs (Scand.) and Scrubbs suggest their meaning of brushwood. Scroggins, from its form, is a patronymic, and probably represents Scoggins with intrusive _r_. This is perhaps from Scogin, a name borne by a poet who was contemporary with Chaucer and by a court-fool of the fifteenth century--

"The same Sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's head at the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high." (2 Henry IV., iii. 2.)

With Scrubb of cloudy ammonia fame we may compare Wormwood Scrubbs.

Shrubb is the same word, and Shropshire is for Anglo-Sax. scrob-scire.

FOREST CLEARINGS

The two northern names for a clearing in the wood were Royd and Thwaite (Scand.). The former is cognate with the second part of Baireut and Wernigerode, and with the Rutli, the small plateau on which the Swiss patriots took their famous oath. It was so called--

"Weil dort die Waldung ausgerodet ward."

(SCHILLER, Wilhelm Tell.)

Among its compounds are Ackroyd (oak), Grindrod (green), Murgatroyd (Margaret), Learoyd (lea), Ormerod, etc. We also find the name Rodd, which may belong here or to Rudd (Chapter VII), and both these names may also be for Rood, equivalent to Cross or Crouch (Chapter II), as in Holyrood. Ridding is also related to Royd. Hacking may be a dim.

of Hack (Chapter VII), but we find also de le hacking, which suggests a forest clearing.