Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/7

 9* S. III. JAN. 7, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATVEDAY, JANUARY 7, 1899.

CONTENTS. -No. 54.

NOTES : Names : Saxon and Norman, 1 Ghost-words " Ploughing the sands," 2 Barricade Relic of Napoleon Barracks" Felicity " Lyke-Wake, 3 R. Cumberland

Thackeray and Edward FitzGerald Trisantona, 4 Weight of King George III. Myrmecides A " Reprint" Riming Advertisement French " Glastonbury Thorn," 5" Btitherum," 6.

QUERIES : Glyndyfrdwy Beamish Armorial An In- dian Nobleman Dunbar Gulls, 6 Paget and Cobbe Beltchar Surname Early Italian Lawrence Florio's Montaigne' Kemps of Hendon Learmont, 7 Ward Surname " Sleever " " Copper-tailed " Reference to Quotation Rev. A. Stevenson Authors Wanted, 8.

REPLIES : Hexham Priory, 8-The Church at Silchester, 11 Midsummer Gillyflower, 12 Brampton Bekesbourne

" Bounder," 13 W. Prynn Gladstone's Welsh Fore- fathers " Soot," 14 Vanity Fair John Oxenbridge Prime Minister, 15 Sir E. B. Godfrey The George worn by Charles I. Minutes and Seconds, 16 Anne Boleyn M. P.P. Henrietta M. Price, 17-Crafts in the Fourteenth Century, 18.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Dictionary of National Biography ' 'The Sportsman's Year-Book ' ' Whitaker's Almanack' Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

NAMES : SAXON AND NORMAN. A CURIOUS result of the Norman Conquest was the complete transformation which it effected in personal nomenclature. In the tenth century names were of the Saxon type in the south, and of either the Anglian or the Danish type in the north and east. Thus we have such Saxon names as Ulward, Godric, Gudmund, Sirewald, Reinbald, Leod- mar, Edric, Colebrand, or Brictric ; such Danish names as Olafr, Thorgrimr, Rblfr, Ormr, or Hrafn: and Anglian names like Cynimund, Lindbercht, Cuthmund, or Ean- bald. In less than two hundred years these names were replaced by Norman names such as William, Robert, Richard, Walter, or Roger. We can even trace the actual process. Thus in 1172 we have a list of the miraculous cures effected at the tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury. More than half the names are still of the Old English ^type, probably because the cures were chiefly among the peasant class. In the Durham 'Boldon Book, compiled in 1183, Norman names are usual among the tenants, but the fathers of these men, whose names are frequently recorded, are mostly of the Old English type. But in 1380, when Bishop Hatfield made a survey of

the same manors, the Old English names had completely disappeared. So in the Poll Book of 1379 Norman names are found exclusively.

The Old English names are distinguished by their almost endless variety. Thus from the stem cyng we have Cynebald, Cynebert, Cyneheard, Cynlaf, Cynemund, and Cyne- ward ; and a similar variety formed from a host of other stems might be adduced.

In singular contrast to this wealth of Saxon names is the poverty of those belonging to the Norman type. In 1379 more than half the men are called John or William, while more than three quarters are called either John, William, Thomas, Richard, or Robert, which in common parlance must have been Jack, Will, Tom, Dick, or Rob, since among the commonest patronymics are Jackson, Wilson, Thompson, Dixon, and Robson. Other names are less usual, Henry and Adam being each three per cent.; Roger and Hugh are

a two per cent. ; while Walter, Simon, jh, and Nicholas are one per cent. Still fewer are Geoffrey, Alan, and Stephen; Denis and Jacob occur only once in four hundred names ; Martin and Peter once in eight hundred.

In the thirteenth century William is the commonest name. In the fourteenth and following centuries John is first, with William second. Thus in Bishop Hatfield's survey forty per cent, of the men are named John, followed by William with twenty- two per cent. ; while if we add Robert and Thomas, eighty per cent, of all the men's names are accounted for.

From the York wills it appears that in 1636 John heads the list with sixteen per cent. William follows close behind with fifteen per cent. Thomas is twelve per cent., followed by Richard and Robert with eight per cent. each. Henry and George are only half as numerous ; still fewer are Roger, Ralph, Nicholas, Edward, James, Charles, Francis, Humphrey, Anthony, Gilbert, Law- rence, and Joseph.

The popularity of John is believed to be due to the supposed suitability in baptism of the Baptist's name, just as Jordan was a name usually given to children who were baptized in water brought from Palestine by pilgrims or crusaders. The prevalence of Wil- liam is due to William the Conqueror, that of Robert to sympathy with the misfortunes of his son. Thomas came in with the murder of the great archbishop. The crusading exploits of Richard I. made the name popular, while to the adventures of the Paladins we owe Roland, Roger, and Reginald. In the four- teenth century Charles, James, and George