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 NAMAQUA NAMES 127 Armenians, and is the seat of the Armenian patriarch of Russia. II. A city (anc. Naxuana) of Russian Armenia, on a plateau near the left bank of the Aras, 83 m. S. E. of Erivan, and 175 m. S. by E. of Tiflis; pop. in 1871, 5,356. The Armenians regard it as the most ancient city in the world, and as the spot where Noah settled after the deluge ; and it formerly con- tained, according to the Persian annalists, 40,000 houses. In antiquity it belonged to Media, and subsequently it became important in Armenia. It was destroyed in the 4th century by the Persians, in the 13th by the Tartars, and in the 17th again by the Persians. Shah Nadir wrested it from Turkey, and the Russians in 1827 from Persia. In 1840 it was partly destroyed by an earthquake. NAMAQUA, a tribe of S. Africa, inhabiting both banks of the Orange river near the mouth. Their country is divided into Great and Little Namaqualand, and the latter, lying S. of the Orange river, is now absorbed in Cape Colony. The tribe is small, and has been much diminished by disease and famine. They dwell in huts of the old Hottentot style, and speak the Nama, the oldest and purest of the Hottentot dialects. (See HOTTENTOTS.) NAMES, words by which particular objects are indicated. Names of persons were originally usually of a single word, as in the Hebrew genealogies, Terah, Levi, Aaron. The same is true of the earlier names in Egypt, Syria, Per- sia, Greece, and Italy, and in the Celtic and Germanic nations. All names were originally significant. Among the Hebrews the name given a child originated in some circumstance of its birth, or expressed some religious senti- ment; as Jacob, the supplanter; Samuel, God hath hearkened. Sometimes a new name was taken upon some important change in life, as Abraham for Abram. The Greeks bore a sin- fle name given the tenth day after birth by the ither, and expressing generally some admira- ble quality ; as Pherecrates, strength-bringer ; Sophron, wise. The Roman names were in their origin less dignified than those of the Greeks. Some were derived from ordinary employments, as Porcius, swineherd; some from personal peculiarities, as Naso, long- nosed. Many of the Celtic and Teutonic names were derived from "God," as Gott- fried, Godwin ; others from spirits or elves, as Elfric, elf king. The Jews after accumulating a considerable stock of names began to repeat them, and in the New Testament we find few new names. Among the later Greeks the eldest son generally bore the name of his paternal grandfather, and the confusion arising from the repetition of the same name was relieved by appending the father's name, either simply or turned into a patronymic, the occupation, the place of birth, or a nickname. This did not however amount to a regular system of sur- names. The Romans had a very complete sys- tem of nomenclature. The commonwealth was divided into clans called gentes, each of which 586 VOL. xii. 9 was subdivided into families. Thus in the gens Cornelia were included the families of the Scipiones, Lentuli, Cethegi, Dolabellse, Cinna3, Sulla3, and others. Each citizen bore three names, viz. : the prcenomen, which marked the individual; the nomen, which marked the gens ; and the cognomen, which marked the family. Thus Publius Cornelius Scipio be- longed to the Cornelian gens and the family of the Scipiones, while Publius was his indi- vidual, or what we now call Christian name. Sometimes a fourth name, or agnomen, was given, generally in honor of some military success; as Publius Cornelius Scipio Africa- nus, and La3lius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, his brother. The agnomen, being a distinction of honor, was carefully preserved by the chil- dren, and a decree of the senate granted to the elder Drusus the title Germanicus, and also to his posterity. The pra3nomen, like all given names, was commonly indicated by an initial ; but the Roman initial indicated one name in- variably : C. always meant Caius ; M., Marcus. Cneius was indicated by Cn. There were only about 30 recognized prasnomens. In common intercourse the prsenomen and cogno- men were used without the nomen, as C. Cae- sar for C. Julius Ca3sar. The ruder popula- tions of northern Europe continued to use a single name. There were few surnames in England before the Norman invasion, although some appear in the Saxon records. Many in- fluences united to introduce them. Names once significant lost their meaning and were repeated in memory of those who had borne them; and as many persons bore the same name, some further distinction became neces- sary. As Christianity prevailed it displaced the old heathen names by names from the Bible ; new names were taken in baptism, and sometimes whole companies were baptized, to save trouble, with the same name. Many sur- names appear in Domesday Book, but it was not at first common to transmit the surname from father to son. In the middle of the 12th century it was thought essential that persons of rank should bear a surname. Robert of Gloucester says that in the reign of Henry I. a lady objected to marrying a natural son of that king because he had no surname, upon which the monarch gave him the surname of Fitz-Roy, fitz being a corruption of fits, son ; the Russian vitch, as in Petrovitch, Ivanovitch, has the same value. After the reformation in England the introduction of parish registers contributed to give permanence to surnames. Yet in the beginning of the 18th century many families in Yorkshire had none, and it is said that even now few Staffordshire miners bear their fathers' names, but are known by some personal sobriquet. Sons took their fathers' names first in the modified form of patronym- ics ; thus, Priamides, son of Priam. Heraclides meant not only a son of Hercules, but a de- scendant. During the middle ages the Jews formed surnames with the Hebrew ben or