Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/645

 APPENDIX C 625 covering many pages, of the names in a Court Roll temp. Edward I, found only one native name — Sweyn.(*) The following lists have been prepared to show the relative popularity of names at intervals of about 200 years from 1166 to the present day. They contain in each case 600 consecutive names drawn from (i) The Red Book of the Exchequer, (2) Audley Inqs. p. m. in North Staffs. 1 299-1 32 7, giving names of villeins, (3) Writs of Summons teynp. Edward III from the Report on the Dignity of a Peer, (4) Chancery Proceedings temp. Elizabeth, (5) London Directory 1738, (6) Kelly's Handbook of the Titled, Landed, and Official Classes, 1 9 1 1. It will be seen that in the twelfth century William was the commonest name, but by the middle of the fourteenth it had given way to John, which since then has never been ousted from its pride of place. The remarkable impoverishment of the nomenclature in the time of Edward III as compared with any other period is shown by the fact that whereas in 1 166 and in the present day the five commonest names totalled only 259 and 213 respectively, in the fourteenth century they amount to no less than 410 out of the 600 names listed. The catalogue of villeins' names has kindly been supplied by Josiah Wedgwood, M.P. It is, of course, very difficult to obtain a list of the peasantry at this period. The one here given contains 42 distinct names, and does not differ as much as the Editor would have expected from that of the Nobility and Gentry at the same time, for the only names appearing here which would not be found among the upper classes are Honde, Dobbe, Dodde, Edy, Lovet, Mayot, Sigge, Swan, and the diminutive Alcock. It is clear that by the end of the thirteenth century even among the lowest class Norman names had almost entirely displaced Anglo-Saxon ones. The remarkable preponderance of Adam as a villein's name, and of Biblical names in the eighteenth century is also noticeable. TABLE Roger Walter 66-7 I299-I327 (Villeins) 1347- 92 104 84 65 50 67 48 73 59 29 15 12 25 20 29 24 2 10 21 18 9 1558 1738 I9H William 92 104 84 70 48 51 Robert 65 50 67 28 21 20 Richard 48 73 59 53 23 11 Ralph 29 15 12 II I 5 6 Huah 21 18 9 5 — 7 Henry 16 60 24 22 11 33 John 14 61 152 141 121 57 (») On this subject the reader may also be referred to the Introduction to A Calendar of the Feet 'of Fines relating to the County of Huntingdon, I194-1603, edited by G. J. Turner, Camb. Archaeol. Soc, no. xxxvii, 1913. 79