On Proper Names. 283 



able to find; nor can I discover any traces of the history or 

 the origin of this species of appellation. Some of them, I 

 know from personal observation, must have been mere nick- 

 names, first given in caprice, and afterwards, from time, igno- 

 rance, and the general want of written documents, permanently 

 appropriated. In this way. Long John would become John 

 Long; Brown Bess would grow into Betty Brown; Wise 

 Thomas would become Thomas Wise *. o 



This class of names, in the opinion of some etymologists, ii 

 the most ancient of all others, and Dr. Murray is decidedly of 

 opinion that, amongst all early tribes or nations, the more 

 obvious qualities of mind or body would universally supply the 

 first names. This may possibly be correct in the main, but it is 

 also certain that names derived from the parents, or from the 

 place of birth or residence, would follow so immediately as to 

 be nearly connate with the others. Names would frequently 

 be conferred on children before any distinctive quality of mind 

 or body could have time to develope itself. 



The FIFTH, and last, of the five general divisions which I 

 have laid down, is that class of names derived from natural 

 objects or productions, chiefly animals and vegetables, as Lyon^ 

 Tiger ^ Bird^ Swallow, Hawk, Salmon, Rose, &c. Dr. Murray 

 and others suppose that these were conferred generally from 

 some imaginary analogy or similarity between the individual 

 designated and the object which supplied the name. This, in 

 some cases, may very probably have happened ; but many 

 names of this class are so insignificant, as applicable to a 

 human being, that it is difficult to imagine any intelligible ana- 

 logy. There is, it must be confessed, as much difficulty in 

 tracing the origin, motives, and history, of this class of names, 

 as in those of the fourth division. One branch of them, derived 

 from dignified titles, such as Kingj Prince, Lord, Duke, Mar" 

 quis. Bishop, Earl, &c., were probably given to persons whp 

 belonged to the family or household of these high personages, 



' ■ ♦ Some years ago, a woman named Ann Wilson, in a Yorkshire village, became 

 scJ^fenoAvned for fluency of speech, that she acquired the name of Nanny Ciack, 

 which was so completely affixed, that her real name was only known to a few of the 

 older inhabitants. An instance occurred, a few years since, at Lancaster assizes, 

 of a man who did not know his own name, and was recognized only by one of 

 thosie nicknames, or appellations, which people so often acquire iu the villages of 

 the north. 



