284 On Proper Names. 



as William of the Earl's, would become William Earle ; John 

 of the Bishop's would be abridged \nio John Bishop^ &c. ; for 

 it is not likely that the dignitaries themselves would be thus 

 designated, being always distinguished by their several titles. 

 Camden says that many names of this class were taken from 

 the device in the armorial bearings, or the family crest. 



These five classes, or divisions, comprise, as I have already 

 observed, about 96 per cent, of the whole catalogue of English 

 sirnames. Of the small remainder, a considerable part are 

 monosyllables, of which I have not been able to find the ety- 

 mology, partly from the words having become so far obsolete 

 as to escape the efforts of ordinary research, and partly from 

 that change or corruption in orthography, which always prevails 

 in early civilization *. Dr. Johnson well observes, that " as 

 all language was, at its beginning, merely oral, all words ot 

 necessary or common use were spoken before they were written, 

 and, while they were unfixed by any visible signs, must have 

 been spoken with great diversity, as we now observe those whQ 

 cannot read to catch sounds imperfectly, and utter them neg- 

 ligently. When this wild and barbarous jargon was first reduced 

 to an alphabet, every penman endeavoured to express, as he 

 could, the sounds which he was accustomed to pronounce, or 

 to receive, and vitiated, in writing, such words as were already 

 vitiated in speech. The powers of the letters, when they were 

 applied to a new language, must have been vague and unset- 

 tled, and, therefore, different hands would exhibit the same 

 sound by different combinations." 



As respects proper names, we can trace this varied or cor- 

 rupted spelling in peculiar abundance, because in such cases 

 there was no general standard, and every thing was determined 

 by individual caprice, error, or stupidity. Thus Crookshanks, 

 was changed into Cruickshanks ; Peasecod into Peasegood ; 

 Bloomfield into Blomfield ; Highergraves into Hargraves ; 



* I must beg leave to repeat, that to pursue this inquiry into its minute ramifi- 

 cations with full success, would require a very nice acquaintance with the various 

 Celtic and Teutonic dialects, and a collection of Glossaries, Lexicons, and Voca- 

 bularies, much more extensive than I have had the means of procuring or perusing. 

 The utmost that I can pretend to, is, to exhibit, in the way of synthesis, a succinct 

 view of the general subject under its leading subdivisions ; and even this is more 

 than has hitherto been accomplished in any systematic manner, as far as I am 

 acquainted with English hterature. 



