Aug. 28. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



201 



xip by the late Rev. Henry Wharton, from MSS. in 

 tlie Lambeth Library, a.d. 1769, reprinted in Biblio- 

 theca Topographia Britannica, vol. vi.] 



SURNAMES. 



(Vol. v., passim.') 



Tins is a subject which involves many curious 

 questions of antiquarian interest, bearinjj upon the 

 hxnguage, habits, and pursuits of our countrynieu 

 in bygone days. It is one, also, that immediately 

 concerns every man who feels an honest pride in 

 being called by his father's name. With a view, 

 therefore, of drawing more general attention to it 

 than through the appropriate medium of " N. & Q." 

 it had then received, I drew up the notice which 

 appeared in Vol. v., p. 290. That notice has been 

 succeeded by many others of a highly instructive 

 character ; and with the hope of yet furtlier 

 eliciting inquiry, I now offer the following more 

 extended observations. Your clerical readers are 

 best qualified to supply the illustrative inform- 

 ation most to be desired, namely, particular facts 

 and local traditions. 



If Mr. Lower correctly accounts for the origin 

 of the surname Mitchell (Vol. v., p. 509.), that 

 gentleman need scarcely be reminded that — not 

 to take him to its true source in lotunheimr* — 

 it is one coeval, in all probability, Avith the pre- 

 sence of Hengist and liorsa on our shores. At 

 any rate, amongst other men of mark similarly de- 

 signated, the illustrious Thegn, whose daughter, 

 iEthelswytha, became the wife of our Alfred, was 

 called ^MeZrecZ Mucil (Mickle), though, with a la- 

 mentable disregard of all euphony and politeness, 

 n transposition frequently took place, and he be- 

 came Mucil JEthdred, which, in our present ver- 

 nacular, would be Big jEthelred. In like manner 

 we might derive the names Black or Blake, White, 

 and Stammers, from those respectable personages 

 of the Anglo-Saxon period, Wulfric se Blaca, 

 Thurceles llwitan, and ^Ethelwerde Stameran. 



Then, again, without stopping to inquire with 

 C. (Vol. v., p. 592.) whether its root be iden- 

 tical witli that oi earth, in Old Norse Forth, I may 

 observe that worth, as an independent word, is a 

 designation also of the highest antiquity in our 

 language. The Old Norse urd, and Teutonic 

 icurt, a " fate " or " destiny," was, with our Anglo- 

 Saxon progenitors, wi/rd, whence the "weird 

 sisters" of Gawen, Douglas, and Shakspeare. 

 Thomas Wurth, Wortys, or Woorts, for so is the 



* By the way, on whose authority does Mr. R. F. 

 LiTTi.EDALE (Vol. vi., p. GO.) represent the Icelandic 

 lotun as equivalent with Godmen ? Is not PoJyphayos 

 a better rendering of Lolun 9 



name severally written, was Sheriff of Norwich in 

 1480, and Coroner in 1489. 



But whether or no we are called upon to travel 

 as far as ancient Scandinavia for the etymologies 

 of these two particular names, certain it is that; 

 many of our most common personal appellations, 

 if we trace tliem to their i'ountain head, have a. 

 No7-se original, such as Balderstone, Thurston, 

 Smithers (whence Smith in all its varieties). Ward, 

 Garth, &c. ; whilst others, found in great num- 

 bers, especially amongst the population of the old 

 seats of our Avoollen manufactures, are undoubtedly 

 of Flemish or Walloon, and German extraction. 

 Now, as to both these classes of names, originally 

 derived from cognate families of languages, when 

 we are at fault in all other directions, I may 

 answer Mr. Lower's third Query (Vol. v., p. 

 509.) by referring him to the glossaries appended 

 to the Eddas and Sagas published at Copenhagen, 

 chiefly by the R. S. N. A., and by the Arnemag- 

 nasan Commission, as well as to the interesting 

 and highly erudite Deutsche Mythologie of Jac. 

 Grimm, authorities which often permit us to 

 pursue our inquiries to the most satisfactory con- 

 clusion. The name W^ieland, Wealand, or Way- 

 land, for instance, is none other than that of the 

 hero of the Viilundar-kvida, identical with the 

 Velint of the Vilkina-saga. Volundr means a 

 shilfid workman, in which sense the Icelanders still 

 use it, as in the phrase, Ilann ez volundr a jam, — 

 " He is a wayland in iron." 



The Latin shape assumed by them in old deeds, 

 charters, and other evidences, often, again, at once 

 discovers the original meaning and form of certain 

 classes of ancient surnames, and frequently enables 

 us to assign to an identical source appellations 

 wh'ch, at a first view, appear to have no two cha- 

 racters in common. For instance, Grosvenor is 

 Magnus Venator; Fairfnx, De Pulchro Capellitio ; 

 Cutcliffe, De Rupe scissa, &c. Burroughes and 

 Burke, with the numerous orthographical modi- 

 fications of each, are all again rendered by De 

 Burgo ; as are Woolfe, Love, and Loo, by Lupus ; 

 and Frene and Ashe, by De Fraxino : Avhilst some 

 names seem to be nothing more than simple con- 

 tractions or corruptions of their Latin style, as 

 Benlows of Benevoliis, and Foulis of I)e Foliis. 

 A few other similar examples are given in Vol. v., 

 p. 291. 



And here I may draw attention to tlie fact that, 

 in old legal documents, we often find proper 

 names so misspelt, as quite to alter the true cha- 

 racter of the word. The cause is obvious ; when 

 these names are given viva voce by uneducated 

 people, the scribe, if unacquainted with the patois 

 of the district, especially with the local vowel 

 sounds, and the peculiar force of certain of the 

 consonants, is led, almost unavoidably, into error. 

 It is as if he were taking down the speech of a 

 foreigner without understanding a word of his 



