Butler — Personal Names. 481 



wriglit. The name Cole is collier abbreviated, and Mills is 

 miller. McMynn is Scotch for son of milner [miller] ; Stuart, 

 that is, Stow-ward, is guardian of what is stowed in a house. 

 Reeve is a similar term, but with a wider meaning. Thus 

 Chaucer sajs, Bards, 223: 



"His lordes shepe, his cete and his deirie, 

 His swine, his hors, his store and his pultrie 

 Were wholly in this reves governing." 



It is agreed that Butler mxans cup-hearer, but it has been 

 doubted whether his name came from the bottle he uncorks or 

 from the butt out of which bottles are filled. The name King, 

 appai'ently signifving the highest of occupations, may really 

 have been an adjunct of the lowest — King's groom., scullion or 

 factotum, as King John said (iv., 2, 222) of such tools, 



"Fellows by the hand of nature marked 

 Quoted and signed to do a deed of shame." 



It seems clear, on the whole, that personal names may all be 

 reckoned to have been at first significant of characteristics, loca- 

 tions, or occupations. As time vv^ent on, however, those names 

 were often bestowed wuthout anv reu'ard to their ori^-inal mean- 

 ing. Christian names were from early ages so given, a fact too 

 little dwelt on by writers on the specialty of names. Church 

 calendars had their beginnings as early as the fourth century. 

 They grew rapidly so that, though every dog has his day, many 

 a saint must be! content with none, or at most with a part of 

 one. Each saint was viewed as the tutelar genius — or guardian 

 of all children born on his own day — and so they were natur- 

 ally often called by his nam.e, with no care for their location, 

 occupation or characteristics. All old almanacs — ^^vhateveT 

 they lacked — showed at least one saint for every day in the 

 year. Such a list was invaluable. It taught the most ignor- 

 ant mother in a moment what name it was predestinated her 

 child should bear. This saintly calendar appeared in the first 

 volume of the w^orld-famous Goth a Almanac issued in 1776, and 

 it has been repeated every year since. The adoption of names 

 in accordance with the days of saints did not end at the Kefor- 



