164 



Very many of these names arc, when we consider their 

 actual signification, extraordinary and surprising, and we 

 cannot but wonder how a man could ever come to i)e 

 called a Wolf, a Hog, a Crane, a Gull, or by so curious 

 a title as Moon, Salt, Doll, Pinchbeck and others quoted 

 equally strange. These anomalies and eccentricities were 

 analyzed and explained b}' references to heraldic bear- 

 ings, jocose and familiar sobriquets or nicknames, cor- 

 ruptions, abbreviations, etc. A great many singular and 

 striking instances were given, and elucidated by explana- 

 tions yet available in history, social customs and records 

 and derivations of various sorts, from which light may 

 yet be thrown upon these apparent vagai-ies. A large 

 number, seemingly utterl}' incomprehensible at first sight, 

 were traced to their incidental origins, and the curious 

 transformations they had undergone clearly developed. 

 A long list was also given of grotesque and unaccountable 

 appellatives, of the origin of which no reasonable conjec- 

 ture seems to be now possible. 



The nomenclature of places, towns, cities, castles, es- 

 tates, etc., was fully investigated, and followed up through 

 contractions and the corruptions of time to its sources in 

 the primitive Celtic of the Britons, the Saxon, the Latin 

 terms of the Romans and the Norman French introduced 

 by the conquest. The frequent transfer of these to family 

 names was also illustrated by examples. The changes 

 effected by translation into other languages were consid- 

 ered too, and made plain by numerous instances. 



The system of nomenclature of the Greeks and Romans 

 was briefly described, and its analogies with the customs 

 of later times noticed. 



It is impossible in this compendium to note even all 

 the leading points of the essay. Of course, we cannot 

 recapitulate here the large number of carefully collected 



