74 



Pelides, and a few descri^^tive or epithetic names generally applied to the 

 Gods and Goddesses of the Greek Mythology. The same need of surnames 

 was iindoubtedly felt by the Latin races as they settled down in masses 

 and progressed in civilization. In the Augustan age the Roman citizen 

 generally bore a threefold name. The first, denoted the prenomen, corres- 

 l^onding to our baptismal name ; the second, was the clan or family name ; 

 the third answered to our modern surname, and was often bestowed in the 

 first place in much the same way as many of our surnames were given, 

 viz , from some cause or quality affecting the owner ; thus, in Titus 

 IManlius Torquatus, Titus is the prenomen, Manlius the clan name, and 

 Torquatus the surname — which signifies, " One provided with a torquis " 

 and was acquired by Titus IManlius wearing the necklace of a 

 Gaul whom he had slain in battle. At this time too the 

 Greeks were using double and in some cases threefold names, but 

 their system of nomenclature was neither so precise nor so complete 

 as that of the Romans. 



Let us now turn to our own country and see what was the custom 

 prevailing here. The earliest inhabitants of the British Islands of whom 

 we have any written record were undoubtedly of the Celtic race. They 

 must have reached Britain long anterior to the beginning of the Christian 

 Era, probably not less than 1,000 years. Their descendants, it may be 

 remarked in passing, still exist in the north of Scotland, in Wales, Ireland 

 and the Isle of Man. L'ntil within a comparatively recent period the Celtic 

 langiiage continued to be a spoken language only, and therefore we are 

 furnished with but a scanty stock of Celtic names, those of Cassivellaunus, 

 Caractacus, Cartismundua, Boadicea, (all in the Latinized form, remember) 

 Vortigern, Vortimer, the legendary Arthur, and our own better authen- 

 ticated Dunmail " last King of rocky Cumberland, " are familiar to all 

 readers of history, and in them we see again a people using one appel- 

 lative only. The hordes of Jutes, Angles, Frisians, and Saxons, now 

 comprehended under the generic term, Anglo-Saxon, who continued to 

 pour upon our shores during part of the 5th and throughout the 6tli 

 centuries, used' single names only by which to distinguish themselves one 

 from another, though frequently individuals amongst them acquired a 



