is our Saviour;" Saul "The asked -for niau;" David "The beloved;" 

 Solomon, like our Frederic, means the peaceful; Jeroboam, "Oppressor 

 of the people ;" Daniel, " Judge of God." 



Many of the New Testament names also, whether it be by foresight 

 or accident, have a peculiar appropriateness of meaning. Thus the 

 name Peter, which signifies a rock or stone, illustrates that passage, in 

 which our Saviour says, " Upon this rock will I found my church." To 

 the disciple again, who refused to believe in our Saviour's resurrection 

 till he could convince himself by sight and touch, there belonged the 

 singularly appropriate name of " Thomas, the Doubter ; " Didymus and 

 Thomas being exactly equivalent. But the list of these Bible names 

 might be multiplied infinitely. 



Many of the old Greek names too seem singularly fitted to the per- 

 sons who bore them, such as Demosthenes, or " The people's strength ;" 

 Philip, " The lover of horses ;" Alexander, " The man-repeller." 



Much more might be said about names in general, but my subject 

 now is Surnames. The derivation and meaning of this word "'surname" 

 has itself been much disputed. Till the middle of the last century, it 

 used constantly to be spelt with an ' z ' instead of with a ' z<,' as it is now ; 

 and still more anciently it was often written sire-name. This mode of 

 spelling shows that the sir-name or sire-name, was so called because 

 it was the name a man derived from his father, and this we shall see it 

 very often was. Now, however, the more general derivation is from the 

 French " sur " (over or above), making the word to mean the name 

 which we have over and above our Christian name. The circumstance 

 that this supra-nomen or surname was at one time written above (sur 

 or supra") the Christian name, is much in favour of this view. Without 

 however canvassing the merits of these two derivations, we may, I 

 think, at once assume that both are correct ; or rather, that the two 

 are entirely different things ; and that the " Sire-name," or sirname, is 

 distinct from, and much anterior to, in fact is the oldest form of the 

 hereditary " Surname," which was introduced into this country by the 

 Normans. 



Thus the Sire-name is a name indicating the ancestry of the indi- 

 vidual ; whereas the surname was descriptive of 



(1) Some moral or physical quality which he possessed ; 



(2) Of the trade or profession which he exercised ; or 



(3) Of the locality from whence he came. 



We shall treat of both of these, the " Sire-name "and the " Surname," 

 ill ordor. The Sire-name, as lining the oldest, first claims (Uir attention. 



