3y 



names. These will be fouud to have arisen in most cases, either from 

 some physical or moral psciiliarity of the owner, from the trade or 

 occupation which he followed, or from the name of the place where he 

 lived. Of the first class are such names as White, Black, Brown, 

 Reed, Lightfoot, and so forth ; of the second. Smith, Taylor, Baker, 

 Miller ; and of the third. Hill, Dale, Lancaster, Derbysliire, Crosby, 

 York, &c. 



We will first consider those derived from some physical peculiarity. 

 Such names have been more or less common among all nations. With 

 the Greeks indeed they were pot of very frequent occun-ence, the 

 majority of their names being derived from moral rather than physical 

 qualities. Still we find among them such names as Plato, by many sup- 

 posed to mean " He with the broad forehead," Glaucus, Callisthenes, &c. 

 Among the Latins, however, such names abounded. We have for 

 instance, from some prominent featm'e of the face, Capito {i.e. Great- 

 head or Grostete), Tronto or beetle-brow, Naso and Nasica or bottle- 

 nose, Labrenus or thick-lips, Dentatus, Crispus, and Cincinnatus or 

 curl-pate ; from some physical defect, we have Codes (one-eyed), Strabo 

 (squint-eyed), Scsevola (left-handed), Balbus (stutterer), Calvus (bald-pate), 

 Claudius and Clodius (limper). Varus (bow-legged), Flaccus, Valgius, 

 Caesius, Petus (pink-eyed). Silo, Pansa (splay-foot), Scaurus, Pedo (long- 

 shanks), and a host of others. 



The same class of names were common among the Saxons. In the 

 life of Hereward, the last Saxon who held out against William the 

 Conqueror, we find such names as " Marten with the light foot," 

 retained in our name "Lightfoot," " Siward the Red," " Walric the 

 Black," &c. ; and among our Saxon kings such names as Harold 

 Harefoot, Edmund Ironside, &c. abound. 



Again, among the French kings we constantly find such names as 

 Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, Charles the Bald, Charles the Fat, 

 Charles the Stammerer, &c. ; and our own kings (after the Saxon times), 

 had generally some appellation of this kind. Thus the three sons of 

 William the Conqueror were respectively distinguished as Robert Curt- 

 hose, or short legs ; William Rufus, or red-haired ; and Henry Beauclerc, 

 or good scholar : and among their descendants we have Edward Long- 

 shanks, Edward the Black Prince, Richard Lion-hearted, John Lack- 

 land, &c. 



On proceeding to classify these names we find that a large number 

 of them have been drawn from the hue of the complexion, or the colour 

 of the hair. Thus from their dark swarthy complexion we have the 

 Greek Metas, with its derivative Melancthon (=Schwarzerd, his original 



