49 



Gregory, (or watchful), Massinger, (a mass singer), Emersou (from aimer), 

 Tudor (=Theodore, or gift of God). Gotobed is another form of the 

 German Got-bet, or " pray to God," while Bidgood is also a con'uption 

 of the same name : and the well known Praise-God Barebones has its 

 correspondent in the German Gott-lob. During the time of the 

 Commonwealth whole sentences of Scripture were constantly adopted 

 as Christian names, such for instance as — " Fight the good fight of 

 Faith" Smith, " Search tlie Scriptures" Taylor, " Safety on High" 

 Williams; and lists of jurors in those days are found composed entirely 

 of names such as these. 



Some of these names are taken from saints or saint days ; as Giles, 

 from St.^-Egidius; Sin-clair, from St. Clair; St. John, usually pronounced 

 Sinjon, Semple, a corruption of Sampol or St. Paul, as Sampler and 

 Samphire are of St. PieiTe, and Seymoui' of St. Maure. Chiistmas 

 and Noel [i.e. natalis), Pascal, Christopher and Toussaint, are taken 

 from the sacred seasons of Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, and All 

 Saints' Day, on which their founders were probably bom. In this case 

 they correspond to the Latin Manius (a child bom in the morning), 

 Servius, Festus, &c., and to the names Spring, Summer and Winter 

 among ourselves. 



Closely allied to these religious names are those which are taken from 

 heathen gods. Such are Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, derived 

 from those heathen idols, who are both mentioned in that passage of 

 Scripture : — 



" Bd boweth iovf d, Nebo stoopeth," 



and from the former of these two false gods the PhoBnician names 

 Hannibal, Hssimbal, and others derive their origin. Such names 

 among ourselves are Venus, Julius, Thorsby, Thurtou, and Thurstan, 

 though the well known device of the thrush on the tun, to be seen at 

 Fountains Abbey, does suggest a false derivation of the latter. 



Many surnames which appear at first sight almost incomprehen- 

 sible, tum out, on examination, to be mere corruptions. The roll of 

 Battle Abbey furnishes the key to many of these. Some arise from 

 the substitution of " field" for " viUe;" thus Blonde-ville has become 

 Blomfield, and Bosse-ville BosweU. Many again have vastly deteri- 

 orated in the process of corruption. Thus the fine old Teutonic name 

 De Hogh Stepe, " Of the High Steep," has become Huckstep ; D'Up- 

 Haugh, " Of the Uj^per HUl," has degenerated into Duppa, Dumont 

 into Dymond, Clear-brook into Clutterbuck, De Ville into Devil, 

 Berchensty into Burster, Dudley into Deadly, and Shaw-field-bottom, 

 as we have already seen, into Shufflebottom. 



