59 



high jump, and a Hern, with a long neck. 



Crump was said by one of the authorities to be an uncom- 

 plimentary nickname. 



Blackett was believed to equal Black-head. 



Curtis meant courteous, Gosse must be interpreted as the 

 name of a bird, and Grace might be the French gras, stout. 



Armstrong explained itself ; Reid and Read were said to be 

 forms of Red ; Grey was the name of an unpopular animal. 



Vorse (Voss) was the Dutch for a fox ; Russell (little red 

 fellow), and Renyard were Norman-French names for the same 

 animal. Rooke, White, Whitehead and Young might come under 

 this head. 



5. The signs hung over shops and inns provided many 

 names, such as Angell, Earl, King, Lyon, Shears. 



6. Others came from the characters in the Miracle plays and 

 Mystery plays, such as 



Angell, Bishop, 



Grace (?), Joy, King, Michell, 

 Pope, 



Saint John, 

 Virgin, Wiseman. 



The lecturer classified the names of members of the Society 



as follows : — 



Occupations ... ... ... ... 29 



Towns, villages and hamlets ... ... 87 



Countries and provinces ... ... ... 4 



Local features ... ... ... ... 29 



Personal names, ancient ... ... ... 18 



Personal names, Christian ... ... ... 15 



Pet-names and diminutives ... ... ... 16 



Patronymics in S ... ... ... ... 16 



Patronymics in son ... ... ... 13 



Welsh patronymics ... ... ... 2 



Saxon clan-names ... ... ... ... 6 



Nick-names ... ... ... ... 30 



Shop-signs and inn-signs ... ... ... 2 



Irish ... ... ... ... ... 6 



Scottish ... ... ... ... ... 13 



French, Portuguese, etc. ... ... ... 7 



Doubtful ... ... ... ... 7 



The lecturer said that some of his conclusions must needs be 

 reached by guesswork and analogy, and the names of foreigners 

 had often been twisted into English words which happened to 

 resemble them, which made research difficult. He hoped he had 

 not been too personal, but he did not think he would have minded 

 if his ancestor of Plantagenet times had been called a badger or an 

 owl. 



