1C l)omes(Iiiy name of Sliipdcn, Scepednna, is porliaps from 
sheep. .Swanton is from swan. Starslon, from the Xorse starri 
a hawk. The name Thime is Saxon for thorn ; we have the English’ 
Avoid in 1 homage and Thornham. The thorn was often, from it.s 
ongovity, used as a boundary mark; one now growing near Hethel 
■ uic 1 IS said to liavo been a trysting-place in the reign of Iviin^ 
• 'J’itchwell is the Anglo-Saxon ticcen, a kid° 
i>i AVheatacre, wheat; in ^\'ortwell, Wyrt, a personal name, 
a lierl). ’ 
Jnirnham Ul[)h, and Wolverton, from the personal name Wiilf- 
lere, reniind us of a time wlien wolves were common in Ihigland. 
/ is . ’candmavian, wnl/ Saxon. Again, orme, a serpent, is 
Scandinavian, ^c’onn Anglo-Saxon, the words which moan 
.‘serpent occur in Orniesby, A\^ormogay, and A^'ortweIl. I must not 
conclude this list witliout mentioning the two I^orwicli parishes, 
bt. Martin-at-Oak and St. Michael-at-Thorn. 
'VAo next come to surnames derived from living objects. .My 
li«t would have been much longer had I not confined myself 
iJtnctly to surnames of persons whom I could ascertain to have 
resided in the county of iXorfolk, and wl.on I have not been able 
trace the name later than the commencement of the last century 
1 liavc given the date ot its occurrence. 
Ihcso surnames have been derived from those of animals in 
various ways. That which lirst suggests itself is the resemblance 
ut Uic original bearers of them to the animals themselves, cither in 
tlieir personal appearance, or in a noted characteristic of the animal 
01 in . Ill niany instances such names arc now simnilarlv 
inappropriate, the surname having descended from father to son, 
JUt not the quality which gave rise to it. 
'i hc use of the names of animals as personal names is of course 
much older than the origin of surnames, and in many instances 
arose rom a wish on the part of his Saxon parents that their son 
bhould emulate the chanicter of the creature whose name they ^avc 
am, oa winch subject Verstegan, writing about the year IGOO, 
says: I he reader may please to note that our Saxon ancestors, while 
ye they were pagans, being a very valiant and warlike people 
Avould sometimes desire to have their children imitate some such 
propcrti.^ of coui-agc as they observed to be in some kinds of 
beasts ot battle, as is amongst others the bear, of which beast to 
