Conclusion. 
13 
nated; though, of course, any particular family with that name 
may have had a lion-hearted ancestor. Rountree (rowan-tree), 
Cherry, Ash, etc., are either place-names or sign-names. 
Some very common surnames that seem at first sight hard to 
explain are simply common nicknames from Celtic or from French, 
and correspond to well-known English surnames. To Black cor¬ 
respond the Celtic names Dow, Duff, Duffie, and Macduff. 
Roderick Dhu, if his name had been taken into English before 
the change of u to ow, i. e., before the fifteenth century, might 
have become the ancestor of a race of Dows. White corresponds 
to the Celtic Bean, Finn, and Finlay; Brown, to the Celtic 
Dunn. Bigg, Mickle, High, etc., are parallel in English 
to the French Gross and Grant (grand), and to the Celtic More, 
Moore, Moran. English Small and Little; French Pettit, Pettee, 
Petty, etc. ; and the Celtic Beggs,— have all the same meaning. 
CONCLUSION. 
Some names, especially foreign ones, have become very much 
ehanged in form. One would not at first see in Sidney, Sey¬ 
mour, and Sinclair later forms of the French names, Saint Denis, 
Saint Maur, and Saint Clair. Bunyan is from Bon-Jean (Good- 
John). 
Popular etymology, the forcing of meaning into words which 
have no apparent English significance, has altered many names. 
To illustrate this very common process of putting meaning into 
words, take the phrase from Tennyson’s “Northern Farmer,” 
“Doon i’ the woild’enemies” (anemones). The word anemone is 
meaningless to the rustic, and the well-known enemy is made to 
take its place. Fox is in some cases derived from Fawkes and 
similar forms. These names go back to the personal name 
Fulke, which was borne by the paternal grandfather of Henry II, 
and was in common use after the Conquest. Fox is also a true 
nickname, denoting craftiness, as well as a sign-name. The 
threefold origin of this name is typical of what is true in many 
cases. Doolittle is confidently asserted to be in some cases a 
popular etymology from de Vhotel (from the hotel). 
The number of stories connected with names is legion. I will 
close with a few of them. 
