6 
Tolman—English Surnames. 
and all the other children, whatever the first names may be, 
have added the name of Hoarsen or Roar’s datter; then the eld¬ 
est grandson’s name goes back to that of the grandfather, and 
by this method the family name is preserved for generations.” 4 
The following fact came to my notice while I was writing this 
paper: Mr. Holver Thompson, a Norwegian, the son of Thomas 
Holversen, died at Doylestown, Wis., in 1891. I feel sure from 
this fact and from similar instances of which I have learned, 
that there are many Scandinavians in the United States 
whose last names are not proper surnames, or at least were not 
given to them as such. 
By a patronymic surname is meant, the personal name of the 
father used, either alone or with some prefix or suffix, as the 
surname of a son and then of the descendants of that son. A 
large number of the most common surnames that we have are 
of this class, such as Jones (John’s), Davi(d)s, Williamson, 
Johnson, etc. 
It would be useless for me to name one in a hundred of the 
common names of this class; but a few facts firmly grasped 
will enable any one to understand a vast number of names 
which will be left unmentioned. 
The Scotch and Irish prefixes Me- and Mac-; Ap-, a Welsh 
prefix; and Fitz-, a Norman one; all mean son of. £he Anglo- 
Saxon patronymic suffix -ing has already been mentioned. The 
Irish O’ is said to mean properly grandson of, as in O’Brien, 
grandson of Brien. The O’ represents a Celtic word, not the 
English of Perhaps the presence of the Welsh prefix Ap- ex¬ 
plains as large a number of otherwise inexplicably disguised 
surnames as any other single fact. The names Parry and Barry 
(from Ap- Harry), Perry (Ap- Henry), Bowen (Ap- Owen), 
Pritchard (Ap- Richard), Bevan (Ap- Evan), Bethel (Ap- 
Ithel), Powell (Ap- Howell), suggest the way in which many 
more words are explained. The present professor of Celtic at 
Oxford University is named Rhys. This name is said to mean 
rushing, impetuous (compare English Swift); it explains our 
Reese, Breese (from Ap- Rhys), and many similar forms. The 
same name taken into English before our long i took its modern 
4 Du Chaillu’s “Land of the Midnight Sun.” 1881. Vol. I, p. 391. 
