History of Christian Names
9781465678577
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
I cannot put forth this attempt without a few words of apology for having undertaken it at all. The excuse is, chiefly, the attraction that the subject has had for me for at least twenty years, from the time when it was first taken up as matter of amusement. The difficulty of gaining information, and the inconsistencies of such as I did acquire, convinced me that the ground was almost untrodden; but the further I advanced on it, the more I perceived that it required a perfect acquaintance with language, philology, ethnology, hagiology, universal history, and provincial antiquities; and to me these were so many dark alleys, up which I only made brief excursions to knock my head against the wall of my own ignorance. But the interest of the subject carried me on—often far beyond my depth, when the connection between names and words has lured me into the realms of philology, or where I have ventured upon deductions of my own. And I have ventured to lay the result of my collections before the public, in the hope that they may at least show the capabilities of the study of comparative nomenclature, and by classifying the subject, may lead to its being more fully studied, as an illustration of language, national character, religion, and taste. Surnames and local names have been often discussed, but the Christian name has been usually considered too fortuitous to be worthy of notice. Camden did indeed review the current ones of his own day, and gave many correct explanations, chiefly from the German author Luther Dasipodius. Verstegen followed him up, but was more speculative and less correct; and since that date (as far as I am aware) no English author has given any real trustworthy information to the subject, as a subject. A few lists of names and meanings now and then have appeared in magazines and popular works, but they have generally been copies of Verstegen, with childishly shallow and incorrect additions. One paper which long ago appeared inChambers’ Journal, was the only really correct information on English names en masse that I have met with. The Anglo-Saxon names had been, however, treated of by Sharon Turner in his history, and Mr. Kemble put forth a very interesting lecture on Names, Surnames, and Nicknames among the Anglo-Saxons. Thierry, moreover, gives several explanations, both of Saxon and Frank ones, in the notes to his Conquête d’Angleterre and Récits des Rois Mérovingiens. These were groundwork. Neither Turner nor Thierry is always right, for want of having studied the matter comparatively; but they threw light on one another, and opened the way to the dissection of other names, neglected by them, with the aid of an Anglo-Saxon dictionary. The Scriptural class of names was studied with less difficulty. Every Hebrew one has been fully discussed and examined by the best scholars; and the Greek, both biblical and classical, have received the same attention, and are in fact the most easy of all, as a class. With regard to Latin, much must be doubtful and inexplicable, but the best information at present attained to was easily accessible. The numerous race of German appellations has received full attention from many ripe German philologists, and I have made much use of their works. The Scandinavian class has been most ably treated by Professor Munch of Christiania, in a series of contributions to the Norsk Maanedskrifts, of which I have been kindly permitted to make free use, and which has aided me more than any other treatise on Teutonic nomenclature.
