America's First Families
The Origin of Surnames
Part 2

A CABINET OF ODDITIES.

There are a good many surnames which seem to have originated in sheer caprice, as no satisfactory reason for their assumption can be assigned. It is doubtful, indeed, if they were ever assumed at all, for they have very much the appearance of what, in these days, we are accustomed to call nicknames or sobriquets, and were probably given by others to the persons who were first known by them, and so identified with those persons that neither they nor their immediate posterity could well avoid them. To this family belong the names borrowed from parts of the human figure, which are somewhat numerous; as Pate, Skull, Cheek, Neck, Side, Nailes, Hee1e, etc. Then there is another set of names not much less ridiculous, namely those borrowed from coins, and denominations of money, as Farthing, Money, Penny. Besides these we have from the weather, Frost, Tempest, and Poggi from sports, Bowles, Cards; from vessels and their parts, Forecastle, Ship; from measures, Peck, Inches; from numbers, Six, Ten.

It is really remarkable that many surnames expressive of bodily deformity or moral turpitude should have descended to the posterity of those who perhaps well deserved and so could not escape them, when we reflect how easily such names might have been avoided in almost every state of society by the simple adoption of others; for although in our day it is considered an act of villainy, or at least a "suspicious affair," to change one's name unless in compliance with the will of a deceased friend, when an act of the senate or the royal sign manual is required, the case was widely different four or five centuries ago, and we know from ancient records that names were frequently changed at the caprice of the owners. Names of this kind are very numerous, such as, Bad, Silly, Outlaw, Trash, etc.
 
 

To account for such names as Justice, Virtue, Prudence, Wisdom, Liberty, Hope, Peace, Joy, Anguish, Comfort, Want, Pride, Grace, Laughter, Luck, Peace, Power, Warr, Ramson, Love, Verity, Vice, Patience, etc., they undoubtedly originated in the allegorical characters who performed on the ancient mysteries or moralities; a specie of dramatics pieces, which before the rise of the genuine drama served to amuse under the pretext of instructing the play-goers of the "olden tyme."
 
 

Various causes might be assigned for the variety that exists in the nomenclature of Englishmen. Probably the principal cause is to be found in the peculiar facilities which that island had for many ages presented to the settlement of foreigners. War, royal matches with foreign princesses, the introduction of manufactures from the continent, and the patronage which that country has always extended to every kind of foreign talent all have of course tended to introduction of new names.
 
 

The practice of altering one's name upon the occurrence of any remarkable event in one's personal history, seems to have been known in times of very remote antiquity. The substitution of Abraham for Abram, Sarah for Sarai, etc., are matters of sacred history. In France it was formerly customary for eldest sons to take their father's surnames, while the younger branches assumed the names of the states allotted them. This plan also prevailed in England sometime after the Norman Conquest.

In the United States they carry this system of corrupting or contracting names to a ridiculous extent. Barnham is Barnum; Farnham (fern ground) Farnum; Killham (kiln house or home), Killwn; Birkham (birch house) Birkum, and so forth with similar names. Pollock becomes Polk; Colquhoun becomes Calhoun; and M'Candish becomes M'Candless.
 
 

By an historical surname is meant a name which has an illusion to some circumstance in the life of the person who primarily bore it. Thus Sans-terre or Lack-land, the by-name of King John, as having relation to one incident in that monarch's life, might be designated an historical surname. To this class of surnames also, belongs that of Nestling, borne by a Saxon earl, who in his infancy, according to Verstegan, had been rescued from an eagle's nest.
 
 

During the middle ages the Latin language was the language of literature and politics; accordingly in history and in the public records proper names had to assume a Latin form. The change was not always a happy one. Authors were obliged to change their own names as well as the names of the persons they celebrated in either prose or verse. The history of France was still written in Latin in the seventeenth century, all names consequently recorded in Latin. In the sixteenth century the Germans used to translate them into Greek, The absurdity which it entailed undoubtedly hastened the disappearance of the custom,

The chiefs of an American tribe in North America receive a new name when they have earned it by their exploits.

A similar practice prevails in various negro tribes. The Greeks, in olden times, used to change their names on the smallest pretense, and with the greatest indifference. The emperors of Japan and those of China after their death receive a new name.
 
 

With us a woman changes her name when she marries; among the Caribs of the Antilles it was the custom for husband and wife to exchange names. In some formerly, and at the present day in Cape Verd Islands, a liberated slave takes the name of his old master; the adopted person substitutes the name of the person who adopts him for his own; the law allows that a donor or testator may require that his name should be taken by the person benefited.

In 1568 Philip enacted a law that the Moors who lived in Spain should abandon the use of their peculiar idiom, and of their national names and surnames, and substitute in their stead Spanish idioms and Spanish names. He hoped to make new men of them, to denationalize them, if we may use the term, and to merge them into his own people. He had a keen appreciation of the value of proper names, but like all despotic sovereigns, he was blind to the influence or time, which can alone produce the gradual fusion of a conquering with a conquered people, more especially when differences in religion add their overwhelming weight to one side of the balance.

The Moors obeyed, but still retained their national feelings and religious beliefs; later, however, when they were compelled to choose between exile on the one hand, and apostasy on the other, they returned to their old country, and carried back ,with them a number of. Spanish names. Accordingly, in several Mauritanian families descended from the Andalusian Mussulmans, we still find the names of Perez, Santiago, Valenciano, Aragon, etc., names which have sometimes led European authors into error, and made them fancy they saw apostates from Christianity among the descendants of the martyrs ot Islamism.

The robbers whose trade it was to carry men away and sell them as slaves, needed no legal compulsion to change the names of their slaves. The precaution which they naturally took in this matter baffled the researches of disconsolate parents, who could only endeavor to recover their lost children by a description which was always imperfect and always uncertain.

In modern times the same system has been adopted, although it has not been dictated by equally prudential motives. The laws of Christian Europe have even in our own times legalized the sale of slaves. As soon as a negro had landed in the colonies it was usual for his purchaser to give hin a new name.
 
 

In England the middle classes acquired a decidedly important political influence as early as the year 1258, or not later than 1264, the quarrels of the nobles and the king having opened the road to Parliament for the representatives of the commons. Moreover, an act that no tax should be levied without the consent of their representatives was passed before the year 1300, and accordingly, soon after that date, we find hereditary names commonly used in the middle classes.

For a contrary reason the change cannot have taken place in Germany until a much later period. In order to prove this, an instance is given which will be all the more conclusive from its being connected with an intermediate point between that country and France. In the town of Metz, which in idiom and by union with the dominions of the descendants of Clovis and Charlemagne, was decidedly French, but which for thirty years had been Germanized in consequence of its political position, you might have noticed at the close of the thirteenth century that its chief magistrates, who were all knights, bore without exception individual or derived surnames instead of family surnames. When we say derived, we mean either from the place in which they lived, or from the post which their military duties obliged them to occupy. It was not until the close of the latter half of the fourteenth century that hereditary names became common among men who were high in office, so that among their inferiors it is only fair to infer that they were rarer still.

The etymology of hereditary names in England and in Germany is generally the same as in France and Italy. The following remarks will embody the inferences to be drawn from their examination, for the use of philologists. In languages of Teutonic origin, when descent is implied merely, the word son is placed after the father's name; such is the derivation of all the family names in the languages of Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and England, which terminate in this way. There are some exceptions, such as Ferguson and Owenson, which serve to corroborate the statement as to the possibility of the union of two languages to form one and the same proper name; in the instances quoted above, a Saxon termination is joined to a Caledonian or a Welsh name.

Attention has already been drawn to the custom of giving the father's name, in the genitive case, to the son as a surname. The addition of a final s in English, and of the syllable ez in Spain, sufficed to change Christian praenomina into surnames, and afterwards into family names; Peters, Williams, Richards, Henriquez, Lopez, Fernandez, literally (son) of Peter, of William, of Richard, of Henry, of Lope (or Wolf), of Fernando or Ferdinand.

D'Andre, Dejean, Depierre, have probably become family names in France in a similar way. The name of the writer who was perhaps the keenest appreciator of the genius of the immortal Dante that ever lived, Giuseppe di Cesare, shows that a similar form was not foreign to Italian customs.

As in Italy, so also in the greater part of Europe, the practice of drawing up deeds and charters in Latin was almost universal, and in these the son was designated by his father's name in the genitive case, hence we must attribute all the names which are characterized by such a termination to this custom. Such names, for instance, as Fabri, Jacobi, Simonis, Johannis, etc., names which would be multiplied without end if other languages had retained the old Latin termination like the Italian. The countries where the greatest number will be found will be those (it may be quite safely conjectured) where the custom of writing legal documents in Latin prevailed the longest.

Somewhat similar in Wales, the sign of descent, or rather of sonship, led to the formation of surnames, which later again became hereditary names. The word " ab," "when placed between two names, expresses descent, Rhys ab Evan (Rhys, the son of Evan); the vowel is gradually lost in common use, and the name becomes Rhys Evan, and, according to the same rule, successively takes the form of the following patronymics, Bowen, Pruderrech, Price.

It is still the same theory, only more simply carried out, which regulated the formation of family names in Ireland and in Scotland. As soon as the head of a clan had adopted some hereditary name, that name was given to all his vassals, whatever rank they might happen to occupy, and however remotely connected they might be by ties of kindred with the head of the clan, and further, even though they had only entered. it by enfranchisement or by adoption. The feeling of pride which suggested such a system is by no means an offensive one; we excuse it on the ground of its similarity to the old patriarchal customs; the head of the clan who is so powerful, and such an object of reverence, is but the eldest brother of a large family, and the name which he takes belongs to all its members.

It will not be quite so easy to discover a reason for the feeling of vanity which in Spain and in Portugal led to such a tedious multiplicity of names. Birthplace, or the customary home, are not considered sufficient for a full description of a lordly title; alliances, adoptions, and the like, were all dragged in to increase the number of names. An ignorant phase of devotional feeling added to its proportionate share to their Christian praenomia; it may, therefore, be easily inferred what needless confusion must have arisen in the ordinary transactions of life through this two-fold prodigality of names.

As the nobles in Sweden had not adopted hereditary names before the close of the sixteenth century, it followed as a matter of course that the middle classes did not use them until a still later period. The choice of names which this latter class made is worthy of notice. We know many names in France which indicate occupations, such as Draper, Miller, Barber, Maker, Slater, Turner,. (*Mercier, Meunier, Barbier, Boulanger, Couvreuf, Toumeur.)

The same may be found in England, but not in the same quantity; the oldest English commoners were freeholders of land rather than either merchants or manufacturers. There are few if any such, in Sweden; the greater part of their names are the names of properties, or of  farms, or of  forests, and were of that character because they were selected by a class who wished to approximate to the nobles by imitating their ways, and consequently not because they were the result of a need for distinctive signs, a need which is totally distinct from any individual wish or caprice.

In Holstein and in Courland there are still many families who have no names peculiarly their own. In this instance, again, the scourge of feudalism is felt in all its severity.
 
 

Whatever concerns the origin of our family from whom proceeded the sturdy men that planted our infant states has for all of us an especial charm, not only from what we know, but for what we hope to ascertain.

Our ancestors, tracing back their lineage to Pict and Dane, to the legionaries of Rome, or to the sea kings of the Baltic, had gained strength from the fusion in their nature of various and opposing elements, and combined what was best of many races.

That our ancestors were fond of fighting when provoked, regardless of personal safety or private advantage, cannot be denied. For the five centuries following the conquest, wars at home and abroad succeeded with little cessation. Military duty was incumbent on all who could bear arms. Personal encounters between knight and squire in mail with lance and battle axe, the rest in quilted doublets, with pike and bow, made men indifferent to danger, and induced habits of hardihood and daring.

According to some authorities the history of mankind began with Adam and Eve about six thousand years ago; and that their descendants spread over Asia first, then over Africa, and then over Europe. But science clearly points that the world and its in. habitants in some form must have existed for millions of years.

It took primitive man four thousand years to learn how to make a hole in a stone, insert a stick in it, and use it for a weapon. Then he became master of the forest, with power readily to provide himself with meat food. From fisherman and hunter man developed into a herder offlocks, a tiller of the soil, a cultivator of grain. Then came attachment to the family and the growth of the family into clans and nations.

The first historical record is dated about three thousand seven hundred years ago, when a man by the name of Inachus led a very large company of emigrants from Egypt into Greece. These found that country inhabited by savages, who no doubt, were the descendants of those who had wandered there from Asia.

Inachus and his companies established themselves in Greece, and from that point of time Europe gradually became occupied by civilized people.

Thus three quarters of the globe, Asia Africa and Europe, were settled. But America was separated from Asia by the Pacific Ocean, almost ten thousand miles across; and from Europe and Africa by the Atlantic, about three thousand miles across. Of America in ancient times people knew nothing.

The ships in olden times were small and feeble; and navigators seldom dared to stretch forth upon the boundless sea. Even the mariner's compass, that mysterious but steadfast friend of the sailor was not used by the Europeans until 1250.

It was in the year 1607 that the first emigrants, to successfully form a permanent colony, landed in Virginia. For twelve years after its settlement it languished under the government of Sir Thomas Smith, Treasurer of the Virginia Company in England. The Colony was ruled during that period by laws written in blood; and its history shows us how the narrow selfishness of such a despotic power would counteract the very best efforts of benevolence. The colonist suffered an extremity of distress too horrible to be described.

Of the thousands of emigrants who had been sent to Virginia at great cost, not one in twenty remained alive in April, 1619, when Sir George Yeardley arrived. He bought certain commissions and instructions from the company for the "Better establishing of a commonwealth here," and the prosperity of Virginia began from this time, when it received, as a commonwealth, the freedom to make laws for itself. The first meeting was held July 30, 1619, more than a year before the Mayflower, with the pilgrims, left the harbor of Southampton.

The first colony established by the Plymouth Company in 1607, on the coast of Maine, was a lamentable failure.

The permanent settlement of New England began with the arrival of a body of Separatists in the Mayflower in 1620, who founded the colony of Plymouth.

The Separatists' migration from England was followed in a few years by a great exodus of Puritans, who planted towns along the coast to the North of Plymouth, and obtained a charter of government and a great strip of land, and founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay.

Religious disputes drove Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson out of Massachusetts and led to the founding of Rhode Island in 1636.

Other church rangles led to an emigration from Massachusetts to the Connecticut valley, where a little confederacy of towns was created and called Connecticut.

Some settlers from England went to Long Island Sound and there founded four towns which, in their turn, joined in a federal union called the New Haven Colony.

In time New Haven was joined to Connecticut, and Plymouth and Maine to Massachusetts; New Hampshire was made a royal colony; and the four New England colonies Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut were definitely established. The territory of Massachusetts and Connecticut stretched across the continent to the "South Sea" or Pacific Ocean.

The Maryland colony was founded by Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, who was influenced in his attempts of colonization by a desire to found a refuge for people of his own faith; and the first settlement was made in 1634 at St. Mary's. Annapolis was founded about 1683, and Baltimore in 1729.

Meantime Henry Hudson in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the Delaware and Hudson Rivers in 1609; and the Dutch, ignoring the claims of England, planted colonies on these rivers and called the country New Netherlands.

Then a Swedish company began to colonize the Delaware Bay and River coast of Virginia, which they called New Sweden.

Conflicts between the Dutch and the Swedes followed, and in 1655 New Sweden was made a part of New Netherlands.

The English seized New Netherlands in 1664, giving it to the Duke of York; and the Duke, after establishing the province of New York, gave New Jersey to two of his friends, and sold the three counties on the Delaware to William Penn. Meanwhile the king granted Penn what is now Pennsylvania in 1681.

The Carolinas were first chartered as one proprietary colony but were sold back to the king and finally separated in 1729.

Georgia, the last of the thirteen English colonies, was granted to Oglethorpe and others; as a refuge for poor debtors, in 1732.

In 1774 General Gage became governor of  Massachusetts; and seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battle of Lexington and Concord, which opened the war for Independence. The English army was surrounded at Yorktown by Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender. A convention at Philadelphia framed the Constitution of the United States.
 
 

Before the United States became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held Florida, Texas, California and all the territory south and west of Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland once owned New Jersey, Delaware and the valley of the Hudson in New York and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut River. The Swedes had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession.

The Reference For The Above Is; "Origin and History of the Name Smith: and an account of the origin of Surnames and Forenames; together with over five hundred Christian names of men and women and their signifiance: the Crescent family record.  Chicago, Ill: American Publishers Association. 1902, 130 pages."

The Surname-Forename information contains much that will be helpful to you. The rest of the book is too general to assist you with any surname lines..Many other surname lines published from about 1900-1910 by this firm........Harold Oliver, Director America's First Families.

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