THE HUMOUR OF NAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 52, 1 March 1919, Page 17

THE HUMOUR OF NAMES.

-ORIGINS AND VALUES. A queer name is a burden to a sensitive mind, which smarts under the sharp sting of some caustic tongue, as they would smart under a nickname. To bear trie n_me of Zerubbabel Bugg. Jeremiah Wildgoose or Abraham Muggins is enough to try the tem;>.-r and pati-ii'-e of many. Even Job ruiirht have succumbed to the odium attached to such a name. Thus the worthy Dr. Johnson said: " ElkunaJi Settle sounds so queer, who can expect much from that name?'* Therefore names curry a race value with them. Muggins coirid never be confounded with Fitzgerald, nor Garlick with a historic name Tike Stanley. Some people feel the humiliation of a common name like Smith. Much has been .vritten of the oriirin of names, and everyone knows how simply many names have originated. Trade gives us names such as Webster, Taylor. Butcher. Baker: while a place of residence results in Green. Underbill. Burnside. Diminutive forms produce Pipkin •and Minniken. Again, names like Ibbitson. Johnson. Thompson, like the Scottish sun.ames MacTavish and MacGregor are s_f-_o_.ii''nz. Complexion has n-iven such nan -* as Scarlett, Fairfax. Brown. F-.iirhrother. But it is the humour of names which arre__> and interests us. Dick__ knew that, and he

studied surnames, only selecting the | names of his characters after careful consideration. Dickens tried a dozen names before he hit on Chuzzlewit. while old Scrooge, Pecksniff, Uriah Heep, Sam j Weller, are almost among't'he immorI tals. Mr. Pancks in " Little Dorritt" — though only a minor character —amuses ' '. us. and we think of Pancks as a human i beinir who steams, snorts and puffs along. [ I OUR FOREFATHER'S NAMES, i A walk through a country churchyard often reveals many quaint names. We , ■ discover Michael Farthing, Elijah Gar- ; j lii;k, Aaron Rangely, Zerubbabel Heari | som. Scottish names, such as McNab, ; Colqtrhoun, Farquharson, are often a I source of amusement to Southern folk, i but the Scot has the laugh when he . I hears the English tongue vainly strugi gling with names like Auchtermuchty . and Tig-hnabruai.sh. Then birth regisI ters often contain some funny names, - | among these are Judas Iseariot Burton, Happy Juggins, Bovril Simpson, Odins j Hea ton. River Jordan. Perhaps; one of the queerest is Elias OverandoveT. The name of Snooks never fails to raise a . smile. Yet Snooks is probably a corruption of Sevenoaks. as Shorthouse is of Shorthose- We have heard of two ladies . j the Misses Douhleday, who lived next ■ I door to Mr. . alfniuht. and of Mr. Pigge, i whose house was close to Mr. Bacon's. A vigorous Protestant. Mr. Massey- '• Massey by name, once introduced a bill - into Parliament to do away with such '■ " Popish" names a_ C3r_s_n__ Caodle-

mas, etc. and to substitute Christide, and Candletide for them. It was in a similar mood of satire that Byron once ■ wrote: — , 0 Amo. Cottle! Phoebus:—what a name. I To fill the speaking tr_cnpet of future fame! O Amos Cottle! For a moment think I What meagre profits spring from pen and Ink ! Who would dare to say that some names are not prejudicial to business? Would not the average man draw back from consulting a firm of lawyers who bore the sinister name of Messrs. Catcbem and Cheetham? PURITAN TASTE. The Commonwealth period and Puritan influence in England left a legacy of names which seem almost appalling today. We find Hephzibaii, RamothGilead, Ichabod, used as Christian names, while Tribulation, Assurance, Merciful, and Steadfast make us think of worthy John Bunyan. But the | great auth or of the "-Pilgrim'3 1 Progress " had little need to invent 1 names, for his age supplied them all. i Some of the most curious oi Puritan ! names are " Dust and Ashes," Fear-the-■Lord Barebottle, while Praise-the-Lord. j Barebones lived at the sign of " Lock- ! and-Key," in St. Dunstan-in-the-West jl 162:5), and was a well-known leather- ! seller. Then there was Brother Zeal-in-the-Lord Bury, the pious baker of Banbury. Brother Bury's buns ou_-ht to have had a heavenly taste. Melcb izedek Fritter no doubt prayed with unction at the conventicle, yet when Melchizedek

came round selling butter and cheese it would give people a shock. But Cowlay satirised the Puritan fashion in Scripture names. " Sister Barebottle, I must not be called Glitter any more; that is a name of Cavalier darkness; the Devil was a cutter from the beginning; my name is now Abednego. I had a vision which whispered to mc. through a keyhole, ' Go. call thyself | Abednego.' " So the Puritan names 'were laughed out of court by the play- ! wright. ' ' " THE DOUBLE NAME CRAZE. But the next age 'had a c-aze for double names which seems as funny. We jfind Carolina WiJielmina and Charlotte I Sophia, and many other doublej barrelled names. George IL's full I .name was George "WElJam. Frederick. [One name occurs which is enough to kill any child—Charles Caractacus Ostonoiis Maximilian ftustavus! Then I Pagan names came to have a vogue; so 1 T u n<l Hemales an d Cassandra. But the bombastic Georgean combination is hardly much of an advance on the Puritan tendency. Yet some might plead that anything was better than Adoniram iiy-neld, Beere, Antripas Swinnerton, and Sapphira Light-natch. The story is told of a small party who went for a drive. It included a gentleman named Cook and a Miss Lamb. Someone jokingly remarked that if they arrived too late for lunch they could console themselves with having a lamb and a cook in the carriage. The driver

overheard the conversation, and turned round. " Excuse mc, sir, but my name is Butcher." But America has some grotesque names to give us; we find Sterling Price, Lemon Peel, Salt Codd, Always Geffrie, Christmas Carroll, and Pepper Mixer. Fiction contains a fair number of humorous and queer names. In Scott's " Redgauntlet " we find Steenie Steenson. and in the " Eride of Lammermoor" we find Laurie Lapraik, Caleb Balderstone; while in "Woodstock," we get Joceline Jolyfe, Zerubbabel Robino, and Nehemiah Holdenough. But the day is gone, let us hope, when . people wiTil bear the name of Kerenhap- ' pueh, Mechizedek, and Eli-lama-Sabach-thani—the limit in Christian names. THE VALUE OF A NAME. "What's in a name?" we often ask. But there is a great deal in a name. The advertising expert knows that and works it for all it is worth. It is said ' that an asylum board stopped advertising for female attendants and advertised for nurses instead—all the difference in the name. Perhaps many trades may demand a new nomenclature in the next generation. The dustman —some-times called "the mucfcman" in a northern town—will wish to be designated the ci-vic purifier. So we call our slaughterhouses abattoirs, and no doubt the cook of the future will even demand to be described as Queen of the Culinary Departiment. But words have values and so have names. And the httmocr of names always arrest us. The nick-name so

often sticks and sting, because in some unhappy hour a caustic tongue and a quick wit dubbed us by a sobriquet, which somehow was appropriate, even though a gross caricature. Many names in his- : tory are nick-names. So the Cruickshanks, Sheepshanks. Whiteheads, Proudmans, Littles, of to-day, inherit a nickname. There is a story told of a certain student named Sheepshanks at Jesus College, Cambridge, who pronounced "satire," ".satyr." So the college wag penned the lines: — The satyrs of old were satyrs of note. With the h<*nd of a man, they'd the shanks of a gout; Bat the satyr of Jesus all satyrs surpasses, W_ile bis ______ are a sheep's, his head is an ass's. The humour of a name may make many a man and a woman very unhappy.