OUR MOTHER TONGUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22262, 9 November 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR MOTHER TONGUE

.RANDOM NOTES—X. ;

BY PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL

So many queries have now reached me lliat correspondents must be patient and not expect replies too booh. All receive attention and those which aro too trivial or too recondite to be included in my notes will be answered privately, unless, of course, no address is given. Inquirers about surnames may be disappointed sometimes, as there are many which have hitherto baffled all attempts at elucidation. In order to deal effectively with a difficult mime the seeker wants to know how it wns spelt in the earliest records, and this information is hard to get in this country. Long after spelling was more or less fixed people continued to spell their mmes ;ih they pleased, treating them as privato property. Hence there are numerous forms and extraordinary disguises. B'arclsley quotes a fifteenth century document ill which the namo Blenkinsop is spelt in four, different ways within the space of two li ics. The samo is true of place-names, which so often become personal names. For example, Hexin the name Hexham, stands for tho AngloSaxon " hagostealdes." the twelve letters being now reduced to three. So in some cases I am not ashamed to own myself beaten. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive dictionary of our surnames nnd great numbers are absent from tho best works on the subject. Leitcb (Leach, Leech). The AngloSaxon word for a doctor, not yet quite obsolete iu tho form " leech." Tho spoiling ei for long e is peculiar to Northern England and Lowland Scotland in the Middle Agea. Rudd. The Anglo-Saxon name Rudda meant a person of red or ruddy complexion or hair. This became ruddle and finally rudd. This and the name Reid or Reade belong to an old verb whose varying stems or grades are represented in the words " red," ruddy," " ruddock " (the robin), and "ruddle," " raddle ' or " reddle." Gedyo. This name denotes a rash or impetuous man and is the same word as " giddy.". The name Giddyhead is recorded in old times, but seems to be lost. Giddy is not an uncommon name. A very well-known firm of estate agents in London is " Giddy and Giddy." Tho spelling with e for i is most frequent in south-eastern counties in the Middle Ages. • ' Agar. This name stands for the Anglo-Saxon Aelfgar, of which Elgar is another form. It denotes " elfin spear," and shares its first syllable with Alfred, Aelfheah (Elpbick), Aelfwino (Alwin, Aylwin), etc.; and its second with Edgar, Oscar, etc. The exact significance of the "elf " in Aelfgar is not quite certain, but the name, like so many others in a primitive society, no doubt means a successful or distinguished warrior. Local Names Condliffe. The oldest known form is "Kunde-klive, and this is certainly a piace-or local name of which the second element is " cliff," but the word " kunde " cannot be identified with certainty. Most probably it was a personal namo. Rewcastle. This is also a local name, meaning the Castle or Fort of Rew. Rew, by itself, is not an uncommon name, standing for the Anglo-Saxon word " hreow," which meant both sad 01 miserable, and fierce. As a personal name it probably belongs to the latter, nnd denotes a ruthless or fierce warrior, like Grim, Cruell, Savage, etc. Names in botham or bottom. These are quite numerous —Ramsbottoin, W r interoottom, Longbottom, etc. They are place-names and many of them survive in rural England, e.g., Six Mile Bottom, near Cambridge. " Bottom " means simply a valley or depression. In names the spelling is often botham, but this is only a modest disguise. Roberts. Tho final s, as noted before, cannot certainly be explained, though a correspondent " tells me" that it stands for -son, which it does not. It is best regarded as a genitive. Robert means " famous," the first syllable for Anglo-Saxon " hroth," fame (also in Roger, Ralf or Ralph for "hroth-wulf," etc.), while the second is " bright." Names from Birds Truman. This name is one of the large class of complimentary nicknames, given no doubt in all good faith. Its meaning is plain enough. Others are Truebody, True (and Trew), Goodhart, I/eal, Kind, Curtis (Curteis, Courteous). Gentle and Sweet. I suspect that some of these were ironically meant. Crane. This is the name of the bird, given as a nickname. Nearly all the common birds of England appear thus as names: Finch, Sparrow, Crowe, Dove, etc. These names were given for different reasons: personal resemblance, personal character, or occurrence as the owner's inn or shop-sign. Some of them are not so easily to bo identified, such as Ruddock (robin), Speight (woodpecker), Pobjoy, etc., for Popinjay (parrot), and Poe, the peacock, which was used, in its old form, pa, as a nickname for a dandy, by the old Norsemen a thousand years ago. Some people, from motives of (shall we say?) delicacy, pronounce this name Poey:

There wub nn old poet named Poey, Who injured his foot with a hoey. When they said, " Does it hurt?" He replied " That's n cert. O, my toey. my toey, 0, vvoey!" Heptenstall. This is from tho Yorksliiro village of that name. Stall in place-names merely means "a place," but in some cases may mean a pool where salmon were trapped. Hepten, or Hepton, or Hebden is either the town (ton) or valley (dene,, den) or hill (don) of Ilcbb or Hibb (dealt with in a previous noto), but it is possible that it is for " heap," meaning a burial-mound or tumulus. Burnard. Probably only a variant spelling of Bernard. The u for eor y is a French device adopted in certain dialects, especially in the South, in the Middle Ages. It remains still in "bury"; for " beri," " biri and in " busy " for " bysi," " bisi," etc., and in a few other words. Caldwell. A place-name meaning Cold Spring or Well. The form Cald for "cold" is peculiar to the North and appears also in Caldecott, etc. Alellea. This is an Irish name, and I am very doubtful about it. If it is English in origin, as are many placenames in Ireland, it is for Alill-ineadow. Mell or Mel for "mill" is a Southeastern form of "mill" and appears in Melbourne (Millbrook) and many other names. " Lea," meadow, usually appears in names as -ley or -lee. Remote Origins Langley. A very common English village name, for " Longmeadow," also appearing as Longley. Mauglian. This is, I suppose, a Celtic name, appearing also as Irish. Maho i. Two villages in Cornwall are called Mawgan and may probably have supplied tho name. 1 cannot.tell what this name meant exactly; an Irish scholar would know. The Cornish language has long been extinct. Kcddie, or Kiddie, or Kiddoy. This Scottish name stands for Iveddier or Kidder, which means a pedlar, from "kid" or " kit," a bag. The same change appears in Peddie for Pedder or Pedlar. Other names which mean tho same thing are Badger (Batger), from " bag," and probably Leaper (Leeper), from " leap," a fish-bag. Ranstead. A place-name of which tho second element is the Old English word for " place,"-as in "homestead," etc. Kan in personal names is for Randolph (Randall, Ranulf, etc.) where Rand is Anglo-Saxon for " shield " and olph is for " wulf." The meaning is "shieldwarrior." But in place-names Han may # well stand for the Old Norse " rann," a house, which appears in the verb " ransack." The name Ranstead would then be equivalent to " homestead."