ORIGIN OF NAMES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1717, 23 November 1887, Page 3

ORIGIN OF NAMES

The Greeke, with few exceptions, had no family or sire names. The Romans had three names : — A proper name (puoaomen, the distinction of the individual, like our baptismal or Christian name, 2 The name of the olais (nomen) 3 The family name (cognomen) Some* times to these were added, on account of act of valor or event, a fourth name (agnomen), as Publina (piseaomen) Cornelius (the clan of Cornelius) Ssipio (the family) Afrlcanua (the agnomen) because of his victories In Afrloa. The piieoooaen was generally not written m fall, as M. for Marcu?, P. for Pablius. etc; an M. Tulliao Cicero — i,e , 'Maroua,' to distinguish him from his brother, Quintiua Tullius, the c!«n, and Cicero the family! In Germany and tho Teutonio nations family or surnames (or, aa it should be spelled, 'sirnameB 1 — i.c , sire or father's name) were little naed before tho fourteenth centnry. Everyone had a baptsraal name only. The most ancient method waa to add tbe father'a name to their own, as John-son, W Illiam-aonDavid-eon, etc. Tbe Arabians atill follow this onstora — e.g. | Hali'sßon Yoar Is called Ebu Bali (Hall's son) and Yoar'a son would be Bbn Yoar. The surnames given m England about tho time of William the Conqueror were selected, lil^e the agoo men of the Romans, from some peculiar circumstances relating to the individual. Tbotf, the Earl of Anjou obtained the surname of Plantogenet from the wellknown story, and his descendants were called Plantagonets. Fllz (from the old French fils, moaning 'son,' Mao (Soottlab), Ap (Welsh), 0' (Irish). Fz (Spanish), and Ben were all prefixes, meaning m these several languages Bon. But Filz meant illegitimate son, The German sobn, Swedish Bon, Dutch son are thti came, German von, Dutch van, Frenoh de mean ' of ' or • from ' referring to the residence ov decpent. On the establishment of tbe feudal nyufcem new namei were Introduced, derived either from occupation, as Smith, Turner, Garpenter, Fuller, etc ; from place ol PBtlvlty, as Frenob, Welsh, oto., or from personal complexion or other peculiarity, IB White, prowu, Elank, Long, Short, Swpet, S(P»c'^ Coy, Mi^lo, »^ r