The Teutonic Name-System Applied to the Family Names of France, England, & Germany

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1864. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXXII. CONCLUSION. I might--ere taking leave of the subject--amuse the reader by many instances of the curious relation in which names sometimes stand to avocations. Thus of nine Mash's in the London directory, five are dealers in potatoes. Porte, Claret, and Champagne are wine-merchants in Paris, Vebjus is a doctor, and Viboile keeps the hotel Byron. On the other hand Clovjs and Odin are tailors, Saladin is a hair-dresser, Milord is a grocer, and Minerve sells lemonade. Madame Thais watches over the morals of a religious order; Madame Mizery keeps an hotel, and I dare say makes people very comfortable. Again--as I have throughout these pages advocated the opinion that many curious-sounding names are only corruptions of ancient names, so I may give a few instances of others which we might have had. We have many which seem to be from beverages--we might also have had Ice-and-gream--the Old Germ. Isancrim (Ironfierce.) We have Goodenough, and I have taken it to be from an Old Frankish name Godenulf--so we might have had Badenough, from an Old German Badanulf. The termination wife, woman, common in ancient female names, might have given us, without any corruption, Egg-wife, Angel-wife, Silly-wife, and Cold-wife. The Old Germ, names Austrigosa and Wisegoz (Ostrogoth and Visigoth) would naturally have become Easter-goose and Wisegoose. Many other examples I might introduce, but I prefer to close the subject with a more serious train of thought. My aim has been to vindicate the antiquity, and to assert the nobility, of our common English names. I have endeavoured to show that very many of those which seem the meanest and the most vulgar, are in reality the most ancient--that, philologically speaking, the Norman territorial seigneurs are the parvenus--th...