Surnames as a Science. Ferguson Robert
to run. The ancient British name then for a dog, trag signified the "runner," and with the intensitive prefix ver, as in vertrag, the "swift runner."6 And trag is, I take it, the word from which, g as usual in English becoming y, is formed our word Tray.
It may be of interest, in connection with the antiquity of our names, to take a few of the oldest Teutonic names of which history gives us a record, and endeavour to show the relationship which they bear to our existing surnames. It will be seen that not only have we the representatives of these ancient names, but also in certain cases names which represent a still more ancient form of the word.
And first let us take the name, dating back to the first century of our era, of the old German hero Arminius, brought before us with such magnanimous fairness by Tacitus. The old idea, let me observe, that Armin is properly herman, leader or warrior, has long been given up by the Germans. The name, of which the most correct form is considered to be Irmin, is formed from one single word of which the root is irm, and the meaning of which is, as Grimm observes, entirely obscure. We have then as English surnames Armine, Ermine, and Harmony, the last, no doubt, a slight corruption, though, as far as the prefix of h is concerned, it is as old as Anglo-Saxon times, for we find "Harmines den," Harmine's valley, in a charter quoted by Kemble. Then we have compounded with gar, spear, and corresponding with an O.G. Irminger —Arminger, Irminger,7 and again as a corruption, Iremonger. And, compounded with hari, warrior, and corresponding with an O.G. Irminhar, we have Arminer. And, as a Christian name of women, one at least of our old families still retains the ancient name Ermentrude, the ending trude, as found also in Gertrude, being perhaps from the name Thrud, of one of the Valkyrjur, or battle-maidens of Odin. The French also, among the many names derived from their Frankish ancestors, have Armingaud, Armandet, and Ermingcard, corresponding with the ancient names Irmingaud, Irmindeot, and Irmingard. And Irminger, as I write, comes before me in the daily papers as the name of a Danish admiral. But Irmin is not the oldest form of the name, – "the older and the simple form," observes Foerstemann, "runs in the form Irm or Irim," and with this also we can claim connection in our family names. For we have the simple form as Arms and Harme; and as compounds we have Armiger, corresponding with an O.G. Ermgar; Armour, with an O.G. Ermhar; and Armgold, with an O.G. Ermegild. Lastly, I may observe that both Irm and Irmin are found also by Stark as ancient Celtic names. And certainly there is no stem more likely than this, of the origin of which all trace is lost in the darkness of the past, to be one that is older than the Arian separation.
The name Sigimar, of the brother of Arminius, I have already shown that we have, not only in its own form as Seymore, but also in its High German form as Sycamore, the Anglo-Saxon names from which they may be taken to be more immediately derived being also found in the chapter on place-names. And I have also shown that we have the name Cariovalda (or Harwald) of a prince of the Batavi, of the first century, in our Harold.
There was another old hero of the German race, not so fortunate as Arminius in finding an historian in a generous foe, whose name only comes before us in a line of Horace: —
Cotiso must have been a leader of some High German tribe, perhaps somewhere on the Upper Danube, and he must have made a gallant stand against the Roman arms, inasmuch as his final overthrow is deemed by the Roman poet a worthy subject on which to congratulate his imperial patron. Cotiso is a High German form of another name, Godiso or Godizo, elsewhere referred to, and hence may be represented, I venture to think, in our names Godsoe and Goddiss, while Cotiso itself may be represented in our Cottiss, the ancient vowel-ending being in our names, as I shall show in the next chapter, sometimes dropped and sometimes retained.
Another name which goes back to the first century of our era is Arpus, that of a prince of the Catti in Tacitus. The Eorpingas, descendants or followers of Eorpa, were among the original settlers, and seem to have confined themselves to Norfolk, where alone we have any traces of them. The name may perhaps be referred to Anglo-Saxon eorp, wolf, though other derivations have also been proposed. We have the name at present as Earp (the name of a member of the House of Commons), and also as Harp. Upon this stem is formed the name Arbogastes (gast, guest) of a Frankish general under the Emperor Gratian in the fourth century; and Arbogast is still a family name among the French.
Lastly, let us take the name of the German king, Ariovistus, brought before us by Cæsar. The proper form of this name, there seems little doubt, is Arefastus, as found in some other O.G. names. There was also an Arfast, bishop of East Anglia, in the time of William the Conqueror. And Arfast is a present name among the Frisians, according to Outzen, who compares it – rightly, as it seems to me – with the old name Ariovistus. The corresponding name Arinfast (aro, arin, eagle) was also in ancient use among the Danes. It seems to me that our name Harvest may easily be a corruption of Arfast; it has generally no doubt been derived from a man's having been born at such a season, but I distrust, as a general rule, as elsewhere stated, derivations of this kind.
In connection with the subject of the antiquity of Teutonic names generally, and of English names as derived from them, I shall have, in a subsequent chapter, to refer to the names of original settlers in England as deduced by Kemble from ancient charters, and compare them with names of a similar kind found in Germany. The coincidence that will be found in these names at that early period, from England and Friesland in the north to Bavaria in the south, will, I think, be a very strong argument to show that these names could not have originated within the Teutonic area itself, and so dispersed themselves over it in its length and breadth, but that they must have been brought with them by the Teutonic invaders from their earlier homes.
CHAPTER II.
CLUE TO SOME OF THE ANCIENT FORMS REPRESENTED IN ENGLISH NAMES
So long as our surnames are treated as if each name were something standing apart by itself, very little progress can be made in their elucidation; it is by collation and comparison that, in this as in any other science, definite results are to be obtained. And a moderate amount of attention to the forms in which these names appear, and to the various endings prevalent among them, will enable many names, otherwise unrecognisable, to be brought within the pale of classification and of possible explanation. I am of course referring to that portion of our surnames – a much larger one according to my judgment than is generally acknowledged – which dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, and so forms a part of the general system by which Teutonic names are governed.
I shall have, in the course of this work, frequently to refer to the Teutonic system, and to names which do, or do not, according to my judgment, enter into it. And I will therefore, before going further, endeavour to explain what I mean by the Teutonic system. There is, then, a class of words which, at a time of remote antiquity, have been adopted as stems upon which, in some cases by a sort of phonetic accretion, in some cases by the addition of a diminutive ending, in some cases by forming a patronymic, in some cases by taking in another word as a compound, a number of other names have been formed. Thus, when we find such a group of names as Dill, Dilly, Dillow, Dillen, Dilling, Dilke, Dilwyn, or as Budd, Budden, Buddle, Budding, Buddrich, Budmore, we may take it that these are all ancient names, of which Dill and Budd are respectively the stems. And whenever we find a group of names with endings such as it is my object in the present chapter to explain, and in compounds such as will be dealt with in a succeeding chapter, we shall be warranted in assuming the antiquity of the group.
And in the first place, let us take the endings in a, i, and o, of which the above are nothing more than arbitrary variations of spelling. Now ancient Teutonic names formed of one single word had commonly, though not invariably (and the same thing applies also to ancient Celtic names), a vowel-ending in a, i, or o; this ending is in our names sometimes dropped and at other times retained. (It is to be observed, however, that even in Anglo-Saxon times
For this explanation of
There was an English admiral of this name, though I do not know of it at present.