Patrick, the patron saint of Irishmen, whose festival is kept wherever Irishmen may be, has, strange to say, left scarcely a single surname. There is “Kil-patrick,” and “Gos-patrick”—i.e., servant of Patrick (Gos = gossoon, i.e. garçon), but no real patronymic. How is this? One single reason will suffice. At the time of surname formation “Patrick” was scarcely ever used at the font. “Teague” was the popular name till the end of the seventeenth century. Under 150 years ago, Englishmen spoke of an Irishman, not as “Pat,” but as “Teague.” I could prove this equally from registers and ballads.
“Taffy,” of course, was and is the Welsh national name, and owes his origin to St. David, who lived in the sixth century, and through his sanctity caused his bishop’s see to be changed from Menevia into St. David’s. Davy, Davis, and Davies are therefore common enough in the Principality. From our childhood we have heard that—
“Taffy was a Welshman,
Taffy was a thief;”
but we trust, for the credit of our friends across the Severn, that this refers to a particular Taffy, and not to the national Taffy. Black sheep are to be found in every flock. That Taffy can be a hero, Happy Dodd and his compatriots can prove; and never was the Albert Medal more richly deserved or more bravely won, than on the morning that witnessed the rescue of the imprisoned miners in the Welsh coal-pit. All honour to Taffy!
CHAPTER VI.
THE BIBLE AND NOMENCLATURE.
I said in my last chapter that I should devote the present one to a relation of the causes that led to a complete revolution in our English baptismal nomenclature in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. During this comparatively brief period, most of the popular mediæval names lapsed, not merely from favour, but into total oblivion. ’Tis true, this does not properly appertain to the subject of surnames, because, having now become an established system, it was impossible for the Reformation to affect them to any appreciable extent. That is, the Reformation could revolutionize our baptismal names, but not our surnames. Had the Reformation occurred three or even two centuries earlier, the London Directory of 1877 would have presented a totally different appearance to that which it does. Instead of half a thousand Harrisons and Harrises, we should have had, may be, a hundred “Calebsons,” and “Abnersons,” and “Joshuasons,” and “Jaelsons.” Why? Because surnames were undergoing their hereditary formation then.
Nevertheless, our subject is quite apropos to the Directory, for Christian names abound there as well as surnames. If the pages of that great tome do not show that our surnames were visibly affected by an open Bible, a Reformation of Religion, and a Puritan Commonwealth, it is not so with the baptismal names. Every page bears strong evidence of a wondrous and stirring revolution.
Let us first clear the ground. In what relation did the Bible stand to English nomenclature in pre-Reformation days? The Scripture names in use during that period were fourfold in origin.
(a) Names so prominent in Scripture that none could be ignorant of them, such as Adam and Eve. All our Atkins, Atkinsons, Adams, Adamsons, Adkins, Adkinsons, and Addisons come from Adam; all our Eves, Evisons, Evetts, Evitts, Evotts, and Evesons, from Eve. An old will, dated 1391, speaks of the same individual as Eve and Evot (i.e. little Eve). Adam and Eve, four hundred years ago, were two of our commonest personal names.
(b) Names of Bible heroes, whose story was wont to be dramatized on religious festivals, and thus made familiar to the peasantry. The offering of Isaac, and Daniel in the den of lions, were two favourite plays. Thus, Isaac as Higg or Hick, and Daniel as Dan, were popular everywhere. Thus we got as surnames, Higgins (i.e. little Isaac), Higginson, Hicks, Hickson, Higgott and Higgs, from the one, and Daniels, Danson, Dankins, Dannett (i.e. little Daniel), and Dann from the other. Higgonet,—a double diminutive (treated of in our last chapter),—became Hignett; and even non-smokers must have seen the virtues of Hignett’s “mixture” glowingly described in the daily advertisements! Imagine Higgins or Hignett as derived from Isaac! Nevertheless, such is the undoubted fact.