Finally, there is a very large group of Anglo-Saxon dissyllabic names, usually ending in -a, which appear to be pet forms of the longer names, though it is not always possible to establish the connection. Many of them have double forms with a long and short vowel respectively. It is to this class that we must refer the large number of our monosyllabic surnames, which would otherwise defy interpretation. Anglo-Sax. Dodds gave Dodd, while Dodson's partner Fogg had an ancestor Focga. Other examples are Bacga, Bagg, Benna, Benn, Bota, Boot and dim. Booty, Botts, Bolt, whence Bolting, Bubba, Bubb, Budda, Budd, Bynna, Binns, Cada, Cade, Cobbs, Cobb, Coda, Coad, Codda, Codd, Cuffs, Cuff, Deda, Deedes, Duda, Dowd, Duna, Down, Donna, Dunn, Dutta, Dull, Eada, Eade, Edes, etc., Ebba, Ebbs; Eppa, Epps, Hudda, Hud, whence Hudson, Inga, Inge, Sibba, Sibbs, Sicga, Siggs, Tata, Tate and Tait, Tidda, Tidd, Tigga, Tigg, Toca, Tooke, Tucca, Tuck, Wada, Wade, Wadda, Waddy, etc. Similarly French took from German a number of surnames formed from shortened names in -o, with an accusative in -on, e.g. Old Ger. Bodo has given Fr. Bout and Bouton, whence perhaps our Butt and Button.
But the names exemplified above are very thinly represented in early records, and, though their existence in surnames derived from place-names (Dodsley, Bagshaw, Bensted, Bedworth, Cobham, Ebbsworth, etc.) would vouch for them even if they were not recorded, their comparative insignificance is attested by the fact that they form very few derivatives.
Compare, for instance, the multitudinous surnames which go back to monosyllables of the later type of name, such as John and Hugh, with the complete sterility of the names above. Therefore, when an alternative derivation for a surname is possible, it is usually ten to one that this alternative is right. Dodson is a simplified Dodgson, from Roger (Chapter VI); Benson belongs to Benedict, sometimes to Benjamin; Cobbett is a disguised Cuthbert or Cobbold (cf. Garrett, Chapter II); Down is usually local, at the down or dune; Dunn is medieval le dun, a colour nickname; names in Ead-, Ed-, are usually from the medieval female name Eda (Chapter VI); Sibbs generally belongs to Sibilla or Sebastian; Tait must sometimes be for Fr. Tête, with which cf. Eng. Head; Tidd is an old pet form of Theodore; and Wade is more frequently atte wade, i.e. ford. Even Ebbs and Epps are more likely to be shortened forms of Isabella, usually reduced to Ib, or Ibbot (Chapter X), or of the once popular Euphemia.
To sum up, we may say that the Anglo-Saxon element in our surnames is much larger than one would imagine from Bardsley's Dictionary, and that it accounts, not only for names which have a distinctly Anglo-Saxon suffix or a disguised form of one, but also for a very large number of monosyllabic names which survive in isolation and without kindred. In this chapter I have only given sets of characteristic examples, to which many more might be added. It would be comparatively easy, with some imagination and a conscientious neglect of evidence, to connect the greater number of our surnames with the Anglo-Saxons.
Thus Honeyball might very well represent the Anglo-Sax. Hunbeald, but, in the absence of links, it is better to regard it as a popular perversion of Hannibal (Chapter VIII). In dealing with this subject, the via media is the safe one, and one cannot pass in one stride from Hengist and Horsa to the Reformation period.
Matthew Arnold, in his essay on the Function of Criticism at the Present Time, is moved by the case of Poor Wragg, who was "in custody," to the following wail—
"What a touch of grossness in our race, what an original shortcoming in the more delicate spiritual perceptions, is shown by the natural growth amongst us of such hideous names—Higginbottom, Stiggins, Bugg!"
But this is the poet's point of view. Though there may have been "no Wragg by the Ilissus," it is not a bad name, for, in its original form Ragg, it is the first element of the heroic Ragnar, and probably unrelated to Raggett, which is the medieval le ragged. Bugg, which one family exchanged for Norfolk Howard, is the Anglo-Saxon Bucgo, a name no doubt borne by many a valiant warrior. Stiggins, as we have seen (Chapter XIII), goes back to a name great in history, and Higginbottom (Chapter XII) is purely geographical.