Let us take another name with the same ending, Clutterbuck, also, I doubt not, a name of local origin, though I am unable in this case to identify the place. But clutter seems evidently to be from the Anglo-Saxon, hluttor, clear, pure, limpid, and the word must have been hluttorbeck, "clear brook," so that this is another case of a similar corruption. The Anglo-Saxons, no doubt, strongly aspirated the initial h, so that the name has become Clutterbuck.
Another name which may be taken to be of the same kind is Honeybun, no doubt a corruption of another name Honeyburn, from burn, a brook, honey being apparently used by the Anglo-Saxons as an epithet to describe sweet waters. But to the modern ear Honeybun is a much more natural association than Honeyburn, particularly since the Anglo-Saxon burn for brook has passed out of use in England.
Among the Germans, corruptions towards a meaning are also common, as in such names as Guttwein for Godwine or Gotwine, Warmbadt for Warinbod, Leutenant for Liutnand (liud, people, nant, daring). There is a curious-looking and seemingly profane name Heiliggheist, as if from the third person of the Trinity, which may, however, be a corruption of an ancient name, perhaps of the name Haldegast.
The odd-looking names Oyster and Oysterman in Suffolk Surnames are probably the German names Oster and Ostermann (oster, orientalis) in an anglicised form, the marvellous power of assimilation possessed by the great Republic evincing itself, among other things, in the way in which it anglicises foreign names. Thus the name Crumpecker, placed by Bowditch among names from birds, is, we can hardly doubt, a corruption of a German Krumbacher, i.e. "a native of Krumbach," of which name there are several places in Germany. So also the ending thaler in German names, from thal, valley, is changed into "dollar" as its supposed equivalent. Hence the Americans have Milldolar, Barndollar, and Cashdollar, corruptions of some such German names as Mühlthaler, Bernthaler, and Käsenthaler, signifying an inhabitant respectively of Mühlthal, of Bernthal, and of Käsenthal. It would seem as if a man coming to this new world, where everything around him is changed—presumably for the better—accepts it as, among other things, a part of the new dispensation, that whereas his name has hitherto been, say Käsenthaler, he shall henceforth answer to the name—perhaps not an inauspicious one—of Cashdollar.
FOOTNOTES:
[43] There is another name Snodgrass, which may be a similar corruption of Snodgast, from the stem snod, A.S. snot, wise.
[44] This however is by no means certain, inasmuch as there is a stem card or gard from which it might be formed, though the corresponding ancient name has not turned up. On the other hand it is to be observed that wealh is not one of the more common endings.
[45] Pagan occurs as an A.S. name, (Thorpe, p. 648), and may probably be referred to bagan, to contend. Cf. also Pagingas among the early settlers.
[46] According, no doubt, as the ancient name appeared as Thorgaut or Thorgaud.