Surnames as a Science Part 30

_Present Christian name._--Eng. Emmeline.

ETHEL, ADELA, ADELINE, ADELAIDE.

Ethel and Adela are different forms of the same word, _adal_, _athal_, _ethel_, signifying n.o.ble. But while Adela is a correctly formed feminine, Ethel can hardly be said to be so. Both as a man's name and as a woman's it had usually a vowel-ending, and though this was not invariably the case, yet a name appearing without it would be rather a.s.sumed to be a man's name. Adeline is a diminutive like Eveline and Caroline; it represents the old name Adalina, eighth century, and Adalina, about the twelfth century, in the _Liber Vitae_, and comes probably through the French, the ending in _e_ preserving the feminine by lengthening the syllable. Adelaide is from _adal_, as above, and H.G.

_haid_, corresponding with Saxon _hood_, as in manhood. Hence the name seems to contain the abstract sense of n.o.bility. The name must have come to us through the Normans; indeed, a woman's name could hardly be so formed among the Anglo-Saxons, for, curiously enough, this ending was a feminine one among the High Germans, and a masculine one among the Saxons. Hence perhaps it is that we have as surnames such names as _Manhood_ and _Mahood_, the latter perhaps signifying boyhood, A.S.

_maeg_, boy.

EDITH.

Edith is the only representative in women's names of A.S. _ead_, happiness, prosperity, from which we have so many men's names, as Edward, Edwin, Edmund, Edgar. It represents an A.S. Editha, a contraction of Eadgitha, and the question, which is not without a little difficulty, is, What is the origin of _githa_? Is it a phonetic variation of _gifa_ (A.S. _gifu_, gift), so common in Anglo-Saxon names of women, as in G.o.d-gifa (G.o.diva), Sungefa (Suneva), &c., or is it a separate word? I am disposed to come to the conclusion, upon the whole, that it is a separate word, and though the traces of it as such are not strong, yet there are some traces. There is a woman's name Githa in the _Liber Vitae_, and this seems to be the same as an Old Norse woman's name Gyda in the _Landnamabok_. There was also a Gytha, daughter of Swend, king of Denmark. Then there are two Old German names of women with the endings respectively _gid_ and (H.G.) _kid_. And the origin of all I should take to be found in O.N. _gydia_, G.o.ddess, the exalted conception of womanhood.

EVELYN, EVELINA, EVELINE.

There does not seem to be sufficient ground for Miss Yonge's suggestion that Eveline, a name which we have from the Normans, was borrowed by them from the Celts. On the contrary, they seem to have derived it from their Frankish ancestors, among whom we find it in the eleventh century in the form Avelina. This appears to be the original form, for we find it as Avelina in the _Liber Vitae_ about the twelfth century. And again in the thirteenth century we find that one of the Earls of Albemarle married a lady named Aveline. It is probably a diminutive from the stem _av_, which Foerstemann refers to Goth. _avo_, in the probable sense of ancestor. The names Evelyn and Eveline should be kept sharply distinct, the former being a man's name, and the latter a woman's, being the French form of Evelina, as is Louise of Louisa.

From the same stem, _av_, is formed also the female name Avice, now become very rare. It appears as Auiza and Avicia in the _Liber Vitae_, and its original form I take to be found in Avagisa, eighth century, in the _Altdeutsches Namenbuch_, from _gis_, hostage. From a similar origin, but from the masculine form Avagis, may probably be _Avis_, included by Mr. Lower among Latinized surnames.

Another name from the same stem which seems to have been formerly rather common, but which now seems quite obsolete, is Avina.

HAVEYS, HAWOISE.

This is another woman's name which has become almost extinct, and, seeing how uncomfortable a name it is to p.r.o.nounce, I do not wonder that it should be so. It appears in the _Liber Vitae_ as Hawysa, and in the _Pol. Irminon_ as Hauis, but its proper form is to be traced up to the older name Hathewiza in the _Liber Vitae_, from _hath_, war, and _wisa_, leader. A surname corresponding, though of course from the masculine form of the name, may probably be the well-known one of _Haweis_.

_Some other Obsolete or Obsolescent Names._

The name Helwis occurs in the _Liber Vitae_ about the thirteenth century, and a more perfect form, Helewiza, about two centuries earlier. It seems rather probable, however, that its proper form would be Hildwisa, from _hild_, war, and _wisa_, leader. It occurs as Helois in the _Pol. Irm._, and is the same as the French Heloise (=Helwise). This name I take to be quite obsolete with us.

A name given by Miss Yonge as still in use is Amice or Amicia. It may probably be the same as the woman's name Amisa, Ameza, or Emeza of the eighth century in the _Altd. Nam._, which Foerstemann takes to be from A.S. _emeta_, quies. In that case it would probably be the same name in another form as Emmota, formerly not uncommon as a woman's name.

Another name which I rather suppose to be obsolete is Agace, Agaze, or Igusa, found in the _Liber Vitae_ up to the fourteenth century, and probably the same as an O.G. Eggiza, eleventh century, from a stem _ag_, supposed to mean point or edge.

FOOTNOTES:

[60] The princ.i.p.al part of this chapter appeared in the _Antiquary_ for March, 1882.

[61] Possibly, at least in some cases, the origin of the surname Constable.

[62] The earliest mention of this name that I have seen, occurs A.D.

1431, in the _Liber Vitae_, when one John Duckett, having died at the remarkable age of 127, his children, one of whom was called Cristabel, presented offerings at the shrine of St. Cuthbert. These would seem to be of the nature of propitiatory offerings on behalf of the dead, of which there are various instances recorded. One of these is that of one Maria del Hay, who in a large-hearted spirit, seems to have included in her offering, not only all who had gone before, but all who were to come after her. The entry is, "Maria del Hay, c.u.m omnibus suis progenitoribus et successoribus."

LIST OF THE PRINc.i.p.aL WORKS CONSULTED.

FOERSTEMANN.--Altdeutsches Namenbuch.--Vol. I. Personennamen.--Vol.

II. Ortsnamen. London, Williams Norgate.

POTT.--Personennamen. Leipzig, 1853.

STARK.--Beitrage zur kunde Germanischer Personennamen. Vienna, 1857.--Die Kosenamen der Germanen. Vienna, 1868.

WEINHOLD.--Die Deutschen Frauen in dem Mittelalter. Vienna, 1851.

GLUCK.--Die bei C. Julius Caesar vorkommenden Keltischen Namen.

Vienna, 1857.

Wa.s.sENBERG.--Verhandeling over de Eigennaamen der Friesen. Franeker, 1774.

Islands Landnamabok. Copenhagen.

Scriptores Rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum, Saec. 6-9. Hanover, 1878.

Polyptique de l'Abbe Irminon, ou denombrement des manses, des serfs, et des revenus de l'Abbaye de Saint Germain-des-Pres sous le regne de Charlemagne. Paris, 1844.

Polyptique de l'Abbaye de Saint Remi de Reims, ou denombrement des manses, des serfs, et des revenus de cette abbaye vers le milieu du neuvieme siecle. Paris, 1853.

[asterism] The above two Old Frankish records contain a list of the names of all the serfs and dependants of the respective abbeys, with the names also of their wives and children.

KEMBLE.--Codex diplomaticus aevi Saxonici. London, 1845-48.

THORPE.--Diplomatorium Anglic.u.m aevi Saxonici. London, 1865.

TAYLOR.--Names and Places. London, 1864.

STEPHENS.--The Old Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England.

London.

MISS YONGE.--History of Christian Names. London, 1863.

LOWER.--Patronymica Britannica. London, 1860.

BOWDITCH.--Suffolk Surnames. Boston, U.S.A.

Liber Vitae Ecclesiae Dunelmensis. Published by the Surtees Society, London, 1841.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

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