The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
ENGLISH SURNAMES.
PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION.
I accept the early demand for a new edition of mybook, not so much as proof of the value of my individualwork, as of the increased interest which is beingtaken in this too much neglected subject. In deferenceto the wholesome advice of many reviewers, both inthe London and Provincial press, especially that ofthe ‘Times’ and the ‘Athenæum,’ I have re-arrangedthe whole of the chapters on ‘Patronymics’ and‘Nicknames,’ subdividing the same under convenientheads. By so doing the names which bear any particularrelationship to one another will be foundmore closely allied than they were under their formermore general treatment.
My book has met with much criticism, partlyfavourable, partly adverse, from different quarters. Tomy reviewers in general I offer my best thanks for theircomments. The ‘Saturday Review’—and I say it themore readily as they will see that I have not been insensibleto the value of their criticism—has not, I think,viiisufficiently understood the nature of my work. I am wellaware that praise is due to them for having for somelength of time strenuously advocated the claim of ourlanguage to be English through all its varying stages.I do not see that in the general character of my bookI have lost sight of this fact. An ‘English Directory’ isnot an ‘English Dictionary.’ The influences that havebeen at work on our language are not the same asthose upon our nomenclature. Every social casualtyhad an effect upon our names which it could not haveupon our words. The names found in DomesdayBook, casting aside the new importation, were, in thegreat majority of cases, obsolete by the end of thetwelfth century, and of those which have survived anddescended to us as surnames, well-nigh all are devoidof diminutive or patronymic desinences—a clear