Low humour has given rise to many, as the Good Woman, i. e. a headless woman; the Labour in Vain, a man attempting to wash a Blackmoor white-the Paris version of it is, " au temps perdu ;" and the Three Loggerheads, two only being painted on the sign, while the spectator completes the trio !

I have incidentally mentioned several singular and ludicrous corruptions in inn signs; two others of familiar name deserve especial notice, viz. the Bull and Mouth, and the Bell Savage. The former is exhibited as a bull standing by the side of a monstrous human mouth, whereas the object primarily intended was the mouth or harbour of Boulogne, a compliment, as Mr. Roby supposes, to Henry VIII, who took that port

in 1544.*

The Bell Savage was represented as a large church bell and a savage man. According to the Spectator, 'la belle sauvage' was the heroine of an antient French romance, which told the story of a beautiful lady found in a forest in a wild or savage state t; but Mr. Roby asserts that the inn and its court-yard were denominated from one Isabella Savage,' a lady who once possessed these premises and conveyed them to the Cutlers' Company. This statement is as far from the truth as the other, without the merit of being so picturesque, since the real donor of the property was a Mrs. Craithorne, whose portrait is still preserved at Cutlers' Hall, in Cloak lane.‡

* Gent. Mag., April 1818.

Vol. i, No. 28.

Tavern Anecdotes, p. 70.

OBSERVATIONS ON CHRISTIAN NAMES.

N jotting down a few notes on personal or individual names, it is not my intention to wander far into the mazes of etymology. A host of writers have already employed their pens upon this subject, and perhaps few topics could be named upon which an equal amount of false reasoning has been employed. It is a field in which ingenuity may revel ad libitum, but one which yields little solid or satisfactory fruit. The origin of Surnames, belonging as it does to comparatively recent periods of the world's history, is of easy ascertainment as contrasted with that of our personal nomenclature which belongs in general to remote ages, to rude states of social existence, and to a great variety of languages, whose beginnings are themselves shrouded in mystery. To support a favourite theory, the most absurd and far-fetched etymons have often been sought out, and, according to the bias of each several investigator, the Oriental, the Classical, or the Northern languages have respectively been made the chief sources of all existing appellations of this class. upon a particular name being from the Hebrew; another asserts that it is archaic Greek; while a third

One writer insists

is quite confident that it is Celtic or Teutonic; and it has even been attempted to prove, from the names of the earliest patriarchs of mankind, that the primeval language of our race was Hebrew, or German, or Welsh ! It will therefore be obvious to the most uninitiated in these matters, that anything like a general view of Christian names, like that which I have attempted in these volumes to give of family names, would abound with vexatæ quæstiones foreign both to the scope of my abilities and to the design and purport of my undertaking.

Christian names are so called from their having originally been given to converts at baptism as substitutes for their former Pagan appellatives, many of which were borrowed from the names of their gods, and therefore rejected as profane. After the general introduction of Christianity, the epithet was still retained, because the imposition of names was ever connected with the earliest of its sacred rites. It is, nevertheless, most incorrect; since the majority of the personal names of modern times are borrowed from sources unconnected with Christianity. With what propriety can we call Hercules and Diana, Augustus and Julia, or even Henry and Caroline, Christian names?

Until about the commencement of the seventeenth century, no material change in the designations of Englishmen had occurred since the days of the earlier Edwards, when surnames were generally adopted. John de la Barre, it is true, had become plain John Barr, and Roger atte Hylle had softened to Roger Hill, but still the principle of a single Christian name and a single surname had been maintained throughout. About the period alluded to, the innovation of a second

personal name occurs, though but very rarely. The practice was imported from the Continent, where it seems to have originated among the literati in imitation of the tria nomina of antiquity. The accession of the many-named house of Brunswick may be said to have rendered it somewhat fashionable; and during the last century it has become every year more common. Should the fashion continue, it is probable that at the close of the nineteenth century it will be as difficult to find a binominated person in this country, as it is in France at the present day.

Another innovation belongs to the seventeenth century; I mean the use of some family name as a baptismal appellation, as Gouldsmith Hodgson, Boscawen Lower, Cloudesley Shovel. This practice as well as the other is, I think, highly to be commended, as serving to identify the individual with the designation. The genealogist will at once see its utility; and I would again suggest to parents the desirableness of inserting the maternal family name between the proper name of baptism and the surname, as James Morton Wilson, Henry Smith Bradley. I would indeed go further, and add the maiden family name of the wife to the surname of the husband; thus, if a Charles Harrison married a Mary Bradshawe, they should thereupon write themselves respectively Charles Bradshawe-Harrison and Mary Bradshawe-Harrison. If Vanity unites in the same escutcheon the arms of the wife with those of her lord, ought not Affection in like manner to blend their names? This usage is voluntarily followed at Geneva and in many provinces of France; and it serves to distinguish the bachelor from the married

man.

In some districts, where a family name was originally

applied at the font instead of the usual James, Peter, or John, that family name has come to be regarded as a regular Christian name. For example: about Lewes, Trayton is fully as common as Samuel, Nicholas, Alfred, or any name occupying the second rank in point of frequency, and only less usual than Henry, William, and John. In the sixteenth century a family of this name, from Cheshire, settled at Lewes, and continued to reside there for several successive generations, during the latter part of which period they became so popular that a host of children received the baptismal name of Trayton in compliment to them. The spirit of imitation succeeded; and there are at the present day scores of Traytons, who have neither any idea of the origin of their name, nor any doubt of its being as orthodox as the very common appellatives above alluded to.

There are some singular superstitions regarding the imposition of baptismal names. The peasantry of Sussex believe that if a child receive a name previously given to a deceased brother or sister, it will also die at an early age. It is deemed lucky to bear a Christian name with the same initial as that of the surname, as Reuben Russell, Samuel Smith, Peter Pierpoint. In some parts of Ireland it is a commonly received notion, that by giving a child the name of one of its parents, the life of that parent is abridged! In Esthonia many parents give their children the names of Adam and Eve, thinking thereby to ensure for them a long life. In Catholic countries the imposition of a saint's name is supposed to bespeak his or her patronage for the namesake.

We have seen, in Chapter XIII, that the Christian name, once imposed, cannot be altered at the option of