Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

names were more common from the eleventh to the fourteenth century than 'Warin,' or 'Guarin,'or ' Guerin' — the latter the form at present generally found in France. It is the sobriquet that is incorporated in our ancient 'Mannerings,'or 'Mainwarings,'a family that came from the ' mesnil,'or ' manor,' of 'Warin,' in a day when that was a familiar Christian name in Norman households. A few generations later on we find securely settled among ourselves such names as 'Warin Chapman,'or 'Warinus Gerold,' or 'Guarinus Banastre,' in the baptismal, and 'Warinus Fitz-Warin,' or 'John Warison,' in the patronymic form, holding a steady place inour mediaeval rolls. Two of the characters in 'Piers Plowman,' as those who have read it will remember, bear this as their personal sobriquet:

One Waryn Wisdom

And Witty his fere

Followed him faste.

And again

Then wente Wisdom

And Sire Waryn the Witty

And warnede wrong.

'Robert Warinot,' in the Hundred Rolls, and 'William Warinot' in the Placita de Quo Warranto, reveal the origin of our 'Warnetts;' while our 'Wareings,' 'Warings,' 'Warisons,' 'Wasons,' and 'Fitz-Warins' — often written 'Fitz-Warren ' — not to men-

PATRONYMIC SURNAMES.

tion the majority of our 'Warrens,' are other of the descendants of this famous old name that still survive. A favourite name in these days was 'Payn,' or 'Pagan.' The softer form is given us in the 'Man of Lawes Tale '

The Constable, and Dame Hermegild his wife,

Were payenes, and that country everywhere.

We all know the history of the word; how that, while the Gospel had made advance in the cities, but not yet penetrated into the country, the dwellers in the latter became looked upon with a something of con-tempt as idolators, so that, so far as this word was concerned, 'countryman' and 'false-worshipper' be-came synonymous terms. In fact, 'pagan' embraced the two meanings that 'peasant' and 'pagan' now convey, though the root of both is the same. The Normans, it would appear, must have so styled some of themselves who had refused baptism after that their chieftain, Rollo, had become a convert; and hence, when William came over, the name was introduced into England by several of his followers. In Domesday Book we find among his tenants-in-chief the names of 'Ralph Paganel' and 'Edmund fil. Pagani.' The name became more popular as time went on, and it is no exaggeration to say that at one period — viz., the close of the Norman dynasty — it had threatened to become one of the most familiar appellatives in England. This will account for the frequency with which we meet such entries in the past as 'Robert fil. Pain,' 'Pain del Ash,' 'Pagan de la

1 'Warren le Latimer' occurs in the 'Rolls of Parliament,' and 'Fulco Fitz-Warren' in the 'Cal. Rot. Pat.'in Turri Londonensi. D