Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

set down in both forms as 'Hamnet Massey' and 'Hamlet Massey'(cf. i. 148, ii. 201). If the reader will look through the index of Bromefield's 'Norfolk,'he will find that 'Hamlet' in that county had taken the entire place of 'Hamnet.' Amid a large number of the former I cannot find one of the latter. It would be a curious question how far Shakespeare was biassedby the fact of having a 'Hamlet in his nursery into changing ' Hambleth' (the original title of the story) to the form he has now immortalized. An open Bible, and, further on, a Puritan spirit have left their influenceon no name more markedly than 'Hamon.' As one after another new Bible character was commemoratedat the font, 'Hamon' got crushed out. Its last refuge has been found in our directories, for so long as our 'Hamlets,' 'Hamnets,' 'Hammets,' 'Hammonds,'and 'Hampsons' exist, it cannot be utterly forgotten.

'Guy,' or 'Guyon,' dates from the 'Round Table,'but it was reserved for the Norman to make his name so familiar to English lips. The best proof of this is that the surnames which it has left to us are all but entirely formed from the Norman-French diminutive 'Guyot,' which in England became, of course, ' Wyot.'Hence such entries as 'Wyot fil. Helias,'or 'Wyott Carpenter,' or 'Wyot Balistarius.' The descendantsof these, I need scarcely say, are our 'Wyatts.'But the Norman initial was not entirely lost. ' Aleyn Gyot ' is found in the 'Rolls of Parliament;' and 'Guyot' and 'Guyatt ' testify to its existence in the nineteenth century.' 'Ralph,' or 'Radulf,'of whom there were thirty-eight in Domesday, has survived

1 'Guido,' as 'Wydo,' is found in such entries as 'Will. fil. Wydo' (A), or 'Will. fil. Wydonis' (E), hence 'Widowson' and 'Widdowson.'

PATRONYMIC SURNAMES.

in a number of forms. Our 'Raft's ' and 'Raffsons ' can carry back their descent to days when 'Raffe Barton' or 'Peter Raffson' thus signed themselves. The favourite pet forms were 'Rawlin ' and 'Randle;' hence such entries as 'Raulyn de la Fermerie,' 'Raulina de Briston,' or 'Randle de la Mill.' To these it is we owe our 'Rawlins,' 'Rawlings,' 'Rawlinsons,' 'Rollins,' 'Rollinsons,' 'Randles' and 'Randalls.' Other and more ordinary corruptions are found in 'Rawes,' 'Rawson,' 'Rawkins,' 'Rapkins,' and 'Rapson.' The reader may easily see from this that 'Ralph,' from occupying a place in the foremost rank of early favourites, is content now to stand in the very rear.

There are a number of names still in use, although not so popular as they once were, which were brought in directly by the Normans, and which were closely connected with the real or imaginary stories of which Charlemagne was the central figure. Italy, France, and Spain possess a larger stock than we do of this class, but those which did reach our shores made for themselves a secure position. 'Charles,' by some strange accident, did not obtain a place in England, nor is it to be found in our registers, saving in the mostisolated instances, till Charles the First, by his misfortunes, made it one of the commonest in the land. In France, as Sir Walter Scott, in 'Quentin Durward,' reminds us, the pet form was 'Chariot ' and 'Charlat.' This, as a surname, soon found its way to England, where it has existed for many centuries. The feminine 'Charlotte,' since the death of the beloved Princess of that name, has become almost a household word. Putting aside 'Charles,' then, the Paladins have bequeathed us 'Roland,' 'Oliver,' 'Robert,' 'Richard,'