Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

ENGLISHSURNAMES.

of 'Johannes,' we are to date the rise of our familiar Hansons,' 'Hankins,' 'Hankinsons,' and 'Hancocks,'or ' Handcocks: Nor is this all. 'John' enjoyed the peculiar prerogative of being able to attach to itself adjectives of a flattering, or at least harmless nature, and issuing forth and becoming accepted by the world therewith. Thus — though we shall have to notice it again — from the praiseworthy effort to distinguish the many ' Johns' each community possessed, we have still in our midst such names as 'Prujean' and 'Gros-jean,' ' Micklejohn' and 'Littlejohn,' 'Properjohn' and 'Brownjohn,' and last, but not least, the estimable 'Bonjohn.' Do we need to go on to prove 'Jacks' popularity, or rather universality? 1 Every stranger was 'Jack' till he was found to be somebody else; so that ' every man Jack of them' has been a kind of general lay-baptism for ages. Every young supernumerary, whose position and age gave the licence, was in the eye of his superiors simply 'Jack.' As one instrument after another, however, was brought into use, by which manual service was rendered unnecessary and 'Jack' unneeded, instead of superannuating him he was quietly thrust into the new and inanimate office, and what with 'boot-jack's' and 'black jacks,' 'jack-towels' and 'smoke-jacks,' 'jacks' for this and ' jacks' for that, no wonder people have begun to speak unkindly of him as 'Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.' Still, with this uncomplimentary

'Jack' was really the nickname of Jacobus or James. Jacques was the common name among the peasantry of France, and as a national sobriquet was to that country what John was to England. On its introduction to ourselves, it seems to have been tacitly accepted as but a synonym for John, and has been used as such ever since-

PATRONYMIC SURNAMES.

tone, there was a smack of praise. A notion, at any rate, got abroad that 'Jack' must be a knowing, clever, sharp-witted sort of fellow, one who has his eyes open. So we got into the way of associating him with the more lively of the birds, beasts, and fishes; such, for instance, as the 'jack-claw,' the 'jack-an-apes,' and the ' jack-pike.' But 'familiarity,' as our copybooks long ago informed us, ' breeds con-tempt;' and so was it with 'Jack ' — he became a mark for ridicule. Even in Chaucer's day 'jack-fool' or 'jack-pudding' was the synonym for a buffoon, and 'jackass' for a dolt; and here it but nationalises the 'zany,' a corruption of the Italian 'Giovanni,' or 'merry-John,' corresponding to our 'merry-Andrew.' 'Jack of Dover' also existed at the same period as a cant term for a clever knave, and that it still lived in the seventeenth century is clear from Taylor's rhyme, where he says

Nor Jacke of Dover, that grand jury Jacke,

Nor Jack-sauce, the worst knave amongst the pack,

But of the Jacke of Jackes, great Jack-a-Lent,

To write his worthy acts is my intent.'

Altogether, we may claim for 'John' a prominent, if not distinguished, position in the annals of English

1 'Sir John' ('sir' being the simple old-fashioned title of respect, as in 'sir knight,' 'sir king,'&c.) was the familiar expression for a priest. Bishop Bale speaks of them as ' babbling Sir Johns.' Bradford, too, writing on the Mass, asks, 'Who then, I say, will, excuse these mass-gospellers' consciences? Will the Queen's highness ? She shall then have more to do for herself than, without hearty and speedy repentance, she can ever be able to answer, though Peter, Paul, Mary, James, John, the Pope and all his prelates, take her part, with all the singing "Sir Johns' 'that ever were, are, and shall be.' — Bishop Bradford's Works. Park. Soc., p. 391.