Part 26 (2/2)

CAUNCE, CHANCE, CHANCEY, CHANCELL, CANSICK, KENSAL, KENSETT.

The Cenesingas, found by Kemble in Kensington, would, if the Anglo-Saxons had possessed the requisite letters, have been better represented by Kenzingas, being, as I take it, from a stem _ganz_, _genz_, _kenz_, referred by Foerstemann to _ganz_, integer. I am inclined to take our names Chance, Chancey, &c., to represent the form _kanz_ in a softened form, come to us through the Normans. The forms of the name in the _Roll of Battle Abbey_, Kancey, Cauncy, and Chauncy, and the present French names, Cance, Chanceau, and Chanzy, seem to be in conformity with this view. The French seem to have some other names from the same stem, as Cancalon (O.G. Gansalin) and Gantzere (O.G. Gentsar).

The forms Cansick, Kensal (both diminutives, and the latter answering to Chancel), and Kensett, may be taken to represent the native form of the stem as found in Kenzingas.

SNOAD, SNODIN, SNOWDEN (?), SNODGRa.s.s.

Of the Snotingas, who gave the name to Snotingaham, now Nottingham, we have not many traces, either in Anglo-Saxon times or at present. There are three Anglo-Saxon names, Snode, Snodd, and Snoding, derived from place-names, p. 102. In Old German names it only occurs as the ending of two or three names of women. The meaning is to be found in A.S. _snot_, prudent, sagacious. The name Snodgra.s.s may be a compound from this stem as a corruption of Snodgast, though no ancient correspondent has turned up,--compare Prendergra.s.s, p. 114.

THRALE.

This is a very uncommon name; I never knew of an instance other than that of the brewer who is handed down to posterity as the friend of Johnson. So also in ancient times there is only one name on record, Thralo, for which Foerstemann proposes Old Friesic, _thrall_, swift, nimble.

EARWAKER, EDDIKER.

The curious-looking name Earwaker is no doubt the same as an Eueruacer (Everwacer), in _Domesday_, from _evor_, boar, and _wacar_, watchful, and it is of interest as supplying a missing link in the study of Old German names. For the Old German name corresponding to this appears as Eburacer, and while some other German writers have taken the ending to be _acer_ (Eng. _acre_), Foerstemann has, rightly as it is proved, suggested that it is a contraction of _wacer_. Similarly the ancient name Odoacer, of the king of the Heruli, is proved by corresponding Anglo-Saxon names, Edwaker in a charter of manumission at Exeter, and Edwacer on coins minted at Norwich (A.S. _ed_ = O.H.G. _od_), to be properly Odwacer. From this A.S. Edwaker may be our name Eddiker; and some others of our names, as _Goodacre_ and _Hardacre_, may represent ancient names not yet turned up.[56] The second part of the compound, _wacer_ (whence our _Waker_), is itself a very ancient stem, being found on the one hand in the Wacer(ingas), among the early Saxon settlers, and on the other in the name Vacir, probably Frankish, on Roman pottery.

SHAWKEY, CHALKEY, CHALK, CAULK, KELK, CHALKLEN, CALKING, CHALKER, CHAUCER.

We may take it that our name Shawkey (Shalkey) is the same as an A.S.

Scealc, p. 101, and as an O.G. Scalco, from _scalc_, servant. And the question is, whether our names Caulk, Chalk, and Chalkey, corresponding with an A.S. Cealca (found apparently in Cealcan gemero), and our name Kelk, corresponding with an A.S. Celc, p. 98, may not be forms of the same name without the initial _s_. Or whether they may be, as I before suggested, from the tribe-name of the Chauci or Cauci, one of the peoples included in the Frankish confederation. Of such a stem, however, there is not any trace in the _Altdeutsches Namenbuch_, which one might rather expect to be the case, seeing how fully Old Frankish names are therein represented. However, I am not able to come to any definite conclusion respecting this stem, which the forms above cited show to be an ancient one. The French names Chaussy, Chaussee, Cauche, Cauchy, seem to be in correspondence, as also Chaussier, comparing with Chaucer, which, as a softened form, I think may have come through the Normans.

FOOTNOTES:

[54] Kemble explains Cnebba as ”he that hath a beak,” which would seem to make it a sobriquet. But it certainly seems more reasonable to bring it into an established stem.

[55] This name might also be deduced from another stem.

[56] Unless, as seems possible, Goodacre may represent the Old German name Gundachar.

CHAPTER X

NAMES WHICH ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM.

It follows inevitably that, among the mult.i.tude of names such as are included within the scope of this work, there must be many which, though being of ancient origin, accidentally coincide with other words of modern meaning. And thus there are several which might be taken to be from names of women, such as the following:--

ANNE, NANNY, BETTY, SALL, MOLL, PEGG, BABB, MAGG, MEGGY, MAY, MAYO, NELLY, LUCY, KITTY, HANNAH, MAUDE.

These are all English surnames, and have sometimes been accounted for on the supposition of illegitimacy. Now, I am very much inclined to doubt the existence, at least in England, of any names derived from women, inasmuch as in the whole range of our surnames I do not know of one that is _unmistakably_ so derived. There is certainly a case, referred to at p. 57, of a surname ending in _trud_, a specially female ending, but, as I have there remarked, it does not necessarily follow that the word is the same as that used in women's names. There is, moreover, another name which a little puzzles me, _Goodeve_, which looks as if it were from the A.S. G.o.dgefa, later G.o.diva. This is from a special female ending, and I know of no corresponding masculine. But this might be an exceptional case, for I doubt not that many a child in England, and possibly even boys, with an unwonted masculine ending, might be called after the n.o.ble woman who freed her people from the tax--

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