Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature

struction o

e. With the suppression of the names proper went the desinences attached to them. The tree being felled, the parasite decayed. Another reason was this: the names introduced from the Scriptures did not seem to compound comfortably with these terminatives. The Hebrew name would first have to be turned into a nick form before the diminutive was appended. The English peasantry had added "in," "ot," "kin," and "cock" only to the nickname, never to the baptismal form. It was Wat-kin, not Walterkin; Bat-kin, not Bartholomewkin; Wilcock, not Williamcock; Colin, not Nicholas-in; Philpot, not Phil

ms became obsolete. Emmott lingered on till the end of

uck, died 24 April, 1726, aged

and possibly both might exist in the same household. I h

nephew, Hamlet Joyce. He bequeaths legacies in his will to Hamlet Pickerin and Hamlet Dun

ime that it was a pet name of Hamon, or Hamond; nay, few knew th

mlet Rigby, Mr. Askew's

ond Franklin."-"Cal. S

is "Canterbury Register," published 1878, for t

tened Ham'on, the sonn

ned Damaris, daughter o

d that some ecclesiastic, a critic of my book on "English Surnames," in the Guardian, rebuked me for supposing that Emmot could be from Emma

an antiquary, some few years ago, found this same Gaveston described as "Perot," it became a difficulty to not a few. The Perrots or Pa

a feminine name, died out also.

mas Woollard and Collatt Ha

into our pastoral poetry, lingered lon

ster and Beulah Digby."

defendant in a Chancery suit at the end of Elizabeth's reign (

chylde that was laide at Mr Alderman

fronts in towns like Leeds or Bradford, or in the secluded villages of Wensleydale or Swaledale, the surnames of Tillot and Tillotson, Emmett and Emmotson, Ibbott, Ibbet, Ibbs, and Ibbotson, know that, twenty years before the introduction of ou

re in some legal squabbles ("Chancery Suits: Elizabeth," vol. ii.). As for Sissot, or Drewet, or Doucet, or Fawcett, or Hewet, or Philcock, or Jeffcock,

Our ballads and plays preserve many of the nick forms, but scarcely a pet form is to be seen later than 1590. In 15

Loiterer bidde

in Waster maket

not Aliface. A few years later came "Gammer Gurton's Needle." Both Diccon and Hodge figure in it: two rus

n, Gib our cat had

se, and Nichol Newfangle. Wat Waghalter is also introduced. But here may be said to end this homely and contemporary class of play-names. 'T

rible rapidity, and were practically obsolete before Elizabeth's death. Bu

ecrease of

every man who gave his child a Bible name stuck to it unaltered. Ebenezer at baptism was Ebenezer among the turnips, Ebenezer with the milk-pail, and Ebenezer in courtship; while Deborah, who d

d not readily adapt themselves to ordinary converse with the world. Melchisedek and Ebedmelech were all right elbowing their way into the conventicle, but Melchisedek dispensing half-pounds of butter over the counter, or Ebedmelec

enough without Byfield, but both (as Butler, in "Hudibras," knew) suggested something slightly ludicro

tle! Ph?bus

eaking trump o

le! for a m

fits spring fro

united to Cottle makes

when speaking to Johnson of Dryden'

hould have no hesitation to give it for John Dryden, in preference to Elk

sions from the life of "Tristram Shandy," makes the progenitor of that young gen

had not their characters and spirits been to

nction of Hebrew and English titles as Ephraim Jenkinson; and his servant, who acts the part

in sheer amazement, when such conjunctions as Ebedmelech Gastrell, or Epaphroditus Haughton, or Onesiphorus Dixey, were introduced to their notice, pronounced with all sesquipedalian fulness,

ab, sonne of Michaell Nicolson,

d Ezekiell, sonne of Rob

sadeck, sonne of Melchizadeck Ben

ened Abacucke, sonne o

d Zabulon, sonne of J

ried Melchesideck

rd, sonne of Mephibosheth R

ed Jehostiaphat (si

Zipporah, d. of Richard B

s; and I have already enumerated a list of "Pilgrim Fathers" of Jame

ed only by the curtest of abbreviated names. In that very quaint poem of Heywood's, "The Hiera

wned for his r

tain beyond th

s Hero and

ion rather.

Tom. Tom Watson

e Apollo's

for all that

ld to his ful

his time of n

second syl

··

kespeare, whose

th or passion

nson, though

Castaly, is s

attributes the familia

or my

t they please, a

love in most

es not from my

to me so bl

s me best that

curate, who, in "The Ordi

I call your name,

His name'

My name is

ble, an't pleas

ues have made b

sound of that

t. Boy, learn

Yes, to m

especially in relation to their length and pronunciation in full. In Cowley's "Cutter

r's darkness; the Devil was a Cutter from the beginning: my name is now Abednego: I

s a "congregation of the elect," the playhouse is a conventicle, and he is a "pio

onder much n

this court ca

ter rhyme eve

nsations had

r Adoniram

ded," the arrival at the vint

Sure you mis

lcome, gentlemen: W

achary is

? Shew up into the Pho

rms, and Zachary,[20] the full name, is intenti

mention of Ezekiel, the cut-purse, or Zeal-of-the-land, the baker, who saw visions; while the veriest noodle in

nd Mistress Grace, too! Nay, do not look so angrily, Nump

e for Humphrey; and thus a passage that reads as very dull fun indeed to the ears of the nineteenth century, would seem to b

and attained in the "Alchemist

s your

My name i

Out, th

the Apostle

f! had your h

end me, of a

Ananias? Sen

e atonement fo

satisfaction

fire

reescore minute

, and su

her again, and

cked An

the expense of Ananias. But Abel, the tobacco-man, who immed

el, thou

I do thank

y legs more wil

you a pipe of t

have another thi

ut with

ere is lodge

young

into a nickname. This would never have occurred to the audience. Abel, or Nab, had been one of the most popular of English names for at least three centuries before the Reformation. Hence it w

safe. Wat, Phip, Hodge, Bat or Bate, and Cole lost their position, but so had the fuller Philip, Roger, Bartholomew, and Nicholas, But the opponents of Puritanism carried the war into the enemy's camp in revenge for this, and Priscilla, Deborah, Jeremiah, and Nathani

tlecock.

Hark! my m

e are you, c

ear her neigh

sc. 1.

s not repeated. Brome was still more scant in reverence to Dama

oman whose na

we may call her when we grow familiar; and to begi

a remarkable reverence for their Bible on the part of the English race, that every attempt to turn one of its names into

however, in the main. As the lascivious reaction from the Puritanic strait-lacedness in some degree spent itself, so did the newly restored fashion, and when the eighteenth century brought in a fresh innovation, viz. the classic forms, such as Beatrix, Maria, L?titia, Carolina, Louisa, Amelia, Georgina, Dorothea, Prudentia, Honora-an innovation that for forty year

of Saint and

, Philip, and Matthew, from being first favourites, lapsed into comparative oblivion. Some virgins and martyrs of extra-Biblical repute, like Agne

proves the songs themselves were old ones, or at any

y Weanewright, ye carter's

ellye, wife of Gilles Lamb

Thomas Bodnam and Urcy

Ursley, d. of John Fife

that Awdr

wdry, the widow of - Sew

rey, d. of John Cooke, butc

om-de-plume of Gil Blas, has only a church or two to reca

ital, when it was surrendered to Queen Eli

laze, daughter of - Goodw

ng of Blase Sawlter an

of ye minor cannons, to Mrs. Su

nce I have seen. Hilla

llarye Finch and Jane Whyt

Hillary Wapolle and Jane Ga

g of Hillary, sonne of Hil

ely found in

ptized Bryde, dau

Bryde, daughter of - Fa

churches can testify, became well-nigh extinct; but the feminine Benedicta, with B

lliam Stiche and Bennet Benne

Richard Moone to Bened

Bennett, son of John La

etimes bothering. Look,

romley and Mathew Barnet, maiden, o

mas Budd, miller, and Mathe

rmation, had been given to girls born on St. Matthew's Day.[23] The ni

no monster I, But even plain N

ith pincers, was a favourite saint for appeal against toothach

aints, as gods, the curers of them

his for a time; up to the Commonwealth period it c

ened Apeline, d. of Jo

ened Apoline, d. of Wi

ried Appelyna, d.

ore relics of this festival than any other. Pasche Oland or Pascoe Kerne figure in the Chancery suits of Elizabeth. Long before this the Hundred R

Pascall, son of John Davy

mas Strato and Paskey Pride

ah, d. of Pasko and Sarah Cr

ascow, son-in-law of Pasco

was sister of Henry Pa

m its having become confounded with Esther. To this mistake it owes

aster, daughter of Thomas

Easter Lewis, aged 56

s Burton, marriner, and Easte

iffany), was popular with both sexes, b

wedyr, and S

eler, fayle f

Tyffanie Seamor appears as defendant about 1590, however ("Chancery S

ized Typhenie, daug

Tiffeny, daughter of Harr

is from Banb

d Epiphane, ye sonne o

hancery Suits: Eliz."), and a few years later he is o

Epiphan Haworth, of Herefordshire, re

ition state between Epiphania and Ephin, the

ristening of Ephin

istening of Effam,

xander Brounescome, and Effym, his wife

d Epham Vowell, widow

the Restoration had wholly succumbed. The last entr

ed Eppifania Cakewoo

21) and Pentecost Servicus, and a servitor of Henry III. bore the only name of "Pentecost" ("Inquis., 13 Edw. I.," No. 13).

tecost, daughter of Robert

ed Pentecost, d. of W

r. Ezekel and Pentecost Hall, merchant, b

a Noel de Aubianis, while the "Materials for a Hist

on to Nowell Harper, late of

Nowell, son of William Ma

ized James, son of N

well Warner."-"C. S.

, and died hard, seeing the

of Noell and Ann Whiteing, linendra

rom Puritanism, had much to do

t of some Ol

the burial registers. Others were inclined to be tenacious over family favourites. We must be content, in the records of Elizabeth's and even James's reign, to find some old friends standing side by side with the new. The majority of th

] Harvey is mentioned. In 1604 comes Ingram Fyser. One after another these names occur within the space of five years-names then, although it was well in James's reign, known of all men, and borne reputably by many. But who will say that Drew, or Fulk, or Gavin, or Ingram are alive now? How they were to be elbowed out of existence these very same records tell us; for within the same half-decade we may see warrants or gran

the signature of Avery Howlatt. Hamlett Holcrofte and Hammett Hyde are to be met with (but we have spoken of them), and such other personages as Ellice Heye, Morrice Cowles, and Gervase Hatfield. Within a few pages' limit we come across Dogory Garry, Digory Greenfield, Digory Harrit, and Degory Hollman. These

Falcon, Lothbury, 1650."-"To

eman (Isaiah), or Elizar Audly (Eliezer), or Seth Awcocke, or Urias Babington, or Ezekias Brent,-and this not

e more we are reminded of two pretty baptismal names that have gone the way of the others. It makes one quite sad to think of these national losses. Amice, previous to the Reformation, was a hou

registers. Few will recognize

ston Hogkyn and Letyce Knig

ustone Bufford and Annes Agnes

ulk are ag

ied Drew Hewat, sonn

hillip, sonne of Thomas Phillip

pon hap-hazard as I turn the

5. Buried Jac

3. Buried Aw

ied Bonyface Meorys

ristened Grizill,

8. Buried Au

rried Richard Stape

ied John Carrington

Buried Joyce,

ied Gawyn Browne an

trongly marked here. It was Elizabeth's reign saw the end of Joan. Jane Grey set the fashionable Jane going; Joan was relegated t

f Jill, or Gill, which had been the pe

lian Jones, daughter of Thomas Jo

rrington, Cheape, and Gillian L

Noah's wife had refused to ent

Jak nor

turne

have on

a s

of James's reign. In 1619 we

led in a tave

ought a gill o

t,' quoth he, '

each Jacke shall

no Bible. A nanny-house, or simple "nanny," was well known to the loose and dissolute of either sex at the close of the sixteenth century. Hence, in the

lived a bac

no mind

aine would

l, Kate, S

did love me

choice

d all the

was pre

love me deare

the name, changed it to Nancy,

Peter, and shared his fate; but her character also ruined her. In t

stened Petronilla,

g of Parnell Griphin, d. o

of Parnell Averell, d. of Wil

amples may b

daughter of William Agar, b

. of Antony Barton, of P

not restore Parnel,

epoch of favour in the second Charles's reign. Tib and Sib were alw

l, neat Nancy, jolly Joan, nimble Nell, kissing Kate, bouncing Bess with black eyes, fair Phillis with fine white hands, fiddling Fran

of Mercie,"

quoth my

'um,' quot

's old Tib; 'No q

for our m

ote," one of the pers

mylke wyfe

nterbury, 1650."-"Half-penny T

g of Cibell Overton, d. of

red in this same century-Olive,

lyff, daughter of Degorie

of Grysell, daughter of - P

Jacolyn Backley, widow

" From being a household pet, Dorothy, as Doll, almost disappeared for a while. Doll and Dolly came back in the eighteenth century, under the patronage of the royal and stately Dorothea. What a run it again had! Dolly is one of th

his

gland, and m

d exit. I suppose she may turn up again about 1990, a

use. Dowse, the pretty Douce of earlier days

wse, wife of John Thomas

hard, but i

e, wife of Thomas Armstron

oyes, daughter of John Lyt

eph Sumner and Joyce Stallo

come back as L?titia i

chard Evannes and Lettis W

he property of eit

ery Martin, widow, of Wil

aker, Hartford."-"Tokens

red the s

w, applied for arrears of pay due to

ened Avis, d. of Phi

vice, daughter of Thomas

the sonne of James Jennets, and Av

nd for a century and a half was a decided success. It became familiar to every district in England, north or south, and i

ward Bashe and Thomeson Ag

amson, daughter of Richar

nne of Henery Thomson, haberdasher, and o

Johanna, fil. Tamsin Sm

asing, filia William Sympso

mesin, Thomazin, Tomasin, and Thomasin occur. I

and Jane

a pretty

another K

a long et