English Surnames: Their Sources and SignificationsBardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
History
English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations
Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
Names, English; Names, Personal -- English
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 mention the majority of our ‘Warrens,’[19]
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 contempt
as idolaters, so that, so far as this word was concerned, ‘countryman’
and ‘false-worshipper’ became 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 Hale,’ ‘Roger fil. Pagan,’ ‘Payen le Dubbour,’ or
‘Elis le Fitz-Payn,’ and such surnames in the present as ‘Pagan,’
‘Payne,’ ‘Payn,’ ‘Paine,’ ‘Pain,’ and ‘Pynson.’ The diminutive also was
not wanting, as ‘John Paynett’ (Z) or ‘Emma Paynot’ (W 2) could have
testified. Thus, while in our dictionaries ‘pagan’ still represents a
state of heathenism, in our directories it has long ago been converted
to the uses of Christianity, and become at the baptismal font a
Christian name. ‘Ivar,’ or ‘Iver,’ still familiarised to Scotchmen in
‘Mac-Iver,’ came to the Normans from the northern lands whence they were
sprung, and with them into England. It was not its first appearance
here, as St. Ives of Huntingdonshire could have testified in the seventh
century. Still its popular character was due to the Norman. Such names
as ‘Yvo de Taillbois’ (1211), mentioned in Bishop Pudsey’s ‘Survey of
the Durham See,’ ‘Ivo le Mercer,’ ‘Walter fil. Ive,’ ‘William Iveson,’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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