As Isabel interchanged in former times with Elizabeth, so did Maud with Matilda, among other instances being that of the daughter of Henry I., who was called by both names. Yet, etymologically, Maud can no more be derived from Matilda than can Giles from Ægidius, by which it used formerly to be always Latinized. And the interchange is rendered all the more curious by the fact that Maud, when traced up to its origin, seems to be properly a man's name. There has evidently been some ancient mistake or misappropriation, the origin of which I hope to be able to account for. The names Mald, Maald, Mauld (all names of women), found in the _Liber Vitæ_ before the introduction of surnames, and the Christian name Maulde, found in the fifteenth century, show the form from which our Maud is immediately derived. Then we have the older forms, Mahald, Mahalt, and Maholt, all also apparently names of women. And in one case, about the twelfth or thirteenth century, the name stands as "Mahald vel Matilda." Now no one who has given attention to the subject can doubt that Mahald, Mahalt, and the French form, Mahault, are the same as an Old Frankish Magoald, eighth century, from Gothic _magan_, posse, valere, and _wald_ power. This is distinctly a man's name; indeed, _wald_, as an ending, is almost exclusively confined to men's names, as the ending _hild_, as in Matilda, is to those of women. There is but one way that I can see out of the difficulty, and it is this. There is in the _Liber Vitæ_ another name, Mahild, which is no doubt the same as an Old Frankish Mahilda, which Foerstemann (_Altdeutsches Namenbuch_) takes to be a contraction of Matilda. It would seem, then, that some mistake or confusion has in old times arisen between these two names, and that Mahild, which really represents Matilda, has been set aside in favour of Mahald, an entirely different name. The fact, however, of our having Maude as a surname would rather seem to show that this misappropriation was not universal, for surnames are not--unless it be in some very exceptional cases--taken from the names of women. ALICE, ALICIA, ELIZA, ADELIZA, ALISON. ALICE _properly a man's name, and_ ELIZA _its proper Feminine_.