VARIOUS UNENUMERATED STEMS 154 CHAPTER X. NAMES WHICH ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM 171 CHAPTER XI. CHRISTIAN NAMES OF WOMEN 197 LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED 213 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS 215 INDEX OF NAMES 217 CONTRACTIONS. A.S. Anglo-Saxon. O.N. Old Northern. O.G. Old German. O.H.G. Old High German. SURNAMES AS A SCIENCE. CHAPTER I. THE ANTIQUITY AND THE UNSUSPECTED DIGNITY OF SOME OF OUR COMMON NAMES. As some things that seem common, and even ignoble, to the naked eye, lose their meanness under the revelations of the microscope, so, many of our surnames that seem common and even vulgar at first sight, will be found, when their origin is adequately investigated, to be of high antiquity, and of unsuspected dignity. _Clodd_, for instance, might seem to be of boorish origin, and _Clout_ to have been a dealer in old rags. But I claim for them that they are twin brothers, and etymologically the descendants of a Frankish king. _Napp_ is not a name of distinguished sound, yet it is one that can take us back to that far-off time ere yet the history of England had begun, when, among the little kinglets on the old Saxon shore, "Hnaf ruled the Hôcings."[1] _Moll_, _Betty_, _Nanny_, and _Pegg_ sound rather ignoble as the names of men, yet there is nothing of womanliness in their warlike origin. _Bill_ seems an honest though hardly a distinguished name, unless he can claim kinship with Billing, the "noble progenitor of the royal house of Saxony." Now Billing, thus described by Kemble, is a patronymic, "son of Bill or Billa," and I claim for our Bill (as a surname) the right, as elsewhere stated, to be considered as the progenitor. Among the very shortest names in all the directory are _Ewe_, _Yea_, and _Yeo_, yet theirs also is a pedigree that can take us back beyond Anglo-Saxon times. Names of a most disreputable appearance are _Swearing_ and _Gambling_, yet both, when properly inquired into, turn out to be the very synonyms of respectability. _Winfarthing_ again would seem to be derived from the most petty gambling, unless he can be rehabilitated as an Anglo-Saxon Winfrithing (patronymic of Winfrith.) A more unpleasant name than _Gumboil_ (_Lower_) it would not be easy to find, and yet it represents, debased though be its form, a name borne by many a Frankish warrior, and by a Burgundian king fourteen centuries ago. Its proper form would be Gumbald (Frankish for Gundbald), and it signifies "bold in war." Another name which wofully belies its origin is _Tremble_, for, of the two words of which it is composed, one signifies steadfast or firm, and the other signifies valiant or bold. Its proper form is Trumbald, and the first