Presuming the above derivation to be the correct one, the question then arises,--Has this ending come to us through the French, or has the corruption proceeded simultaneously in both countries? That the latter has been the case, the French _Videcocq_, as compared with our _Woodcock_, goes some way to show, the one having the High German form _vid_ or _wid_, and the other the Saxon form _wud_. I may also mention, as being, so far as it goes, in accordance with the above theory, that we have a number of names both in the form of _cot_ and _cock_, as _Adcock_ and _Addicott_, _Alcock_ and _Alcott_, _Norcott_ and _Norcock_, _Jeffcock_ and _Jeffcott_. I do not, however, desire to come to a definite conclusion, though, as far as I am able to carry it, the inquiry seems in favour of the view which I have advocated. But the whole subject will bear some further elucidation. FOOTNOTES: [8] How or when this change took place is a question that awaits solving, but I observe that, in 1265, the Countess of Montford, giving names (or sobriquets) to her servants, calls one of her messengers Treubodi (trusty messenger), and not Treuboda, as the Anglo-Saxon form would have been. [9] This name appears as [Greek: Moundilas] in Procopius, but, judging by the present pronunciation of Greek, it would sound as Mundila. CHAPTER III. NAMES REPRESENTING ANCIENT COMPOUNDS. The subject of the relative antiquity of simple names (_i.e._ those formed from one single word) and of compound names is one which has occupied a good deal of the attention of the Germans. And the conclusion at which some of them at least seem to have arrived, and which perhaps has been stated the most distinctly by Stark, is that the compound names are the older of the two. And the principal ground upon which this conclusion is based seems to be this, that in a very great number of cases we find that a simple name was used as a contraction of a compound name, just as we use Will for William, and Ben for Benjamin. Stark, in particular, has gone into the subject with German thoroughness, and produced a most complete list of instances of such contractions, such as Freddo for Fredibert, Wulf for Wulfric, Benno for Bernhard; and among the Anglo-Saxons, Eada for Edwine, and Siga for Siwerd, &c., from which he seems to arrive at the general conclusion that simple names are in all cases contractions of compound names.