Thus far we have had to do with Bass as a name of Teutonic origin. But
it appears to have been a Celtic name as well, for Bassa, a name
presumably Welsh, occurs in the pathetic lament of Llywarch, written in
the sixth century, the name being, on the authority of the late Dr.
Guest, still retained in Baschurch near Shrewsbury. The name Bass, then,
or Pass, on Roman pottery might be either that of a German or of a Gaul,
but more probably the former, especially as we find also Bassico, a form
more particularly German, and some other forms more probably Teutonic.
Before parting with Bass, I may refer to one in particular of his
progeny, the name _Basin_, formed from it by the ending _en_ or _in_,
referred to in a subsequent chapter. The original of our Basin has been
supposed to have been a barber, the mediæval leech, but I claim for him
a different origin, and connect his name, which is found as Basin in
Domesday, with the name Basin of a Thuringian king of the fifth century.
Let us take another of our common surnames, _Scott_. This has been
generally assumed to have been an original surname derived from
nationality, and we need not doubt that it has been so in many, perhaps
in most, cases. But Scott, as a man's name, is, not to say older than
the introduction of surnames, but as old probably as the name of the
nation itself. To begin with England, it occurs in the thirteenth
century, in the _Liber Vitæ_, where it is the reverse of a surname,
Scott Agumdessune (no doubt for Agemundessune). I do not think,
however, that Agumdessune is here a surname, but only an individual
description, an earnest of surnames that were to be. For there is
another Scott who signs about the same time, and it might be necessary
to distinguish between these two men. There is in the same record yet
another Scott, described as "Alstani filius," who, in the time of
William the Conqueror, "for the redemption of his soul, and with the
consent of his sons and of all his friends," makes a gift of valuable
lands to the Church. Scott again occurs in an Anglo-Saxon charter of
boundaries quoted by Kemble, "Scottes heal," _i.e._ "Scot's hall." And
Scotta occurs in another in "Scottan byrgels," _i.e._ "Scotta's burial
mound." In Germany Scot occurs in the ninth century in the Book of the
Brotherhood of St. Peter at Salzburg, where it is classed by Foerstemann
as a German name, which seems justified by the fact that Scotardus, a
German compound (_hard_, fortis), occurs as an Old Frankish name in the
time of Charlemagne. In Italy, where, as I shall show in a subsequent
chapter, the Germans have left many Teutonic names behind them, we find
a Scotti, duke of Milan, in the middle ages, whose name is probably due
to that cause. Scotto is a surname at present among the Frisians, while
among the Germans generally it is most commonly softened into Schott.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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