Now it is in such a way as that described above that the Anglo-Saxon name Ealdermann (whence our name _Alderman_) has, according to my opinion, been formed. There is another Anglo-Saxon name, Ealdmann, an ancient compound. Now if you, as in the previous case, introduce a medial vowel, and make it Eald-e-mann, there is virtually nothing left between that and Ealdermann. Such a name, as derived from the office, would be impossible as a regular Anglo-Saxon name. The only other alternative would be that he had been so called as a _sobriquet_ by his office till it had superseded his regular name. And there does appear to have been such a case, viz., that of a man called Preost who _was_ a priest, but the way which I have suggested seems to me to account more easily for the name. From a similar origin I take to be our name _Ackerman_, and the present German _Ackermann_. There is an Anglo-Saxon Æcemann (p. 96), from which, on the principle described above, they might be derived. So also _Sigournay_ may be formed in a similar manner from an old German name Siginiu (_niu_, "new," perhaps in the sense of "young"), and _Alderdice_ from an old Frankish Aldadeus (_deus_, servant). I have taken Prendergast for Pendgast as an illustration of the intrusion of _r_, and there is even in Anglo-Saxon times an example of the very same word as so treated. This is the name Prentsa (p. 101), (whence our _Prentiss_), and which I take to be properly Pentsa. This would bring it in as a regular Anglo-Saxon stem (_Cf._ Penda, Pender, Penduald, Pendwine), whereas otherwise it is difficult to know what to make of it. Among English surnames thus treated we have _Bellringer_ for Bellinger, _Sternhold_ for Stonhold (p. 63), _Proudfoot_ for _Puddefoot_ (_bud_, messenger), and possibly _Cardwell_ for the Anglo-Saxon Cadweal.[44] On the same principle I think that _Wordsworth_, a name of local origin, may be, with an intrusive _r_, the same as Wodsworth or Wadsworth (Wad's property or estate). There is certainly a stem _wurd_ (supposed to mean fate, destiny), in ancient names, but it is of rare occurrence, and I do not know of it in English names, though we have _Orde_, which I take to be from the Scandinavian form of it. On the other hand we have an instance in Anglo-Saxon times of the reverse process, viz., the elision of _r_, in the case of Wihtbrord, Minister of Edward the Elder, who, though he spells his names both ways, spells it more frequently Wihtbrod, the other being no doubt etymologically the correct form (_brord_, sword), though euphony is certainly promoted by the elision. This may probably be the origin of our name _Whitbread_, with the variation _Wheatbread_.