But the name has another origin (Chapter IX). Buller and Cocker are names taken from the fine old English sports of bull-baiting and cock-fighting. Two very humble members of the parasitic class have given the names Bidder and Maunder, both meaning beggar. The first comes from Mid. Eng. bidden, to ask. Piers Plowman speaks of "bidderes and beggers." Maunder is perhaps connected with Old Fr. quemander-- "Quemander, or caimander, to beg; or goe a begging; to beg from doore to doore" (Cotgrave), but it may mean a maker of "maunds," i.e. baskets. A Beadman spent his time in praying for his benefactor. A medieval underling writing to his superior often signs himself "your servant and bedesman." CHAPTER XXI. OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL "Here is Wyll Wyly the myl pecker, And Patrick Pevysshe heerbeter, With lusty Hary Hangeman, Nexte house to Robyn Renawaye; Also Hycke Crokenec the rope maker, And Steven Mesyllmouthe muskyll taker." (Cocke Lorelles Bote.) [Footnote: This humorous poem, inspired by Sebastian Brandt's Narrenschiff, known in England in Barclay's translation, was printed early in the reign of Henry VIII. It contains the fullest list we have of old trade-names.] Every family name is etymologically a nickname, i.e. an eke-name, intended to give that auxiliary information which helps in identification. But writers on surnames have generally made a special class of those epithets which were originally conferred on the bearer in connection with some characteristic feature, physical or moral, or some adjunct, often of the most trifling description, with which his personality was associated. Of nicknames, as of other things, it may be said that there is nothing new under the sun. Ovidius Naso might have received his as a schoolboy, and Moss cum nano, whom we find in Suffolk in 1184, lives on as "Nosey Moss" in Whitechapel. Some of our nicknames occur as personal names in Anglo-Saxon times (Chapter VII), but as surnames they are seldom to be traced back to that period, for the simple reason that such names were not hereditary. An Anglo-Saxon might be named Wulf, but his son would bear another name, while our modern Wolfe does not usually go farther back than some Ranulf le wolf of the thirteenth or fourteenth century. This is of course stating the case broadly, because the personal name Wolf also persisted and became in some cases a surname. In this and the following chapters I do not generally attempt to distinguish between such double origins. Nicknames are formed in very many ways, but the two largest classes are sobriquets taken from the names of animals, e.g. Hogg, or from adjectives, either alone or accompanied by a noun, e.g. Dear, Goodfellow. Each of these classes requires a chapter to itself, while here we may deal with the smaller groups.