A few adjective nicknames of Celtic origin are so common in England
that they may be included here. Such are the Welsh Gough, Goff,
Gooch, Gutch, red, Gwynn and Wynne, white, Lloyd, grey, Sayce, Saxon,
foreigner, Vaughan, small, and the Gaelic Bain, Bean, white, Boyd,
Bowie, yellow-haired, Dow, Duff, black, Finn, fair, Glass, grey, Roy,
Roe, red. From Cornish come Coad, old, and Couch, [Footnote: Cognate
with Welsh Gough.] red, while Bean is the Cornish for small, and
Tyacke means a farmer. It is likely that both Begg and Moore owe
something to the Gaelic adjectives for little and big, as in the
well-known names of Callum Beg, Edward Waverley's gillie, and McCallum
More. The Gaelic Begg is cognate with the Welsh Vaughan. Two other
famous Highland nicknames which are very familiar in England are
Cameron, crooked nose, and Campbell, wry mouth. With these may be
mentioned the Irish Kennedy, ugly head, the name of the father of
Brian Boru.
CHAPTER XXIII. BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES
"As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas'
Zulu names was The Woodpecker."
(HAGGARD, Allan Quatermain, ch. vii.)
The great majority of nicknames coming under the headings typified by
Bird and Fowell, Best, and Fish or Fisk (Scand.) are easily
identified. But here, as everywhere in the subject, pitfalls abound.
The name Best itself is an example of a now misleading spelling
retained for obvious reasons--
"First, on the wal was peynted a forest,
In which ther dwelleth neither man nor best."
(A, 1976.)
We do not find exotic animals, nor even the beasts of heraldry, at all
frequently. Leppard, leopard, is in some cases for the Ger. Liebhart;
and Griffin, when not Welsh, should no doubt be included among
inn-signs. Oliphant, i.e. elephant--
"For maystow surmounten thise olifauntes in gretnesse or weighte of
body" (Boece, 782)--
may be a genuine nickname, but Roland's ivory horn was also called by
this name, and the surname may go back to some legendary connection of
the same kind. Bear is not uncommon, captive bears being familiar to
a period in which the title bear-ward is frequently met with.
It is possible that Drake may sometimes represent Anglo-Sax. draca,
dragon, rather than the bird, but the latter is unmistakable in
Sheldrick, for sheldrake. As a rule, animal nicknames were taken
rather from the domestic species with which the peasantry were
familiar and whose habits would readily suggest comparisons, generally
disparaging, with those of their neighbours.
BIRDS
Bird names are especially common, and it does not need much
imagination to see how readily and naturally a man might be nicknamed
Hawke for his fierceness, Crowe from a gloomy aspect, or Nightingale
for the gift of sweet song. Many of these surnames go back to words
which are now either obsolete or found only in dialect. The peacock
was once the Poe, an early loan from Lat. pavo, or, more fully, Pocock
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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