COOPER, Thesaurus Lingua Romanae et Britannicae (London; 1573). COTGRAVE A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (London, 1611). The Middle English quotations, except where otherwise stated, are from Chaucer, the references being to the Globe edition. CHAPTER I. OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL "The French and we termed them Surnames, not because they are the names of the Sire, or the father, but because they are super-added to Christian names." (CAMDEN, Remains concerning Britain.) The study of the origin of family names is at the same time quite simple and very difficult. Its simplicity consists in the fact that surnames can only come into existence in certain well-understood ways. Its difficulty is due to the extraordinary perversions which names undergo in common speech, to the orthographic uncertainty of our ancestors, to the frequent coalescence of two or more names of quite different Origin, and to the multitudinous forms which one single name can assume, such forms being due to local pronunciation, accidents of spelling, date of adoption, and many minor causes. It must always remembered that the majority of our surnames from the various dialects of Middle English, i.e. of a language very different from our own in spelling and sound, full of words that are now obsolete, and of others which have completely changed their form and meaning. If we take any medieval roll of names, we see almost at a glance that four such individuals as-- John filius Simon William de la Moor Richard le Spicer Robert le Long exhaust the possibilities of English name-making--i.e. that every surname must be (i) personal, from a sire or ancestor, (ii) local, from place of residence, [Footnote: This is by far the largest class, counting by names, not individuals, and many names for which I give another explanation have also a local origin. Thus, when I say that Ely is Old Fr. Elie, i.e. Elias, I assume that the reader will know without being told that it has an alternative explanation from Ely in Cambridgeshire.] (iii) occupative, from trade or office, (iv) a nickname, from bodily attributes, character, etc. This can easily be illustrated from any list of names taken at random. The Rugby team chosen to represent the East Midlands against Kent (January 22, 1913) consisted of the following fifteen names: Hancock; Mobbs, Poulton, Hudson, Cook; Watson, Earl; Bull, Muddiman, Collins, Tebbitt, Lacey, Hall, Osborne, Manton. Some of these are simple, but others require a little knowledge for their explanation. PERSONAL NAMES