(_e_) _Hob_ has transmitted Hobb, Hobbs, Hobbes, Hobbiss, Hobson, Hobbins, Hoblyn, Hopkins, Hopkinson, Hopps, and Hopson. (_f_) Besides these there were once such familiar French diminutives as Robinet, Dobinet, Robelôt, and Robertôt. These did not come directly from France or Normandy. They were forms adopted by the country people from the habit, common then as now, of copying the fashions of the more noble families. Elizabeth Robinett will be found in the London Directory. Hers is the only instance that I can find still existing. The rest were all surnames in the fourteenth century. {66} (_g_) The Welsh, seizing upon the name, turned ap-Robert and ap-Robyn into Probert and Probyn, respectively. Can I add anything to prove the popularity of Robin Hood? It is possible that we could not have spoken of Hobbism, or of a Hobbist, for the founder of that system of philosophy might have borne some other name. It is possible that there might have been no “Hobson’s choice,” for that worthy liveryman at Cambridge might, under some other sobriquet, have compelled the young collegian to take the next horse on the list, or none. Certainly our old friend _Punch_ would have been unable to poke fun at Cockneydom under at least one name of the famous company of “Brown, Jones, Smith, and _Robinson_.” It is possible, too, that “before you could say Jack Robinson” would never have become an English commonplace. How the phrase originated I cannot say, but it is a very old one, if the couplet quoted from an old play by Dr. Halliwell be genuine:— “A warke it ys as easie to be doone, As tys to saye ‘Jacke Robyson.’” CHAPTER V. EARLY PET NAMES. THE present and following chapter I purpose devoting to the further consideration of the subject of baptismal names. There are distinct epochs in the history of names, as in the history of everything else. One great crisis in our national nomenclature was the Norman Conquest. With the exception of Alfred, Arthur, Edwin, Edward, Ethel, and say a dozen other agnomens which were preserved through various accidents, all English names of the pre-Norman period disappeared before the end of the twelfth century. They were literally submerged beneath the advancing tide of Norman titles and usages. All the great popular sobriquets so familiar to us to-day, such as William, Henry, Ralph, Richard, Gerald, Robert, and even Scripture and Saint’s-day names like John, Ellis (Elias), Stephen, and Matthew, belong to the later epoch.