Every country has a sobriquet which stands as a kind of baptismal name for the nation, as distinct from the individual. England is represented by John, or John Bull; Scotland by Alexander, as Sawney or Sandy; Ireland by Patrick, as Pat; and Wales by David, in the dress of Taffy. Let us trace their origin very briefly, and see their effect upon our nomenclature. In 1385 the Guild of St. George, at Norwich, contained 376 names; of these 128 were John! This extraordinary proportion was the direct result of the Crusades. From the Jordan, in which Christ had been baptized, every crusader brought home in his bottle water for baptismal purposes. He could not christen his child by the name of Jesus, the Baptized—this would be blasphemy; but he could give it the name of the baptizer, John. Remember, too, that John the Baptist was “Elias.” Hence Baptist, John, Ellis, and Jordan, became the favourite baptismal names for several generations. Our Jordans, Jordansons, Jordsons, Judds, Judsons, and Judkins are all memorials of this, for Judd did not become the pet name of George till the seventeenth century. In early days it was the nickname of Jordan. The other day I saw a register of a child christened “River,” his surname being Jordan. Thus both names have the same origin. This kind of thing is common. I know registers where may be seen three “River Jordans.” “Windsor Castle” occurs in a Derbyshire church record. But John took the lead. One of the most curious freaks in the history of nomenclature is that which made Jack the nickname for “John.” The French for James was Jaques (Jacobus). This being the then favourite name in France, got popularized in England, with this difference, that the common folk took it and made it the pet name of their own favourite name “John.” Thus our Jacks, Jacksons, Jacklins, are all reminiscences of John rather than James. It is so still. No one ever dreams of styling a boy called James, Jack. To this day, John and Jack are synonymous. The Flemings brought in “Hans” (_i.e. Johannes_). These have originated our Hankins, Hankinsons, Hancocks, Handcocks, Hanks, and Hands. Further distinction was obtained by nicknaming some boys as “Little-John,” “Proper-John” (_i.e._, handsome: in country parts, they still say of a young man, “He’s a proper young fellow”). The French introduced Gros-Jean (Big-John) and Bon-Jean (Good-John), and the latter got corrupted into Bunyan. To John we owe our Johnsons, Jones, Jennings, Jenkinsons, Jenkins, and Jenks. No doubt, when Mr. Jenkins wrote “Ginx’s Baby,” he was aware that both author and hero bore the same name, for “Ginx” is simply “Jinks” or “Jenks” caricatured.