DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH PROPER NAMES

Tetiana Stetsiuk
Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University

Scientific Supervisor: Ph.D., Yamchynska T.I.

DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH PROPER NAMES

Abstract. The article is devoted to the onomastic problems such as origination of proper names in English language. The choice and analysis have been done on the basic of Dictionary of proper names by P. Reaney. The author analised the surnames and nicknames, as well as defined their fundamental features and classifications.

Key words: onomastics, proper names, surnames, nicknames.

INTRODUCTION. It is one of many linguistic consequences of the Norman Conquest that only a few of the original native English personal names are familiar to us nowadays. In late Anglo-Saxon England names of Germanic origin like Old English Godwine, Wulfsige, Dodda (all male), Cwēnhild and Godgifu (both female) were commonplace. In eastern and northern England, where Vikings had settled from the late-ninth century onwards, the name stock also included Old Scandinavian names such as Þorgeirr, Tóki (both male), and Gunnhildr (female). By about 1250 almost all of this extensive name-stock had been abandoned by the English in favour of continental names used by their Norman rulers. In most cases, our modern contact with the old native names is solely through hereditary surnames coined no later than the mid-thirteenthcentury:

thus Goodwin, Wolsey, Dodd, Quennell, Goodeve, Thurgar, Tookey, and Gunnell.

After 1250 only a handful of such names remained in general use, in particular Ēadweard, Ēadmund, Cūđbeorht (which was popular in northern England), and Ēadgýđ, which we know in their Middle English forms Edward, Edmund, Cuthbert, and Edith.

The Norman name-stock largely consisted of continental Germanic names with a French pronunciation (such as William, Robert, Richard, Hugh, Maud, and Alice) and names from the Bible or from saints’ legends (like Adam, John, Thomas, Beatrice, Cecily, and Margaret) [1].

TOPICALITY. From the mid-thirteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries John, Thomas, Robert, Richard, and William named between them over 70 per cent of the male population. Clearly, people were christened from a much smaller and more stable name-stock than we are familiar with today. In late fourteenth-century England there were probably fewer than a thousand names in use. The top male name John was borne by about 35 per cent of men, and the top female name Alice by about 17 per cent of women. By contrast in 2009, according to the Office of National Statistics, 60,900 different names were registered as names of babies in England and Wales, and the top boy’s name Oliver and the top girl’s name Olivia together accounted for less than two per cent of the 706,248 babies born in that year. The one major disturbance to the stock of English personal names during the period 1250-1750 arose from the sixteenth-century reformation of the Church, whose Puritan activists preferred to choose names from the Old Testament (for example, Abraham, Isaac, Samuel, Abigail), or to coin new names, especially for girls, based on Christian virtues (Charity, Grace, Prudence, Temperance).

MAIN BODY. In late medieval England there was a much greater variety of hypocoristic or pet forms than in modern times, perhaps reflecting the competitive nature of relatively small, close-knit communities.

As many as nine diminutive suffixes were commonly used in Middle English pet forms, viz. French el, et, ot, in, on, un (often used in combination, like elot), Flemish kin, English cok, and also y (a reduced from of  in?). All but y disappeared from general use during the post-medieval centuries, though some survive today in fossilized name-forms like Robin, Marion, and Janet. Rhyming pet forms were also popular, notably for short forms of male names in R-, like Ralph, Richard, Robert, and Roger, where substitution of initial R– by D-, H-¸and N– produced Daw, Haw, Dick, Hick, Dob, Hob, Nob, Dodge, Hodge, and Nodge.

Pet forms of names beginning in a vowel were often given a prosthetic consonant, e.g. Ned and Ted for Edward or Edmund, and Bib, Lib, Nib, and Tibfor Ibbe, which is short for Isabel. Jack, the most common pet form of John in medieval England, was a borrowing of a Flemish shortening of Jankin.

Many of the pet forms with French suffixes had become obsolete by the sixteenth century, while names in kin and cock remained popular into the seventeenth century. They often survive in surnames, e.g. Hewitt (Hugh), Ibbotson (Isabel’s son), Dawkin (Ralph), and Adcock (Adam) [2, p. 56-57].

The relative stability of this name-stock and the extreme popularity of a few names over such a long period of time were underpinned by the role of baptismal names in expressing family relationships. Most boys were named after their father, grandfather, uncle, or godfather, and many girls were similarly named after their (grand)mother, aunt, or godmother. From the late-eighteenth century through to the twentieth, this tradition has steadily weakened, as a combination of Enlightenment values, industrialization, and Romantic individualism has encouraged parents to draw on names from outside the immediate family.

Anglo-Saxon names such as Alfred, Edgar, and Audrey (in their Middle English forms), and Norman names like Raymond, Reginald, Walter, and Maud have been revived, while others have been borrowed from abroad or from the Celtic name-stocks of the United Kingdom, usually in anglicized forms. We have Albert from Germany in admiration of Queen Victoria’s consort; Derek from the Low Countries; Valerie from France; Gwen and Owen from Wales; Donald, Fiona, Ian, Kenneth, and Malcolm from Scotland; Kevin,  Maureen, and Sheila from Ireland. Many new names have been coined for girls from words connoting perceived feminine attributes, e.g. plant names like Daisy, Heather, Lily, and Violet, and names from precious stones like Beryl, Jade, and Ruby.

In the nineteenth century the desire to name a child after a member of the family or a godparent was increasingly satisfied by using a middle name, which could be a personal name or a surname (of the mother’s father, perhaps, or the godfather). Surnames consequently appear as first names, too, some of which have entered the general name-stock: Bruce, Douglas, Graham, Keith, Leslie, and Stuart are Scottish in origin, Trevor is Welsh, and Rodney, Stanley, and Shirley (popularized by Charlotte Brontë’s use of it in her novel of 1849) are English. In the twentieth century British personal names have been more and more influenced by American taste, such as the liking for girls’ names derived from place-names (Beverley, Chelsea, Iona) or from compounds and blends (Joleen, Leighanne, Marilyn), which may be spelled in a variety of idiosyncratic ways.

CONCLUSION. The current English name-stock is larger and more varied than at any time in its history, and it is changing with an ever greater speed, with even the most popular names moving in and out of fashion within less than a decade. New names are freely created, though few of them become commonly used unless coined or adopted by influential celebrities. It is also harder than it used to be to identify what is meant by ‘English’. The devolved and multi-cultural Britain of the twenty-first century has many name-stocks rather than a single English one.

The generic use of personal names has been widespread in English since the late medieval period, when a very few names were so popular that they could be used to denote anyone or anything that was typical. There are three main sense categories: first, words or phrases denoting ordinary people, sometimes implying social disapproval; second, words or phrases for useful man-made objects, especially labour-saving devices; and third, words or phrases for non-human creatures, real or imaginary. Some of these words originated in now-obsolete pet forms, not all of which have yet been identified in the unrevised explanations of the OED.

The alliterative Jack and Gill have been the prototypical names for every ordinary man and woman since at least the fifteenth century, out-competing Tom and Tib (recorded in 1606). By extension they have become words for any lad or lass, for a servant, or for someone of the lowest rank in an occupation. They are often found in phrases like Jack-of-all-trades, and compounds like Jack-Tar ‘sailor’ (first recorded in 1781), lumberjack (1831), and steeplejack (1881). Both Jack and Tomhave been used for the knave of trumps in a pack of cards, and Tib for the ace. Children’s toy people include Jack-in-a box and doll, a pet form of Dorothy.

For other examples of other male names used in these ways see Bob n. 7, Bobby n. 1, Dick n. 1, George, Harry n. 2, Jock n. 1, Jockey, Joe n. 2, John, Johnny, Jemmy, Thomas, and Tommy n. 1 [3].

The main generic sense ‘a man or woman of the lowest class’ has frequently been specialized to denote someone of low intelligence or morals. Male names have been used for simpletons, and include Daw, Dawkin (obsolete pet forms of Ralph), Hodge, Nodgecock (Roger), Hichcock, Hick n. 1 (Richard), Hob n. 1, Dobby (Robert), Jack fool (see Jack n. 1), Tom-fool, and Tommy n. 1. Female names have been used to denote coarse women or prostitutes and include Doll n. 1, Gill n. 4, Kitty n. 1, Judy, Malkin, Meg n. 1, Mab, n. 1, and Mob n. 1 (both pet forms of Mabel). They have also been used as terms for effeminate men and homosexual men, as in Betty, Jenny, Mary, Molly n. 1, Nancy, and Peggy n. 2. Vice versa, tomboy has denoted a bold woman or boisterous girl since the sixteenth century, while in twentieth-century slang Tom n. 1 and Tommy have the sense ‘a prostitute’[4, p.37-53].

The corpus of currently-used words derived from personal names is dwindling as many old words are lost and few if any new words are being created in this way. The practice has inevitably declined in modern Britain, because the name-stock is so much larger than it was three or seven hundred years ago, and the most popular names are usually only briefly so and are borne by a tiny proportion of the population. As a significant source of generic terms the personal name has now been supplanted by the surname.

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