Totemism consists in the belief that each family is literally descended from a particular animal or plant whose name it bears and mem bers of the family formerly refused to pluck the plant or kill the animal after which they were named. The genealogies of the Anglo Saxon kings include such. names as those of the horse, the mare, the ash, the whale. In the ancient poem 'Beowulf,' two of the characters bear the names of Wulf and Eofer (boar); the wolf and the raven were sacred animals. The boar was greatly reverenced and our Christmas boar's head is a survival of the old belief. The oak has left its traces in Oaking ton, in Cambridge; the birch, at Birchington, in Kent; the boar (eofer) in Evringham in Yorkshire; the hawk in Hawkinge in Kent; the horse, at Horsington, in Lincolnshire; the raven, at Ravingham, in Norfolk; the sun, at Sunning in Berks; and the serpent (wyrm) at Wormingford, Worminghall and Worming ton in Essex, Bucks and Gloucestershire, re spectively. Every one of these objects is a common and well-known totem among savage tribes and the inference that at some early period the Anglo-Saxons had been totemists is almost irresistible.
The suffix atte, as implying residence, if not possession, crept in, and thereby arose such names as Atte Bourne, Atte Brigg, Atte Hash, Atte Hay, Atte Kirkstile, Atte Lane, Atte May dens, Atte Stile, Atte Well; the modern names Atwater, Atwood and Atwell occur to us tb day. The de and atte were often dropped, hence arose names like Wood, Lane, Briggs. Many names that seem to defy all explanation are disguised beyond recognition; as, who would expect to find Sevenoaks in Snooks; Saint Olave's street in Tooley street; Saint Etheldreda in Tawdry; Douglas in Diggles; Wilburgham in Wilbraham; Tuberville in Troublefield; Longueville in Longfellow; Long champs in Longshanks; Blondeville in Blom field; Adburgham in Abraham and Abram; Renshaw in Wrencher and Wrinch; Wymond ham in Wyndham. As Mr. Lower truly says: °Corruptions which many family names have undergone tend to baffle alike the genealogical and etymological inquirer.° The name of
Shakespeare has had at least 27 permutations in old documents; Goodwin, 17; Finnimore or Phillimore 59 and 34 of the latter surname.
When the country became settled under Ed ward the Confessor and the Norseman, Saxon and Welshman lived together under a semblance of law and order, official names arose: as Lag man (lawgiver), Fawcett (forseti, judge), Al derman, Reeve, Sheriff, Tabberer, Chamberlain, Chancellor, Chaplain, Clerk, Deacon, Beadle, Latimer (Latinarius, an interpreter), Miles (miles, a soldier), Marshall, Sumner (a sum moner, as Chaucer's °Sompnoure°), Parker (a park-keeper), Franklin (a freeholder), Botiler (butler). Trade names and craft names are of later origin; but it is an open question whether some of the names popularly ascribed to occupa tions will not bear different interpretation.
Because America is a country made up of all nations there exists in the United States a greater variety of names than anywhere else on the globe. Russian, Polish and middle European names seem particularly hard for the American to grasp, and, therefore, immi grants, finding their long names a handicap, are apt to shorten them. Tolchinsky becomes Tolins, and Rawitzer is shortened to Rawser. There is also a tendency to translate names. Herr Vogel becomes Mr. Bird, and Mons. Pantoflen is Mr. Slipper. One is amazed at the com binations disclosed in any large city directory, as in the firms of Au and Magenheimer, Stretch and Shrink, and the famous Call and Tuttle, Preserved Hoskins, Singular Onions Gallyhawk and Esa Hogg must each and all bear grudges against those who inflicted such names on them. It is a fact that all three of these names have appeared in city directories.
Consult Lower, 'Patronymica Britannica' ; Bardsley's I English Surnames' ' • Wagner's 'Names and their Meaning' ; Mordacque's 'History of Names' ; Barber's 'British Family Names' • Grant Allen's 'Anglo-Saxon Britain' ; and 'Origines Genealogicw,' by Stacey Grimaldi.