Nearly all these appeared originally in the form of Filius, &e., as John son of William. This mode of designation line taken various forms. Thus on this name of Williams, there are founded Williams, Williamson, Wills, 117Isms, Wilks, Wilkins, Irilkinson, Willis, William, Bill, Isom, WiIlet, WiMinot, lrillinot, Till, Tilly, Tillot, Tilson, Tillotson, Willy, each of which, if written by a scribe of the middle ages in Latin, woull be expressed by the mine phrase Filius Willidnii. Other names have an equally numerous progeny. To this class may be referred Ives and /mon which are Fillies Judd ; Clarkson, Cool-son, Wrightson, which aro names formed not indeed on the name, but the profession of the parents.
It would however be to extend this article to an inordinate length, even to touch upon the subordinate classes to the five great classes.
5. The fifth end last is that of names which indicate something peculiar in the personal appearance or mental qualities of the person to whom they are first given. Such are Swift, Long, White, Black, Crump, Rouse, Wise, Good, do.
The mama of the ancient Saxon population of England were nearly all descriptive of some quality of mind or body. Thus Edward is truth-keeper ; Winfred, win-peace ; Alfred, all-peace ; Edmund, truth mouth ; of all beloved; UV, wolf.. But a great change took place soon after the Conquest. We see in the names of the Normans who became settled in England many which continued for ages favourite names of the English nation; Boger, Ralph, Ilugh, Humphrey, Jeffery, Gilbert. To them also we owe the introduction amongst us of names of religion. If these names existed at all in England before the Conquest, they were exceedingly rare. In the catalogues of Saxon bishops, not one occurs. Even amongst the first race of Norman they did not abound. We find Adam, John, Stephen, David, Peter, Mat thew, and perhaps a few others. But in the century and a half after that event, names of this class began to prevail in a great degree. It was a period of extraordinary Christian devotion : the exertions in founding monasteries, building churches, and maintaining the war against the infidels show it. In this state of the public mind the new system of taking names of religion spread and strengthened. The names of religion were almost wholly from the Old and New Testa ment, a few only being taken from the names of persons who have been eminent in later times for their Christlan virtues.
Since then little change has taken place. A few names once common have lost their popularity ; a few others have been introduced. There have been periods when names somewhat fantastic, have had a popularity ; such as the names of the virtues, as Patience, Truth, Prudence, Faith, by which women have been named ; Thankful, Faith ful, Sabbath, and others more extraordinary, have been given to men.
Some went for a time into another extreme, and we had Hannibal, Scipio, Casar, Hercules.
We have however not been sufficiently attentive to the importance of keeping up a stock of what we call Christian names. Our popula tion has increased to a very great extent, while our surnames have rather diminished than the contrary. We should therefore, if we wish that names should be what they are intended to be, Notamina, increase the number of those names out of which we have the power ourselves of selection. As it is, with a population of 30 millions, we have but 53 names of men which can be used without some appear ance of singularity. Of these 12 are in more frepient use than the rest :— Of these, 4 are names of religion ; 4 are names introduced at the Conquest ; 3 names introduced at a later period from the nomenclature of other countries; 1 is pure Saxon. Of the 41 names of secondary frequency, 23 are names of religion ; so that of the 53 names of men in ordinary use, 32 are names of religion, or considerably more than one-half, and they are all taken from the Scriptures.
Again, looking at the 53 names in respect of the languages from which they are derived, it appears that 25 ore of Hebrew origin, 19 from the various dialects of Western Europe, 5 from the Greek, and 4 from the Latin.
There are a multitude of names, once in use in England, which might easily be revived, and it would be a matter of some public con venience to do so. Few persons have nut found inconvenience in some form or other from the want of sufficient distinctness in the name he bears. Thus a little time ago there were two antiquarian Chalmers' ; two Parkes upon the bench; two Whitacre, both clergy men, and both writers on Lancashire topography : some time ago there were two Dr. John Thomas's, both chaplains to the king, and both bishops ; and two Dr. Grays, both divines, both writers in their own profession, both connected with historic literature and poetry, and both engaged in controversies with Warburton. This occasions confusion. To change a surname is a difficult and expensive process ; the cheapest and simplest remedy is to give a name at baptism which will be marked and remembered, as Basil Hall. Of neglected names there are, Austin, Allan, Aubrey, Arnold, Baldwin, Blase, Barnard, Fabian, Ferdinand, losceline, Miles, Sylvester, Theobald, Theodore, and a host of others.
Some further information of a curious nature will be found in an `Essay on Surnames,' by M. A. Lower.