Chapter XXIII Birds, Beasts, and Fishes
“As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas’
Zulu names was The Woodpecker.”
(HAGGARD, Allan Quatermain, ch. vii.)
The great majority of nicknames coming under the headings typified by Bird and Fowell, Best, and Fish or Fisk (Scand.) are easily identified. But here, as everywhere in the subject, pitfalls abound. The name Best itself is an example of a now misleading spelling retained for obvious reasons-—
“First, on the wal was peynted a forest,
In which ther dwelleth neither man nor best.”
(A, 1976.)
We do not find exotic animals, nor even the beasts of heraldry, at all frequently. Leppard, leopard, is in some cases for the Ger. Liebhart; and Griffin, when not Welsh, should no doubt be included among inn-signs. Oliphant, i.e. elephant—
“For maystow surmounten thise olifauntes in gretnesse or weighte of body” (Boece, 782)—
may be a genuine nickname, but Roland’s ivory horn was also called by this name, and the surname may go back to some legendary connection of the same kind. Bear is not uncommon, captive bears being familiar to a period in which the title bear-ward is frequently met with.
It is possible that Drake may sometimes represent Anglo-Sax. draca, dragon, rather than the bird, but the latter is unmistakable in Sheldrick, for sheldrake. As a rule, animal nicknames were taken rather from the domestic species with which the peasantry were familiar and whose habits would readily suggest comparisons, generally disparaging, with those of their neighbours.