Ecclesiastical Names
Names of ecclesiastics must usually be nicknames, because medieval churchmen were not entitled to have descendants. This appears clearly in such an entry as “Bishop the crossbowman,” or “Johannes Monacus et uxor ejus Emma,” living in Kent in the twelfth century. But these names are so numerous that I have put them with the Canterbury Pilgrims (ch. xvii.). Three of them may be mentioned here in connection with a small group of occupative surnames of puzzling form. We have noticed (Chapter XII) that monosyllabic, and some other, surnames of local origin frequently take an -s, partly by analogy with names like Wills, Watts, etc. We rarely find this -s in the case of occupative names, but Parsons, Vicars or Vickers, and Monks are common, and in fact the first two are scarcely found without the -s. To these we may add Reeves (Chapter XVII), Grieves (Chapter XIX), and the well-known Nottingham name Mellers (Chapter XVII). The explanation seems to be that these names are true genitives, and that John Parsons was John the Parson’s man, while John Monks was employed by the monastery. This is confirmed by such entries as “Walter atte Parsons,” “John del Parsons,” “Allen atte Prestes,” “William del Freres,” “Thomas de la Vicars,” all from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Another exceptional group is that of names formed by adding -son to the occupative names, the commonest being perhaps Clarkson, Cookson, Smithson, and Wrightson. To this class belongs Grayson, which Bardsley shows to be equivalent to the grieve’s son.
Our occupative names are both English and French, 1 the two languages being represented by those important tradesmen Baker and Butcher. The former is reinforced by Bollinger, Fr. boulanger, Pester, Old Fr. pestour (Lat. piston), and Furner—
“Fournier, a baker, or one that keeps, or governs a common oven” (Cotgrave).
The English and French names for the same trade also survive in Cheeseman and Firminger, Old Fr. formagier (fromage).
We have as endings -er, -ier, the latter often made into -yer, -ger, as in Lockyer, Sawyer, Kidger (Chapter XIX), Woodger, 2 and -or, -our, as in Taylor, Jenoure (Chapter III). The latter ending, corresponding to Modern Fr. -eur, represents Lat. -or, -orem, but we tack it onto English words as in “sailor,” or substitute it for -er, -ier, as in Fermor, for Farmer, Fr. fermier. In the Privy Purse Expenses of that careful monarch Henry VII. occurs the item—
“To bere drunken at a fermors house... 1s.”
In the same way we replace the Fr. -our, -eur by -er, as in Turner, Fr. tourneur, Ginner, Jenner for Jenoure.
The ending -er, -ier represents the Lat. -arius. It passed not only into French, but also into the Germanic languages, replacing the Teutonic agential suffix which consisted of a single vowel. We have a few traces of this oldest group of occupative names, e.g. Webb, Mid. Eng. webbe, Anglo-Sax. webb-a, and Hunt, Mid. Eng. hunte, Anglo-Sax. hunt-a—
“With hunte and horne and houndes hym bisyde”
(A, 1678) —
which still hold the field easily against Webber and Hunter.
So also, the German name Beck represents Old High Ger. pecch-o, baker. To these must be added Kemp, a champion, a very early loan-word connected with Lat. campus, field, and Wright, originally the worker, Anglo-Sax. wyrht-a. Camp is sometimes for Kemp, but is also from the Picard form of Fr, champ, i.e. Field. Of similar formation to Webb, etc., is Clapp, from an Anglo-Sax. nickname, the clapper—
“Osgod Clapa, King Edward Confessor’s staller, was cast upon the pavement of the Church by a demon’s hand for his insolent pride in presence of the relics (of St. Edmund, King and Martyr).”
(W. H. Hutton, Bampton Lectures, 1903.)
Notes
1 We have also a few Latinizations, e.g. Faber (wright), Messer (mower). This type of name is much commoner in Germany, e.g. Avenarius, oat man, Fabricius, smith, Textor, weaver, etc. Mercator, of map projection fame, was a Fleming named Kremer, i.e. dealer.
2 Woodyer, Woodger, may also be for wood-hewer. See Stanier