American Language Supplement 2 (95 page)

2
Christian
Girl
, who began as a mail carrier and ended as a millionaire manufacturer of automobile springs, died at Cleveland, O., June 10, 1946. I am indebted here to Mr. Alexander Kadison.

3
Truly
Hatchett
is a real estate broker in Baltimore.

4
Reported from Newark, N. J., by Mr. Pierre A. Banker, of New York.

5
The surname of a French-Canadian family living in Rockland, Ont. Contributed by Dr. Douglas Leechman, who says that it is pronounced
Louis Seize
.

6
Boulder (Colo.)
Daily Camera
, July 12, 1946. I am indebted here to Mr. W. M. Spackman, of Boulder.

1
Oklahoma City
Oklahoman
, Jan. 8, 1940.

2
Sir Cloudsley
Shovel
(1650–1707) was a British naval hero.

3
Reported from Brooklyn by Mr. Robert H. Quinn, of that great city.

4
Probably an Americanized form of Ger.
Spritzwasser
.

5
Berkshire Evening Eagle
(Pittsfield, Mass.), July 6, 1937.

6
Found in Brooklyn by Mr. James Cowden Meyers, of New York.

7
New London (Conn.)
Day
, Oct. 21, 1941.

8
Fountain Inn (N.C.)
Tribune
of unknown date.

9
Many of these names come from the collectanea of the late John W. Thomson, of Pittsfield, Mass., kindly put at my disposal by Mr. Robert G. Newman, librarian of the Pittsfield Public Library. For others I am indebted to Miss D. Lorraine Yerkes, of Chicago; Mr. E .P. Rochester, of San Antonio, Tex.; Mr. Paul St. Gaudens, of Barnard, Vt.; and Queer Names, by Howard F. Barker,
American Speech
, Dec., 1930, pp. 101–09.

10
She Could Answer, How Old is Ann?, by Katherine Scarborough, Baltimore
Sun
, April 18, 1943.

11
I take the last from Surnames in the Blue Ridge of Virginia, by Miriam Sizer,
American Speech
, Dec., 1937, p. 269. Miss Sizer says that
Fat
is all that remains of
Lafayette
, popular as a given-name a century ago and eventually adopted as a surname. It was pronounced
Lay-fat
. “The not understood and hence unimportant
Lay
,” she explains, “was naturally thrown to the discard, but the good old name of
Fat
was retained, not for convenience alone, but because it embodies a mountain ideal of physical beauty.”

1
English for
counterfeiter
.

2
Uncommon Names, by G. H. Brierley, London
Morning Post
, Jan. 20, 1936.

3
The last twenty-one come from The Romance of Names, by Ernest Weekley; London, 1914.

4
The last three are from The Personal Names of the Isle of Man, by J. J. Kneen; Oxford, 1937.

5
The
Trampleasures
by Jane Gillette
Trampleasure, Time and Tide
, June 20, 1935. Miss
Trampleasure
says that her name is pronounced
trample-sure
.

6
The following want-ad appeared under Personal in the London
Morning Post
, May 15, 1936, p. 1: “Advertiser, whose name is
Hiccup
, with broadcasting ambitions, wishes to adopt another name without publicity of change by deed poll. Suggestions welcome.”

7
Mr.
Original Bugg
, Liverpool
Echo
, July 14, 1938. See also AL4, p. 310 and Supplement I, pp. 462 and 660.

8
The last five come from Surnames, by Ernest Weekley; New York, 1916.

9
The last six are from English Surnames, by Mark Antony Lower; London, 1875.

10
I am indebted for the last four to Mr. Sinclair Lewis.

11
AL4, p. 502. It is the custom there, when a hyphenated name runs to three syllables or less altogether, to use it in full in addressing the bearer, but when it is longer only the last member is commonly used. Winston
Churchill’s
true family name is
Spencer-Churchill
, and he is always so designated in the Court Circulars issued from Buckingham Palace. When the Eightieth Congress assembled in January, 1947, two hyphenated surnames appeared on the roll of the House – the first recorded there for years. They were borne by the Hon. Horace
Seely-Brown
of Connecticut and the Hon. A.
Fernós-Isern
, resident commissioner for Puerto Rico.

1
GaNun
& Parsons are opticians in New York City.

2
Originally
Virden
, the name of a settler on the Delaware in 1745. The
d
was raised by a clerical descendant “under the impression that the name was French.” I am indebted here to Mr. Ray
VirDen
, of New York.

3
The
KenMore Kollector
, house organ of the
KenMore
Stamp Company, was quoted on the New York
Sun’s
philately page, Aug. 15, 1941.

4
The name of a medical man recorded in the
Journal of the American Medical Association
, Aug. 16, 1941, p. 535.

5
Rufus Bernhard von
KleinSmid
became president of the University of Southern California in 1921. He was born in Illinois in 1875.

6
Charles K.
RossKam
“took out the Chicago Stock Company, one of the last of the larger rep companies to quit the road.” See T. Dwight Pepple Recalls More Popular Old-Time Rep Troupes,
Billboard
, Aug. 2, 1941.

7
Hugh
RiDant
appeared as accompanist at a concert of the Germania Orchestra and Maennerchor at Saginaw, Mich., Oct. 21, 1946.

8
Miss Helen
VisKocil
is a partner in the Purnell Art Galleries in Baltimore. Her name, she tells me, is of Czech origin and was originally
Vyskocil
. How and when its spelling was changed she has been unable to determine. According to the
New Yorker
, Feb. 15, 1947, p. 44, quoting the Scranton
Times
, John and Justina
Sawkulich
of Scranton had lately petitioned a local court for permission to change their name to
SaCoolidge
.

9
A gentleman named Hiram
Be Bee
, convicted of killing a city marshal, was sentenced to death at Manti, Utah, in 1946.

10
The name of Norman
Bel Geddes
, the stage designer, was so entered in the Manhattan telephone book for Winter-Spring, 1946, though he gives his father’s name as
Geddes
in Who’s Who in America, 1946–47.

11
Among curious forms of other sorts are
T’Serclaes, H’Doubler, Mis-Kelly
and
U’ren
. The first was reported by the Berkshire
Evening Eagle
(Pittsfield, Mass.), July 6, 1937. The second is the name of a distinguished surgeon of Springfield (Mo.), born in Kansas. A writer signing himself M.M.D. says in Irish Prefix, New York
Sun
(editorial page), Dec. 3, 1943, that
Mis-Kelly
is to be found in South Carolina, along with
Mis-Campbell
. Woulfe, in his Irish Names and Surnames, says that the
Mis
represents
Mac. U’ren
was the name of a well-known political reformer of the Bryan era.

12
A famous San Francisco editor of the early days, killed in a street duel, was
James King of William
.

1
Third edition; Oxford, 1879, p. 158.

2
Ann Arbor (Mich.), 1927, pp. 11–13. See also Krapp, Vol. I, pp. 201–05.

3
Orthography of
Shakespeare’s
Name, by Richard Grant White,
Putnam’s Monthly
, March, 1854, p. 295;
Shakespeare’s
Name and Origin, by Johannes Hoops, in Studies for William A. Read; University (La.), 1940, pp. 67–87. The latter contains references to other discussions.

4
I take most of these variants from Bardsley’s Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames; London, 1901. Nicolay and Hay say in Abraham
Lincoln:
A History (
Century Magazine
, Nov., 1886, p. 6) that “there are
Lincolns
in Kentucky and Tennessee belonging to the same stock with the President whose names are spelled
Linkhorn
and
Linkhern
.”

5
I am indebted here, and for what follows, to Mr. Gustavus Swift Paine, of Southbury, Conn. In England
Mayhew
, in the past, has been written
Maheu, Mayeu, Mayowe, Mayhoe
and even
Matthew
.

6
New Yorker
, Jan. 6, 1940.

7
What’s In a Name?,
Bulletin of the New York Public Library
, Nov., 1942, pp. 957–58. See also a letter about the troubles of the
Postlethwaites
in the
New Yorker
, July 9, 1938.

1
There are, of course, exceptions. Thus
Carnegie
and
Carmichael
, which have the stress on the second syllable in Britain, are commonly stressed on the first here.

2
Richmond (Va.), 1899, pp. 13–16.

3
Armistead
is a rare surname in England, though Bardsley traces it in Yorkshire to 1379. In Virginia it is usually derived from the German
Armstädt
. See AL4, p. 479.

4
This is the accepted pronunciation in England also.

1
There is a considerable literature on the name and genealogy of the family,
e.g
., The
Taliaferro
Family, by John Bailey Calvert Nicklin,
Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine
, Vol. VII, pp. 12–28; The
Taliaferro
Family, by William Buckner McGroarty, the same, pp. 179–82; The
Taliaferro
Family, by the same,
William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine
, Vol. IV, pp. 191–99, and The Name and Family of
Taliaferro;
Washington, n.d. I am indebted here to Dr. Taliaferro and to Messrs. Sidney F. and H. M. Taliaferro.

2
The county-seat of Henrico county is Richmond. Four-Mile creek was apparently a branch of the James river.

1
Richmond
News-Leader
, May 16, 1930. I am indebted here to Howard F. Barker, whose information comes from Lemuel N. Enroughty, of Richmond.

2
See Note on Prof. Wilson’s Article, by Ted Robinson,
American Speech
, April, 1939, p. 155.

3
Many of these names come from Ewen’s History of Surnames of the British Isles, pp. 344–45; Titles and Forms of Address; London, 1929, pp. 15–27; Broadcast English, Vol. VII, by A. Lloyd James; London, 1939; and These Names are Difficult, London
News Chronicle
, Nov. 28, 1936. For others see AL4, p. 503.

4
But
Anstruther
, with the
u
as in
but
, and the
th
as in
there
, is also heard.

5
In the United States the accent is commonly put on the second syllable. The Maryland county,
Anne Arundel
, is
Ann-rán’l
to many of its citizens.

6
The given-name of
Champ
Clark (1850–1921), Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1911–19, was originally
Beauchamp
. The last syllable must have been pronounced
Champ
to get the abbreviation.

7
But sometimes it is pronounced as spelled, with the
th
as in
there
.

8
Letter from Hector
Bolitho
in Wild Names I Have Met, by Alfred H. Holt; Williamstown (Mass.), n.d., p. 7: “My name is Cornish, and it is pronounced:
bo
as in
low, li
as in
pie, tho
as in
low
. The accent is on the middle syllable.” Ewen says it is from the Gaelic
bol ithing
, the great belly,
i.e
., hill.

9
Mr. P. R. Coleman-Norton writes under date of Sept. 20, 1937: “This was current during Horatio
Bottomley’s
palmy days, some fifteen years ago.” He was sent to prison for wholesale frauds in 1922. It is possible that
Bumly
was suggested by the disrepute of
bum
in England. See AL4, p. 156.

1
With the
ow
as in
how
. In America it is commonly
Boo-ie
.

2
Camel
is apparently not in use.

3
This is used by the Marquess of Salisbury, whose family name it is. But the Marquess of Exeter, another
Cecil
, uses
Sessel
.

4
But the Earl of Wemyss, a
Charteris
, pronounces it as spelled.

5
The usual spelling in America is
Coughlin
, with
Coughlan
as a variant. There are eight times as many names in
Cough
- in the Manhattan telephone directory as names in
Cogh
-. In origin all are identical.
Coughlin
is sometimes pronounced
Coglan
, sometimes
Coklan
, sometimes
Cooglin
, and sometimes
Cofflìn
. I am indebted here to Dr. George McCracken, of Otterbein College.

6
But the name of the poet, William
C
., is often pronounced as spelled.

7
This is also the pronunciation of
Creighton
.

8
Black says that, in Scotland, “some of the name call themselves
Dalyell
, some
Dalzell
, and some
Dal-zeel
.” He gives
Dalyell, Dalyiel, Diyell, Deill, Daliel, De Yell, Deyell, Dalyhel, Dalyyelle, Dyell, Dalzel, Dalzelle, Dyayell
and
Deell
as variant spellings. The name is traced to 1259.

9
The first part as in
Delaware
.

10
Titles and Forms of Address, p. 18, gives no variants, but Broadcast English offers
Fanshaw, Feesonhay
and
Feerstonhaw
. Writing in the
New Yorker
, June 25, 1938, Duane
Featherstonhaugh
, of Schenectady, said
Fan-shaw
is favored in Canada and
Featherstonhaw
in the United States. In England, he added, the lower classes sometimes make it
Freeze-ting-haze
and sportive persons of higher elegance
Festonhog
.